Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 18th December 2014

St Isaac's Cathedral, St Petersburg

The Great 'O' Antiphons: 18th December - O Adonai

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with outstretched arm. (Common Worship trans)

Adonai is the Hebrew word meaning 'My Lord' used by Jews as a substitution for the holy name of God which a cannot be spoken, and so is a reminder of the heritage the Christian community receives from the people of Israel, the first to hear the promise of the future Messiah. This antiphon is the most Jewish of them all, we too pray the ancient name of my Lord,used by the oppressed children of Israel.

Here too is the story of Moses meeting God on Mt Sinai and receiving the Torah, the story of Israel's oppression and exile but also deliverance from Pharaoh in Egypt and 'Passover' into the promised land! This is the Exodus story of our faith as well, a deep reminder of our intimate connection not only with the Hebrew Scriptures, but of the deep Jewish roots of Christian faith.

In the poetry of the antiphon we not only hear the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the God of redemption, who was revealed to Moses in the burning bush ( Is 3.2) but who continually reaches out to us with outstretched arm, dispensing justice and righteousness, particularly to the poor who are God's special ones , but who will also bring the wicked to accountability ( Is 6.6; 11.4-5.).A Isaiah says, 'the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our King, he will save us'.(Is 33.22) Here too we glimpse the outstretched arms of a suffering servant , the saviour of the world who redeemed us by the wood of the Cross!

Today we are brutally reminded of new atrocities perpetrated in the name of God by wicked people, innocent children and adults caught up in terrorism and murderous violence. As we call on the Lord, O Adonai, our prayer is caught up in the centuries of prayer offered by innocent and suffering people, from Exodus to the Pogroms, from religious wars of the Reformation, to the more recent Concentration Camps and Gulags all over the world , and of today's violence!

We must reclaim the name of God from misuse, from abuse by evil people, that perhaps is our deep unspoken prayer of O Adonai this day!