Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 24, 2023

The Madonna of the Magnificat (1481), tempera painting by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Advent ends on Christmas Eve this year. Our readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent trace the Messianic line of King David that Christians follow down the ages to Jesus. In the first reading, David muses that it seems wrong for him to rest comfortably in a palatial house of cedar while God’s house, the Ark of the Covenant, rests in a mere tent. The prophet Nathan agrees that God should have a fine house, a temple, but God has a different plan. God lives and moves with the people, and needs no house! God, rather, will establish the house of David, the dynasty of God’s people. We hear this echoed in Luke’s Gospel for the day, as the angel tells Mary that Jesus will inherit the throne of his ancestor David.

Psalm: Luke 1:46-55 (Canticle 15)

The Magnificat, the surprisingly radical Song of Mary, which was offered as an alternative to the usual Psalm last week, returns as the Psalm of the day this Sunday. As we will hear in the Gospel, the Angel Gabriel has told Mary that she will give birth to King David’s heir, the Messiah. When Mary visits her relative, Elizabeth, who will soon give birth to John the Baptist, Elizabeth feels the infant move. Mary 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.”

Alternative Psalm: Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

In harmony with our first reading, this Psalm portion celebrates God’s covenant with David and his descendants, a royal family that God established to last forever. Even through the devastation of war and the pain of exile, when Israel and Judah feared that God’s promise might have been revoked because the nation had broken its covenant by failing to be just and righteous, the Psalm sings of a new King David, a Messiah and King who would rule the land forever, “from the great sea to the river,” from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Jordan, the Galilee, and the Dead Sea..

Second Reading: Romans 16: 25-27

Throughout Paul’s powerful letter to the Romans, he gently encourages Rome’s Gentile and Jewish Christian communities, who had been separated during the exile of Rome’s Jews, to come back together in Christian love and unify as one. Here, in ringing verses that conclude the letter, he reminds them that God’s covenant with the people in the First Testament, as expressed by the ancient prophets, now extends to all humanity, all living forever in glory through Jesus Christ.

Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38

As Advent ends on Christmas Eve this year, 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 woman 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.” Just a few verses later in Luke’s Gospel, she will go on to utter the liberating poetry of the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, celebrating the God who casts down the mighty, lifts up the lowly, feeds the hungry and sends the rich away empty.

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Magnificat: La Visitation (1491), tempera painting on panel by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448-1494). The Louvre, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

On the Third Sunday of Advent it is customary to light the one pink candle on the Advent wreath, a hint of rejoicing in a season that we otherwise associate with preparation and expectation. Now our Lectionary readings for Advent shift from the fire and upheaval of an apocalyptic Judgement Day toward a different kind of expectation: A joyful hope that anticipates God’s restorative justice coming with the Messiah. In our first reading, the Prophet Isaiah – writing words that Jesus will later read and declare fulfilled in his presence when he speaks in the synagogue at Nazareth – tells the people that God will comfort all who mourn. God’s good news will come to the poor, the oppressed, captives and prisoners, turning them from mourning to gladness.

Psalm: Psalm 126

Just as Isaiah told the people in exile of God’s promise that justice and righteousness would be restored, here the Psalmist sings that God’s promise has been fulfilled. God has indeed restored the fortunes of the Temple on Mount Zion, the Psalmist exults. Throughout this short Psalm’s seven verses we hear shouts of laughter, joy, gladness, or praise. God has been good, the Psalmist sings. God has turned the people’s tears into songs of joy; their weeping into a bountiful harvest.

Alternate Psalm: Canticle 15

The Magnificat, the deeply meaningful Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55), may be sung as an alternative to Psalm 126 on this day. Mary sings this powerful song as she greets her relative, Elizabeth. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, feels the infant move with joy inside her when Mary comes in. Elizabeth declares Mary the blessed mother of God, full of grace. In response, Mary sings these startlingly radical verses that echo the Isaiah passage and foreshadow Jesus’ own teaching. These are liberating verses of distributive justice. Mary praises a God who scatters the proud, casts down the mighty, and sends the rich away hungry, while filling the hungry with good things.

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Paul concludes his short first letter to the Thessalonians with themes consistent with those that we heard in the first readings from 1 Corinthians and 2 Peter on the first two Sundays of Advent. He urges the people to rejoice always, pray unceasingly, and give thanks for all things, staying faithful and filled with the Spirit. Hold fast to the good and abstain from every kind of evil, he urges them, so they will be ready, “sound and blameless,” when Jesus returns.

Gospel: John 1:6-8,19-28

Following the story of Jesus with John the Baptist in Mark’s Gospel last Sunday, we now turn to the vision of John the Baptist as told in the Gospel according to John. This version makes no mention of the Baptist’s attire or his dietary preferences. Rather, it quickly moves into a tense scene in which the Temple authorities, worried about the noisy crowds surrounding John, want to know just exactly who John is. John replies that he is not a new prophet; nor is he Elijah. Repeating the Isaiah verses that we heard last week, John declares himself the voice crying out in the wilderness, calling on the people to make straight the way of the Lord. He baptizes with water, John says, to make way for the one who is coming after him, who is so much greater that John is unworthy to untie his sandals.

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St. John the Baptist (1911), oil painting on board by Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929). National Museum in Warsaw, Poland. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11

The Messiah is coming! Get ready! The Messiah is coming! Make the way clear! Re-imagined in modern language, Sunday’s readings as we begin the second week of Advent might shout, “Roll out the red carpet for the Messiah!” The first reading from Isaiah – which may sound familiar, as Handel drew from it freely in his beloved oratorio, “The Messiah” – sings out comfort and hope to the people in exile. Jerusalem has paid doubly for her sins, the prophet declares, adding that although our lives are as short as grass and flowers, God’s word stands forever. Prepare the way! Make a straight highway in the desert, the prophet calls. Then the reading closes with the poetic image of a kindly Messiah who holds the lambs closely and gently leads the mother sheep.

Psalm: Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

This portion of Psalm 85, edited to skip over several verses that express wistful doubt, shares the joyful hope of the Isaiah reading. The Psalmist remembers the people’s time in exile, rejoicing that God did, indeed, come to the people with comfort and peace. Even though the people had been sinful and broken their covenant with God, God forgave their iniquity and blotted out all their sins. The straight highway that was built at Isaiah’s command has become a path for God’s feet.

Second Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-15a

The short second letter in Peter’s name, the latest epistle in the New Testament, was likely written a century or more after the crucifixion. After so long, Christ’s expected return had surely become a concern for the early church. What did this delay mean? Perhaps God’s time is not like our time, the writer suggests in the letter’s closing lines. They echo a theme in the Isaiah reading: With God, “One day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” Be patient, the author urged. Live holy and godly lives. Be at peace, be prepared, and wait patiently for God.

Gospel: Mark 1:1-8

We will spend most of the coming liturgical year going through the Gospel according to Mark. The earliest and shortest of the Gospels, Mark seems to move at a headlong pace, beginning here with no mention of the birth of Jesus or his death and resurrection. Mark simply declares the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then – proclaiming Isaiah’s prophecy of a messenger who will make the way straight for the Messiah – jumps right into the story of Jesus’s baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Jesus, John says, is so powerful that John is not worthy to stoop down and untie his sandals. John tells the crowd that he baptizes only with water, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit!

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The Second Coming (1560-89), painting by Jean Cousin le Jeune (c.1522-1595), the Louvre, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 64:1-9

One clear idea rings through the Lectionary readings as Advent begins this Sunday: God is coming. God may come quietly, quickly; God may come amid fire and upheaval. We had better be ready. In our first reading we turn toward the end of Isiah’s great book of prophecy. The people are returning home to Jerusalem from exile at last, but they must face up to a difficult reality: This is not the city they knew, but a devastated place, a ruined city on a hill with its great temple destroyed and only a remnant of defeated people remaining. “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,” the prophet calls out, urging God to show their might, restore the people, make them new and forgive their sins.

Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

The selected verses of Psalm 80 echo Isaiah’s call. This anguished cry to God goes up three times: “Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.” The people have suffered. God’s punishment has forced them to endure their enemies’ derision and laughter. They have eaten and drunk their own tears like bread and water. Send us a messiah, the Psalmist pleads – the son of man at God’s right hand – and the people will never turn from God again.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a deeply pastoral epistle that throughout its pages addresses many fractures in a small, passionate Christian community in a Greek seaport city. Paul begins with no hint of conflict, though. Writing in the formal style of ancient Greek correspondence, he sets the scene by greeting the people with grace and peace. He reminds them that grace has come to them through Jesus and enriched them, filling them with spiritual gifts. Because of this, Paul assures them, they will be ready, strong and blameless when Christ returns.

Gospel: Mark 13:24-37

In our first reading, we heard Isaiah’s prayer for God to come with justice after the first destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Now, in phrases likely set down not long after the Romans had destroyed the city and the temple again, the evangelist Mark imagines Jesus coming again amid clouds, in power and glory. In an apocalyptic passage that echoes the Hebrew Bible’s Prophet Joel, Jesus foretells a time when the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the skies. This will be a tumultuous time, Jesus warns his followers, so they must watch for signs of his return: They must stay awake, ready and alert.