Fourth Sunday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
2 Samuel 7:1-11
The Lord’s Covenant Promise to David7 When King David was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, 2 the king summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent!” 3 Nathan replied to the king, “Go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.” 4 But that same night the Lord said to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord has declared: Are you the one to build a house for me to live in? 6 I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. I have always moved from one place to another with a tent and a Tabernacle as my dwelling. 7 Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel’s tribal leaders, the shepherds of my people Israel. I have never asked them, “Why haven’t you built me a beautiful cedar house?”’ 8 “Now go and say to my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth! 10 And I will provide a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won’t oppress them as they’ve done in the past, 11 starting from the time I appointed judges to rule my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. “‘Furthermore, the Lord declares that he will make a house for you—a dynasty of kings!
2 Samuel 7:16
16 Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.’”
Luke 1:46-55
The Magnificat: Mary’s Song of Praise46 Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. 49 For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. 50 He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. 51 His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. 52 He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. 54 He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. 55 For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
A psalm of Ethan the Ezrahite.1 I will sing of the Lord’s unfailing love forever! Young and old will hear of your faithfulness. 2 Your unfailing love will last forever. Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens. 3 The Lord said, “I have made a covenant with David, my chosen servant. I have sworn this oath to him: 4 ‘I will establish your descendants as kings forever; they will sit on your throne from now until eternity.’” Interlude
19 Long ago you spoke in a vision to your faithful people. You said, “I have raised up a warrior. I have selected him from the common people to be king. 20 I have found my servant David. I have anointed him with my holy oil. 21 I will steady him with my hand; with my powerful arm I will make him strong. 22 His enemies will not defeat him, nor will the wicked overpower him. 23 I will beat down his adversaries before him and destroy those who hate him. 24 My faithfulness and unfailing love will be with him, and by my authority he will grow in power. 25 I will extend his rule over the sea, his dominion over the rivers. 26 And he will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’
Romans 16:25-27
25 Now all glory to God, who is able to make you strong, just as my Good News says. This message about Jesus Christ has revealed his plan for you Gentiles, a plan kept secret from the beginning of time. 26 But now as the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him. 27 All glory to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, forever. Amen.
Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” 29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” 34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” 35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.” 38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Making Ourselves At Home In Christ
Leah Perrault is the Director of Mission at St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
She is a fumbling but faithful disciple of Jesus, a grateful wife, and a practicing parent with a heart for finding God in human experience. Her column, Barefoot and Preaching, is available online at www.leahperrault.com.
When I hear the word home, I find myself flooded with memory and meaning. I see the familiarity of shoes scattered over mats in the garage of my childhood, smell buns baking on busy Saturday mornings, feel the pulls and aches of being misunderstood and simultaneously cherished. I remember the people who brought life between the walls and the first time I lived too far away to return home for a hug when I needed one. I am grateful to have a home to return to in the midst of a pandemic, and the abundance of time in it with four children is also pressing on most of our nerve endings.
God’s coming presses into this too quiet Advent, in a season of too much home for some of us and not enough for others. In the midst of this, a conversation between God and David is pressing on my heart.
Sitting in the comfort of his home, David is troubled by the tent that houses his beloved God. And God, speaking through Nathan, is talking about a home, and a throne and a kingdom that is so much bigger than a structure could contain: “The Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom…Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:11-12,16). David hears this, and then feels compelled to build a physical home worthy of the King of Kings, a plan that God discourages and eventually forbids in Chronicles, but that David prepares for Solomon to build a temple anyway.
I feel strangely comforted by this miscommunication between God and David, knowing just how often the members of my household misunderstand one another. Seasons of uncertainty and change have magnified the different ways we see and make meaning in our family, the pandemic following three years of grieving in our family including job loss, miscarriage, and murder. Whatever shreds of certainty we were clinging to after our many family losses have been blown out by the chaos of a global crisis. Every bit of our daily, material life is a gift without a guarantee.
Here, just days before Christmas, almost every tradition we have has been modified or cancelled. We are carrying the impending absences of our loved ones and radically different worship than we have known and long for. Our grief fills the shadows of our preparations. I need the lament cried out in Exile after the fall of David’s physical kingdom:
“How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
which by your faithfulness you swore to David?” (Psalm 89:46, 49)
David saw the blessings that had been poured out on him. And he felt uncomfortable with the difference between his house and God’s tent. He wanted to resolve the discomfort, the discrepancy of inequity, and give God a home. And the vision for the temple and the perception that it was the only way for the kingdom to come was David’s obsession, not God’s. In the Psalm, we get the rest of the story. The eventual temple could not solidify the kingdom. God’s home could not be so easily destroyed. But still, the loss hurts – and shakes our faith.
Like David, I am tempted to mistake the signs of God’s presence for God. And then I get attached to the stuff instead of the Saviour. Jesus will not withhold himself if I do not get to hug my siblings or sing hymns at midnight, no matter how much this breaks my heart. I find it hard to hear the Spirit without the voices of friends around my table. I strain to feel God’s presence without arms wrapped around me. My eyelids are heavy with exhaustion and longing to see people and places close and far away.
I have been preparing a place for Jesus as though the place was Jesus, and the changes remind me that Jesus makes his home in me – no matter what state I am in. He wants to live with my disappointment and tears as much as he welcomes my delight and celebration. Jesus will join us in our longing for the people and traditions that make meaning and connection and communion even while he brings us grace in what is. This is the deep and abiding joy of Christmas: He comes to where we are.
God was a tenting enthusiast from the beginning, a drifter who found a home in a people instead of a dwelling. Jesus was birthed into a human bloodline by marriage, a foster son to a descendent of David, an infant refugee with no place to rest his head except the hearts of the people who loved him. God is the kind of guest who makes a bed on the floor when that is required. Who am I to think that my mess or this disease could displace the Creator from my corner of creation?
And how beautiful, how welcome, how reassuring it is to me to know that I get to oscillate between disappointment and hope, despair and gratitude while I stumble around in God’s home. My “one wild and precious life” (Mary Oliver) are the walls Jesus has chosen to grace with his presence. While everything is wild, it is still the precious and perfect home of our God. I will make myself at home in his abiding Love.
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