On this third Advent Sunday we remember
Mary, chosen by God to give birth to Jesus. Mary was a young girl possibly
a teenager. She suddenly finds herself pregnant and visited by angels. It could
be a bad hair day! The child she is carrying is destined to fulfill
the prophesies concerning the Jewish Messiah. He will change history and be a
beacon for those who are oppressed, a standard for all to live by in opposition
to the standards of society. She knew it was going to be hard and she was
just a teenager. In her life she had some hard journeys to make, to Bethlehem,
where Jesus was born, to Egypt, where they had to go to escape the
soldiers, and to the cross, where she watched her son die.
And yet she said yes to the angel.
The Magnificat sung by Mary as she carries
the baby born to be such an important person in human history, gives us
hope of material relief from poverty. In the story we hear described
that an angel comes to Mary to tell her she will be pregnant before
marriage. We also know from Matthew that Joseph, thinking the worst, plans
to divorce her. It's a story with ominous beginnings. A story of crisis.
Mary went to stay with her cousin Elizabeth
who also was expecting a baby but was further advanced in her pregnancy. She
went to a town in the hill country of Judea. The Song of Mary is in the
form of a hymn of praise directed to God for his kindness toward Mary, with
particular reference to remnant Israel and reflecting the Old Testament sense
of God's covenant loyalty and loving kindness toward Israel, his hesed, (Heb.
"faithful love"). To those who acknowledge God's position and
authority, the hymn says, his mercy extends to all people in all ages. Mary
stayed approximately three months, indicating that Mary probably stayed till
the birth of John.
The Christ/Mass festival has been celebrated
since about 400 AD. Christ' means 'Messiah' or 'Anointed One' - the title given
to Jesus - and 'Mass' was a religious festival. Today if you visited Britain
from another planet you would be forgiven for thinking that Christmas was a
retail festival! This Christmas we will rush around fulfilling the need to buy
presents for our loved ones and friends. But this is not the true meaning of
Christmas.
If you have no contact with the
spiritual at this time, then Christmas is empty. It is purely a retail
affair, extended if you have family. For the poor and the solitary it is
painful. The Old Testament prophets spoke of a return to God and to
keeping God’s laws as a basis for living in peace, peace with God, with one
another and themselves. When God’s people wander away from their true calling,
and forget the plight of others, they become aimless and empty, and their souls
are not fed. Only God can satisfy the hungry soul, and so Gods prophets cry in
the emptiness and chaos, because in their hearts is a dream which refuses to
die. Isaiah speaks of a light in the darkness. Its an everlasting promise,
there will be light in the darkness for Gods people. There is the theme of
justice that runs through the hymn, ironic in this day, when there is little
justice. It is a contrary vision, a utopia for our dystopia.
And so like the rest of the church
throughout the world we are waiting this Advent for that God to be born again
in our hearts, in our lives, in our communities-this God, tabernacled, putting
up his tent next to us, living with us. Immanuel.
None of us want our ordered world disturbed
with the scandalous and unexpected, especially if it involves family pride or
losing face. The
Christmas story begins with shame, the shame
of a pregnant, unmarried mother and an imminent divorce. It goes on
to release its power through the childless, the dumb, the poor. This
Christmas they are all with us. Those we despise because of their
situation. Those who are vulnerable and powerless. It is to these and
many others that the Christ light gives hope, lifting up the lowly,
proclaiming release to the captives.
If we can take time and space to be still
with God, take time to look at ourselves, our lives, our priorities
as we approach the end of another year and take time to put right
relationships around us as far as is possible, take time to give to others
less fortunate than ourselves, then the Spirit of Justice and Hope will be with us
and we will know it by the peace in our hearts.
