The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year C), Dec. 20, 2009
BCP: Micah 5:2-4; Psalm 80 or 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-49(50-56)
RCL: Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:47-55 or Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)
The four Sundays of Advent begin with cosmic and powerful messages of judgment and the coming of the Lord, progress through themes of conversion that are applied to all humanity, and now conclude with an account of the small, particular, and personal.
The fourth Sunday always provides an account about the Virgin Mary, in whom the “small, particular, and personal” find their focus. From the First Sunday of Advent’s theme of “the great day of the Lord” we now move to Bethlehem, which is “one of the little clans of Judah” (Micah 5:2), and to a meeting between two women in “a Judean town in the hill country” (Luke 1:39)—an inconsequential rural area far from the great cities. Yet, even these lessons are cosmic, though in a markedly different way from the banners and trumpets of the earlier lessons of Advent. It is the very “quietness” and “ordinariness” of today’s lessons, with the theme of “smallness,” that shows the immensity of God in a new way.
These lessons are most fitting before the Church commemorates the event in which the God of all creation was born as a helpless infant utterly dependent upon his parents and fully vulnerable to a dirty, rebellious, vicious and violent world.
Last Sunday’s lesson pointed out the disconcerting truth that the path to holiness is built upon doing ordinary things for God, and today’s lessons show us that God himself fills these ordinary things with himself. Although the lesson from Micah begins with the address to Bethlehem, it ends with the prophecy that the One who is destined to come from these inauspicious beginnings, “shall be great to the ends of the earth” (Micah 5:4). The contrast of insignificant and cosmically critical is woven beautifully in the exultant words of Mary, found both in the optional extension of the gospel lesson and the canticle suggested as a response to the reading from Micah: “The Lord…has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
It is in the person of the Virgin that we see closest the pattern that God shows repeatedly — that it is in ordinary, everyday things that his greatest works are customarily done. The sacramental life, the pursuit of virtue, the life of prayer all require only what is common and ordinary. This means that God and grace are always accessible to anyone at any time.
Look It Up
See how the Magnificat, Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s greeting, appeals to “peace and justice” Christians; “high church” people; Christian feminists; evangelical, Bible-oriented believers; traditionalists; and mission-driven activists.
Think About It
How does the lesson from Hebrews require the Incarnation, i.e. the birth of the Messiah as a human being?
Next Sunday
The First Sunday after Christmas (Year C), Dec. 27, 2009
BCP and RCL: Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147 or 147:13-21; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18
