{"id":2374,"date":"2017-12-24T11:42:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-24T16:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2017-12-24T11:42:41","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T16:42:41","slug":"4th-sunday-of-advent-homily-year-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/4th-sunday-of-advent-homily-year-b\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Sunday of Advent, Homily – Year B"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th<\/sup> Sunday in Advent, Year B<\/a>
\n2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
\nPsalm 89:2-3, 3-5, 27, 29 (2a)
\nRomans 16:25-27
\nLuke 1:26-38
\nDecember 24, 2017<\/p>\n

King David was a great king.\u00a0 He is the king who built the kingdom of Israel but he knew he did it by God\u2019s grace.\u00a0 David had a great palace but the Lord still dwelt in the tent from the Exodus.\u00a0 David decided it was time to make a great house (temple) for the Lord.\u00a0 This makes sense.\u00a0 After all, our God is an awesome God.<\/p>\n

At first, the prophet Nathan agrees with David.\u00a0 Again, it makes sense.\u00a0 But <\/em>it was not God\u2019s plan.\u00a0 God spoke to Nathan to set David straight.\u00a0 It is not for David to do this.\u00a0 God has a plan.\u00a0 David\u2019s son, Solomon, will build a great temple but ultimately it is Jesus who becomes the true temple.<\/p>\n

Christmas is Jesus\u2019 birth, his emerging visibly into our world.<\/p>\n

It is almost Christmas but not yet.\u00a0 We can see it in the decorations in church today.\u00a0 The cr\u00e8che is up with the animals but not Mary and Joseph.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t arrived yet.\u00a0 Our Christmas trees are up but they are not lighted.\u00a0 It\u2019s not quite time yet.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t rush.\u00a0 Christmas is worth waiting for.<\/p>\n

As we get ready for Christmas, our gospel passage today reminds us of what was \u201cnecessary\u201d for Jesus\u2019 birth.\u00a0 Mary had to say yes<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

God had chosen Mary to be the mother of Jesus.\u00a0 She was confused by Gabriel\u2019s words but she said yes to God.\u00a0 She asked, \u201cHow can this be<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 She trusted in Gabriel\u2019s response, \u201cThe Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, God knew Mary would say yes.\u00a0 So, God had already placed his favor<\/em> upon her at the time of her own conception so that she would be conceived without sin to be worthy to carry Jesus in her womb.<\/p>\n

Mary said yes to God and good things happened.<\/p>\n

Do we say \u201cyes\u201d to God?<\/p>\n

The reality is we don\u2019t always say yes to God.\u00a0 Advent is a time for us to think about how often we say yes or no to God.\u00a0 What do we need to change in our lives?<\/p>\n

We can and should always strive to conform our lives to Christ but the reality is we continue to fall short.\u00a0 We cannot earn our way into Heaven.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we have Christmas.\u00a0 It was God\u2019s plan for his Son to come into the world to be our savior.<\/p>\n

Part of many family Christmas traditions is the exchanging of gifts.\u00a0 These are earthly gifts, some wonderful, some not so wonderful but no earthly gift can compare with the present that God gives us for Christmas, the gift of Jesus that makes salvation possible.<\/p>\n

God does not give us this gift because of our merit.\u00a0 He gives us this gift from his love and mercy.<\/p>\n

God gives us the gift of Jesus but do we accept the gift?\u00a0 One might want to say, \u201cOf course I accept the gift\u201d but we know what it means to accept it.<\/p>\n

To accept the gift means opening ourselves to God\u2019s way.\u00a0 It means striving to live as God teaches.\u00a0 Mary was open to whatever the Lord asked of him.\u00a0 As we begin Christmas in a few hours, may we set aside earthly things and open ourselves to the gift of Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Advent, Year B 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 Psalm 89:2-3, 3-5, 27, 29 (2a) Romans 16:25-27 Luke 1:26-38 December 24, 2017 King David was a great king.\u00a0 He is the king who built the kingdom of Israel but he knew he did it by God\u2019s grace.\u00a0 David had a great palace …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘4th Sunday of Advent, Homily – Year B’ »<\/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":[223,62,82],"tags":[382,148],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-Ci","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374"}],"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=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2376,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions\/2376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}