Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for Dec. 21, 2014
Magnificat e Visitação, the Visitation and the Magnificat.
Does God need a house? King David, consolidating his earthly kingdom, was dissatisfied with the people’s custom of keeping the Ark of the Covenant in a mere tent. David wanted to build a great temple for God to live in. But God, speaking through the Prophet Nathan, dismisses this idea. God lives with the people. God’s home, David hears, is with the House of David, the dynasty of God’s people, the family that Christians would understand as the “family tree” of Jesus. As we hear in today’s Gospel, God gives Jesus “the throne of his ancestor David.”
Psalm: Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
The Psalmist celebrates God’s covenant with David, a royal lineage that God established to last forever. Even through the devastation of war and the pain of exile, when Israel and Judah might have wondered if God’s promise had been revoked because of their failure of righteousness, the prophets continued to foretell a new King David, who Christians would recognize in Christ, the Messiah.
Psalm: Canticle 15
In place of a Psalm today we sing the Magnificat, the beautiful words from Luke’s Gospel that we often hear in Morning and Evening Prayer. As we hear in today’s Gospel, the Angel Gabriel has told Mary that she will give birth to King David’s heir, the Messiah. When she feels the infant move in her womb, she rejoices in a poetic celebration that echoes the words of the prophets: thoughts that, perhaps, her son Jesus would hear from his mother: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.”
Second Reading: Romans 16: 25-27
Throughout his letter to the Romans, Paul has encouraged Rome’s Gentile and Jewish Christian communities to heal their differences and get along. Now, in a ringing doxology that concludes the epistle, he emphasizes that God’s covenant with the people, expressed through the prophets, is given for all humanity. Through Jesus we all live forever in glory!
Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38
As Advent draws to a close and the joy of Christmas and the birth of Jesus draws near, we hear Luke tell the familiar story of the Angel Gabriel’s visit to a young Palestinian woman named Mary. Through God’s Holy Spirit this young virgin will give birth to a son named Jesus, who will inherit King David’s throne and rule over an eternal kingdom. She responds to this amazing news with simple, trusting acceptance: “Let it be with me according to your word.” And then, in following verses, she will go on to utter the poetic, prophetic words of the Magnificat, the Song of Mary.