This evening’s antiphon is:
O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.
Messiah here is described as God, the very one who appeared to Moses and commissioned him to “set my people free.” The antiphon also uses a standard image from the Old Testament to describe how God’s saving love rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt “with mighty hand and outstretched arm.” It is also the language God used in telling Moses to “lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it…” We know the needs we have to be set free from sinful behavior, weakness, failings. It is the promise we hear in the canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus) at Morning Prayer: This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham—"to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life." To be set free is to be enabled to live holy and righteous lives without being afraid someone will take advantage of us. It is to be enabled to lives lives "the way it was always intended to be from the beginning." Who would not long to be set free in this way?
O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.
Messiah here is described as God, the very one who appeared to Moses and commissioned him to “set my people free.” The antiphon also uses a standard image from the Old Testament to describe how God’s saving love rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt “with mighty hand and outstretched arm.” It is also the language God used in telling Moses to “lift up your rod, stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it…” We know the needs we have to be set free from sinful behavior, weakness, failings. It is the promise we hear in the canticle of Zechariah (Benedictus) at Morning Prayer: This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham—"to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life." To be set free is to be enabled to live holy and righteous lives without being afraid someone will take advantage of us. It is to be enabled to lives lives "the way it was always intended to be from the beginning." Who would not long to be set free in this way?
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