{"id":907,"date":"2012-12-24T12:22:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T17:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=907"},"modified":"2012-12-24T12:22:57","modified_gmt":"2012-12-24T17:22:57","slug":"homily-for-the-fourth-sunday-of-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-for-the-fourth-sunday-of-advent\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\nMicah 5:1-4a
\nHebrews 10:5-10
\nLuke 1:39-45
\nDecember 23, 2012<\/p>\n

A tale of two women.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s gospel speaks of two women.\u00a0 I should say two very important women.\u00a0 They are important because of the role they play in God\u2019s play.<\/p>\n

Certainly, we are aware of Mary\u2019s place in God\u2019s Plan with her yes to God\u2019s message delivered by the angel Gabriel.\u00a0 We honor Mary here in our church with our tapestry behind me, our shrine on your right side, and pictures.\u00a0 Mary is a crucial part of God\u2019s plan, so special a place that God saw that she was immaculately conceived to be worthy.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth is also important as one, who like Mary, did not doubt God\u2019s will and trusted in him.\u00a0 She became the mother of John the Baptist who calls out, Prepare the Way of the Lord and proclaimed a baptism for the forgiveness of sins. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God wanted it to be clear that what came through Mary and Elizabeth was his will.\u00a0 To do so, he picked two women for whom pregnancy would seem impossible, Mary, the young virgin, and Elizabeth who was elderly and never had children.\u00a0 Pregnancies that would be possible only by God\u2019s Grace.<\/p>\n

And they trusted in that grace.<\/p>\n

From the simple comes the great.\u00a0 Micah speaks of how from Bethlehem-Ephrathah who is too small to matter among the clans of Judah will come the new ruler.<\/p>\n

We might think we are too insignificant to do anything great.\u00a0 While it might seem true that we can\u2019t do anything \u201cgreat\u201d on our own, we can do great things through God\u2019s Grace.<\/p>\n

We just need to trust in God\u2019s Will according to Mary\u2019s example.<\/p>\n

Because of their trust amazing things happened.\u00a0 Jesus comes into the world as the newborn king of the Jews.\u00a0 He comes as our savior and redeemer.<\/p>\n

We celebrate this great event as Christmas.\u00a0 It truly is a very holy time of year.\u00a0 But it isn\u2019t here quite year.\u00a0 Final preparations are still to be made.\u00a0 I hope your shopping is done but I imagine you have cooking to do yet and maybe some decorating.\u00a0 This afternoon we will decorate our church to transform it for the beauty of Christmas. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we make all these final preparations, it is the true beauty of Christmas that we must remember.\u00a0 Christmas is not about the presents, decorating, and parties.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about Jesus.\u00a0 Everything else is to point to Jesus.<\/p>\n

Jesus, the Son of God born as a tiny little baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A small little new life from which comes great things.<\/p>\n

New life is a sign of new hope, a new beginning.\u00a0 Think of how much people like to see and hold a little baby.<\/p>\n

Advent is a season of preparation, waiting, and joy.\u00a0 We might wonder if we are ready.\u00a0 By ourselves we are never truly ready but we become like Mary saying yes to God, Jesus makes us ready and amazing things happen.<\/p>\n

What did Elizabeth say to Mary?\u00a0 Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Micah 5:1-4a Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45 December 23, 2012 A tale of two women. Today\u2019s gospel speaks of two women.\u00a0 I should say two very important women.\u00a0 They are important because of the role they play in God\u2019s play. Certainly, we are aware of Mary\u2019s place in God\u2019s …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent’ »<\/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":false,"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-eD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907"}],"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=907"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}