Category Archives: Advent

Advent 4A

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Dec. 21, 2025 (Advent 4A)

The Angel Visiting Joseph in a Dream

The Angel Visiting Joseph in a Dream (c.1628-1645). Oil painting on canvas by Georges du Mesnil de La Tour (1593-1652). Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16

Christmas is drawing near, and we can all but feel the Incarnation – God becoming human in Jesus, the Messiah – in our readings for the fourth Sunday of Advent. In our first reading, we hear the prophet Isaiah describing the Messiah as a good king, a worthy successor to King David. The prophet warns David’s descendant, King Ahaz of Judah, that his land will soon be conquered; but a child named Immanuel – “God With Us” – will be born to a young woman, and the child will eventually bring good in place of evil.

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

Psalm 80 is a song of lament over Israel’s exile. This passage recalls the shame and disappointment of a conquered nation. The Psalmist calls on God in a sorrowful voice, asking that the people be spared the divine anger that has left them with “bowls of tears to drink” as their enemies laugh them to scorn. Send a man of God’s right hand, the strong son of man, the Psalmist begs, promising that the people will never again turn from God’s way if only God will save them.

Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7

Paul gets directly to the point as he opens his letter to the young church in Rome, a congregation that he has not met in person but plans to visit soon. He introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus, called to that ministry. He declares that Jesus is the son of God, the descendant of David whom the prophets had foretold. And he assures them that through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ is Lord, the Son of God. Paul comes to them in Jesus’s name, he assures his mostly Gentile audience, pledging that they, too, are God’s beloved. Having offered these important assurances, Paul finally comes around to a proper formal greeting that customarily might have been the first words of the letter: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Gospel: Matthew 1:18-25

The Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent brings us to the brink of Christmas, but first, there’s a bump in the road: Joseph has learned that his young fiancée is pregnant, but not with his child! We can easily imagine how a man in the culture of the ancient Near East might react to such news. But Joseph, a righteous man, decides to end the engagement quietly, without scandal or gossip. Before this can happen, though, an angel appears to Joseph and assures him that Mary is bearing God’s son. In words almost mirroring the Isaiah prophecy, the angel announces, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” (The Hebrew word translated as “young woman” in Isaiah now reappears in the New Testament as “virgin” in Greek.)

Advent 3A

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Dec. 14, 2025 (Advent 3A)

Madonna of the Magnificat

Madonna of the Magnificat (1483), tempera painting on panel by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10

When the Messiah comes, when the Kingdom draws near, those days of glory will be filled with righteousness and justice, joy and abundance, with healing and good news for the poor. We hear this hopeful message through our readings for the third Sunday of Advent, as we light the rose candle in the Advent wreath. This week’s readings shift the focus of Advent from quiet expectation toward anticipatory joy, a change in pitch that many traditionally note by wearing something pink to church. The first reading offers Isaiah’s vision of the people’s return to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, a homeward journey when, the prophet foretells, the desert itself shall rejoice and blossom as those who suffer are restored to joy and singing.

Psalm: Psalm 146:4-9

In this passage from Psalm 146 we sing praise for God our creator – the Holy One who made heaven, earth, the seas and all that is in them – as we recognize the happiness of those who have received God’s assistance. The oppressed receive justice from God; God feeds the hungry, sets prisoners free, cares for strangers, orphans and widows, and gives sight to the blind. All this foreshadows the words that Mary will sing in the Magnificat (which is also available as an alternate Psalm on this Sunday); and we hear them echo again in the Gospel, when Jesus describes God’s Kingdom on earth.

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

Tradition has come to show us Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a sweet, submissive figure. But the Magnificat, the Song of Mary from Luke’s Gospel, shows a very different Mary: a brave Palestinian teen-ager. Shouting with joy when she first feels the baby Jesus moving within her, she thanks God for this gift, singing about God’s righteousness and justice. Expressing ideas that we will later hear again from Jesus, she sings that God has “scattered the proud … brought down the powerful … lifted up the lowly … filled the hungry with good things … and sent the rich away empty.”

Second Reading: James 5:7-10

This short passage from the Letter of James calls on its beloved audience to be patient and kind to one another as they wait for the eagerly anticipated coming of the Lord, as the farmer waits patiently for the nourishing rains that will bring a precious crop. In context, the preceding verses have warned the rich of coming miseries; all their gold, silver, and rich clothing are as nothing; God has heard the cries of the workers that they have cheated.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

As we read through Matthew’s Gospel in this new Lectionary year, we will hear frequent reminders that Jesus is Messiah, the lord and savior that the prophets foretold. Sunday’s Gospel highlights a conversation between Jesus and messengers from John the Baptist in prison, who ask outright whether Jesus is the Messiah or if they must wait for another. Jesus responds not with a definitive answer but by setting out his priorities, which echo Isaiah’s prophecies and his mother’s song: “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

Advent 2A

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Dec. 7, 2025 (Advent 2A)

Saint John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the Wilderness

Saint John the Baptist Preaching to the Masses in the Wilderness (unknown date); oil painting on oak by Pieter Breughel the Younger (1564-1638). Galerie de Jonckheere, Paris. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10

Repent! In our readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, we hear a bold call to repent and wait for the Messiah’s coming. Don’t think of repentance in its modern idea of deep regret and remorse, though. Hear it rather in its ancient sense, signifying “change your mind” in New Testament Greek, or “turn back” in the Hebrew Bible. If we are on the wrong path in our relationships with God and our neighbors, now is the time to turn back and watch for the light of God’s Kingdom. In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah envisions a time when the Messiah – the descendant of King David, whose father was named Jesse – will reign from Zion’s holy mountain. The lion and the lamb will lie down together, peace will reign, and the poor will receive justice.

Psalm: Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Psalm 72, titled “Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King” in the New Revised Standard Edition, may have been originally composed to be sung at a royal coronation. It offers both support and counterpoint to the Isaiah reading. It reiterates the Hebrew Bible’s consistent call for justice and righteousness for all the people, including the poor, the needy, and the oppressed. Jesus surely knew these verses and proclaimed them in his commands to love our neighbors, shun riches, and bring good news to the poor.

Second Reading: Romans 15:4-13

Paul wrote this letter at a time when all of Rome’s Jews, who had been banished to exile for a decade by the Emperor Claudius, were finally able to come back home after the emperor died. But there was new tension in this Roman congregation as returning Jewish Christians rejoined Christian communities that had become entirely Gentile. Paul turns to the Isaiah passage that we heard in the first reading as he calls attention to the Root of Jesse: Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah coming as king over all.

Gospel: Matthew 3:1-12

Now we encounter John, the cousin of Jesus. John has become – as his father, the temple priest Zechariah, foresaw in the canticle that we sang two weeks ago – a great prophet in the spirit of Isaiah and Jeremiah. This is a loud, angry, and startling prophet indeed, dressed in camel’s hair and eating locusts and honey. He insults the Pharisees and Sadducees as “a brood of vipers” as he calls on the people to be baptized in the Jordan River as a sign of repentance from sin. John declares himself the prophet who Isaiah said would cry out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. While he baptizes with water, John declares, the coming Messiah will throw away the old traditions and baptize not just with water but with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Advent 1A

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Illuminations on the Lectionary readings for Nov. 30, 2025 (Advent 1A)

Christ in Glory with Saints

Christ in Glory with Saints (1660-61), oil painting on canvas by Mattia Preti (1613-1699). Museo del Prado, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5

It is the First Sunday of Advent, and the circle of the Lectionary year comes around again as we turn from the Gospel of Luke to the Gospel of Matthew for the next 12 months. Advent begins the church year as a time of preparation and expectation for the coming celebration of the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day. One Advent readings foresee a bright future with the coming of the Messiah and anticipate the signs and wonders of the last days. Our first reading offers verses of poetic beauty as the Prophet Isaiah tells of a renewed Jerusalem and a restored Temple. Zion will be the highest of the mountains, the prophet declares. The Temple will be the center of a world that recognizes it as the house of God. It will be a world of peace, a time when swords have been beaten into plowshares and there is no more war.

Psalm: Psalm 122

Psalm 122, attributed by legend to King David, sings a counterpoint to the Isaiah reading. The Psalm looks toward a glorious future, too: a time of triumph and peace for Jerusalem, the city of God, the throne of the new King David, the Messiah. The house of David will be a city at peace, built on a mountain where all the tribes of Israel go up with gladness to praise God’s name. At David’s throne, the Psalmist exults; all people can expect fair judgment. There the love of God will be rewarded with security, prosperity, and peace.

Second Reading: Romans 13:11-14

We will read from Paul’s letter to the Romans in all but one of the four Sundays of Advent. This would be Paul’s last letter, written some 25 years after the death and resurrection of Christ, introducing himself to the young but growing church in Rome as he prepared to go there. In this passage, Paul exhorts the people to be prepared for the return of Jesus, an event that Christians of that time expected to come very soon. “The night is far gone, the day is near,” Paul assures his flock. To prepare for the coming of that day, he calls on them to “put on the armor of light” by behaving well, living abstemiously, and avoiding quarrels and jealousy.

Gospel: Matthew 24:36-44

Our first passage from Matthew’s Gospel for the new Lectionary year comes not from its beginning, which we will hear at Christmas, but toward its end. We find Jesus talking with the apostles on a hillside on the Mount of Olives, from where they look across a small valley toward the Temple. In preceding verses, Jesus has told them – in words similar to those we heard from Luke two weeks ago – that the Temple will be torn down amid a time of war and great suffering, before the Messiah comes to usher in a new age. Only God knows when the last days will come, Jesus says, just as sinful humans in Noah’s time had no warning of the coming flood. So, Jesus urges them to be ready. Be prepared. Live as if Christ might return at any hour.

Advent 4C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 22, 2024

Madonna of the Magnificat

Madonna del Magnificat (Madonna of the Magnificat), tempera painting on panel (1483) by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Micah 5:2-5a

God’s active, liberating preference for the poor and the oppressed is made manifest in Sunday’s readings. This theme may seem surprising at first, but it is in fact a deeply significant message for the impending birth of Jesus, who will hold up the poor, the hungry, the ill, and imprisoned and oppressed as the central focus of his good news. We begin with a reading from Micah, one of the earliest prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Micah has warned the people of Jerusalem that their injustices against the weak and the poor will bring down God’s wrath. In Sunday’s verses, Micah foretells that a new ruler was to come from the village of Bethlehem – the birthplace of King David – to reunite the surviving remnant of Israel as a shepherd leads his flock, all under God’s protection in peace.

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

The Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise, may either be sung as Sunday’s Psalm or read as the second portion of the Gospel of the day. In this beloved story as told by Luke, the pregnant Mary sings out grateful praise for God. She rejoices in all that God has done for her, celebrating a powerful yet merciful God who loves us and calls us to acts of mercy and justice. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly, she sings. God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. God’s justice is restorative – taking from those who have much and giving to those who have none.

Alternate Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7

Psalm 80 was likely written during a time of exile and destruction or recalls such a time. The place names in the second verse suggest lamentation over the loss of the Northern Kingdom – Israel – to the Assyrians. The first seven of its 18 verses resonate in sorrow as the people call on Israel’s God to come and help. The people, we hear in a memorable metaphor, have been fed with the bread of tears and given tears to drink. Though they have suffered the derision, laughter, and scorn of their enemies, including their own neighbors, the Psalmist expresses the belief that God has the power to save them through the light of God’s own countenance.

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:5-10

We return for this one Sunday to the Letter to the Hebrews, which we had visited extensively for several weeks this past autumn. Consistent with its theme of contrasting Jewish Christianity against Temple Judaism, it echoes prophecies of Isaiah and Amos, who warned of a God who “takes no pleasure” in temple sacrifices. Instead, it proposes that God’s promise to Israel at Sinai has now been fulfilled through the Incarnation of Jesus and his sacrifice on the Cross.

Gospel: Luke 1:39-45

This lovely reading includes the narrative that immediately precedes the Magnificat, the Song of Mary. The evangelist we know as Luke tells the story of Mary’s visit to her older cousin Elizabeth. Both women were pregnant – Elizabeth with John, Mary with Jesus – and both had conceived in miraculous ways after being visited by angels with the news that they would give birth. When the women meet, Elizabeth feels her child leap in her womb with what she perceives as joy. Elizabeth, suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit, declares Mary blessed among women. Elizabeth wonders in amazement, “Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” Then, in the following verses, Mary responds with the Magnificat, the revolutionary song that we heard in the Canticle appointed for this day.

Advent 3C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 15, 2024

Saint John the Baptist Preaching

Saint John the Baptist Preaching (c.1735-1745), oil painting on canvas by Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788). Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland. (Click image to enlarge.)]

First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-20

This week we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath for the Third Sunday of Advent, traditionally called Gaudete (“Rejoice”) Sunday or Rose Sunday. A common thread in the day’s Lectionary readings calls us to be joyful even in times of stress. The minor prophet Zephaniah warned that Jerusalem would be destroyed because its people had turned away from God. But then, in this passage from the third and final chapter of this short book, the prophet’s thoughts turn to hope: After an exile, a joyous time will follow, when God will gather Israel’s righteous people, restore their fortunes, and bring them home.

Psalm: Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6)

Even in modern times, a seasonal drought is a serious threat to crops, farmers, consumers, and even a nation’s economy. In biblical times, drought was even worse: A failed crop could mean life or death. Isaiah, the major prophet who foretold Israel’s destruction, exile, and return surely knew that water is one of the most important things that God gives us. This Canticle, drawn from the first portion of Isaiah before the exile, called on the people to thank God with joy whenever they draw precious, life-giving water from the springs of salvation.

Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7

Last Sunday, in the opening verses of Philippians, we heard Paul express his love. Now, near the end of this affectionate letter from prison in Rome to the people of this little church in Northeastern Greece that he had founded years before, he urges them to be gentle and kind: Rejoice in God’s love and trust in God’s mercy and peace. Paul’s words to them, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” have become a familiar blessing through the ages.

Gospel: Luke 3:7-18

At first glance, it’s not easy to find the joy in this Gospel portion, which concludes Luke’s account of John the Baptist in the desert that we began last week. Luke shows us a long-haired, ranting prophet, yelling at the crowds who came to be baptized by him, declaring them “a brood of vipers.” John is no Messiah, he tells them. But he shouts that one more powerful than he will soon come to baptize with the Holy Spirit, separating the good wheat from the unworthy chaff. Get ready, John demands. Share your clothing and food with those who have none. Don’t cheat. Don’t be selfish! These are the themes that we’ll hear repeatedly in Luke’s Gospel this Lectionary year. Jesus too will proclaim them as he spreads the Good News, the joy.

Advent 2C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 8, 2024

Saint John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness

Saint John the Baptist preaching in the Wilderness (c.1640), oil painting on canvas by Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666). National Gallery, London. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Baruch 5:1-9

A messenger is coming to make the way ready for the Messiah! Two alternative passages from minor prophets both draw this hope to our attention in Sunday’s first reading. The first option is found in the book of Baruch, whose name in Hebrew means “Blessed.” His is one of the apocryphal books placed at the end of the Hebrew Bible. Echoing a more familiar passage from Isaiah, Baruch tells Israel in exile that it no longer needs to mourn, for God will lower the mountains and fill up the valleys to make level ground upon which the people may walk safely home. In Sunday’s Gospel, we hear Luke repeat Isaiah’s verses in the voice of John the Baptist.

Or:

First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4

In this alternative first reading, the minor prophet Malachi – whose name actually means “my messenger” in Hebrew – brings a dire warning to the people living in Jerusalem generations after the return from exile: God’s messenger must cleanse the people with fire, he prophesies, an action necessary to make them pure and pleasing to God. “Who can endure the day of his coming?” the prophet sings, in words that Handel would make unforgettable 2,000 years later in The Messiah. “He is like a refiner’s fire!”

Psalm: Canticle 16 (Luke 1: 68-79)

We sing Canticle 16 from the Book of Common Prayer – a direct quote from Luke’s Gospel – in place of a psalm. These verses tell the story of John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, a priest of the Temple. When Zechariah had refused to believe that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, had really become pregnant after an angelic visitation, God struck him mute. Now Zechariah’s voice is restored as he holds the infant and names him John. This child, Zechariah declares, is to be a prophet like Abraham, the messenger who will “go before the Lord to prepare his way.”

Second Reading: Philippians 1:3-11

The Christian community at Philippi in Greece, according to Luke’s account in Acts, was the first church formed by Paul in Europe as he traveled west from Asia Minor. This brief letter, written from a Roman prison several years later, is full of love and gratitude. In these opening verses, Paul offers greetings, love, thanks for their friendship, and prayers for their well-being. Recalling how eagerly they had accepted the Gospel, Paul prays for this congregation’s continued spiritual growth and insight, which he hopes will lead them to a harvest of righteousness and justice.

Gospel: Luke 3:1-6

Zechariah’s son John is a grown man now, and he has begun his public life as John the Baptist, a prophet crying in the wilderness along the Jordan. Beginning his account with a detailed roster of Roman and Jewish leaders of John’s time, including John’s father, Zechariah, Luke tells how John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Then, in words we also hear in Handel’s Messiah, Luke roots John’s prophecy in Isaiah’s call to prepare the way of the Lord, making his paths straight, filling every valley and making every mountain and hill low so that all humanity may see God’s salvation.

Advent 1C

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 1, 2024

The Great Last Judgement

The Great Last Judgement (1617), oil painting, altarpiece, by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. (Click image to enlarge.)

First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16

Advent has come, and we begin a new Lectionary year centered on the Gospel according to Luke. The commercial celebration of Christmas may already be in full swing, but the quieter, gentler celebration of Advent comes as a blessing. Advent is a time to prepare, to wait for the celebration of Jesus’s birth – the Incarnation – and for the final coming of Christ’s kingdom in power and glory. Sunday’s readings begin with a prophecy from Jeremiah to Israel in exile. Jerusalem and the temple have been destroyed, and King David’s dynasty has ended after 400 years. But there is hope, Jeremiah assures the people: A new branch – a messiah – will spring up and grow in David’s line, and will restore justice and righteousness in a new Israel.

Psalm: Psalm 25:1-9

Echoing Jeremiah’s promises to Israel in Sunday’s first reading, this passage from Psalm 25 speaks of a people facing the threat of humiliation and defeat. Trusting fully in God for salvation, relying on God’s everlasting compassion and love, the Psalmist asks God to forgive the people’s youthful errors and wrong turns while teaching them the right path. The Psalmist asks God to remember us not for our sins but with all God’s compassion and steadfast love – “chesed” in the original Hebrew – an emotion-laden word that may also be translated as “faithfulness,” “kindness,” “mercy” or “grace.”

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

This short passage is drawn from the earliest of Paul’s known letters. It was written to a beloved community in Northern Greece, seeking to strengthen their hearts in holiness so as to remain blameless before God when Jesus and his saints return: an outcome that in those early days was still expected to happen at any time. Writing from far away, Paul calls God’s blessings on the lives of the Thessalonians, expressing hope that he may soon be reunited with them. In the meantime, he prays that the people of this community will love one another and everyone, just as he loves them.

Gospel: Luke 21:25-36

Jesus is teaching the apostles after they have left the Temple, not long before they gather for the Last Supper and his passion begins. In alarming apocalyptic language reminiscent of the Gospel from Mark that we heard the Sunday before last, Jesus warns of the destruction of the Temple and of hard times to come. There will be frightening signs in the earth and heavens and the seas; false prophets speaking in Jesus’s name; nations rising against nations, famines, and wars and rumors of wars. But these signs will reveal, Jesus tells them, that the world’s redemption is drawing near. So don’t be alarmed, he assures them: This is but the beginning of the birth pangs, the Kingdom of God drawing near.

Advent 4B

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

The Madonna of the Magnificat

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.

Advent 3B

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Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for Dec. 17, 2023 (Advent 3B)

Magnificat: La Visitation

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.