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4^th SUNDAY OF ADVENT

The fourth Sunday in Advent is pregnant with hope! All three lessons can easily be engaged from the standpoint of anticipation and expectation. A new David is promised in Micah 5 and in the lessons which follow, two bizarre and unexpected pregnancies inspire travel and sharing between Elizabeth and Mary. Enjoy!

MICAH 5:2-5a-A NEW DAVID

Micah 5 sees heavy action during Advent, making appearances in song, lessons and carols, Sunday morning lectionary readings, and in bit parts of Christmas plays. The chapter opens with the siege of Jerusalem and the humiliation of the king. Help, however, is on the way, but from an unexpected place. From an obscure village several miles south of Jerusalem-the birthplace of King David-will come a new David. This ruler will not humiliate but restore Israel in prosperity and security. While the prophecy came and went without any apparent fulfillment, the oracle has been reinterpreted through Christian lens to apply to Jesus and in fact, serves as one of Matthew’s fulfillment passages (Matthew 2:6). Our lesson ends with Micah’s description of this new David as being a shepherd-king, one who nourishes his flock in God’s strength. Thus strengthened, God’s people will live secure and shall live safely under the rule of the one who brings shalom.

LUKE 1:45-55-IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT

In this part of Luke’s nativity narrative, we listen to Mary’s response to God’s faithfulness. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, has just exulted in Mary as the theotokos, "the mother of my Lord," as Elizabeth says. Mary now carries the prophetic spirit forward with her own exultation of God. She speaks powerfully to God’s greatness and mercy as well as to the action of God that seeks justice and equity among people. Mary’s God scatters the proud, brings down the powerful, fills the hungry, starves the wealthy, and keeps the "forever-promises" that God once made to her ancestors.

LUKE 1:39-45 (46-55)-FULFILLMENT OF THE PROMISE

Although this lesson incorporates the material just commented on in 1:45-55, it also returns us to the event that leads up to Mary’s prophetic words. Fresh from her own angelic visitation, Mary scurries away to her relative, Elizabeth. Once there, she enters Zechariah and Elizabeth’s house with a seemingly innocuous greeting. But Luke says that at that precise moment the baby within Elizabeth’s womb gives her a sharp Braxton hicks kick or perhaps a gentler "leap" and the mother-to-be is suddenly infused with the Holy Spirit. Thus, Spirit-filled Elizabeth breaks into beautiful praise that clues the reader/listener to the special revelatory and supernatural nature of Mary’s pregnancy. The lesson closes with Elizabeth’s right understanding of the situation: "blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord" (1:45).