Look Up

Revelation 1:5-7
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen.

 Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending

 1    Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for favored sinners slain;
     thousand thousand saints attending swell the triumph of his train:
      Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Christ the Lord returns to reign.

2    Ev’ry eye shall now behold him robed in glorious majesty;
      those who set at nought and sold him, pierced and nailed him to the tree,
      deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing, shall their true Messiah see.

3    Those dear tokens of his passion still his dazzling body bears,
      cause of endless exultation to his ransomed worshipers.
      With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture gaze we on those glorious scars!

4    Yea, amen, let all adore thee, high on thine eternal throne;
      Savior, take the pow’r and glory, claim the kingdom as thine own.
      Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Thou shalt reign, and thou alone!

Text: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788, alt.

      This hymn was a team effort - it was originally penned by John Cennick, a Moravian missionary, adapted by Charles Wesley, the famous Methodist hymn writer, and finished by one of his students, Martin Madan, a cobbler who loved to add “Alleluias” to Wesley’s hymns! This is a hymn about waiting, about expecting Christ to come to make things right. It points to that day when Jesus “comes with clouds descending, once for favored sinners slain…Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Christ the Lord returns to reign!”  But, as it was the product of a collaboration, it points to the truth that we are better together, for even the one who just added "alleluias" to the end of the hymn, played an important part in its beauty and power. 

 Prayer:  Father, in difficult times help us to not dwell at our feet, but to look up, and behold the promise of your coming again.  Keep us faithful.  Help us to have the wisdom to find our place, and then give us the courage to do what is needed. Amen.