Looking Ahead to December 19, 2021 -- Advent 4

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• 1 Samuel 1:19-28
• 1 Samuel 2:1-10
• Matthew 1:18-25

The Sermon title is The Promised Child

Early Thoughts: At the heart of the Advent-Christmas story is a promise. The promise of a child.

This Advent season has been full of stories about promised children. Each of those promises comes into a situation where pregnancy and childbirth are not straightforward. A slave girl (Hagar) who has no choice in the matter, whose child is a product of her enslavement. Multiple women (Sarah, the mother of Samson, Hannah, Elizabeth) who were considered to be barren, who were never expected to have a child. And then there is Mary, a young girl, pregnant too soon, possibly to be cast aside because of the child she carries. Sometimes the promise of a child is complicated.

The interesting thing is that in each of our stories this Advent season the promise of a child has also been accompanied by hope. True there has sometimes been a shadow along with the hope (Ishmael will be a wild-ass of a man for example) but there has always been hope. Maybe the hope is that the child will be the progenitor of many nations. Maybe the hope is that the child will be a deliverer, saving his people. Maybe the hope is that God will do something amazing with/through this child. But there has always been hope.

We hear about two children in this week's readings. One will grow to a ripe old age. He will (for better or worse) anoint the first two kings of Israel. He is long expected and is dedicated to God's service from a very early age. His birth prompts his mother to sing of justice and hope and promise, a song about the God whose priorities are different from the way the world tends to operate. God hears Hannah, God responds to Hannah, and Hannah responds in turn. Samuel will be a major figure in the story of faith.

The other child will not grow to a ripe old age. His commitment to embodying and preaching God's vision for the world will lead to conflict and a cross on a hill. But his impending birth also prompts his mother to sing of justice, hope, and God turning the world upside down (many scholars believe that Mary's song is based on Hannah's song). One of the names (Emmanuel) he is given in this week's reading leads us to a place beyond any of the other children we heard about this season. He will be called "God is with us". He will bring salvation and deliverance. For those of us who are called Christians he is the central figure in the story of faith.

A child is promised. A child will be born. And that will make all the difference.
--Gord