Sunday, December 20, 2020

The lectionary passages for the Fourth Sunday of Advent are:

First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
Response: Luke 1:47-55

The liturgical color for the day is: Purple or Blue

This advent season during a pandemic has felt like exile.  We want to be done with exile and on to building that next temple—2 Samuel 7.

Exile is less about how to get back to an earlier time.  It is less about that, and it is more about how to live in the place where we are and how to look forward.

Our life, our exile, this global pandemic, and our Christmas is not about how to get back to some magical Christmas where we felt right at home.  Our life, our exile, and our Christmas are more about how we live here and how we look forward.

Mary shows us the posture that works in a time of unknown, in a moment where it seems impossible that this where things have ended up.  Her posture is one of prayer.

It is Mary’s prayer.  It is what is so remarkable about Mary.  It is not that she is so out of this world—it is just the opposite.  She is ordinary.  She is simple.  She is humble.  She is the one the angel comes to.

            “How can this be?”

            “How can it be?”

            And she is told: “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

            And it is her prayer…her prayer that makes her stand out.

Her prayer: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” 

That is where we need to be right now.  That is where the real Christmas is.  Where we pray and live that prayer: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

When we pray and live that, then it is less about exile or pandemic and more about the power and presence of God-With-Us.  Immanuel.

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk