Fourth Monday of Advent 2021

Psalm 113

1 Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, you his servants;

    praise the name of the Lord.

2 Let the name of the Lord be praised,

    both now and forevermore.

3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,

    the name of the Lord is to be praised.

4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations,

    his glory above the heavens.

5 Who is like the Lord our God,

    the One who sits enthroned on high,

6 who stoops down to look

    on the heavens and the earth?

7 He raises the poor from the dust

    and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

8 he seats them with princes,

    with the princes of his people.

9 He settles the childless woman in her home

    as a happy mother of children.

Genesis 25:19-28

19 This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.

Abraham became the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram[a] and sister of Laban the Aramean.

21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

23 The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,

    and two peoples from within you will be separated;

one people will be stronger than the other,

    and the older will serve the younger.”

24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. 28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Colossians 1:15-20

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 

Since Adam, being free to choose,

Chose to imagine he was free

To choose his own necessity,

Lost in his freedom, Man pursues

The shadow of his images;

Today the unknown seeks the known;

What I am willed to ask, your own

Will has to answer; child, it lies

Within your power of choosing to

Conceive the Child who chooses you.

--W.H. Auden

Bless earth with thine advent,     O Savior Christ!

And the golden gates        which in days gone by

Full long stood locked,     high Lord of heaven,

Bid thou swing open            and seek us out,

Humbly descending thyself              to earth.

We have need of thy mercy.           The dark death-shadow

The accursed wolf,         has scattered thy sheep

And widely dispersed them;           what thou, O Lord,

Bought with thy blood, and            that doth the wicked one

Take into bondage,              and smiteth sore

Against our desire,           O Savior Lord,

In our inmost thoughts           we eagerly beg:

Hasten to help us,                  miserable sinners,

That the prince of torment             may plunge into hell;

And thy handiwork                  mount up on high,

Creator of humankind,              and come to righteousness.

--Medieval English Lyric

MAGNIFICAT ANTIPHON: 

O Key of David, O royal power of Israel, controlling at your will the gate of heave: Come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and lead your captive people to freedom.

MAGNIFICAT 

I acclaim the greatness of the Lord,

I delight in God my Savior,

who regarded my humble state.

Truly from this day on

all ages will call me blest.

For God, wonderful in power,

has used that strength for me.

Holy the name of the Lord!

whose mercy embraces the faithful,

one generation to the next,.

The mighty arm of God

scatters the proud in their conceit,

pulls tyrants from their thrones,

and raises up the humble.

The Lord fills the starving

and lets the rich go hungry.

God rescues lowly Israel,

recalling the promise of mercy,

the promise made to our ancestors,

to Abraham's heirs for ever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Our Father...

Eternal Wisdom, your gifts transform life.  Help us to prefer your ways above all else, to long for understanding of what is right and just, so that our eyes may ever be more open to your light, you who reign forever and ever.Amen.

May God bless us, deliver us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.  Amen.

Let us bless God/and give thanks.