The Lord whom earth and sea and sky
Adore and praise and magnify,
Who o’er their threefold fabric reigns,
The Virgin’s spotless womb contains.

How blest that Mother, in whose shrine
The very Word of God divine,
The maker of the earth and sky,
Was pleased in fleshly form to lie.

Blest in the message Gabriel brought,
Blest in the work the Spirit wrought,
Blest evermore, who brought to birth
The long-Desired of all the earth.

O Jesu, Virgin-born, to thee
Eternal praise and glory be,
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Spirit evermore. Amen.

Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:

And blessed be his kingdom, now and forever. Amen

 

From Easter to Pentecost:

Allelulia. Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia

 

In Lent and other penitential occasions:

Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins;

His mercy endures for ever.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Let us pray:

Almighty God, to whom all hearts be open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

This prayer is omitted during Lent and Advent:

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God’s people on earth.  Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.  Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father.  Amen.

 Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

The Collect of the day:

The priest now says the Collect for the day:

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

When the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.”

But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

The Response is now said by the congregation

The Song of MaryMagnificat

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

The promise he made to our fathers, *
to Abraham and his children for ever.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Romans 16:25-27

Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith– to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

All stand for the Acclamation and Gospel reading.

Alleluia, Alleluia!  I am the handmaid of the Lord: let what you have said be done to me. 

Alleluia!

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke 1:26-38

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

After the Gospel reading

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

We always celebrate some aspect of the Annunciation on this, the Fourth Sunday of Advent.  Each year, we hear a different part of the great story involving the Angel Gabriel, Joseph, Mary and her cousin, Elizabeth.  All of this foretells the imminent birth of the Saviour. In today’s account, the angel says to this 16-year-old, “Greetings, O favoured one!  The Lord is with you.”

Luke tells us that Mary was much perplexed – greatly troubled by these words, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. And no wonder: She was a peasant girl, at the dawn of what we now call the first century, in Nazareth. You remember Nazareth: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” It was perhaps the equivalent of the worst slums of our age – a place from which no one expected much of anything!

 Mary, of course, had just become accustomed to the idea of her engagement to an 18-year-old carpenter. Steady income and honest work – carpentry. And her marriage to Joseph probably represented a great improvement also in her social status.

Then along comes Gabriel, with these astonishing words:  “Greetings, O favoured one! The Lord is with you.”

Not just appearing as a man, with whom she was forbidden to speak in any case.  And not just any low-ranking angel, but the Archangel Gabriel himself – God’s right-hand man, as it were!

And this angel doesn’t demand a drink from the well, or the washing of his feet, or even directions to the nearest inn.  He really came to speak with her. And he greets her not as a slave, or a woman, or even as an equal – but as the favoured one of God!

What must it have been like for her to confront God’s messenger in this way? It makes sense that she must have been quite startled – “much perplexed”, as scripture tells us. We cannot help but leap to the conclusion that these words sound as strange to us now as they did then to Mary!

We may find these words strange.  We may not like them.  We too may ponder in our hearts what sort of greeting this might be. But we hear these words, and perhaps come to rejoice in them.

Greetings, favoured one!  There is good news here for everyone.

Those of a more Catholic persuasion can revel in the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whilst those who prefer the Protestant end of the spectrum can take comfort in Gabriel’s words of grace. Feminists note that the willing assent of a woman was necessary for God’s whole plan of salvation! Those who are more inclined to patriarchy insist that the angel – who appeared as a male, after all – set the whole thing in motion.  Humanists delight that a human vessel could contain God.  Believers claim authority for the divinity of Christ.  Sceptics repeat the words, “How can this be?”  Optimists find hope in the phrase “Nothing will be impossible with God.” And all of us are invited to accept our call to vocation, proclaiming, “Here am I, the servant of God.”

In this, Christian people everywhere imagine themselves ready to let go and take the plunge, like Mary – responding to God’s messenger with the only words we can utter that help carry out the plan of salvation: “Let it be according to your word.”

This very text reminds us that God loves us – all of us. God has a message for each of us – the favoured ones of God!

And God has a plan for each and every one of us: to help bring down the powerful from their thrones, and lift up the lowly; to fill the hungry with good things, and send the rich away empty.

Those are the words from the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, which we read together a few moments ago.  And that is what follows immediately after today’s story in Luke’s gospel.

It may seem rather odd to you that much of the time we hear the Magnificat in the splendid setting of Evensong, but the message of the angel, and Mary’s glad song in response are seditious, politically charged and highly volatile – even today!

God will bring down the powerful from their thrones and lift up the lowly, fill the hungry with good things, send the rich away empty, and scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

But how can we hear these texts from the gospel we hold so dear and not engage with the political realm?  Quite simply, poverty is a religious as well as a political issue. – oppression, too, and hunger, injustice and untruth, not to mention war!

And God is enlisting us in the cosmic struggle for good over evil, to help make the world a better place for all of his children, because the God we worship is not a far-off, distant judge.  Not someone who punishes bad behaviour from a lofty paradise by sending down hot thunderbolts. And not the sort of deity who must simply imagine what it is like to be human!

No, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  In Jesus, God has become a fully human being, with flesh and bones – one who hurts and cries, and laughs and sings. No longer are we separated from God, pleading for mercy from an omnipotent judge.

Our God is among us, “with us,” Emmanuel – and God knows exactly just what life is like for us!  What it is like to feel the power of the attraction to light in the darkness. What it is like to be drawn by glittering images.  And what it is like to struggle to resist temptation, or even to recognize the difference between divine light and the alluring glow that grows out of wickedness.

This in reality is the message of the angels: God understands us, God forgives us, and above all, God loves us.  Perhaps our inability to accept the message fully, to believe we really are the favoured ones of God – maybe this accounts for our unwillingness to cooperate sometimes with God’s plan for us.

It is far easier for us to store up treasure for ourselves than it is to ensure that all human beings have their rightful share in the earth’s bounty. It is far easier to command armies to annihilate those whom we believe to be evil, than it is to weed out the roots of injustice. It is far easier to engage in a bit of “retail therapy” than it is to confront the painful possibility that we may well be the rich who God will send away empty!

And so, our God has given us a sign.  A young woman is with child, and shall bear a son, and shall name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he shall be Emmanuel – “God with us.” For nothing will be impossible with God!

And this great Good News begins anew this season by putting our faith into mere words. This Christmas, may we hear the message of the angel, and know in our hearts that they are intended for each and every one of us: “Greetings, O favoured one! The Lord is with you.”   Amen

Please stand for the Nicene Creed.

Let us together affirm the faith of the Church.

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven:

was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,

and became truly human.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again

in accordance with the Scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come.  Amen.

Let us pray for the world and for the Church:

Prayers of intercession are now said and at the end of each prayer the priest says:

Lord in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

or

Lord hear us,

Lord graciously hear us

At the conclusion of the prayers the priest says:

Almighty God, who has promised to hear our prayers.

Grant that what we have asked in faith we may by your grace receive, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 Jesus said: Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

or

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

THE CONFESSION:

God is steadfast in love and infinite in mercy, welcoming sinners and inviting them to the Lord’s table.

Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith, confident in God’s forgiveness.

Merciful God, our maker and our judge, we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, and in what we have failed to do: we have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves; we repent and are sorry for all our sins, Father forgive us, strengthen us to love and obey you in newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Almighty God, who has promised forgiveness to all who turn to him in faith, pardon you and set you free from all your sins, strengthen you in all goodness and keep you in eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

THE PEACE:

The congregation stands.

We are the Body of Christ.

His Spirit is with us.

 

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

Please greet each other with a sign of peace.

O Come, O come, Emmanuel!
Redeem thy captive Israel,
That into exile drear is gone
Far from the face of God’s dear Son
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Lord of David’s Key!
The royal door fling wide and free;
Safeguard for us the heavenward road,
And bar the way to death’s abode.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, thou Dayspring bright!
Pour on our souls thy healing light;
Dispel the long night’s lingering gloom,
And pierce the shadows of the tomb
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations! Show
Thy kingly reign on earth below;
Thou Corner-stone, uniting all,
Restore the ruin of our fall.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

THE OFFERTORY

Blessed are you, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have these gifts to share. Accept and use our offerings for your glory and the service of your kingdom.

Blessed be God forever.

 Let us pray

We do not presume to come to your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.  We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.  Amen.