O Come, O Come Emmanuel

from Jeff Myers' blog:

How do we pray for his first coming? How can we pray for what has already happened? We can't. He’s already come. So when we sing "O Come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel" we are not playing a game, acting like we are Israelites living before the birth of Jesus. This hymn is a corporate prayer. We are the new Israel. And we are asking Jesus to come again and again to deliver us from sin and the curse. We use the language and imagry of his first coming, but the prayer addressed to our faithful God in reference to our mourning in lowly exile.