Advent Oratorio –
Advent is more complicated than Easter. When Paul Spicer approached me about writing a follow-up to our ‘Easter Oratorio’, suggesting we take Advent as the theme, it seemed to me both completely appropriate and freshly challenging. Easter is about one single, massive moment: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have four different accounts of that moment and its immediate aftermath, and for the Oratorio we took John’s version as having the most obvious and varied ‘human interest’, in the meetings of the risen Jesus with several of his followers. Advent isn’t like that. It’s about two different historical moments which, though they’re umbilically joined, do not immediately reveal how they fit together. The great, massive Advent moment is still to come in the future, and this provides the over-arching structure of the present Oratorio…
This chorus is an extract from the oratorio that was performed at Lichfield Cathedral in 2009.
A Chorus from the piece
Paul Spicer & N.T. Wright
Come, Lord, and cleanse us from our sin;
Your new, glad work in us begin.
Remove our idols from our sight;
Let us in you alone delight.
Prepare us for your coming reign
By washing us from every stain;
Make known to us your holy Name;
Let us no more turn back to shame.
Call us to you from every land,
And guide us with your powerful hand;
Show us the path that we must tread,
Let us by you with joy be led.
Implant your Spirit in our heart,
That, with your Breath, new life may start;
Take from our flesh the heart of stone,
Let us rejoice in you alone.
For your own sake your love display,
That we may worship and obey;
Rebuild the wild and desert place;
Let us acclaim your sovereign grace.
Read more from N.T. Wright and download his free Advent ebook here.