“So in the Gospel reading today, Mary after she received the message from the angel that she would bear a son and his name would be Jesus, she went in haste to the hill country of Judea to visit her, her cousin, Elizabeth. She went in haste. When’s the last time you went in haste to something? Last time I’ve seen someone go in haste is probably Black Friday, but often times we don’t really go in haste of things. Really, we don’t even let ourselves really yearn for things in our hearts. During this season of Christmas we teach our children that we give gifts because God has given the gift of himself to us and children are excited. They wait. They let their hearts yearn for the day to Christmas to come, and they go in haste to that tree on Christmas Day because they let their hearts yearn for it. We’re oftentimes in our busy lives, we don’t really let our hearts yearn for much of anything, really we’re just trying to get by, aren’t we? And sometimes we’re just too tired to really let ourselves yearn. The Old Testament we read, especially during this Advent season, which is a time to yearn for the Lord, a time of waiting, we read from the Old Testament to see what we are waiting for, what we are yearning for. And so in today’s first reading, it shows us that. You know, Jesus fulfills many prophecies in the Old Testament. Actually, he fulfills over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament, but in this one reading from the prophet Micah, he fulfills 10 of them. Just in this short reading from Micah, on the first reading, he fulfills 10 of them and let me show you what 10 they are.
In the beginning, it says ‘Thus, says the Lord, you Bethlehem, Ephitha, too soon to be among the clans of Judea, from you shall come forth from me.’ The first, the first prophecy is that it will come from Bethlehem, a small country, a small town of Bethlehem, that God will come to us, not in the grand world. He could have came in Rome, but no, he comes in Bethlehem to show us that he comes to the poor. He comes to the humble. Really, the only the humble can really receive God in their lives because the proud cannot. For also for us to start looking not just with our human eyes and our senses, but start looking with our hearts, the heart that is only filled by God. And so the first one that he comes from Bethlehem. Two, from you shall come forth from me, one who is to be ruler and Israel, he will be ruler of Israel. Many of the Jews were waiting for the Messiah to come, and he thought they thought he would be the ruler of Israel. He would rule over the Romans to be this great conquering king. But really, Jesus comes not to rule with power like those of this world, but more to rule with love and so he will rule in each of our hearts if we let him. So that’s the second one. Whose origin is from of old and from ancient times, the third, whose origin is from old and from ancient times, that he will be the descendant of Abraham, from Adam, from David and so that genealogy we read in Matthew is that he comes from old times. Not only that older than that, that he is the word incarnate, the word in the gospel of John and beginning where it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us, the word that spoke and created the world. He is in the beginning of time of old, that’s the third. And therefore the Lord will give them up until the time when she, who is to give birth, has born. The fourth and really, what we hear in the Gospel that God will come among us through this woman who is to give birth and why is that? God could have came down from heaven as a grown man? Kind of like an inverse of the ascension, just come down and rain. But, he doesn’t. He chooses to come to us born through Mary. First, as a zygote, then embryo, a fetus, a baby, an infant, a little son, a teenager, a man. Why? Really it’s to glorify, to sanctify each stage of life for each one of us. That is why we have the teaching in our church- a respect of the dignity of every human person from conception to natural death. It’s because of this prophecy that he is born to us from a woman. The sixth, the rest of his kindred shall return to the children of Israel. This one is the Jewish people were hoping that the messiah who will fulfill this will bring us all back to the Promised Land. And so he does, they do come back to the Promised Land, but not only that, we are called brothers and sisters of Christ. In our very baptism we are. That’s why as Christians, we call our father God, our father, because now we are no longer slaves, but we are brothers and sisters in Christ and so he brings us together into himself into this body of Christ. Seven, he shall stand firm. This prophecy here kind of points to the resurrection. You know, in the Apostles Creed, when it says resurrected from the dead, really it comes from the word Annas thesis, which actually means to stand up, to raise from the dead, so to stand firm is pointing that he would rise from the dead to stand up because no dead body can actually stand up and that’s what it points to, to stand up. Eight or seven is shepherd his flock that he will be the shepherd of all of us, his sheep. That’s where we get in the Gospel, the Good Shepherd. He will protect us. He would guide us, but not only that, he will be the lamb of God. He will be that Passover Lamb so that none of us have to ever sacrifice again, that he sacrificed himself for our sins and then gives that to us. ‘And they shall remain,’ another prophecy, the eighth prophecy is that born into the life of Christ now that he has risen we will no longer die, but remain in him, remain in the new life of Christ. The ninth prophecy from this prophet is ‘from now, his greatness shall reach to the ends of the Earth.’ It will reach to the ends of the Earth. Our faith, this Christian faith started with 12 then at Pentecost 3000, and now is spread throughout the world about two billion Christians in the world. We’re really a universal church that is spread throughout. In the 10th prophecy from Micah is ‘he shall be peace.’ And that’s important. Not that he shall teach peace or that he will make peace, but that he will, he shall be peace. He shall be peace for us, meaning he doesn’t give it as a gift, but he gives his very self to us as peace.
In this light of these 10 prophecies that is fulfilled here in the prophet Micah, we now read the Gospel today, where Mary goes in haste to the hill country to Elizabeth and now in that meeting, Elizabeth said, ‘Blessed, are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb? And how does this happen to me that the mother of my lord shall come to me in this very instance?’ He blesses Mary to be so important to the salvation of all, but also shows that she is the mother of her lord. You see here, Mary foreshadows to John the Baptist, that’s why he leaps in her womb from the the voice of Mary, but not only that, after John the Baptist grows up, he does the same for each of us. He prepares to way the Lord as we hear in the beginning of Advent and so each of us during this Advent season is to prepare, prepare our hearts for the Lord. Reading all of these things, all these prophecies show us what we should yearn for in our hearts, show us what we are waiting for. We’re not waiting for gifts that presents on Christmas Day. We’re waiting for a person, a person to come into our lives. That is what we’re waiting for. That’s what we’re yearning for in our lives, but how do you prepare that in your hearts? It’s in opening our hearts to the Lord, and then we are free to see it. It’s in confessing our sins that we realize we can’t do this on our own this thing we call life, and the important thing is we don’t have to, because on Christmas, the gift of Christmas is that God is with us. That is what Emanuel means. God is with us, and so will you let your hearts yearn for the Lord by giving your sins to Christ? And so now realizing that those are the areas that you need Christ in your heart, will you let your heart yearn for him there knowing that you don’t have to do it alone, struggle but God is truly with you?
As you come before the Lord today, where Christ truly present before you in the Eucharist, that is the gift of peace he gives us, again not just the teaching, but he gives us himself, peace. As you receive it, let your heart leap with joy, knowing that the God of our lives has given us peace, that each day we are able to receive him in our lives if we’re open to it, but then continue preparing the way for the Lord for others just as Mary has done in today’s Gospel, just as John, the Baptist continues to do where we’re called each to do in our lives. Amen.”