O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14) [An Advent Card Talk]

Note: this Card Talk was original made for Advent 2014 and the horrors present in the world then.

It was resurrected/revised in 2015 in light of the attacks in Paris and Beirut, and the other named and unnamed horrors around the world.

We don't even want to talk about 2016.

2017 wasn’t much better.

2018 had glimmers of hope.

2019 got worse

2020 do we even have to comment?

---

While creating this game it was decided that this card might go too far, even though the sexual innuendo apparent to some was honestly not our intention. As a result, the card was not printed in the original game.

Later, as events in the world, both foreign and domestic, swirled like a hate-filled maelstrom about us, we regretted that decision.

Putting aside scholarly arguments over Messianic prophesy in the Hebrew Bible, this verse comes from a passage calling for hope and a better future. 

Over the centuries, this hope has been turned into the number one request song of all times, sung and screamed from the hollow and holy throats of overlooked and oppressed. 

It is a plea for salvation, physical before spiritual. It speaks to a need born in the midst of groaning only the Holy Spirit can fully understand.

In this season of Advent, where we remember wait leading up to the Incarnation, and the current waiting for "the Second Coming," we are wise to remember the work we have around us in the midst of that waiting.

We are not to be idle. God to love. Neighbors to love as self. Self to love as we love neighbors and God.

(tl:dr we've got shit to do.)

---

But, it should not be forgotten, that this verse, this card, is a prayer, not a sexual play on words. 

And now, this year, this month, this day, this moment, more than ever, we beg:

Come

Because of wars with room for more wars.

Come

Because planes fall like sparrows to the ground.

Come

Because tears of blood flow from the eyes of the oppressed.

Come

Because the earth spills fire and the depths have flooded the rest.

Come

Because, once again, your children are being stolen, sold, shot, and silenced.

Come

Because your children see each other more as objects than reflections of You.

Come:

Follow a star from the east; walk across western waters.

Descend with northern clouds; arise from Your southern stronghold of old.

Come

As a silent night-ed theft or with a peel of trumpets; As rushing wind or a still, soft voice.

Come

Because all the lives you made matter.

Come

Because we still can’t breathe.

Come

Because we have so many reasons to lament

Just come.

please