Advent 4 Introductions

 I didn't preach on this morning because we performed Vivaldi's Magnificat, which can be viewed HERE.

Below are the introductions to the readings and the Magnificat.

The performance

Advent 4B

December 24, 2023

Magnificat (Vivaldi)

INTRODUCTION TO READINGS

This week’s readings are a ramp-up to the Big Moment that is about to occur (tonight!), reminding us of how we got here. Let’s walk through this, I’ll show you:

Back in Genesis, God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, promising three things: 

1) Descendants, as numerous as the stars; 

2) Land, aka the Promised Land, aka Canaan; and,

3) that God would bring blessing and redemption to all people through Abraham’s descendants. 

So far, the first two had happened: land, and descendants. But Israel had yet to see this blessing and redemption come about. 

Around 1000 BC, David became king. One of his goals was to build a temple, a house for God. To this point, God (that is, the Torah, or the 10 Commandments) had been carried around in a big box called an ark, and housed in a tent, so God dwelt with Israel wherever they went. Now, David wanted to build a house of cedar in Jerusalem in which God could dwell. But God says, “No, this is not for you to do. BUT, how about instead, I will make YOU a house.” By this, God means he will make a dynasty for David, an everlasting throne. And from that house will come the promised messianic king who will bring blessing and redemption to the world, that third part of the Abrahamic covenant. (Remember tonight, we will meet Joseph, who was “descended from the house and family of David.”)

Israel clung to this promise through numerous bad kings, through exile and their return, through the 400-year gap between the end of the Old Testament and the birth of Christ. In other words, they had been waiting a really long time. 

So now, here we are, on Advent 4. Our first reading from Samuel reminds us of this promise God made to David. In Romans, Paul says, in case we missed it, “Jesus is the guy you’ve been waiting for!” Luke will tell us the remarkable story of the annunciation, when Gabriel came to Mary and said, “All this waiting is over: it’s happening, and you’re going to bring that promised messiah into the world!” 

Mary’s gorgeous response to this, which we’ll sing as our Psalm, is known to us as the Magnificat, and we’ll hear Vivaldi’s setting of her song performed and proclaimed in worship this morning. I’ll say more about that right before. 

As you listen to these readings, just enter into the excitement from the perspective of Abraham and David’s descendants. This is the moment they’ve been waiting for! God is good, and God makes good on his promises. Let’s listen.

INTRODUCTION TO MAGNIFICAT 

Though having the fourth Sunday of Advent fall on Christmas Eve makes for a long, exhausting day for church workers and musicians, I secretly love that we start off Christmas Eve this year by hearing Mary’s magnificent song, the Magnificat. We often portray Mary, the mother of Jesus, as meek and mild, but this song shows her as anything but! In fact, her words have been used by revolutionaries and the oppressed for generations – “Scatter the proud! Bring down the powerful and lift up the lowly! Fill the hungry! Send the rich away!” She sounds less like an obedient and devout teen, and more like a rebel intending to reorient the unjust systems of the world! In fact, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian, called this song “the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary hymn ever sung.” 

And all of this, Mary roots in God’s promise: “He has come to the aid of his servant Israel… according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever.” This is who God is, and always has been and will be, she declares: one who cares for the lowly, who desires a just and compassionate world, who makes good on promises.

Mary is a willing servant, yes, but she is also fiercely passionate and tough. And wouldn’t she have to be, to participate so intimately in God’s plan to completely change the world, even to turn it upside down by becoming one of us? After all, Jesus was no docile lamb himself – he also lived and preached a table-turning message about the poor being lifted up, and the powerful brought low.

I hope you will hear both Mary’s passion and her devotion in our performance today, on this Christmas Eve morning. Jon has put together some program notes about the music itself, including some things to listen for, some ways Vivaldi has tried to bring out Mary’s message through music. You can see that as well as the translation and performers on the insert in your bulletin. And now, enjoy this proclamation of Mary’s song, The Magnificat.