A sermon/reflection for Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year B
The readings for this Sunday are those of Advent 4:
2 Samuel 7. 1-11, 16
Canticle Luke 1. 46b-55
Romans 16. 25-27
Luke 1. 26-38
You might like to use the link below to find the above readings, and click on any of the reading above that you wish to use: http://www.katapi.org.uk/CommonWorship/CWLectionarySelV.php
Collect of the day
Let us first spend a few moments in silence to centre ourselves,
to gather ourselves in our souls,
to come before the Lord just as we are with our joys and sorrows,
our hopes and our fears, our loves and our pains.
Let us just focus our minds and hearts on Jesus
who is the answer for every problem.
Let us pray that the Spirit will work through our lives
to bring Christ to the world.
Silence is kept
God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
And Eternal God and Father,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Prayer before the Sermon
Loving Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the words you have given us today.
We know they are words of life and salvation.
Open our hearts Father,
touch our souls,
help us to respond to your word
and know that you are indeed our Lord and Saviour.
May we experience in our hearts
your love and your presence always.
Amen.
A homily based on the readings of today (Luke 1. 26-38) is given below:
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a model believer and disciple)
Introduction:
If I were to divide this sermon in to three parts, I would put it under three subtitles: Nazareth, Mary and God’s grace following the verses of the gospel Luke chapter 1, verses 26 to 38.
- Nazareth (verse 26) and grace (of God)
The Galilean hamlet was not mentioned in the OT. It was even asked if anything good could come from such a spot (Jn 1.46). To this place without a past – like the lowly village which the pagan Porphyry said attracted the attention of the gods – was brought the announcement of messianic joy, because at its centre was a silence, a surrender, an emptiness, a longing – this was Mary.
The naming of this obscure town (see John 1.45) of some 150 people contributes to Luke’s theme of God’s sovereign grace active in human history, that nothing is impossible with God! (cf. NJBC, 680)
- Mary (verse 27) and her ‘Yes’ to God
“to a virgin bethrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”(verse 27)
Mary is a maiden who was just bethrothed. The normal age for a girl’s bethrothal in those days was soon after the twelfth birthday (for boys four years later)
(Cf. Henry Wansbrough, Luke. The People’s Bible Commentary, (Oxford 1998), 20. From now on: PBC)
Just imagine this young Galilean girl, intrigued by the budding of her own sexuality, excited at the prospect of marriage, daydreaming while she feeds the family chickens or brings water from the well. At a certain moment she knows that God is calling her (we can use only physical terms, as though she heard a sound!) to bear a son by the power of the Most High.(ibidem)
It is all about God and what he can do in us if we surrender our lives to him. That is why Mary is so special and unique in the history of our salvation.
God’s ways are not man’s ways, neither are his thoughts our thoughts:
The Prophet Isaiah says (Is 55. 8-9): “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” St Paul writes: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom 11.33) (also 34-36)
He looks graciously on a simple heart. He loves to grace a surrendered heart. He doesn’t look at the external, physical dimensions. See the following Bible verses that confirm this truth:
1 Sam 15.7: “For the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
2 Cor 11. 9-10: “ ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Jn 1. 46: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. See also v.45)
Verse 28: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”
What would you feel if you are greeted that way by angel Gabriel ‘Hail. Full of grace!’? A theophany (manifestation of God) takes place in her moment of prayer, utter faith and total Communion. It is an extraordinary salutation!
Grace means harmony of human and divine dimensions. The Lord’s presence in a heart is Directly related to ‘grace.’ The biblical person is the one who remains in God’s presence;“The Lord before whose face I stand” (2 Kings 18.15)
I don’t think Mary received this message from God when she was doing something extraordinary, but when she was doing her ordinary things of life, but she was so full of that special union with God that the salutation of the angel was, so to say, almost natural.
Verse 30 “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”
Fear is human but power is from God.
Verse 35 “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 called holy, the Son of God.”
Pentecost is a Baptism in the Spirit and Power of God. We read in St Paul’s letter to the Galatians: “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” (Gal 3.2)
Mary’s conception is pure gift from God through the power of God’s Spirit. (cf. NJBC, 681)
Verse 37 “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Among the greatest of affirmations // The paradox of Christianity This is Lucan theme that God creates something out of nothing. (ibidem)
Verse 38 “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
Mary is just like us – a normal person, a normal maiden but what puts Mary apart is her ‘absolute consent, without conditions. She is like the servant of the Lord I Isaiah, ‘a servant who yields absolutely to the Lord’ will, to end in suffering and humiliation, before final vindication. Jesus certainly spoke of himself in these terms, and it is attractive to see his mother also using this terminology to signify her utter, unconditional assent to God’s call. Amid all the excitement, the young girl will have realised that no great task is easy. Luke shows her pledging in these terms the suffering and endurance which her consent implied, in this, as elsewhere in Luke’s Gospel, Mary is the first and most faithful model for her son’s disciples. (cfr. PBC, 21)
Among those who were waiting for the kingdom, she was skilled in listening with ‘ears of faith’, and St. Paul considers this the fundamental religious attitude: “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” (Gal 3.2).
- God’s grace and our “yes”
The story of Mary is the story of God’s pure grace to us. There are no limits to places or people for God’s grace to come flowing in. God’s grace is pure gift, not our merit. But is also about the ‘yes’ of a human being that changed the world Passive receptacle, Spirituality of active passivity before God. It is not what we do for God that matters, but what God can do through us.
This is a big temptation for many people, even well meaning Christians who want to do much for God forgetting that what God would rather prefer is a surrendered and obedient heart, a heart of faith and love wherein God can do what he wants in and through us than what ‘we’ want to do for God and his kingdom.
When we do what we want for God, for most of the time we tend to depend on ourown forces rather than be totally available for God!
Mary is the ultimate example of Christian counter culture. Mary of Nazareth is the model believer and slave who responds wholeheartedly to God’s plan and is the forerunner of Luke’s gallery, i.e., women, sinners, little people whom no one would expect to respond favourably to God’s revelation. (cf. NJBC, 681)
Conclusions
- Nazareth: The world is not ‘Nazareth’ – we’ve changed but God has not! God loves us just “as we are.” That is a source of hope and joy!
- Mary and us: We are not Mary but she was just like us – a normal person, a normal maiden. What set her apart was her openness to God’s grace – grace of pure gift and pure love she received from God. And her ‘yes’ to God changed everything in her life. We too can receive that free grace from God if we open our hearts to him in faith and love!
Mary challenges us to confront our human and Christian identity before God with a heart of faith and love.
Prayer
Lord, you sometimes give me tasks which I do not understand.
Let me take your mother as my model in willingness to respond to your call,
and in gentle courage and endurance through difficulties
(cf. PBC, 21), Lk 1. 26-38
[Revd Dr ST Mattapally, Rector, Springline Parish, Diocese of Lincoln]
Pause to pray …
A Prayer you can say now:
Lord Jesus,
I believe you are the Son of God.
Thank you for becoming one of us.
Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.
Thank you for rising from the dead
to give me hope and the gift of eternal life.
I repent of my sins
and invite you into heart and life
as my Lord and Saviour.
Please grant me your Holy Spirit
so that I may know you, love you
and follow you every day of my life.
Amen.