Luke 1,26-38; Matthew 1,18-25a. Rorate Caeli: 4. Sunday in Advent

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ 

Luke 1,26-38; Matthew 1,18-25a        0415

4. Sonntag im Advent  04 Rorate Caeli

Thomas, Apostle Martyr 72 ✠ 

21. Dezember 2014  

1. O Jesus Christ, Thou Morning Star, Splendor of Light Everlasting and Sun of Righteousness: Draw near and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.  Amen. 

2. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said: „Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!“ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her: „Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His reign there will be no end.“ And Mary said to the angel: „How will this be, since I am a virgin?“ And the angel answered her: „The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.“ And Mary said: „Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.“ And the angel departed from her. 

3. Mary was well-versed in the Scriptures. She knew that whenever God or His angel appears and speaks to you that something wonderful yet life-changing is about to happen to you. Her response to the angel’s greeting was to be greatly troubled. She was afraid and filled with trepidation, for her conception would change her life. There would be the gossip in the little town of Nazareth. There would be accusations of unfaithfulness. What would Joseph do in response to all this? St. Matthew tells us that Joseph is a righteous man unwilling to disgrace Mary. He had been particularly chosen by God the Father to be the man who would raise Jesus as His earthly father.

4. The angel’s words strengthened Mary. Her faith was emboldened because she knew that God always takes care of His people whom He calls to great accomplishments. Mary knew how Yahweh provided for Sarah in the Negeb, Rahab at Jericho and Ruth in Bethlehem. Yahweh would care for her, too. Mary is favored by God. She is His servant chosen to bear the Son of God in a miraculous conception between the Holy Spirit and Mary. Some Biblical commentators believe that Mary conceived the very moment she confessed to the angel: „Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.“ 

5. This 4. Sunday in Advent brings together the Holy Family. There is Mary, Joseph and Jesus. There are the cousins Mary and Elizabeth. There is Joseph and Zechariah. Finally there are the cousins Jesus and John. These are men and women of faith waiting for the redemption of Yahweh. They never imagined they themselves would be actual participants in that Divine redemption but each of them was chosen by God to be an active part in His Heilsgeschichte (salvation history). Mary bore our Messiah and Elizabeth bore His Messenger. John would prepare the way for Jesus for he is the light-bearer heralding the way for the True Light. 

6. An angel of Yahweh told Joseph that Mary will bear a Son, and you will name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. The Medieval Anglo-Saxon Christian poet Kynewulf describes the angelic pronouncement to Mary and Joseph this way in his poem Crist: „Hail Morning Star, Brightest of angels Thou, sent unto men upon this Middle-earth, Thou art the True Brilliance of the sun, radiant above the stars, and from Thyself illuminest forever all the tides of time! And as Thou, God indeed begotten of God,“ (Kynewulf 104-09). 

7. Isaiah had prophesied: »The people who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has Light shone« (Isaiah 9,2). We once walked in darkness and dwelt in the land of shadows. This darkness was our cursed and sinful condition we inherit from Adam. The doom and gloom of our sinfulness left us discouraged and in despair. Would redemption ever dawn upon this earth? Into this darkness God sent His angels of Light to give us hope. Two sons were born; one preceding the Light and the other was the Light made flesh dwelling among us. 

8. The Son of the True Father was sent to us, Thou Radiant Sun, who has enlighened us who have for so long been wrapped around with darkness and gloom, having sat in the lifelong night shrouded in sin, we have had to endure death’s dark shadow. Now the Hope of our salvation has been promised and given to men and women through God’s own Word (Kynewulf 110-20). Jesus is our Morning Star, the Splendor of Light Everlasting and the Sun of Righteousness. He draws near and enlightens all those who dwell in the depth of their sin and the fear of death. 

9. Jesus was conceived to save us from our sinfulness. He did not chose a cultured woman of royalty. May was a simple woman from a small town in Galilee that was not considered to be hometown for the Messiah the religious leaders of Israel expected. Joseph was not a man in David’s lineage who would ascend to the throne. The Romans ruled Palestine, and they had chosen the Herodian family with its nebulous Davidic lineage to rule over the Jews. Joseph made his living as a carpenter. He was a blue collar man in a blue collar town. What Mary and Joseph lacked in royal airs they made up for in their simple faith, piety and humbleness. Jesus chose regular folk to be His earthly parents, and He made their names great in the history of the world. Jesus was born into this world to make our names great, too, before His Heavenly Father. He has made us sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Him, for the everlasting fellowship in His heavenly reign. Jesus does not abhor the physical body, flesh and blood but willfully took up humanity into His Divine Person in order to redeem His fallen jewel of creation. As a newborn baby brings hope and joy into a family, so Jesus brings hope and joy to us and all people for He fulfilled Scripture, was born of a virgin and dwelt among us to save us all.  Amen. 

10.. Let us pray. O Christ, Thou Daystar, we look forward to celebrating Your birth once again; let Your Light shine in and through us so that we may be heralds of Your Light to our neighbors lost in the darkness of sin.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm 

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.  

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

   Cynewulf. Crist. Copyright © 2000 In parentheses Publications. Translation © 2000 Charles W. Kennedy. 

Murphy, G. Ronald, Tr. The Heliand. Copyright © 1992 Oxford University Press. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.