4th Sunday of Advent (C); 12-19-2021

Mi 5:1-4a.  Ps 80.  Heb 10:5-10.  Lk 1:39-45

Deacon Jim McFadden

         The Old Testament foretells the Good News of salvation history which is fulfilled in the New Testament.  It’s important to keep in mind that the Gospel writers did not write in a linear fashion, but more in a story-telling, associative way.  The Gospels are not philosophical tracts with well developed arguments to prove a certain point, but are more akin to a poem or even a dream.  The Gospels, just like our dreams, can be perplexing at times, but we always sense that there is some deep meaning at work—that there is a spiritual sense  and religious truths permeating these stories.

            In our first reading we hear from the Micah, a minor prophet who was a contemporary of Isaiah.  The former lived in the Southern Kingdom of Judah in region surrounding Jerusalem.  Like the other prophets, he denounced idolatry and put special attention to injustice—especially to the poor and vulnerable.  He predicts that God will deconstruct, purify, then restore Israel through a Messiah who will come from Bethlehem. 

            To us moderns, when we hear ‘Bethlehem,’ we think of Christmas and the Christ-child in the manger.  But, if you put yourself in the 8^th century b.c. when Micah was writing, the town of Bethlehem would be associated with King David.  How so?  Samuel, the last judge and the first prophet, was sent by God to the little town of Bethlehem in order to see Jesse because he heard from God that one of Jesse’s sons should be anointed (messiah) king to replace the bad king, Saul, who was disobedient to God’s commands.  And, so, in that famous scene, all of Jesse’s sons are paraded before  Samuel.  And, though they are handsome and powerful figures, none of them is the one.  He asks Jesse, “Do you have other sons?”  And, Jesse says, “Yes, there is one, but he’s the youngest and he’s out tending sheep.”  This, of course, is David whom Samuel then anoints and Scripture says that the Spirit rushed upon him.  The shepherd boy of Bethlehem would become the Shepherd of Israel.

            Once David became king, he gathered all the 12 tribes into one Kingdom by subduing Israel’s enemies both  internally and externally.  He then captured the Jebusite city of Jerusalem, which stood on the border between Judah and the Northern tribes, making it his capitol, which would then become the political center of the nation and, more importantly, its religious center.  To accomplish this, David arranged to have the Ark of the Covenant come into his new holy city.

            Now, for us moderns, what we know of the Ark is what we learned from the Raiders of the Lost Ark.  But, was the Ark?  It was a box that contained the shattered remnants of the Ten Commandments.  For centuries the Israelites caried the Ark with them.  They saw it as containing almost in a literal sense the presence of God.  That’s why it was used in battle, such as at Jericho; they worshiped before it and guarded it with their lives.

            So, David brings the Ark into Jerusalem so  that it would become the center of Israelite life.  In a beautifully descriptive scene, David dances with reckless abandonment before the Ark as it is brought into the holy city—so delighted was he to be in the presence of his Lord. 

            So, we’ve gone from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to the Ark, which brings us to the Gospel for today taken from the first chapter of Luke.  Mary, who is from the House of David, enters the house of her cousin Elizabeth, who is the wife of Zachariah, a priest of the holy temple.  Mary, of course, is pregnant and she’s carrying within her the Christ-child.  When Mary greets Elizabeth, who also is with child at six months,  her child leaps in her womb.  A first century Jew wouldn’t have missed this: John the Baptist is David dancing before God’s presence in the Ark of the Covenant.

            Luke is telling us that Mary is the true Ark of the Covenant.  She is the true bearer of the sacred presence—not just fragments of the Ten Commandments, but she is carrying Immanuel—God among us.  John the Baptist is the new David dancing before the Ark.  The Ark, which the Israelites carried about for centuries; the Ark that eventually found its way to the City of David; the Ark that was the center of Israelite worship for centuries; the Ark that was ensconced in the Holy of Holies that the High Priest would visit just once a year was but a foreshadowing of this Ark to come: the womb of Mary which would be the true abode for the presence of God!  In this Gospel we come to recognize that the true Ark of the Covenant—the true place of worship, the true presence of the Lord is found in the womb of this Virgin Mary.

            What a beautiful preparation for Christmas!

            People of God, what do we do when we take in this overwhelming truth?  What do we do when we stand before the true Ark of the Covenant?  We do what David did.  We do what the infant John the Baptist did.  We dance!  Amen.