Fourth Sunday of Advent 2023
So King David, after surviving his quarrel with King Saul and his thousands of followers, taking Jerusalem, the unconquered city, with the loss of barely any men, and extending his rule pretty much from the “river to the sea,” wakes up one morning in his cedar-lined house and starts thinking. (That’s always a little dangerous, don’t you know?) He thinks: “God has done such great things for me; that usually calls for a psalm.” But that doesn’t feel like enough. So he says, “I want to do something for God that is also for my people, for generations to come. I think I’ll build Him a house.” He even calls in Nathan, his friend and prophet, and tells him the plan. Nathan is pretty much a “yes” man so he approves. But, no, that’s not the end of the story. Life is not really good, you see, until we realize we can’t really do anything for God that He does not prompt, so we’d better get used to saying “Thy will be done.”
That brought to mind a visit that I experienced not long before today. We had some work done to our carpet, and that required a reset on our stereo system, so we set up an appointment for about two weeks later. After all, it’s the holidays and new home theaters are going in all over the wealthy parts of town. That afternoon I got a call from the main tech, and he said a tech was getting through with a job early and he had an hour. So I told him to come out. He did a complete diagnostic and got everything to work by bypassing circuits that had gotten fried over the years. But he said some motherboards were going out and I’d need to get a new receiver soon. Then I guess he had seen all the crosses and crucifixes and religious cards on the wall and confessed that he had been raised Catholic, but disagrees with some of our teachings and now it’s just him and God. He says, “why do I need somebody between me and God?” Without saying it, I thought, well I’m pretty well educated, but I sure need an intermediary between myself and this stereo system, so why don’t you admit we all need one between ourselves and the Creator who is way different and greater than we can even imagine?
That’s why we need an intermediary who is both God–and hence completely other and greater than I am–and human–and hence totally immersed in being me and you. That is why God the Son took on a human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a poor daddy’s cave-shack in Nazareth a bit over two thousand years ago. Moreover, the whole idea was to redeem the human race, a race steeped in sin from the first couple’s rebellious sin of disobedience. So this child, all grown up as Jesus of Nazareth, had to suffer and die the cruelest form of execution at the hands of the Romans, and then rise from the dead by His own divine power. He was thus able to restore human nature to fellowship with God, and leave us a Church and its sacraments to enable us to become one with Him in His triumph. Then instead of death and eternal punishment, we can hope for eternal life in the joyful banquet of the kingdom of God.
Thus we can all say with St. Paul, as he wrote to the Church of Rome, “to the only wise God be glory for evermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
Now, don’t forget to return to church tomorrow for our Christmas celebration–or tonight if that is more appropriate, and bring family or friends who might not have the habit of assembling with their brothers and sisters in the Church each Sunday. Christ is born, has been raised from death, and is coming again in glory, alleluia!
