Fourth Sunday of Advent: God's Evolution and Revolution In Christ

Today's Scripture Readings

Micah 5: 2-5a (NRSV)

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.

Magnificat (Canticle 15 BCP. p. 91)


Hebrews10: 5-10 (NRSV)

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.

Luke 1: 39-55 (NRSV)

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."

Blog Reflection

If there were ever a Being in all the universe who can turn a world settled unto itself upside down, God would be the One.  It is a fact of life, that God does not leave us to our comfort zones without some way of moving us to become more faithful followers of Christ. 

In the coming of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, God turned a world where the powerful were to dominate the weak with no recourse, into a world redeemed by the sacrifice of God's Son.  That sacrifice did not begin with the Cross, it began when God left the throne of heaven and came to us in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.  In 2 Corinthians 8: 9  Paul wrote: "For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich."   This is the very song of Mary in the Magnificat.

William Barclay in : The New Daily Study Bible The Gospel of Luke wrote: "When Joan of Arc knew that her time was short, she prayed, 'I shall only last a year; use me as  you can" (Page 17).

In the Magificat, Mary sings of how she is God's "lowly servant" yet, God used her to do mighty things, and therefore she proclaimed God's Name to be holy.   When we accept that God uses our prayers, though they may seem insignificant to us, great and mighty things happen.  Even if what happens is something we do not see for ourselves.  Mary received God's random act of grace, by being chosen as to give birth to God's Son, yet she recognizes God's great power in her life, and how it brings about an evolution of God revealed to human kind to begin what Barclay calls a "moral revolution," a "social revolution" and "an economic revolution" (Pages 19, 20).

A "moral revolution" that is the end of a pride that considers ourselves greater that God.  This idea fits very well into the first step of humility in the Rule of St. Benedict.   That first step being that we keep the consciousness of God always before our eyes.  This is a recognition that God is God and we are not.  It is a giving over of control and our own wills to that of God with a trust in God, even when our personal securities become unstable in an effort to help us to find our stability in God, through obedience and conversion of life.

A "social revolution" by which through Christ the helpless and vulnerable are those who inspire us to a radical conversion.   A reorganizing of our lives that recognizes Christ in those who are sick without health care, and the lesbian girl coming out to her parents.   The young gay man being harassed by the high school football team.  The LGBT people of Uganda fearful of a law passed that would put them in prison just for their sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression, or very possibly executed.  The social revolution of Christ born through Mary is our invitation to be the voice for the retired and disabled who could lose Social Security benefits to satisfy tax breaks for the wealthiest people, in a fiscal cliff resolution.  To care about the constant placing of the welfare of the poorest and most vulnerable of society as a chip, while giving the wealthy more power to own more and to exercise even more power.

A "social revolution" can be the beginning of an "economic revolution." 

Barclay writes: "A Christian society is a society where no one dares to have too much while others have too little , where everyone gets only to give away.

There is loveliness in the Magnificat but in that loveliness there is dynamite.  Christianity brings about a revolution in individuals and revolution in the world" (Page 20).

As we leave the Season of Advent and enter into the Christmas Season, we are all called to sing the Magnificat with Mary.   We sing that Christ will once again be born in us and in our world, to infuse our society and the Church with an environment of justice, equality and freedom from oppression and violence.  In Christ, our human nature is restored with God's grace by which God is randomly choosing and empowering us to be the change that we want to see in the world.

Amen.


Prayers

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation,
that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a
mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen. (Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer, p. 212).

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], that barriers which divide us may
crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, Book of Common Prayer, p. 823).