ADVENT IV, YEAR B

December 20, 2020

St. Matthew and St. Mark, Barrington, R.I.

II Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Luke 1:26-38

The readings appointed for this Fourth Sunday in Advent reveal that our God is a God of surprises! In the Old Testament reading from Second Samuel, God surprises King David; and in the Gospel reading from Saint Luke, God surprises the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Finally enjoying the peace of his kingdom, King David tells the Prophet Nathan that he wants to build a house for God—that is, a Temple to house the Ark of the Covenant which up until that time has had only a tent for shelter. We remember that the Ark was the chest containing the two stone tablets, engraved with the Ten Commandments, which Moses had brought down from Mount Sinai; it was also considered God’s throne on earth: the appointed meeting place between God and humanity. 

But God tells Nathan to go and say to David: “Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt until this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.”

Then in a wonderful play on words, God basically says, “No, you don’t build me a house; I build you a house!” Here the word “house” means not a physical building or material edifice, but rather a royal dynasty. And God makes David an amazing promise: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” It’s not what David is expecting to hear; but God is a God of surprises!

Approximately nine centuries later, God sends the angel Gabriel to tell the Virgin Mary that she’s been chosen to be the one through whom God will fulfill this ancient promise to David. Coming literally out of the blue, Gabriel addresses Mary with the mysterious words: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Mary’s shock and surprise are apparent as Luke tells us: “She was much perplexed by his words and wondered what sort of greeting this might be.”

But the most surprising part is yet to come. Gabriel explains to Mary that even while remaining a virgin she will conceive and bear a son who will inherit the kingdom of his ancestor David, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end. 

Gabriel’s answer to the question, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” effectively describes Mary as a new Ark of the Covenant. We remember that David’s son King Solomon finally did build that Temple in Jerusalem, and placed the Ark in its inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies. But when the Babylonians destroyed the Temple in the sixth century BC, the Ark disappeared, and to this day nobody knows what happened to it. By New Testament times, the Holy of Holies in the rebuilt Jerusalem Temple stood empty.

When Gabriel says to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” he’s using the same language that the Old Testament used to describe the glory of the Lord filling the Tent of Meeting (and later the Temple) when God would descend from heaven upon the Ark. Similarly overshadowed by the divine glory, Mary becomes the Ark of a New Covenant, the new dwelling-place of God on earth. It’s probably the last thing Mary is expecting to hear; but God is a God of surprises!

In Luke’s Greek, the grammatical form of Mary’s answer, “let it be with me according to your word” expresses not merely passive acquiescence but enthusiastic affirmation and active cooperation. It’s not like she’s saying, “Yeah, right, whatever,” but rather, “YES! Let’s make this happen!” And that assent is the critical prerequisite to the Word taking flesh and dwelling among us that we shall be celebrating this week on Christmas Day.

The great gift that Mary receives at the Annunciation, the great favor that she’s found with God, does not mean in any way that her life will be easy. There will be moments of inexpressible joy, like the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. There will also be times of danger and hardship, such as the flight into Egypt to escape King Herod’s massacre of the Innocents. And eventually that sword of unbearable sorrow, prophesied by old Simeon in the Temple, will pierce Mary’s own soul as she stands at the foot of the cross watching her Son suffer and die. But in the end, her faithful obedience will turn out to be infinitely worthwhile as she’s among the witnesses to the divine surprise of all surprises, her Son’s resurrection from the dead and ascension into heavenly glory—into which she also will be taken up at the end of her earthly life.

Today’s readings invite us to be receptive to whatever surprises God may still have in store for us—as individuals, as families, as communities, as the Church. It’s been a hard year, and I think that we’re all ready for some Good News. The question is how we can ready ourselves to say yes to God with willing consent and active cooperation, as Mary did. The answer, I think, is fairly simple. We need to remain constant in prayer, open to the unexpected, and reliant on God’s grace and strength to do in and through us what we could never do for ourselves. 

Notice that in today’s Old Testament reading King David does nothing to earn or merit the promises he receives from God. On the contrary, David is not that exemplary a character, and God’s pledges to him are sheer gifts of undeserved favor—made according to God’s goodness and faithfulness and not necessarily David’s.

By contrast, the Church has traditionally taken the Blessed Virgin Mary as the highest model and example of Christian discipleship. Even so, God’s grace is everything. Gabriel’s initial address to Mary, “Greetings, favored one!” might be translated better as “Rejoice, O highly-graced one!” Or even: “Hail, full of grace!” This greeting suggests that God has already prepared Mary for her unique mission. All that’s required is Mary’s willing assent, which is in turn made possible only by the special grace with which God has filled her from her beginning.

While Mary’s vocation to be the Mother of God Incarnate is unique and unrepeatable, we each of us have our own calling to serve God and our neighbor in our own distinctive way. The good news is that God has also been equipping us with his grace all along, at least from our Baptism (if not before). He continues to strengthen us daily, as we turn to him in prayer, and weekly, as we keep the Lord’s Day by whatever means are available to us even in this wretched time of pandemic. So, we trust in God’s promises, rely on his grace, and stand ready to say yes when God surprises us—as he will—with his calling and with his gifts.