The final Sunday of Advent brings us a peculiar happening in the lectionary, the same Scripture twice.

Here’s what the lectionary serves up:

• Micah 5:2-5a
• Luke 1:46-55 or Psalm 80:1-7
• Hebrews 10:5-10
• Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Two doses of the Magnificat if we’d like to go that route, but more than that, it is beginning to feel like Christmas in the Scriptures.

The Old Testament lesson from the prophet Micah foretells of our Lord and Savior.  We get a first glimpse of our Christmas setting, Bethlehem.   Fulfillment of the prophets and “in accordance with the Scriptures” is something we hear a lot during Jesus’ life.   The Bethlehem birth would be the first to be fulfilled.  Truthe be told, my mind is stuck at the end of verse 2, which is a section of Scripture brought up whenever someone is talking about the correctness of a Bible translation.  Basically, the KJV only folks have a problem with anything other than words like “eternity” or “everlasting” being used here.  Many translations use “ancient days.”  Two of the three “literal translations” I checked out used the phrase, “from the days of antiquity.”  Some translations like the International Standard version and Majority Standard Version use a combination of both.  I think we get lost in the weeds fighting over the exact words and not simply understanding Micah’s sentiment that it goes as far back as people can imagine.   This is also a text that could be used to dispute the early teachings of Marcion who contended that the God of the Old Testament and the one who sent Jesus were two different beings.  All of that detracts from the wonderful prophesy that came to fruition in a much different, but ultimately much more glorious way that imagined by those who originally read this.

Let’s go with the Psalm since we’ll get Luke later.  A call out to God for salvation, for help.  We talked a little about this Sunday with having joy despite the storms and valleys of everyday life.  Here, there seems to be despair around them, the only hope is by the intercession of God Himself.  While the situation seems dire, the Psalmist is certain that God can restore them and as verse seven says, they shall be saved should God show the light of his countenance.  Maybe I should have been talking about hope instead of joy, that in the midst of whatever is going on, there is a hope that God can and will intervene…perhaps that provides a bit of joy as well.

Two types of offerings being talked about by the writer of Hebrews, one that is inadequate and one that will cover not just a multitude of sins, but all sins.  In Jesus, the need for burnt offerings and sacrifices is over because the one true redeemer has taken that on for us.  “I have come to do your will.”  Should Christ be our example, we should not be caught up in religious rites and tradition as much as we should be caught up in doing God’s will.

The Magnificat, preceded by a quintessential story that leads us up to Christmas.  There’s a comical part of this as we have spent the last two weeks talking about John the Baptist and his work and now this week, he is not even born yet.  No one ever accused Scripture of being in chronological order and then you add in the whims of the lectionary and we’re all over the timeline road.  For our Catholic friends, Elizabeth’s words are very familiar, being part of the “Hail Mary” prayer.  In this small space I cannot begin to come up with words describing the Magnificat, truly it speaks for itself.  I urge all of us this week to spend time with this song and to also find some musical version of the Magnificat to simply sit with.  There are so many on YouTube, from orchestral to Latin chanting to stripped down single voices trying their best to give a meaningful interpretation to the words spoken by our Savior’s mother.

God bless each of you as we move ever closer to the celebration of the birth of Christ.