Advent 3- Out of the Darkness ... LIGHT!

Lord, we beseech thee, give ear to our prayers, and by thy gracious visitation lighten the darkness of our heart, by our Lord Jesus Christ. (BCP 1549)

This was the collect for Advent III found in the 1549 BCP, but was replaced in the 1662 with “a Collect reflecting both the coming Advent Ember Days and the appointed Epistle and Gospel for Advent III”.
(Paul Zahl,The Collects of Cranmer, p. 6)

The words of this collect call our attention to the reality that the darkness of our world begins in the hearts of men. The Scriptures are replete with verse calling us to cleanse our hearts, noting that it is out of the heart that sin and temptation flow. As Kris Lundgaard reminds us there is an “enemy within” that is waging war for our souls.

St. Paul gives us a glimpse into the battle that is raging within us in Romans 7.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
(Romans 7:18-23 ESV)

What hope do we have in this battle? How can we overcome the darkness? Only with the LIGHT...

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24-25)

Thus, I want to join Archbishop Cranmer in calling us to prayer:
Lord, we come asking that just as your first visitation brought light into the darkness of the fallen world, come today and fill our hearts with the light of your gospel. May the light of your second Advent come and forever cast out the darkness of this world replacing with the light of your glory and grace! This is our hope and our prayer. Amen.

Peace be with you all,
Father Keith