12/19/21

The Fourth Sunday of Advent E. Bevan Stanley December 19, 2021 Year C Micah 5:2-5a Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45, (46-55) Canticle 15 (or 3) From the Gospel: In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. In the Name of the one, holy, and undivided Trinity. It is easy to get confused about the comings and goings described in the first chapter of Luke. Also, since many of us have seen many Christmas pageants, which combine the very different birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, we lose track of what is in really in Luke by itself. So, let’s review Luke’s story. It begins with and elderly couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth. He is a priest and she is a descendent of Aaron as well. While taking his turn serving in the Temple in Jerusalem, the angel Gabriel come to Zechariah and tells him that he and Elizabeth will have a baby boy and that Zechariah should name him John. After this encounter, Elizabeth does conceive. When Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy, Gabriel goes to Nazareth and meets a virgin betrothed but not yet married to a man named Joseph. The young woman’s name is Mary. He starts the conversation with, “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” This will become the first line of the short canticle that will come to be know by its first words, the Hail Mary. (Not a long desperate pass in football!) Gabriel tells Mary how great her son will be, and she responds practically, “How can this be since I have not had sex with anyone?” Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her. And, by the way, her kinswoman, who is too old to have a baby, is having a baby. Then, unbelievably, Mary says. “OK. Let it happen me as you have said.” Mary says yes to God, and the course of world history changes forever. Mary goes and visits Elizabeth and when Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting the baby inside her leaps. Elizabeth then utters the second line of the Hail Mary: Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! She goes on to say that Mary will be blessed because she believed what was spoken to her by the Lord. At this Mary launches into the Magnificat. Interestingly, the text never says when Mary conceived, but by Chapter 2 she is pregnant. Because the idea of the incarnation of God in human flesh is so central to the Christian faith, it has occupied the attention of theologians and mystics and ordinary Christians in all ages. We have already noted that the prayer of praise called the Hail Mary comes from this these passages in Luke. The whole thing goes “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Then there developed a short liturgical ritual that is often said at noon, the expands on the Hail Mary and embeds it in the larger theology of the Incarnation by adding three phrases from the Gospels. It is called the Angelus, and I cannot think of a better thing to leave you with as we approach the birth of the Messiah in a few more days. The Angel of the Lord announced unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy Ghost. Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray. We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts: that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion  we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.