Sermon Archive
Readings for 24 December 2006
Forth Sunday in Advent
Year C, Morning Prayer
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.
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.
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.
The Rev. Jack Zamboni
"For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy."
In Nomine…
The child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy when his mother hears Mary’s voice. Elizabeth is filled with Holy Spirit and exclaims her delight – and awe. Mary breaks into an astonishing song of praise to God. What is the cause of all his commotion?
What is the reason for this outburst of joy?
Is it the joy of two cousins seeing each other again for the first time in months, perhaps years?
Is it the joy of two unexpectedly pregnant women sharing their good fortune?
There is, I suspect a bit of both of these ordinary human reactions in Mary and Elizabeth’s joy.
But the real reason is something much deeper, stranger and quite out of the ordinary. The child in Mary’s womb is no ordinary child. Elizabeth calls him, “my Lord.” The angel Gabriel told Mary her child would be called the Son of the Most High. As Mary sings in her Magnificat, this child is destined to remake the world in accordance with God’s ancient promises to Abraham and Sarah.
No wonder that Elizabeth, Mary and the yet-to-be born John the Baptist are filled with joy! Who wouldn’t rejoice in that remarkable, unpredictable, world-changing news?
Words of this joy are in our Advent hymns this morning and will fill our Christmas carols tonight.
And yet, the unabashed heart-felt joy of Elizabeth, Mary and John often doesn’t come to us so easily.
After all, the news isn’t brand-new news to us: this story has been around for about 2,000 years!
We’ve overlaid it with traditions that can make it seem long ago and far away, and we’ve filled this season with a busyness that can sap the joy out of almost anything!
We know, too, that despite Mary’s triumphant song of a re-made world, the powerful still mostly seem to remain comfortably on their thrones, the hungry often remain empty, and the rich keep hold of their good things.
It is no wonder, then, that joy of John’s surprised leap in his mother’s womb does not automatically fill our hearts.
And still…
Old as that story seems to us, can we not, must we not, still be moved to joy when we catch sight of this astounding truth at its heart ?
The Christ is about to be born!
The Incarnate Word is taking flesh to dwell among us.
Emmanuel, God with us, is here.
God is born in our world!
God is born in our world!
God is born!!
Rejoice!
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