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Sunday 18th December, 2010 Fourth Sunday of Advent

Sentence
This Child will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. Luke 1:32-3

Collect
Gracious God, Whose eternal Word took flesh among us when Mary placed her life at the service of Your will; prepare our hearts for His coming again, and keep us steadfast in hope that we may be ready for the coming of His kingdom, for His sake Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen

Old Testament Lesson 2 Samuel 7:1-11 & 16

After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.” Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.” That night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:
“Go and tell my servant David, ‘this is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” Now then, tell my servant David, ‘this is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.

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Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.

Psalm 89:1-4 & 19 – 27

Lord, I will sing forever of your loving-kindnesses: my mouth shall proclaim Your faithfulness throughout all generations
I have said of Your loving-kindness that it is built for ever: You have established Your faithfulness in the heavens
The Lord said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen: I have sworn an oath to my servant David
‘I will establish your line for ever: and build up your throne for all generations

You spoke once in a vision: and said to Your faithful one: I have set a youth above a warrior: I have exalted a young man out of the people
I have found My servant David: and anointed him with My holy oil
My hand shall uphold him: and My arm shall strengthen him
No enemy shall deceive him: nor shall the wicked hurt him
I will crush his adversaries before him: and strike down those that hate him
My faithfulness and My loving-kindness shall be with him: and through My name his head shall be lifted
High
I will set the hand of his dominion upon the Western Sea: and his right hand shall stretch to the streams of Mesopotamia
He will call to Me “You are my Father: my God and the rock of my salvation

Epistle Romans 16: 25-27

Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him - to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
GOSPEL Luke 1:26 – 38

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

© New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament Lesson
Everyone in my family tends to call me unrealistic, but this passage from Samuel seems, at first glance, to be quite out of place in an Advent setting, so I ask you to come on a journey with me. It would seem to me, on the other hand, to be remarkably apposite, when one has time to ponder.
There is an almost inbuilt human thing to be associated with large and demonstrative buildings, and these days it tends to be almost phallic. So there was – almost certainly – that trait in David’s mind that he could be forever associated with a large and expansive Temple. His plan was stalled, and in the light of what follows, it may be a pity that it ever got off the deck.
Notice the protestation from God! The Almighty was not only quite used to living in a tent thanks very much, but saw no great need for any huge building. On the one hand, a tent was a constant pointer to the need to be moving, growing, pilgrimming. A large building would tend to point to an institution that was settled, static, unmoving. It has long struck me that, as long as Israel was on the move, there was growth; as soon as things were settled, all became static, inert, unmoving and unmoveable. There is a lesson there, is there not?
So, you now know the story, and what do you make of it?

Psalm
If the Old Testament lesson seems to be emphasising the small scale, then please notice that the Psalm is doing the same thing. It may not be all that important these days, but then anyone remotely connected to rule or reign was expected to be ‘wide-screen’ and big time. If your country or tribe was to make a mark on others, then it needed to be a BIG mark. Large is impressive, is it not?

Not in Biblical terms, for the simple reason that ‘big’ becomes so easily ‘ego trip.’ And ego trips run contrary to the will and plan of God -- in fact, contrary to anything sensible and useful. Now look again at the story of Samuel choosing David - or any other call – and notice how the emphasis was on being servant, not being boss and lording it over people. Remember this is why Samuel did not wish to anoint Saul as king, for kings – and other high and mighty ones! - so easily lose their way.

Epistle

In the light of what we have been considering, there is something of an irony here. If the coming of Christ, in fact the entire revelation, is to help people believe (and follow!) we might have expected a whiz-bang show to convince people. However, whiz-bang things do not convince! They only entertain. For people to be convinced, they need to stop and listen and think a lot deeper than that!

Gospel

So we take this approach further. One of the things that really does give me the willies is the way we love to emphasise the unimportant, and so miss entirely the significant issue. The real business about the call to Mary is NOT, repeat NOT the story of the Virgin Birth, but the fact that, like David, dear young 14- or 15-year old Mary was a nonentity as far as status and importance was concerned, and so was far more likely to be genuine, faithful, and respond with her whole heart. Can you imagine the Premier of your State, the Prime Minister of your country or the President of any other being called to such a task as was Mary? Then stop and realize why NOT.

Then go on to see that this same Lord may well be calling insignificant you to a ministry, too.

Scary, isn’t it!!!!!!!!!!

NOTES FOR A SERMON

Christmas is now but a step away, and we have been given a chance to stop and think of the people involved in the saga. It is always rather easy to miss the wood because we can see only trees.

When it comes to pondering the characters of the Biblical stories, it is always very easy to place a huge gap between them and ourselves. Partly that is because of the distance in time and culture twixt them and us, and partly it may be because we have swallowed the propaganda that those holy people must have been head and shoulders over us. They knew it all; we struggle to understand very much at all of the religious bits. In both cases, it may seem that propaganda has won.

I remember the first time that I raised the issue of the likely age of Mary at the time of the annunciation. Let’s explore that a moment It is common knowledge now that Mary might have been 15 or so when she felt the call to be the mother of our Lord. Part of the clue comes from the Greek word that is translated ‘virgin’ in your Bible. That Greek word is ‘parthenos,’ and the word does not mean what it has become, (virgin in the clinical sense,) but rather means ‘a young woman of marriageable age in that culture. My point is simple: Scripture is not telling us of some highly sophisticated, religiously learned young person, but someone quite simple – in the real sense of the word! – and honest and faithful. Mary was highly unlikely to develop into some sort of prodigy or ego-tripper. She was most likely to remain one of the ‘little people,’ unnoticed by those in positions of high power.

She was little different from you and me. Ordinary, genuine, likeable and just as likely to be with faults just as you are. And that is the sort of person God is forever calling to particular and important ministries, then and now. The moment we elevate people like Mary to even the beginnings of isolating sainthood, we are missing the point and removing that poor woman from her reality, from God’s reality and also from ours. IF Mary was some sort of plaster saint, then she is so far distant from me that there are no connections whatever. She is up there, and I am down here, and never the twain shall meet. It is that sort of perceived distance between ‘senior’ and ‘junior’ Christians that does a lot off damage.

Mind you there can be damage the other way, too. I recall the time a young member of a Youth Group in which I was involved telling me that he felt called to ministry. And in the enthusiasm but ignorance of youth, he decided that any sort of Biblical or theological training was completely unnecessary. When we look at Mary and her task, it is seen that theological training was not called for, but I would be rude enough to suggest that naivety would have been a very distinct disadvantage to that young man 50 years ago.

So, in terms of the Collect today, Mary was ready for the coming of the Kingdom, and history makes clear that she was up to the task, and was constant and true. The question for us, in our day and age, is to wonder quite how the kingdom comes here, and whether our eyes are open to such advents.

I doubt if there was anyone who could have attested to Mary’s call, for such things take place, in my experience, in the quietness of the depths of one’s life and mind. Such annunciations, such transfigurations, are not noisy or advertised events. They are low key, as spirit meets spirit in the deepest part of a person. One of the reasons, perhaps, that such things are not so noticeable these days is because there are not a lot of human beings who are even aware of such depths, or are scared witless of them. It is not fashionable to let it drop that one thinks or feels deeply, especially about important issues.

However, it is my experience that whenever you might encounter anyone who does want to talk about deep issues, that you can be fairly sure that the kingdom is not all that far away. There will be no whistles blowing or bells ringing, and you may well feel that you did not get very far. But that is how the kingdom comes, in quiet but unremarkable moments. Notice how often in Jesus’ own ministry, that He simply met people in whatever situation or crisis they were at the time, and that He did little more than offer then the next step forward. He did not press for ‘decisions,’ He did not demand huge steps, but He met them where they were, offered them the next step, and then left them the responsibility of taking it all further.

It all may sound so different and contrary to our present culture which is all push and shove, demanding immediate response, and brooking no dispute. If you think you should operate in the modern way, then imagine how you, as evangelist, if you operated like those persistent and pushy telemarketers who will not take no for an answer. They get me quite angry, and my response is, almost automatically, negative. I see no sight of that in Jesus’ approach to people.