+In the name of the One Holy and Triune God.  Amen

 In my family of origin, the Fourth Sunday of Advent was always a very special day.  Of all the Sundays in the Church Calendar, I recall the Fourth Sunday of Advent as being, at least for me, one of the most significant turning points in the church year.  And yes, I was raised with an acute appreciation of the church/liturgical calendar.  You see my mother had converted to The Episcopal Church from her French-Canadian Roman Catholic roots when she married my Dad who was an Episcopalian from English, immigrant Anglican stock.  With a Roman Catholic reared Mom and a Church of England bread, Anglo-Catholic leaning Dad, one can understand how, even as a young child, I knew the seasons of the liturgical calendar.

As a result in my family of origin, we had strict rules about celebrating Advent and Christmas.  The Advent wreath with its greenery, three purple candles and one rose candle for Our Lady, would come out after church on Advent I.  Each Sunday another candle would be lit at Sunday diner as we moved closer and closer to the Christ Mass.  Christmas decorations of all kinds would be assiduously kept packed away and out of sight so that we could experience the fullness of waiting and expectation of the Advent Season.  Honoring the fullness of Advent was a key message in my family.

And then on Advent IV it all changed.  After the Eucharist at Christ Church in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the whole congregation would gather in the parish hall and bind together fresh laurel on a hundred foot long rope.  Then in preparation for the Christmas Eve service, the laurel rope would be hung from the peak of the church at the crossing between the nave and the chancel with a huge star adorning the peak at the fullest height of the church’s ceiling.  It was only after decorating the church that we could return home to decorate for our own Christmas.  As the fourth advent candle was lit, the Christmas decorations, the crèche and tree trimmings, came out and we spent the afternoon preparing for the coming of Jesus anew in our home. 

As a child, this strict adherence to the church calendar (including a full celebration of the twelve days of Christmas with the tree coming down only after Epiphany while the wreath on the front door stayed up until Ash Wednesday) gave me a sense of the sweep of the Christian story.  My parents’ attention to celebrate the liturgical seasons in their fullest, especially at this time of year, helped me to appreciate that Christmas is part of a much bigger story.  Christmas is much more than an image of a babe lying in a manger attended to by animals and shepherds.  No Christmas, the coming of God with us, is part of a much, much bigger story: the story of God’s love and salvation for all people.  Celebrating the fullness of the liturgical seasons in my home of origin and in church helped me to appreciate God’s action in history from creation, through the Law and the prophets, and ultimately to the inclusion of the Gentiles, people like me, in God’s saving story.

And so our lessons this morning on this Fourth Sunday of Advent give us the story of God’s saving action in the world from the fulfillment of the Isaiah’s vision of Emmanuel in the line of King David to the reality of God’s salvation in Jesus for all people through the witness of Paul to the Gentiles.  The lessons of Advent IV thus call us to pause in this frenetic time of shopping, wrapping, cooking, and holiday partying to ponder what the imminent coming of the Christ child means in the history of the world.  Advent IV calls us to look beyond the babe in the manger to see the fullness of what God is up to in the incarnation of Jesus.

Our first lesson from Isaiah finds the prophet assuring King Ahaz of Judah that the Lord will watch over and protect his people.  Jerusalem is under threat of attack from outside invaders and King Ahaz, in a state of panic, is looking for new alliances in order to defend Jerusalem.  But Isaiah appears to King Ahaz and says:  “fear not, trust in God, God will provide.”  Isaiah declares that God’s covenant with the people remains strong, even in the face of danger and threat.  The prophet emphasizes that God will provide a sign of God’s faithfulness for Ahaz and all the people.  “Hear then, O House of David, Look the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means God with us.”  And by the time the baby is weaned, the invading threats to Jerusalem will be dispersed and the land from which they come will be deserted.  This baby, standing in the lineage of King David, will be a sign of God’s continuing presence, care and love for God’s people. 

This prophecy of Isaiah is echoed in Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus in our Gospel this morning.  Here the evangelist makes the connection between the sign of God’s faithfulness in Isaiah’s times and the reality of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ.  The story emphasizes the continuity between God’s covenant with the people of Israel and the new covenant in Jesus.  The key to this continuity in the saving mission of God throughout history is the placing of Jesus in the lineage of David.  That is why the birth story in Matthew focuses on Joseph and his ownership of Mary’s pregnancy. 

In first century Palestine it was the custom for parents to arrange marriages for their children.  Upon completion of the marriage contract, the betrothal period, the couple was considered legally bound together.  If there were any transgressions on the planned wedding during this time of betrothal (such as an pregnancy before marriage) the practice was for the wedding to be called off at best, or for the woman to be stoned at worst.

When Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant even through they had not had relations he, being a righteous man, decided to dismiss Mary quietly.  It is at this point that an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph and, showing the continuity with the lineage of David, addresses Joseph as Son of David.  The angel explains to Joseph that Mary’s pregnancy is of the Holy Spirit, and further declares that the son she will bear will be called Jesus for he will save people from their sins.  It is then that Joseph takes Mary as his wife and names their son Jesus.  The prophecy from Isaiah is thus fulfilled in Jesus:  A young maiden shall bear a son in the line of David, and they shall name him Emmanuel, God with us.”  In Jesus, fully human and fully divine, the saving love of God for all people is made real and manifest for a hurting and broken world.

And so the Apostle Paul in the prologue to his letter to the Romans, read as our Epistle this morning, summarizes this gospel message, this good news of God in Christ Jesus for all people.  Paul points to the human and divine origins of Jesus as foretold by the prophets.  Jesus was indeed descended in the flesh from the lineage of David through his earthly father Joseph.  And, Paul emphasizes that Jesus is the Son of God in the power and truth of the resurrection.  Paul says that through Jesus we all receive “grace and apostleship” to participate in God’s saving action in the world.  We are all caught up in the grace and apostleship of God in Jesus; the same grace and apostleship that enabled Paul to spread the Gospel to that Gentiles so that all might come within God’s loving embrace; the same grace and apostleship that invites us to continue to live in and proclaim God’s love for the world.

So there you have it, the whole story of God’s action in the world , God’s love for all humankind is manifest in this our last Sunday of Advent.  We learn today of the promise of God’s love and care through the prophets that continues on in history through the lineage of King David.  We are told that in Jesus, fully human and fully divine, the truth of God with us – Emmanuel is made real.  In Jesus, in his birth, life, death and resurrection, all people, are given the promise of a restored, reconciled reality with God and each.  Paul assures us that we are all called to participate in God’s ongoing mission to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

So my invitation to each and everyone of us today is to pause in the fullness of what we are told God is up to on this last Sunday of Advent.  Let us not rush headlong into Christmas by focusing our attention solely on the babe lying in the manger.  There will be time to sing our Christmas carols, to revel in the miracle in the stable, to celebrate with the shepherds and the animals, and look towards the coming of the magi.  But save those Christmas celebrations for the Christ Mass on Christmas Eve and the twelve days of the Christmas season.

Today, on this last Sunday of Advent, let us step back and recall that God, from the beginning of creation has always been with us, to love us, to guide us and provide for us.  Isaiah assures us that in Emmanuel – God is with us.  In Jesus, fully human and fully divine, God joins us anew to God and each other in Christ.  And in the footsteps of Paul we share in God’s grace and apostleship to extend God’s healing love for a broken and hurting world.  That is God’s mission; that is our mission.  Come lord Jesus.  Come, O come Emmanuel.  Amen.

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