Commontide
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 4th Sunday in Advent
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and as we are sorely hindered by our sins from running the race that is set before us, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Advent
Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come again in power and great glory to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Apostle and Evangelist
Red Letter Day
John, called the Beloved Disciple, leaned on the Lord's breast at the Last Supper and stood beneath the cross to receive his mother into his keeping. The church remembers him as the witness behind the Fourth Gospel, the Johannine letters, and the Apocalypse. His feast falls December 27, in the octave of the Lord's nativity.
John was a son of Zebedee and brother of James, called with his brother from their fishing boat to follow Jesus (Mark 1:19–20). With Peter and James, he belonged to the inner circle present at the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2), the raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:37), and Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). He and James were surnamed Boanerges, 'Sons of Thunder' (Mark 3:17).
In the Fourth Gospel, a figure identified only as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved' reclines next to Jesus at the Last Supper (John 13:23), stands at the cross (19:26–27), outruns Peter to the empty tomb (20:2–8), and recognizes the risen Lord at the Sea of Tiberias (21:7). The Gospel itself identifies this disciple as its authority (21:24). Traditional identification of the Beloved Disciple with John son of Zebedee is early (Irenaeus) but debated by modern scholarship.
Paul lists 'James, Cephas, and John' as 'pillars' of the Jerusalem church (Galatians 2:9). Acts pairs John with Peter in the early Jerusalem ministry (Acts 3–4, 8:14). After Acts 8, the canonical record is silent.
Traditionally, John settled in Ephesus after the fall of Jerusalem (70) and lived to extreme old age, dying a natural death during the reign of Trajan (98–117). This tradition rests on a remarkably strong chain of testimony: Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 180) claims to have heard Polycarp of Smyrna speak of his personal acquaintance with John, placing John in Asia Minor within living memory. Eusebius preserves additional traditions: Jerome reports that the aged John, too frail to preach, was carried into the assembly and repeated the words 'Little children, love one another.' Tertullian reports that John was plunged into boiling oil at Rome and survived unharmed before being exiled to Patmos — a tradition without earlier attestation.