Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year C – Bill Harkins
The Collect of the Day:
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.
The Lesson: Micah 5:2-5a
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.
Canticle 15:
The Song of Mary
Luke 1:46-55
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers, *
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
The Epistle: Hebrews 10:5-10
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 Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “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 holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
In the Name of the God of Creation who loves us all, Amen. I bid Grace and peace to each of you. And a warm and heartfelt welcome to Holy Family on this Fourth Sunday of Advent. There is a wonderful image in the texts during Advent that is evocative of so much, for me, as we journey to the manger. It has to do with the willingness of Joseph to remain steadfast, to be present in the fullness of the moment at hand, and to abide in relationship with Mary, and soon with Jesus, and ultimately, with all of us. He does so in the face of much ambiguity and several contested narratives, and as such, he provides a role model both for fatherhood, and for leadership.
We recall that in the version of this story from Luke appointed for today, Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth, who had her own challenges around the birth of their son John—she and Zechariah—and Elizabeth says that upon hearing Mary’s greeting the child in her womb leaped for joy. This is such a lovely image indeed, and it appeals to both the neuroscience nerd in me and the pastoral theologian side of me. John Gottman, a researcher and Marriage and Family therapist in Seattle, has created a program called “Bringing Baby Home,” in which he gets expectant mothers in their third trimester and their spouses or partners together with other couples for parenting groups. This is especially geared for young fathers who may feel disconnected from both mother and baby after the baby’s arrival. Among the research results were these findings:
- Both fathers and mothers who took the program (compared to those that did not) showed greater sensitivity and responsiveness to their infant’s signals. This was particularly true for fathers. In some cases grandparents, aunts, uncles, and others also took part.
- Several indicators of father-infant attachment security were rated more positively in families who had taken the program.
- 1-year-old babies in the workshop group were rated as responding more positively to their fathers’ soothing (this is likely to reflect something about father-baby interaction quality as well as infant temperament).
- Fathers who took the program reported being more involved in parenting and feeling more satisfied and appreciated for their parental contributions.
Well, you get the idea, and what this tells us, among other things, is that something is happening at the level of neurochemistry and neuroplasticity—changes in the infants’ brain in utero—which is life-giving for all. We are hard-wired it seems, for connection and community, in ways that are incarnational, embodied, and deeply human. And connection, relationships of deep meaning that are supportive and nurturing, are at the heart of our readings for today. Relationships give birth to empathy, and compassion, and this gives meaning to our lives.
The astounding legacy of our combined evolutionary status as mammals is the power to impact the lives of people we love and whose lives touch ours, as our relationships activate certain neural pathways, and the brain’s inexorable memory mechanism reinforces them. Who we are and who we become depends, in part, on whom and what we love. Elizabeth loved her cousin Mary, and she loved what her intuition told her about the fulfillment this new life would bring to fruition. In Matthew’s Gospel we see demonstrated so well that Joseph loved Mary, and chose to remain steadfast. This is a model for us all, whether we are parents, grandparents, cousins or kin of some other kind, or not, as we seek to remain faithful in times of uncertainty, transition, ambiguity, and difficulty.
When we get to this wonderful drama in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, dear ones, the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, and Joseph’s role in the narrative are fundamentally about this “leap of joy,” and about staying in relationship rather than needing to be right. And these are narratives of abundance of which we can partake, and pay forward. Both Mary and Elizabeth had remarkable experiences surrounding their pregnancies, and they share the awareness of Divine involvement. Mary’s song of praise, the Magnificat, rings down through the centuries, a fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy, and the validation of a God who cares for all creation and loves it into redemption with justice and grace.
The early Christian church used the story of the visitation in Luke as a foundation for the Incarnation. Luke includes it as part of the birth narrative because the church was seeking to explain and affirm that the birth of Jesus was not just another one of those “virgin births.” Many rulers had claimed similar origins to justify their deification. The forming church wanted to clarify the God incarnate, human and divine, as an affirmation of humanity, and that is what begins to attract people to this remarkable gospel and to Jesus. And Joseph is a reminder to me that my role as a father is a calling—a vocation in the deepest sense of that term—which is a sacred gift. My sons are grown now, and Vicky and I now have four grandchildren, so the circle of life goes on, and my role as father has grown to include being a grandfather. I am so very grateful for all that my sons have taught me. The times when I have been most at risk as a father have been those times when I was tempted to privilege being right over staying connected…staying in relationship. Because you see, it is possible to do both. Joseph taught us this, and in order to do this he had to suspend disbelief long enough to see the miracle of the Incarnation unfold. I pray that we might do the same, especially when we are scared, and feeling vulnerable, and alone.
This last Sunday of Advent gives us a brief time to reflect upon and kindle within ourselves the light of the incarnate Lord. The foundation is laid for what we will find at the manger. Now let us prepare to join the shepherds and the angels in great joy over what God has done for us. Who knows how this may shape us, and at what levels, in the year to come? The Incarnation is finally about being present here, and now, and as fully as we can to what the world offers us. In one way or another, every wisdom tradition I know says that we can cultivate a mindfulness of being present to this moment. It’s just a matter of opening our eyes and appreciating what I call “secrets hidden in plain sight.” But we can’t do that when we’re obsessing about the past or the future, or about what we don’t have, or allowing a thousand distractions to prevent us from noticing the gift of “here and now.” Imagine where we might be had Elizabeth, or Joseph, or Mary…or Jesus, had not been present to the moments at hand.
Here’s a poem from William Stafford that reminds us to pay attention to such simple gifts as what the present might offer, respecting and receiving them for the gifts they are. Look around, he says, “starting here, right in this room,” and see what we’ve been given. He’s not advocating passivity. He’s advocating receptivity and gratitude, without which life becomes hollow, and without which the Incarnation is only a possibility we have not lived out in our own lives.
You Reading This, Be Ready
by William Stafford
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. The interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life—
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
I am so grateful that Elizabeth, Mary, and yes, Joseph too, found ways to be present with the gift of the Incarnation. It is indeed a gift that keeps on giving, then, now, and always, all wrapped up into this moment of mystery, grace, and transformation. Amen.