Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, ELW 631
1 Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heavā€™n, to earth come down!
Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter evā€™ry trembling heart.
2 Breathe, oh, breathe thy loving Spirit
Into every troubled breast;
let us all in thee inherit;
Let us find thy promised rest.
Take away the love of sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
3 Come, Almighty, to deliver;
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
never more thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
4 Finish then thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee!
Changed from glory into glory,
till in heavā€™n we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise!
Devotion
In this season of Epiphany, we celebrate the appearance of God in Christ among us. Through Word and sacrament we encounter God precisely and forever where we least expect to find God: in the midst of our everyday lives and humdrum days. Without looking for God, we find God-or, more to the point, we are found by God. Such an epiphany encounter ignites a faint recollection of Eden and inspires a hope of the new Jerusalem to which we are headed. Epiphany reminds us of and points us to a time and place where human beings will abide with God forever. Meanwhile, as we wait, Charles Wesley's hymnic prayer becomes our own. Once having seen a glimmer of the light of Christ's presence, we pray that Christ will remain with us in our trembling heart, and in our troubled breast.¯ A Lord who visits us where we live, where we tremble and are troubled, is a God who is truly our beginning and ending, our Alpha and Omega.
Prayer
Love divine, all loves excelling, visit us with thy salvation and set our hearts at liberty. Amen.