by Alena Bugrova with legal reuse rights
The Fourth Sunday of Advent 2020
The Mighty One
has scattered the proud
in the imaginations of their hearts
and filled the hungry
with good things!
Luke 1:51-53
Advent 2023
This has been the shortest possible Advent, with the fourth Sunday of Advent on Sunday morning easing into Christmas Eve on Sunday evening. Around the interwebs I've noticed that quite a few churches plan to forego Sunday morning worship on the 24th. In order to experience all four Advent Sundays, some observed the first Sunday of Advent on November 26th, or what otherwise was Reign of Christ Sunday.
Scriptures
At least some time during Advent, why not listen to God's counsel and promise to David through the prophet Nathan? How can we not read Gabriel's announcement to Mary? Why wouldn't we sing Mary's Magnificat with its promise of the end of the world as we've known it—the end of death, destruction, empire, violence, exploitation? The dawn of hope and possibility?
2 Samuel 7:2, 4-7, 11b
2 The king said to the prophet Nathan, "See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent."
4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.
7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" 11b Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
• Despite his knowledge of the on-the-move God of the covenants who journeyed with the people, David's desire to construct a quality home where God could take up residence was more than reasonable. Other divinities of the Ancient Near East (ANE) were territorial place gods; David went along with what he'd observed and with human logic, exactly as we often do. Figuring out how to contextualize ministries can be a complex process, and all of us make mistakes.
This passage contains more than one meaning for house: a physical structure at a settled location as a dwelling place for God or people; and …the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
God promises a house as the biological and familial inheritance we hear about in the genealogies in Matthew and Luke. According to Luke 2:4, "Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David."
People sometimes announce they've bought or rented a home, but we really buy or rent houses, apartments, and condos. Love, care, encounters, and time turn those spaces into homes. Stucco, wood, stone, cousins, aunts, friends, and grands, ultimately house is a place of belonging. In addition to Christmas carols and secular seasonal music, we've been hearing songs like "Who Says You Can't Go Home Again?" by Bon Jovi, "I'm Going to Make this Place Your Home" by Phillip Philips, "Home" by One Direction, and they fit in fine.
Annunciation – Luke 1:26, 31, 34-38
26 The angel Gabriel came to Mary and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."
31 "And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus."
34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." …
• From the start, scripture reveals God's initiative and grace as God chooses, calls, prepares, and sends people. This is Mary's call story! In the Eastern church Mary is Theotokos or God-bearer. Mary carried Jesus, God's Word of promise, in her body (the literally em-bodied Word) with her wherever she went. Mary shows us how to trust and embody God's word.
Magnificat – Luke 1:39, 46-55
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted her cousin Elizabeth.
46 And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
• Every day at Evening Prayer or Vespers, we sing Mary's Holy Spirit-inspired canticle. You may be aware of how well people memorized scripture – literally taking it to heart – two millennia ago. Although we have the words Luke wrote, Mary probably sang a very similar song because this passage is closely based on Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Mary would have been able to recite and make Hannah's words her own. A few weeks ago on Five Minute Friday I reminded everyone, "Hope for the death of death starts with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth."
Word in the World
Mary asks, "How can this be?" Angel (Messenger) Gabriel explains it will happen because the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High overshadow you.
Pregnant Mary carried God's Word of promise (Jesus the Word) in her body everywhere she went. We have been baptized into Jesus the Christ, the one whose body he promised his followers would become. Like Mary, as the church we carry God's Word of Promise (Jesus!) with us wherever we go. How can this be? The Holy Spirit has come upon us!
As God reminded David and Nathan, God always has traveled alongside the people. God calls us to be wherever the people are: in the 'hood, at the supermarket, beside the taco stand; in the corporate boardroom, at the dog park, in the city council meeting; embodied in the world's hopes, plans, yearnings, and dreams…
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