FOURTH WEEK OF ADVENT
God is Gracious
Indeed, “God is gracious.” This is the meaning of the name John. We are told today about the birth of the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist. We remember the coming of the Savior and how a special messenger of God had to prepare the hearts of people for the coming of the Savior. But our Savior, Jesus, came long ago. How much are we living as people who are saved? How much do we enter into God’s plan to save our world? How much do we prepare Jesus’ coming into the hearts of people today?
First Reading: Malachi 3:1-4,23-24
“Look! I’m sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you’ve been looking for will enter his Temple—yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the one you’ve been waiting for. Look! He’s on his way!” A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance?
He’ll be like white-hot fire from the smelter’s furnace. He’ll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. He’ll take his place as a refiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes. He’ll scrub the Levite priests clean, refine them like gold and silver, until they’re fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then, will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as they used to be in the years long ago.
Gospel: Luke 1:57-66
When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.
On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: “No. He is to be called John.”
“But,” they said, “no one in your family is named that.” They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.
Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, “His name is to be John.” That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah’s mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!
A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, “What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this.”
Prayer
Lord, our God,
in this time of waiting,
you must still be waiting for us,
how we respond to the coming of your Son Jesus
in our hearts and in our world.
Make us people of hope,
not people of the past,
but men and women,
the young and the children too,
who want to see Jesus, our Savior,
alive and active among us.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.