Advent 4 invites us to respond to the wonder and mystery of God and to acknowledge his plans for us.

Whose agenda are you following? Your own agenda or God’s agenda? Whose will are you doing? Your own will or God’s will? Whose kingdom are you building up? Your own kingdom or God’s kingdom? It is clear they were following God

Mary was certainly not following her own agenda or doing her own will or building her own kingdom when she said ‘Yes’ to the angel Gabriel to become the mother of Jesus; “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) Think of the consequences it could have had for her. She could have been stoned to death according to the law of that time (Deut 22:20-21). For that reason Mary knew that from the human point of view she may not even be able to bring her pregnancy to its full term but she had faith to believe that what is impossible for us is possible for God. And so with that faith she said “yes.” She surrendered into the hands of God, and it really was surrendering because she did not know what the consequences would be. But she had faith to believe that no matter what difficulties would follow, God would provide a way out and a remedy. Mary’s final words to the angel are a model for each of us, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) And because Mary surrendered to God, Jesus came.

Mary shows us how to be a follower of Jesus, making a loving surrender into the hands of God who loves us. Surrendering to God, making that act of trust or abandonment into the hands of God, is not easy. It means letting go and like Mary facing into the unknown and the unknown scares us

The Annonciation - Leonardo Da Vinci (1473-75)

Luke 1:39-45(46-55)

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

[And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."]

This reading connects the story of John the Baptist with the story of the Birth of Christ. Luke quickly clues us into the fact that both of these women are in unusual circumstances. Elizabeth, married to a high priest of Israel, connects Jesus to the priestly traditions of the Old Testament, as Mary connects him to the Davidic kingship. Both Luke and Matthew provide extensive genealogies that make certain we know who Jesus was by looking at from whom he came. Luke is clear in his intent to inform his readers who Jesus is, for even the not-yet-born John the Baptist “leaps in the womb” in recognition of the Messiah. Elizabeth utters the phrases that become enshrined in the Ave Maria. This is all a theology of status – the priest/king who will come to redeem us. It is in the Magnificat that follow immediately upon this text (see notes above) that outline Luke’s theology of the kingdom of God.

Martin Luther, the fifteenth-century reformer, once said, "There are three miracles of the Nativity That God became man, that a virgin conceived, and that Mary believed. And the greatest of these was the last."

She obviously believes in this whole wild, preposterous, and seemingly crazy story that she, a virgin, is now pregnant—and not only that, but with the Messiah, the Savior for whom her people have been waiting for centuries to be revealed. Furthermore, Mary's faith as expressed in the Magnificat did not negate the need to ask the hard questions. Mary boldly asked the angel, "How is it all going to happen?" She was wholly confused. And children are fond of asking questions—outrageous ones, sometimes

These "great things" given her by God are contrasted with her "low or humble" status in society, making sure to emphasize her feeling of not deserving such a great gift Additionally, she was also a woman-—a characteristic that in her day the religious leaders would view as making an individual unlikely to be used or chosen by God.

Luke's nativity narrative centers the story completely around Mary, including the stories of Elizabeth her relative and Anna the prophetess in the temple. In contrast, the other pri¬mary nativity narrative, given to us by Matthew, focuses the story around Joseph.

The spiritual theme of the Advent and Christmas seasons relates to the giving of ourselves anew to God. But perhaps even more profoundly, these seasons are about receiving from God. Mary reminds us that regardless of our abilities or inabilities, our background and past mistakes, our weaknesses, struggles, and doubts, nothing limits or prevents God from giving to us.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

In essence, she is singing about a new way forward, or more accurately about following a new way. The words of Mary's song speak of a Messiah coming to bring about a complete reversal of human values.

This Advent and Christmas, as we prepare ourselves for the celebration of the coming of Christ, we are all called to be children once again through this story of all stories. And the Magnificat reminds us that there dwells in the heart of each and every one of us a us a song, music that we alone know how to sing and play, about believing God, and receiving from God, and trusting in God beyond measure.

Micah 5:2-5a

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,

who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to rule in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

from ancient days.

Therefore he shall give them up until the time

when she who is in labor has brought forth;

then the rest of his kindred shall return

to the people of Israel.

And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD,

in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great

to the ends of the earth;

and he shall be the one of peace.

Micah was from the small village of Moresheth in Judah (1:1). Micah wrote at a time when the Assyrian army had invaded the northern kingdom, Israel, and when corruption was rife in Judah. The rich cheated and robbed the poor; priests and prophets adapted their words to suit their audiences. In 701 BC, Jerusalem was besieged and Judah became a vassal state of Assyria. The invaders occupied part of the coastal plain, menacing Micah’s home city, Moresheth, and the surrounding area. The prophet speaks “the word of the LORD that came” (1:1) to him: in 4:9-5:1, he tells of the humiliation and difficulties Israel must experience in the near future. Despite “many nations [being] ... assembled against you” (4:11), God will give the Israelites victory over their enemies: this is God’s plan.

In chapters 1-4 Micah has been speaking against the sins and corruption rife in Jerusalem and Judah. Like others around him, Micah observed the injustice and oppression exercised by the rich and powerful in society (e.g. 2:1-2), the false utterances of prophets (3:5), the indifference of rulers (3:11), commercial malpractice (3:9) and the wickedness of priests (3:11), all of which had grown widespread in Judah in the early to mid eighth century BCE.

He speaks vividly of God’s judgment upon the people toward the end of chapter 4 describing Jerusalem as a woman writhing in labor, as one sent forth to camp in the wilderness and finally as one besieged (Mic 4:9-11). These images, however, are not just meant to evoke thoughts of pain and distress. The woman in labor will give birth and there will be joy in that. Camping in the wilderness evokes thoughts of the exodus and the hope embodied in that tradition.

So Micah also speaks at the end of chapter 4 of the lame, who will be the remnant of God’s people, becoming a strong nation (v. 7) and of rescue from Babylon the place of captivity (v. 10). The prophet proclaims that neither the dim political prospects, seen as God’s judgment upon the people of Judah, nor the view of the nations that Judah is ripe to be plundered for its wealth, is the way God sees things (v. 12). In Mic 5:1 the prophet speaks of the people besieged and their ruler struck by a rod on the cheek, but he then begins v. 2 with a definitive ‘but’, indicating a marked transition from judgment to salvation. This transition focuses on Bethlehem, as the prophet addresses the little town

In his visions, Micah speaks of these things but also opens up for us an alternative world view, a ‘God’s-eye view’ of things if you like, that speaks to the root of the immediate human circumstances even as it looks beyond to a different future. The new circumstances Micah sees are linked to a coming ruler (5:2). Surprisingly, and in keeping with a sense of divine irony, this new ruler will arise from one of the least of the clans of Judah. The ruler’s origin in Bethlehem evokes thoughts of King David (cf. 1 Sam 16:1) whose dynasty ruled over Jerusalem and Judah for over 400 years. However, Micah does not identify this ruler with David, nor does he refer explicitly to the ‘anointed’, i.e. the messiah. These identifications were made by many much later, including some New Testament writers (e.g. see John 7:42). What Micah does is clearly indicate that this ruler will be one whose reign will be consistent with that of God. This he does by saying that this ruler’s ‘origin is from of old, from ancient days’, words reminiscent of deities in the ancient Near East and used of God in Dan 7:9-22.

God will “give them up” (v. 3, allow his people to be oppressed) until the right time. The woman in v. 3 is this king’s mother. When he is born, oppression will end and all Israelites will be reunited. He will be like a shepherd, feeding his people (“flock”, v. 4) through the power and authority of God. He will bring an era of peace. He will rule in Jerusalem (v. 7).

Clearly Mic 5:2-5a has been selected for Advent 4 because of the mention of Bethlehem and the one who will come forth from it and who will be ‘great to the ends of the earth’. Other themes such as peace and the woman in labor support the connection of this passage to the story of Jesus’ birth. The fact that Micah is the only prophet to refer to Bethlehem further suggests a connection with the Gospel story. Mic 5:2 is quoted in Matt 2:6 where Bethlehem is identified with the prophecy of a coming Messiah Mic 5:3 then speaks of a woman in labour, a theme found also in Isa 7:14 and 9:6 and elsewhere.

In the second passage, then, perhaps the "woman" in question is again Zion/Jerusalem, and the "birth" is again a metaphor to speak of deliverance from enemies. The "kindred" (or, more literally, "brothers") who return to the children of Israel are perhaps exiles (whether the 8th century exiles of Israel, from Micah's own time, or the later sixth century Judean exiles to Babylon is not clear). There is an eschatological allusion implicit in this reference. The phrases ‘the time’ (Mic 5:3) and the more common ‘that day’ (e.g. Mic 4:1, 6; 5:10, 7:11 etc.) direct our thoughts not so much to a particular time of divine intervention, but to a hope in the final reign of God. This ruler will be a majestic figure. The language of ‘shepherd’ in relation to kings was common throughout the ancient world. It signalled both protection and care (cf. the critique of shepherds in Ezekiel 34). It will later be used to speak of God in Isa 40:10-11, as it is in Psalm 23. Significantly this figure will be identified as ‘the man of peace’ (v. 5). The title is used more explicitly later in Isa 52:7: ‘the one who announces peace’. Micah also envisions a universal rule for this figure: ‘to the ends of the earth’ (cf. also Isa 45:22; Jer 16:19). This language is typical of the idealised king in ancient Israel (see Psalm 72). It is a picture not of any run of the mill king, even a very good one, but rather of one in whom the reign of God is seen in a new way.

Roman Road

Hebrews 10:5-10

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

"Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body you have prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, 'See, God, I have come to do your will, O God'

(in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."

When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), then he added, "See, I have come to do your will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The purpose of the priestly sacrificial system was the sanctification of the people. In v. 1, the author has stated that the sacrifices offered annually in the Temple on the Day of Atonement (according to Jewish law) foreshadow (point forward to) “the good things [that are] to come” through Christ. He then argues: if the temple sacrifices were “good things”, i.e. cleansing of all inner guilt that sin causes, why did these sacrifices need to continue? (v. 2) These sacrifices, he says, did not wipe the slate clean (v. 3); they can’t (v. 4).

Now, quoting Psalm 40, the author explains that God prefers obedience (“a body ...”, v. 5) to sacrifices: doing God’s will is what counts (v. 7). In v. 8 the author interprets the psalm

Our writer uses Psalm 40:6-8 to identify the sacrifice that does take away sin. The Psalm teaches that obedience is the sacrifice that God desires, not the spilling of the blood of dumb animals. Blood sacrifices only have worth when done out of devotion toward God. That is, the condition of the heart (attitude) is of more importance than the actual offering. So, in the passage there is a contrast between the sacrifices of dumb animals which unknowingly give their lives, and the sacrifice of a knowing man who gives his life up to God in complete obedience. Passivity is contrasted with submission. The scripture is clearly saying that cultic sacrifices are not pleasing to God. Only a sacrifice of obedience to the will of God is pleasing to him.

The author of Hebrews turns a serious statement about priorities and preference into an outright denial. The words of the psalmist now serve to make the point that God does not want sacrifices or the temple system at all and has replaced it with Christ and his one-off sacrifice. It was all that people needed. In this way the author takes the words of the psalm as Jesus' declaration, that he was coming to take a body, which he would then sacrifice. The words of the psalmist become the words of Jesus just before Christmas, when he was about to enter the arena of human existence in embodied form. To that point in time he had been the Son of God active at God's side in creation and its sustenance.

In v8-9. Our writer now comments on the quote by underlining its salient points. We see that in the priestly sacrifice of Christ (an offering of his life in complete obedience to the will of God, even unto death) a new order is inaugurated which replaces the Levitical cult. In v8 our writer makes the point that the old order has been abolished. In v9 the establishment of a new order is recorded, the sacrificial offering of obedience. The sacrifice pleasing to God involves a total submission to his will. This is the very thing Jesus has done, and having done it, he supersedes the old order of blood sacrifice.

Jesus, he says (v. 9), came to do away with “the first” (the sacrificial system) and to inaugurate “the second” (the self-offering of Jesus). It is “by God’s will” (v. 10), carried out through Christ, that we have been “sanctified”, been made ceremonially clean and been perfected, made complete, through Christ’s death on the cross – “once for all” time. Christ was obedient not only in his death, but from the moment of his coming into the world.

Jesus declares, "I have come to do your will, O God" (10:7). It was through a single-minded obedience of Christ's will and -- most pointedly -- body, says Hebrews, that our sanctification through God's will has come about. The author wants us to see that the incarnation is explained by the atonement, but the atonement would never have come about without Christ's faithful obedience. Moreover, the sacrifice offered up by Jesus was so perfectly complete that no repetition of it is either necessary or possible. It was offered "once for all" (10:10). Although Jesus "learned obedience from the things he suffered," which implies that he grew in his understanding of the divine will, the reading for today wants us to be certain that even at the moment of the incarnation Jesus was thoroughly committed to carrying it out.

Finally, in v10 our author points out that since Jesus knowingly submitted himself to the will of God in perfect obedience, we in turn, in consequence of that perfect offering of obedience, are cleansed of our sin, declared holy, and are able to stand before God as obedient sons. Jesus, in a body made/incarnate for him, a human body, performed the required will of God for a son of God. He fulfilled the divine requirements, which requirements no other son of God (a person in submission to God) has ever fulfilled. In so doing we share in his perfect humanity. In his perfection we are declared perfect. So, it is through the obedience of Christ that we are treated as obedient sons. This, of course, is ours by grace through faith.

Psalm 80:1-7

1

Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *
shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2

In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *
stir up your strength and come to help us.

3

Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

4

O LORD God of hosts, *
how long will you be angered
despite the prayers of your people?

5

You have fed them with the bread of tears; *
you have given them bowls of tears to drink.

6

You have made us the derision of our neighbors, *
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

7

Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Psalm 80 is a lament for the Northern Kingdom of Israel that in 722 BCE was conquered by the Assyrians. It started as a family feud between Judah and Israel but after Israel allied with Aram and threatened Jerusalem King Ahaz of Judah sold his soul to Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria and Israel was history. Of course the psalmist thinks God had something to do with it but the truth is this story is repeated throughout the history of the human race.

The pride of kings inevitably leads to the bread of tears for common folk. It’s the poets and the prophets that give voice to the people’s pain pleading “Restore us, O God” and promising “then we will never turn back from you.” Sad to say Israel never does come back and Judah will eventually meet the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians.

Laments are meant to name the pain and not shy away from the reality of suffering albeit from the perspective of faith that holds onto hope that the God who is angry with the people’s prayers will hear their plea and regard their plight with pity. That is how not so happy posts can still be hopeful for laments give voice to faith in the face of sorrow and suffering, so that when scorned and derided by circumstances beyond our control, fed on a diet tears, we pray none-the-less “Restore us, O God!” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.