Preparing for Worship - December 19, 2021

This Sunday, December 19, is the 4th Sunday in Advent, and we will have celebrated Christmas by the next Sunday. Our Scripture readings  on Sunday lead us ever close to the birth of our Savior, Jesus.

The Old Testament lesson, Micah 5:2-5a, predicts the birth of the Savior in little Bethlehem. He will be Shepherd and Ruler for people, and He will be their Peace, even to the ends of the earth. This remarkable prophecy was made nearly 700 years before Christ Jesus was born and was the reason the wise men were sent to Bethlehem to find Him.

The Psalm is Psalm 80:1-7, where God is called the Shepherd of Israel, and God’s people pray for Him: “Stir up Your might and come to save us… Let Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.” God did come to save us, at last, in the person of His own Son, the Son of Man (v.17), baby Jesus. In Him, in His face, we receive salvation.

The Epistle is from Hebrews 10:5-10. Another Old Testament prophecy is quoted, from Psalm 40:6-8. As Christ came into the world, He already knew His Father’s plan and was willing to do His Father’s will and sacrifice that human body He was given, through Mary, to pay for all the sins of the world, “once for all.”

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 1:39-45 (46-55), Mary, already carrying the body of Jesus in her womb, goes to visit Elizabeth. Elizabeth is also pregnant with her son, John, and baby John leaps in her womb when Mary comes, carrying Jesus within her. Elizabeth is “filled with the Holy Spirit” and knows that Mary is “the mother of Her Lord,” the Lord Jesus, coming to her. Jesus truly is the promised Savior, as Mary then sings in the words of the Magnificat. She, too, needs God, her Savior, who has come for her in the Person of her Son. He brings her grace, as He does all of us, as we are brought to trust in Him.