Advent 2: Ierusalem Surge

Ierusalem Surge - Arise, Jerusalem! - is the Communion song for the second Sunday in Advent. I've actually posted on this before, last year; there's a longer post on this text here, and my theory about the "matching" (bookending might be more accurate!) text used during Lent.

Here, the choir of the Community of St. Lazare sings it:




The Brazilian Benedictines, too, offer the score for this Communio, and an mp3.

The text itself comes from Baruch 5:5 and 4:36:

Jerusalem surge, et sta in excelso, et vide
jucunditatem quae veniet tibi a Deo tuo.

Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high, and behold
the joy that comes to thee from thy God!

Here again is that lovely polyphonic version by Giacomo Mezzalira:



That YouTube page says this, in Italian, about the video:

Basilica San Vittore 8 maggio 2008. Coro da Camera di Varese diretto da Gabriele Conti. Concerto di presentazione del libro e del CD "TRIBUS VOCIBUS" di GIACOMO MEZZALIRA 24 mottetti a 3 voci miste in tutte le tonalità maggiori e minori. Edizioni Carrara Bergamo.

I think this is the composer's blog.

The collect for this week is this one:

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The following is from Commentary on the American Prayer Book, by Marion Hatchett:

This new collect is based on that for the third Sunday of Advent in the Book of Common Worship of the Church of South India; the theme is "The Fore-runner":

O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare the way before thee: Grant that we, paying urgent heed to the message of repentance, may with hearts prepared await they final coming to judge the world; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

The petition is similar to that of the first of the collects for the Nativity: Christmas Day. The prayer might be compared to this collect for the third Sunday in Advent which entered the Prayer Book in 1662, generally attributed to John Cosin:

O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send they messenger to prepare the way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

The essential difference between Bishop Cosin's collect and that in the present revision lies in the placing of responsibility not only upon the ministers and stewards but upon all of us to be prepared for Christ's coming again.

And truly, Advent is prophet time!  Which I love; the Old Testament reading this year in the RCL is from Isiaiah (11:1-10):

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might,

the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,

and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt or destroy

on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

John the Baptist makes his first appearance in the Gospel (Matthew 3:1-12):

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
`Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.'"
Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."

Here again are links to all the Introits for Advent; this week, obviously, it's Populus Sion:

• Advent 1: Ad Te Levavi Animam Meam
• Advent 2: Populus Sion
• Advent 3: Gaudete in Domino
• Advent 4: Rorate cæli desuper

Here's Rembrandt's wonderful "Preaching of St. John the Baptist: