{"id":1255,"date":"2013-12-22T09:47:08","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T14:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1255"},"modified":"2013-12-22T09:47:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-22T14:47:08","slug":"homily-4th-sunday-of-advent-year-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-4th-sunday-of-advent-year-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – 4th Sunday of Advent, Year A"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 7:10-14
\nRomans 1:1-7
\nMatthew 1:18-24
\nDecember 22, 2013<\/p>\n

God offers King Ahaz a sign!<\/p>\n

If God offered you a sign what would you ask for?<\/p>\n

Would you ask for something simple or go \u201cbig\u201d?<\/p>\n

World peace?\u00a0 Miracle cure? \u00a0A job?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure various things come to mind but let\u2019s take a look at what Ahaz asked for.\u00a0 Actually, it turns out he doesn\u2019t ask for anything.\u00a0 He says he does not want to \u201ctempt the Lord\u201d in according with chapter 6 of Deuteronomy.<\/p>\n

On the surface this might make Ahaz look holy but when we look behind the scenes, it turns out Ahaz has his own plan apart from the Lord.<\/p>\n

Then, even though Ahaz didn\u2019t ask for a sign, one is offered \u2013 this birth of a son to a virgin.\u00a0 Of course, this is fulfilled centuries later with Jesus\u2019 birth.<\/p>\n

We are almost to Christmas but not yet!\u00a0 We are still waiting.\u00a0 Appropriately, our gospel today comes from a point when it is almost<\/i> time for Jesus\u2019 birth but not yet.<\/p>\n

Mary is pregnant.\u00a0 She was betrothed to Joseph but he knows he is not the father so, being a righteousness man, he prepares to leave her.\u00a0 He\u2019s trying to do what is right but he needs a sign to know the right thing to do.\u00a0 On his own, he would have not followed God\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

Joseph\u2019s sign is the appearance of an angel in a dream.\u00a0 The angel explains to him that it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.\u00a0 The angel tells him that he is to take Mary and Jesus into his home.\u00a0 When God\u2019s will is made known to him, Joseph does it.<\/p>\n

What sign do we need for us to do God\u2019s will?<\/p>\n

The scriptures are full of signs.\u00a0 Some signs are miracles.\u00a0 Some come in the fulfillment of prophecies like the prophecy offered through Isaiah of Jesus\u2019 birth, quoted in today\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

God can speak to us in different ways but is not Jesus\u2019 birth among the greatest of signs?<\/p>\n

Do you need proof of the value of Jesus\u2019 birth as a sign?<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 birth speaks volumes to us.\u00a0 We have proof.\u00a0 This weekend we will probably have somewhere around 700 people.\u00a0 For Christmas we could break 1200 (I\u2019m hoping for even more).<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Because people are looking for a sign!\u00a0 I think whatever goes on in our lives, we know there has to be something more.<\/p>\n

Of course, that something more is God.<\/p>\n

There can be a lot of things that happen for Christmas.\u00a0 There are parties and concerts at school for the children that have already happened before the Christmas vacation began this weekend.\u00a0 There can be parties at work.\u00a0 There will be family celebrations.<\/p>\n

I hope all your Christmas celebrations are wonderful!\u00a0 But even when all the parties go well, there is still something more.\u00a0 It\u2019s what we will celebrate here.<\/p>\n

After our weekend Masses, we will be decorating our church for Christmas.\u00a0 We will put up evergreen trees as a sign of everlasting life.\u00a0 We\u2019ll put up lights as a reminder that Jesus is the Lord of the world.<\/p>\n

The Christmas decoration I like the most is our manger scene.\u00a0 Why should the manger scene be so important amongst all our decorations?\u00a0 It is the manger scene that points to the reason we celebrate Christmas, Jesus.<\/p>\n

About four years ago, a song came out called \u201cWhere\u2019s the Line to see Jesus?\u201d song by Becky Kelley.\u00a0 You can find it on YouTube with over 4 million views.\u00a0 It\u2019s got its own website.\u00a0 There are a lot of children who wait in the line to see Jesus.<\/p>\n

Whether you are a child or an adult, we are here to be in line to see Jesus.\u00a0 It is Jesus that we seek at Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Isaiah 7:10-14 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-24 December 22, 2013 God offers King Ahaz a sign! If God offered you a sign what would you ask for? Would you ask for something simple or go \u201cbig\u201d? World peace?\u00a0 Miracle cure? \u00a0A job? I\u2019m sure various things come to mind …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – 4th Sunday of Advent, Year A’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-kf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1256,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1255\/revisions\/1256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}