The Word Became Flesh

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Scripture for Sunday, December 25:  Luke 2:1-21

Additional Scripture:  John 1:1-14; Hebrews 4:14-16; Philippians 2:6-11

This week marks our arrival at the Bethlehem manger.

Caesar’s registration decree had mandated family reunions.  So Joseph and Mary joined the rest of the Roman world and headed home, making the 90-mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

I wonder how that journey went.  Did the two of them travel in the company of Joseph’s family members, or were they ostracized and alone?  Did Mary waddle on swollen feet?  Did she ride a donkey, Jesus’ head bumping against the walls of her womb with every step?  Did the exertion of traveling precipitate the labor?  Or were Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem for some time before Jesus’ birth?  Inquiring minds want to know. 

And we don't know.  About Jesus’ birth itself, Luke’s report is brief:  “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son….”  (Luke 2:6-7)

Perhaps there is no need for Luke to detail the events leading up to Jesus’ birth.  Women have been birthing babies for centuries.  Perhaps childbirth is such a ubiquitous experience that Luke can merely report that Jesus’ delivery took place, knowing that his readers will be able to use their sanctified imaginations to fill in the details.

The process of delivering a child is unpredictable.  It is a messy, gritty, humility-inducing and awe-inspiring business—every single time. 

So Luke’s few words say so much.  God in Christ is born.  God in Christ is born into time and space, born into history (during the census ordered by Caesar) and geography (Bethlehem).  God in Christ is born—to a young woman laboring in a barn.  God in Christ is born—and the shepherds in the countryside hear about it from all the armies of heaven.

God in Christ is born in the flesh, in the very same way as each one of us.  Tiny.  Vulnerable. Needy.

God of God, Light of Light “became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Jesus, may we see your glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Reflect

1.  When you think of Jesus, is it easier for you to grasp the fact of his divinity or the fact of his humanity?  How does the way you think about Christ influence your worship of him?

2.  If your Christmas celebration includes time with small children or babies, ask God to renew your awareness of and awe for his coming as a human baby while you spend time with the children in your life.  Thank God for what he shows you in those moments.  Praise him for being fully human and fully divine.

Biblical Hope

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Scripture for Sunday, December 18:  Romans 5:1-5
Additional Scripture:  Hebrews 11, 1 Peter 1:3-7

Our Advent journey has taken us from wilderness to prison cell with John the Baptist.  We've kept company with Mary as Gabriel's announcement changes her life forever. 

And this week, we join the story of God's people throughout the centuries seeking his kingdom in hope.

We use the word "hope"  in everyday ways to express our wishes for inconsequential things that may or may not actually come to pass:  "I hope it doesn't rain today."  "I hope I can come to your party." 

We also express our hope when the stakes are higher, when things that really matter to us are out of our hands.

We're invited for the first job interview after being unemployed for the better part of a year.  And we hope.

A long-desired pregnancy is progressing well.  And we hope.

An estranged family member reaches out to us after years of distance.  And we hope.

And sometimes, God works in by his Spirit and through our prayers in our circumstances.  Our hopes pinned on the good gifts of God's created world and his love for us this side of new creation receive an answer.  The job offer comes through, the child is born healthy, and the relational rift heals.

And sometimes....  Sometimes our hopes are dashed.  We wonder where God is and what he is up to.  We feel stung and humiliated; silly, really, for hoping at all.

It seems easier--or maybe just more rational--to stop getting our hopes up.

But Romans 5:5 says, "hope does not put us to shame."  So apparently hope is a fruit of a life rooted in Christ that we get to keep cultivating.

When our hopes our dashed, we lament.  Yet through the process of lament, we also have the Spirit-given opportunity to lean on the "living hope" the Apostle Peter says we receive as God's people (1 Peter 1). 

This living hope is rooted in ultimate reality:  God's promise of restoration in Christ.  This hope is certain; it cannot humiliate us.  This kind of hope shines all the brighter as God refines it through times of suffering.

Rooted in Christ, biblical hope cannot fail.

Reflect

1)  Where in life has your hope in something brought you shame or humiliation?  In what ways have you experienced God's mercy in times of dashed hopes?

2)  For more about hope, including its attributes of passion for what is possible, power to mobilize change, pain and risk of heartbreak, and the promise of God, listen to a 20-minute sermon by Dr. Lewis Smedes called "Keeping Hope Alive."

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?