Day: December 24, 2017

Today’s readings

Christmas! This is actually the reading at our church’s Christmas Eve service, but either way it works. Christmas marks the end of Advent and the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas. (The paraments should be white when we get to church tonight.) This is a time of feasting! All the preparation work you were doing in Advent? Relax and enjoy it. Here in the South it seems the tradition is to take your tree down before New Year’s, and I’ve always done that. This year, though, I think I’m going to leave a lot of decorations up until Epiphany, and I’m going to be intentional about celebrating Christmas for the whole twelve days. We have made plans to do fun Christmas-y things as a family next week. I’m looking forward to enjoying this time together.

We do have a couple of special days during this season. Today is the Nativity (birth) of Jesus, and then January 1 is Holy Name of Jesus day, celebrating Jesus’ presentation in the Temple, and finally Christmas ends with the visit of the Magi on Epiphany (January 5). The next day, a Sunday, marks the Holy Baptism of Jesus, so we have a lot to do in the next two weeks! Let’s get started.

Gospel: Luke 2:1-20

This is the most familiar of readings, isn’t it? First, though, let’s put it in context. Earlier (today, in fact), our passage from Luke was the announcement to Mary of her pregnancy and Jesus’ birth. We left Mary with Elizabeth, both pregnant.

The second half of Luke Chapter 1 is the birth of John the Baptist.Recall that because of Zechariah’s doubt, his mouth was closed for the duration of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Elizabeth went on to deliver a healthy baby boy and, as was tradition, presented him for naming and circumcision on his eighth day. It was upon Zechariah’s written insistence to name the baby John that he regained his voice. Zechariah then speaks a beautiful hymn of praise. And then the stage is set for Jesus in Chapter 2.

See if you can listen to the story with fresh ears. One thing I noticed this time is how very much the Luke story focuses on Mary. Joseph gets a mention hear and there because he is Mary’s fiance, but he figures less in this Gospel than in Matthew.

I also notice the almost comical understatement of this story. For example, just read verse 7:

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

First, birth is not fun, and it takes a while, and it is exhausting and even at times scary. (And that is in a hospital with nurses and doctors and epidurals.) I can’t imagine poor young Mary, far from home, without her mother or even a midwife, giving birth. But Luke says, oh, you know, she gave birth. So easy.

And then there was nowhere to put the baby! Plenty of people, my parents among them, brought a baby home to a bottom drawer in a dresser for a few weeks. But a MANGER? This is a feeding trough. Mangers contain hay, typically. Have you ever been on a hay ride? Hay is pointy and scratchy and not fun. I’m sure that Mary and Joseph did the best they could but can you see how this is just NOT normal? This was a tough way to get started in the world.

And then, she did all this because there was no room. NO ROOM. No room for a poor young girl who was obviously about to give birth? Who does that? What do you think was going through poor Joseph’s mind?

The story breaks to the shepherds who see angels. They were TERRIFIED. Of course the angels gave their standard first line–“Don’t be afraid!” And then the angels deliver the most shocking, wonderful news to these rough and tumble shepherds. They are so excited they rush back to town to see this miracle. And poor Mary! Exhausted, in a cave with animals, a new baby, and in walk these dirty shepherds who are telling them the craziest story of angels and a Savior.

What does Mary do? First, she doesn’t shrink back, or ask them to leave, or even argue with them. She listened, along with Joseph, and then verse 19:

Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

One thing that is really sweet to me about this is that it truly feels like the reaction of an introspective, thoughtful teenage girl. She is holding all these things in her heart, turning them over, praying about them and wondering. The word Luke uses here for “ponder” also carries the sense of “contending with.” Mary was not a passive observer. She wrestled with and worked with all the things she was seeing and hearing, trying to fit it all together with what Gabriel had told her.

Old Testament: Isaiah 62:6-12

God breaks his silence in Chapter 62 (see the 3rd Advent lesson) and tells how he will save Jerusalem. The most important verse here to tie the OT reading to the Gospel is 11:

“See, your salvation comes; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”

Jesus is the salvation who has come into the world.

Psalm 97

This is a wonderful hymn of praise, naming God as King and calling the entire earth–the actual earth, not merely the people–to be glad.

New Testament: Titus 3:4-7

This short letter was written by Paul around the same time as his letters to Timothy and is considered one of Paul’s “Pastoral Letters,” letters written especially to other pastors. Some parts of Paul’s pastoral letters get a little bossy and even moralistic. However, this sweet passage reminds us, yet again, that Jesus did not come to earth because of anything we did. He didn’t even come because of anything Mary did. He came because of His infinite mercy.

Our response should be to live like we know this! We were saved out of His goodness. We are reminded to live remembering that this was an unmerited gift. An unmerited gift who came to us in the most unusual and humble way. Thanks be to God, and Merry Christmas!!

Finally, because I love it so much, Linus’ recitation of our Gospel:

Today’s Readings

Merry Christmas Eve! I will HOPEFULLY have two lessons up for today, this Advent lesson and then the lesson for the Nativity of Our Lord. It’s a busy church day. On to the lesson…

Gospel:  Luke 1:26-38

We are in Luke for today’s lesson. Remember that Mark really begins with Jesus’ ministry as an adult. The story of Jesus’ birth is told in Matthew and Luke.

To take a quick look at Luke, remember that this is the third of the Synoptic Gospels. Luke was apparently an assistant or student of Paul’s. Luke also wrote the book of Acts, which is where he makes his appearance in the action. Luke has a more distinctly Greek approach to language and action; for example, where he references Hebrew scripture, he does so quoting the Greek Septuagint. Of the three Synoptics, Luke is plainly writing for the more Gentile-oriented.

As a matter of fact, he is also writing for the marginalized. I tend to think of Matthew as the Gospel most oriented to Jewish life, and of Mark as the “just-the-facts-ma’am” Gospel. Luke spends far more time talking about the women (in particular) who were part of Jesus’ ministry. It’s in this Gosepl that we hear Mary’s song and then meet the women at Jesus’ tomb many years later.

The passage today is known as “The Anunciation,” the moment when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her what was about to happen.

Earlier in Chapter 1, Gabriel told Zechariah that he and his wife Elizabeth would, even at their advanced age, give birth to a son. He would be John the Baptist. Zechariah’s reaction? He pushed back: “How do I know this is so?” You might even say his reacting was to scoff. That lack of faith led him to lose his voice until John’s birth.

What a contrast with Mary! Think about this: she’s much, much younger than Zechariah, and she wasn’t married, and her news was vastly more shocking than Zechariah’s. But her reaction?

• v. 34: “How can this be?” and then
• v. 38: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be according to your word.”

WOW. That is dramatic submission to God! That is summed up very well in Gabriel’s response to Mary in v. 37: “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Verse 35 is a really interesting look at the triune God. In this one verse is it apparent that the Holy Sprit is only acting within the power of God the Father (“Most High”), and the child born is God’s Son. There are not many places in the Bible that succinctly reference all three persons of the Trinity. I think (but I’m not 100% sure) that this is the first to do so in such a direct manner.

Finally, remember that we have been talking about John the Baptist a lot in earlier weeks. This Gospel expressly links John the Baptist and Jesus even before they were born. And consider Elizabeth and Mary, cousins, both caught up with inconvenient pregnancies. Elizabeth was so mortified she had gone into seclusion for the previous five months. And Mary! Very young, unmarried, promised to a man who could have rejected her. How wonderful that God provided their relationship to them, to give them the support they would need. Imagine the conversations, the wonder between the two of them, as they knew that God was working something incredible in these two women in Palestine. What a precious friendship they must have had in those months they spent together.

Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

David? This doesn’t seem very Christmas-y…except that remember, of course, that this is Advent, and we are seeing the fulfillment through Jesus of the Davidic covenant. This passage lays out the covenant given by God to David.

We see David here as King of Israel and finally at rest, but 2 Samuel leading up to this has been action-packed. David had to defeat Saul and Saul’s allies. He moved the capital to the city of Jerusalem. He fought the Philistines (his former supporters) and defeated them. Finally, he moved the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, which proved to be extremely difficult. (Hint: don’t touch the Ark.)

Finally David is at rest. He looks around and says, “I think I’ll build God a Temple. Nathan [his prophet], what do you think?” And Nathan figures that since everything else that David has done is awesome, this will be too. Unfortunately, Nathan is wrong, and God informs him of that in a dream.

Ultimately the message is that while David might want to build God a temple, God wants to build David an everlasting dynasty. Do you see what God is doing here? David is wanting to put God in a building, however grand and beautiful, and however truly good his motivation. The Davidic covenant God makes tells David that God is so much bigger than that. David wanted to build a building for God; God wants to build an everlasting dynasty from David. “I will make you a house FOREVER…”

I wonder if God didn’t tell David that so he would remember that God wouldn’t and couldn’t be contained in a box. (Even a building-sized one?) I really believe that some of this was God telling David to remember where he came from–“Yes, you want to build me a building. But you can’t do this, a permanent dynasty. Only I can do that.”

Note that David’s kingship is not shaped by David. It’s shaped by God. And imagine this–God, at this time, knows that this is the family line that He will allow His Son to be born into.

Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

Often the Psalm merely reiterates the ideas started in the Old Testament. This Psalm merits more attention. Psalm 89 is known as one of the “Royal” Psalms, a Psalm which points directly to the kingship of Jesus.

The Royal Psalms have five special emphases:

• The Covenant
• The crowning of David and his sons
• High expectations of kingship
• The special relationship between God and the kings
• God’s unbreakable promise

The Psalm points to Jesus. The first few verses really describe David’s wonder and response to God’s generous covenant. But later parts of this Psalm are a lament following the destruction of Jerusalem.

The later verses of our Psalm today (v. 19-26) tell us a lot about God’s nature and how He will act. We see wonderful descriptions of faithfulness and steadfast love.

New Testament: Romans 16:25:27

A mystery. These verses talk about a mystery of Jesus that was secret but is now revealed. This reading is so cool to me–it is the link between the Old Testament reading and the Gospel.

In the OT reading, Nathan announces to David that God will do something. He will make the line of David an everlasting kingship. But how? Nathan doesn’t say, and it isn’t immediately apparent how this can come to pass.

But in the Gospel reading, Gabriel announces a new thing to Mary. He divulges the resolution to the secret that God had laid out so many years before his announcement to David.

This is it–the secret is out!