The Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Micah 5.2–5a
Hebrews 10.5–10
Luke 1.39–45

The readings from Micah and Hebrews are so dauntingly obscure that it is tempting simply to concentrate on the lovely passage from Luke. Luke’s is the only Gospel that has any of John the Baptist’s biography before his adult entrance into the story as the messenger who prepares the way for Jesus. And what Luke tells us makes John’s willingness to be only the messenger even more moving. We are told that John’s birth is meticulously prepared for, as is Jesus’ own. His parents have given up hope of having children – like Abraham and Sarah – and his father, Zechariah, is visited by an angel, who announces what is to come. If you read Luke 1.8–17, you will see that the role John is to play is really built up by the angel. The child is to be a source of gladness, he is to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, from birth, and he will bring many of his own people back to the Lord. While the angel does mention the fact that John is to prepare the people for the Lord, there is really nothing in what he says to make a proud parent feel that their son is to play second fiddle in God’s orchestra. If Zechariah really remembered everything that was said to him and reported it back to Elizabeth, then surely they must have begun secretly to wonder if their son was to be the One, the Messiah, who would prepare the world for the direct rule of God...

Taken from Lectionary Reflections Year C by Jane Williams