Overshadowed by Grace

 

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Scripture for Sunday, December 4:  Luke 1:26-38 

Additional Scripture:  Psalm 91; Exodus 40:34-35

For most people, the news that a baby is on the way is life-changing even in the best of circumstances.

Faced with raising a child alone, on the margins of society, and without adequate resources, it’s downright overwhelming.

And yet God’s presence in Mary’s life leads her into just such a daunting situation. 

Gabriel’s address to Mary is life-changing.  It is inconvenient.  It should call off her upcoming marriage and consign her to life under a cloud of stigma and disgrace. 

Yet Luke’s telling of Gabriel’s announcement makes clear that although Mary plays a major role in the coming of God’s Son, Jesus, Mary is not center stage.

Mary’s spoken words total 21 in our English translation of this passage.  God’s message given by Gabriel totals 145 words. 

Consider, too, how many circumstantial details Luke gives before even mentioning Mary by name in Luke 1:26:

1)      In the sixth month (of Elizabeth’s pregnancy)
2)      God sent the angel Gabriel
3)      To the town of Nazareth
4)      In Galilee
5)      To a virgin
6)      Pledged to be married to a man named Joseph
7)      From the house of David

Only after all this careful background do we finally get the virgin’s name:  Mary.

Evidently the story isn’t primarily about Mary.

“Grace to you, favored one.  The Lord is with you,” Gabriel says.

“Do not be afraid, Mary.  You have found favor with God.”

“You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High….” 

And for Mary, blessed with equal parts courage and self-forgetfulness when faced with God’s plan, there is only one logical question.

“How will this be?  I am unmarried.”

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you….  Nothing will be impossible with God," Gabriel says.

 

"Yes," Mary says.  “I am the Lord’s servant.  Let this happen to me as you have said.”

Reflect

With Gabriel's unanticipated appearance, Mary is willing to relinquish her own imagined future.  She places herself squarely in the shadow of God’s surprising, inconvenient, powerfully present grace (see Exodus 40:34 and Psalm 90:1-4) for the sake of God's purpose in the world:  sending Jesus. 

Where are you already following God in ways that cost you something--perhaps in terms of convenience, social standing, comfort?

As you prayerfully reflect or talk with godly people who know you well, how might you sense the Holy Spirit asking you to follow Christ in a new way?

 

"Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him."

Scripture for Sunday, November 27:  Luke 3:1-18    

Additional Scripture:  Isaiah 40

The opening chapters of Luke introduce us to the expectation surrounding the births of John the Baptist and Jesus.

Gabriel has appeared to old Zechariah, telling him and Elizabeth to expect the birth of a Holy Spirit-filled son. 

John’s role, Gabriel says, is to “turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  (Luke 1:17).

And so in Luke 3, John bursts on the scene, calling people to the wilderness and the water of the Jordan River.

The people come in droves.  All kinds of people.  Those who claim a place in God’s kingdom through the family tree; and those outside the family tree—Roman soldiers and tax collectors. 

And John tells them all to repent.

“You snakes!  Think you can claim a place in God's kingdom based on your descent from Abraham?  Think again.”

No tactful sermons here:  John’s words shoot straight and find their mark.  The people are cut to the heart. 

Three times in the passage John’s hearers ask, “What should we do?”

In response, John begins to teach them how to repent, to turn toward God's rule in ways that apply to their own lives. 

And just as the people begin to elevate John in their minds, “wondering in their hearts if [he] might possibly be the Messiah,” (3:15), John shoots straight again.

He points to Jesus.

“One who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie….  His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John gives the people both the means (repentance) and the motivation (expectation of judgment) to "prepare the way of the Lord."  

In helping people see their need for a Savior, John's preaching really is "good news." (v. 18).

Reflect

John’s call to repentance in this passage is specific.  As you read and consider Luke 3, ask the Holy Spirit to show you where he is calling you to a specific kind of repentance.

As you anticipate Christmas in a few weeks, what do you need less of in order to “prepare the way of the Lord” in your own life?  What potential fruit can you imagine God growing in your life and in the lives of those around you?

How might you ask for and receive help from God or others as you turn toward Christ in this area?