Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Fourth Sunday of Advent

This week's scriptures are: Matthew 1: 18-25 and Luke 1: 26-38.

This week will be crazy for many of us as we finish up shopping, plan trips to family (or clean for their visit to us), and respond to the social invitations of the season.

If you have a moment to pause, give some thought to the Huge amount of trust that Joseph and Mary had to exhibit for the Christmas event to take place. I've often wondered if the angel Gabriel had to go to many young women with the invitation to be the mother of God's Chosen One before he found Mary's "behold the handmaiden of the Lord."

And poor Joseph. What must he have thought. His unwillingness to shame Mary...in spite of what it looked like had happened...represents a remarkable level of compassion. How many of us would be able to respond that way?

Few, if any, of us will be asked by God to usher in new ages of God's Kingdom. But we ARE being asked, on a daily basis, to participate in its growth. Even when sending the Messiah God needed human help. Now, today, God continues to ask us to be the Body of Christ; giving flesh and blood to God's love in the here and now.

On Christmas God's vulnerability was shown by God's willingness to become one of us, to be born: tiny, fragile, open to all the physical and emotional turmoil that make up being human. God continues that vulnerability in making you and me the way in which God shows His love in the world today. Are we as available as Mary? As trusting as Joseph? Are our eyes open to the new thing God might me trying to do in our world through us?

I hope to see you Sunday. The kids will be presenting the Christmas story as part of our worship. And there will be a Christmas Eve service on Monday evening. It would be great if you could join us for one or both of these.

May the celebration of the birth of Jesus be a time for you to pause, ponder, and be embraced by the Love of our creator.

Merry Christmas,
Stephen

1 comment:

Jeremy said...

The part of this which strikes me the strongest in your comments here is below:


"On Christmas God's vulnerability was shown by God's willingness to become one of us, to be born: tiny, fragile, open to all the physical and emotional turmoil that make up being human. God continues that vulnerability in making you and me the way in which God shows His love in the world today. Are we as available as Mary? As trusting as Joseph? Are our eyes open to the new thing God might me trying to do in our world through us?"


We should be astounded in the fact that God chose to go as direct as possible in meeting us at our level - both in the flesh 2000 years ago and in the world around us now. To be as trusting and willing as Mary and Joseph to do something unexpected, or accept God's work in a different form/package (like Stephen's been talking about lately) is so *hard* for a variety of reasons- all of which really are indicative of how we need to grow as individuals. It's all part of the same core issue- faith in the one who made us and who loves us enough to give us these choices- scary as they might be, as fearful as they may sometimes make us, as fragile are we are even as adults.