Fourth Sunday of Advent (B)

December 21, 2008

Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

        If we look at the storyline of the bible, we find that two of the most significant and defining moments occur within today’s readings. In the storyline of the Old Testament, at the time of King David, God had already established covenants (that is a solemn and binding agreement or promise) with key figures in salvation history: i.e. Noah at the great flood, Abraham, our father in faith, and Moses who received the 10 commandments from God.

        In today’s 1^st reading we hear about the covenant that God establishes with King David 1000 years before the birth of Christ. We heard how King David planned to remove the Ark of the Covenant (the receptacle which held the 2 stone tablets containing the 10 Commandments given to Moses by God) from the tent in which it had dwelt for 200 years, and to place it in a beautiful, newly built temple.

        However, God intervenes with David’s plans, and informs David that it was His [God’s] own choice to dwell in the tent, and that, when a house is eventually to be built in his name, it will be accomplished by the one whom God personally chooses. He then sets the stage for His covenant to be established with David. We hear God say: “I will raise up your heir after you…and I will make his kingdom firm. It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever…Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.”

        By the establishment of this covenant with King David, it is made very clear by God that it is He alone who orchestrates the timing of salvation history.

        In today’s gospel reading we hear how, 1000 years after the establishment of God’s covenant with David, it is Mary, through the angel Gabriel’s visitation to her, who is the first to discover that God’s covenant with David is coming to fulfillment. The angel Gabriel says to Mary: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the most high, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Thus, it is through Mary that God is raising up an heir of King David, and it is “he, [Jesus, who] will build a house for…[God’s] name.” It is this birth of Jesus Christ and the salvation he brings for all mankind, which is “the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages” of which St. Paul speaks in today’s second reading.

        Although it may seem like it is a very long time in between the establishment of God’s covenant with King David until its fulfillment in the Incarnation of Christ Jesus, we must bear in mind that although a 1000 years may seem long to us humans, scripture says that a thousand years are like a day to God, and a day like a thousand years. Time is insignificant to God; time is man’s invention.

        With the coming of God in the person of Jesus Christ, which we celebrate at Christmas, holiness itself had come to live within the human condition, and humanity itself became a holy space. This wonder is related in today’s gospel as we heard how through the power of God, the very Spirit of God overshadowed Mary, and she became what the early church referred to as the Living Ark of the Covenant; a holy place, a sacred space by virtue of the child she conceived and carried in her womb.

        It was because Mary welcomed the Spirit of God and brought forth Jesus, thereby becoming a holy place that God fully occupied, that she showed herself to be an authentic disciple. Her discipleship continues to show us how to make room in our lives for God, for Jesus, for the Spirit, and thereby to become holy places and sacred spaces, of which this world is in so much need.

        We as Christians have a special role as living sanctuaries where God chooses to dwell and through whom God chooses to be revealed. During this Advent season, as we await the Coming One at Christmas, we often prepare symbols of welcome, such as the manager, the crèche, the cave, etc.  But in reality, we are the empty crèche or manager awaiting the presence of God. Individually, and collectively as church, we are the living place made holy by God’s presence.

        Unfortunately, however, some times we are like the Inn, at which there was no room, and from which Mary and Joseph were turned away, because we have too many worries, too many parties, too much shopping, too many gifts, too many bills, all of which can crowd their way into the empty place where God wishes to enter and dwell in divine fullness. Thus, during the remaining time of Advent let us empty and get rid of all the clutter that crowds our lives and create a true welcome for God within us.

        More than two thousand years ago Mary was asked if she would be willing to house the Holy One in her body; and she made her momentous “yes,” and said: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” The word “amen” means yes, and we say it every time we come forward and receive the Eucharist.  When the minister holds up the host and says to us: “The Body of Christ,” We say “amen;” yes, we will be the house of God. We will take divine life into our bodies, the real flesh and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, and make it our flesh and blood. It is at that moment that we echo Mary’s words and say, Yes, I believe. “Let it be done to me, according to your word.” By so doing we give God our permission to change us to be more perfectly like God; to surrender our will to God’s will; to fulfill our baptismal call to become the adopted sons and daughters of God.