Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent can be found here
O God of Elizabeth and Mary,
you visited your servants with news of the world's redemption
in the coming of the Savior.
Make our hearts leap with joy,
and fill our mouths with songs of praise,
that we may announce glad tidings of peace,
and welcome the Christ in our midst. Amen.
It's been a hard few days, hasn't it? Friday's horrible school massacre cast a pall on Advent that we won't soon forget. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Christmas is NEXT WEEK. Yikes. So I am especially glad to have the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth and her beautiful "magnificat" to preach on this week. What better captures the hope and expectation of the season than the leaping of the babe in Elizabeth's womb when Mary approaches? And what better model do we have than Mary's utter willingness to say "yes" and not just say yes, but to rejoice in this unlikely event that will turn her world upside down.
The New Testament reading from the Letter to the Hebrews is a tricky one, and I commend to you this week's commentary at Working Preacher for one way to work through it. And if you have other suggestions, please add them here!
Where are the readings calling you for this fourth Sunday of Advent? Are you finishing up an Advent series? Having a pageant? Preaching the Magnificat or talking about Mary and Elizabeth? Join the discussion as this expectant season draws to a close.
Where are the readings calling you for this fourth Sunday of Advent? Are you finishing up an Advent series? Having a pageant? Preaching the Magnificat or talking about Mary and Elizabeth? Join the discussion as this expectant season draws to a close.
This will be my "Third Trimester" sermon - I used the trimesters as framing devices for the scripture for Advent I and II (last week was the kids' pageant). Radical recognition of how the world will be changed by the children in both women's wombs, just as all mothers-to-be are shocked in the final stages of pregnancy at how their lives will be changed...some emotion, it's just the scope that will differ.
ReplyDeleteI am preaching on teh Anunciation itself rather than the Magnificat. 6 weeks ago I came up with the title "What if She Said NO?", admittedly at least in part to respond to some of "questionable" comments being made regarding rape and pregnancy during the US Election Season. In hindsigth I decided that maybe going that route wasn't quite where I want to go. But I think the questions still stands. Could Mary have said no? And if so, given all that she could lose, why did she say yes?
ReplyDeleteAnd something that has recently occurred to me - were there some who did in fact say no before Mary?
DeleteRev Dr. Mom, Can I assume the prayer that begins this is yours? May I use it (with attribution, of course)?
ReplyDeleteI am working on an intergenerational church school class for this week. The Visitation will be read in the service and "The Canticle of the Turning" sung. I want to begin with the Visitation and the idea of miracles, two women miraculously pregnant, and then turn to the Magnificat and songs of praise, and let people write their own miracles or songs of praise in haiku form. We shall see...
Wendy, the prayer came from the Vanderbilt page where the readings are, so I can take now credit. It is lovely, isn't it?
DeleteSeven years ago, I found out that I was pregnant with my first child on December 1. That year I did a first person monologue on Mary's Annunciation and Magnificat That was one of my most treasured sermons. Four years ago, I was incredibly pregnant when the Fourth Sunday in Advent came and once again used that first person monologue. The visual of the pregnancy made the service even more meaningful for the congregation. I'm in a new appointment and emotionally exhausted by the events in Newtown last week. Wondering if pulling out that monologue once again would be meaningful or if I should do a typical sermon. The bulletin has both the Annunciation and the Magnificat down as scripture so I could do either. Unsure where to go this week, besides sneaking in a nap sometime soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm going with the Micah. I was particularly struck by the "he shall be the one of peace" in the last line. But that's about all I've got. It just seems like we need a One of Peace.
ReplyDeleteIt's my final Sunday in my call. We'll have a Liturgy of Farewell, with representatives of the Association and the Conference in attendance. We'll light the Love candle and because a Deacon suggested it as a going-away gift to me, we'll hear and sing John Lennon's "Love" while the words are unfolded on a big banner. I predict crying from the preacher, so I'm glad that part is after the sermon. I'm taking a line from the song and calling the sermon "Love is Real." My plan is to lift up the practical and emotional ways this congregation shows love and to talk about the amazing wonder that God's love was made Real-ly human in Jesus Christ. Our response is to keep changing the world by loving others, especially those on the margins. We're reading the Magnificat as well as Micah. I love reminding people that he is born in a small town, since the church is in a small town. Really, I wish I could tell a story, and maybe I will, but for now a plain old sermon seems safer.
ReplyDeleteThen the next day, I have to come back and do two Christmas Eve services. A bit anti-climactic, but this was the only way we could manage it.
Aww, I love that they are singing "Love" for you. This sounds like a very emotion-full day, for you and for them. Thinking of you as you prepare for it.
DeleteSounds wonderful. Love from and for the congregation and you. Enjoy your day.
DeleteWhat an emotion-filled week for you. Blessings in this closing time.
DeleteHow neat!
DeleteI am preaching the whole Luke text, Visitation+Magnificat, and am singing The Canticle of the Turning with three teenage girls (two of our youth and one of our college students); I'll be on guitar and one of them will also play flute. I currently have that planned as a sort of extension of the sermon, but I'm still toying with that. I'm thinking of the revolutionary nature of the song and the singing. I may be borrowing from my former self (turns out I've preached these two texts the last two times we cycled through the lectionary). I also really liked what David Lose had to say this week on working preacher, about the power of song.
ReplyDeleteI am really really hopeful that I can get a significant portion of this done before Saturday, so that I can survive everything else about this week and weekend.
Love the idea of the canticle of the turning. It should be a beautiful moment for the congregation.
Deletethe plan is to get the liturgy for Sunday done today, as tomorrow afternoon I will drive a few hours a to see my Father-in-law, who is in hospital. The chemical cocktail that is an attempt to save his leg, is making him quite unwell.
ReplyDeleteThat means when I get back on Friday, I will be able to look at Christmas day liturgy. I am fortunate to have a children's ministry volunteer who is looking after most of the Carol service on Sunday evening.
This Sunday we are hearing the visit of Mary to Elizabeth, and the Magnificat. Thinking about what is love? The teachers at Newtown reminded me of the verse “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” [John 15:13] which in the Message becomes “This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.”
What is love, then becomes what do we give our life to?
Hopefully this will turn into a sermon. If I get time to sit and let it develop then...
ReplyDeleteI was following David Lose's plan for an Advent series but last Sunday kind of threw me off....although I guess in some ways I touched on the theme. Anyway I'm not sure where I am going this week. I love the gospel though.
ReplyDeleteBeen working on my sermon today and I'm wondering - is it too much to refer to Newtown again this week (especially in light of all the garbage that has been said about God)? Or do you think your people are tired of hearing/thinking about it?
ReplyDeleteI may mention it again, but it is local here, so it might depend on context.
DeleteAm finding myself thinking of the mothers of Newtown--mothers everywhere who bury their children. Mary witnessing her son's death. "The almighty has done great things with me." And the hymn "A Stable Lamp is lighted." Random thoughts. Beginnings and endings. I wonder, Earthchick, do we just step away from something painful, close our ears after the first hearing? I'm struggling with the same question.
DeleteI think people might already be tired of hearing the fights that have erupted after Newtown, but, at least in my neck of the woods, I don't think we've even really heard, processed, grieved more publicly the actual lives lost. Does that make sense? And I was one who said I didn't think I'd go that direction again. I might after all, at least a little. I think because we're farther away we slipped too easily and too quickly into the political fights that began to dominate and didn't even really do our own sadness any justice.
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