Advent // Week 4 // Dec. 18-24
Restore us, O God of hosts,
let your face shine, that we may be saved
When we lost the baby, I was broken
Chest split open, heart caught in my throat and
I was chokin’ on the notion,
we were adrift in the ocean
Searching for a rope and
something to hope in Something
to cling to, a song to sing,
but there was no one to sing to
Grief unspoken, belief just a token,
dried up on my tongue, just going through the motions
Like a marionette who had his strings snapped
Every time I try to explain it just falls flat
Like a vase that falls from the shelf can’t fix itself,
But the Potter collects the pieces makes something else
Mix gold in the lacquer, plaster the cracks,
and bring it on back to wholeness,
The boldness to not try to hide the flaws,
to not try to sweep away
The broken bits, mix gold in the dust,
be bold in our trust, put it all on display
Restore us, O God of hosts,
let your face shine, that we may be saved
Joseph had a technicolor dreamcoat
Made his brothers jealous like a raft envying a steamboat
He spoke of visions, and they saw him as a threat,
and they threw him in a well, didn’t get wet,
Yet his brothers got the best of him, sold him upriver
Dagger to their daddy’s heart, pull the arrow from the quiver,
They came quivering and shivering, bowing down before him
God softened his heart and Joseph restored them
When the baby cries in the darkness
A light shines forth, softening the hardness
And all the people living with their backs to the wall
Hear the baby’s call, and maybe they stand tall
I know we can’t all be shepherds in the fields
With the glory of the Heavenly hosts making us kneel
And our zeal turns to steel
when we wheel and we deal
In abstractions, obfuscating what is real,
Like a mother singing in the silence
Her lullaby the roar of a lioness
When the baby cries out, it’s thunder
Shakes the words out my mouth, awestruck in my wonder
That infinite Love wrapped itself in this form
So fragile, clinging to his mother to stay warm
Like a mother hen, gathering us close to the chest
Hope for the oppressed, father for the fatherless
Welcome for the foreigner, provision for the poor
And a vision for those vases broken open on the floor
Restore us, O God of hosts,
let your face shine, that we may be saved
Lyrics: Direct quotation of Psalm 80:7 (NRSV), with verses by Greg Yoder, 2022 // Music: Seth Thomas Crissman and Greg Yoder, 2022 // Vocals: Greg Yoder, Ebony Nicole, and Kristina Yoder