FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

December 24, 2023

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Warwick, 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. Let’s look at both of these surprises.

 

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. The Ark, we may remember, was the chest containing the two stone tablets of the Law which Moses had brought down from Mount Sinai; it was also considered God’s earthly throne: the appointed meeting place between God and humanity. 

 

But God tells Nathan to 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 a 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 Nazareth of Galilee to tell the Virgin Mary that she’s the one chosen to fulfill this ancient promise to David. 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.

 

Mary asks, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” And Gabriel’s answer 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 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 uses to describe the glory of the Lord filling the Tent of Meeting when God would descend from heaven and overshadow the Ark. Similarly overshadowed by the divine glory, Mary thus 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 thing happen!” And that assent is the critical prerequisite to the Word taking flesh and dwelling among us that we shall be celebrating this evening on Christmas Eve and tomorrow morning on Christmas Day.

 

The great gift that Mary receives at the Annunciation doesn’t mean that her life will always 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. 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 have been infinitely worthwhile as she’s among the witnesses to the divine surprise of all surprises, namely, 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.

 

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 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 still everything. Gabriel’s initial address to Mary, “Greetings, favored one!” might be translated better as “Rejoice, O highly-graced one!” This greeting suggests that God has already been preparing Mary for her unique mission. All that’s required is her willing assent, which in turn is made possible only by that special grace with which God has filled her from the beginning.

 

While Mary’s vocation to be the Mother of God Incarnate is utterly unique and unrepeatable, we each of us have our own unique calling to serve God and our neighbor in a distinctive way. 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 open to the unexpected, constant in prayer, and reliant on God’s grace and strength to do in and through us what we could never do for ourselves.

 

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. This year has had its share of bad news, and I think that we’re all ready for some Good News.

 

And I think that the Good News will turn out to be that God has been equipping us with his grace all along. He continues to strengthen us daily and weekly, as we turn to him in prayer and receive his Sacraments. So, trusting in God’s promises, we stand ready to say “Yes, Lord,” when he surprises us, as he will, with his calling and with his gifts.