ADVENT IV

Henry Ossawa Tanner The Annunciation (1898)

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16Canticle 3 or Canticle 15
or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Romans 16: 25-27
Luke 1: 26-38
 

Today’s Gospel forms an obvious and natural bridge between the seasons of Advent and Christmas. It tells of the moment when Mary learns she is pregnant -- the Gospel for the Feast of the Annunciation in fact, which, appropriately, takes place on March 25^th, exactly nine months before Christmas. The Gospel is preceded by the Magnificat -- Mary’s wonderful hymn of gracious acceptance – replacing the normal Psalm on this Sunday. Before that again is an Old Testament reading from 2^nd Samuel. This is more puzzling. What has the passage from 2^nd Samuel to do with Christmas, we might wonder? In fact, it is a brilliant choice, because together these readings capture a deep insight into the meaning of Christmas.

David, Israel’s greatest King, wants to repay God for the wealth and power he has enjoyed, and he plans to do so by building God a temple to replace the tent that the Israelites have trailed hither and thither through the wilderness. Strangely, God rebukes him. The prophet Nathan is told to say: “Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?” And yet, at the same time he sends an assurance “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever”. This will happen, though, in God’s way, not David’s, and at the moment of His choosing, not ours.

The magnificent dwelling that a king offered to build is rejected -- in favor of the womb of a peasant girl. And David’s presumption in trying to tell God where best to live, contrasts sharply with Mary’s simple acceptance of God’s word. The assurance turns out not to mean that David’s family will always be kings – which we now know since ceased to be the case long ago – but that his line is to be perpetuated in a baby born in obscurity and destined for death by crucifixion. “Your ways are not my ways, says the LORD”. This is a truth we must hold on to if we are to see the real meaning of Christmas through the tinsel, the turkey and the lights.

Henry Ossawa Tanner was an African-American painter who trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia when the famous Thomas Eakins was Professor of Drawing. Many of Tanner's paintings had religious subjects, and several are in the ownership of Princeton Theological Seminary.