The Old Testament experience of exile was deep and profound for the people of Israel. They were taken from their familiar beloved country to an alien place they didn't know, with gods they didn't recognize. Their experience of grief and loss helped form them into a people that did not need to have a building or a city to know they were the children of God.
Today we may feel that we're living in exile from the old, familiar ways we used to know, when hard work was rewarded with prosperity and our country was a beacon of light, when everyone went to church (or pretended to). Now the world is hard to recognize, with virtual life more important than ordinary life, when inequality is increasing and wages are falling, and when culture wars divide us into spiteful camps.
Who will speak a word of hope to our times? The words of the ancient hymn speak to us today as they have in the past: "O come, O come, Emmanuel."
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