Merry Christmas
Luke 1:26-38

We are busy preparing for Christmas. The gifts have been purchased – most of them, anyway – but they need to be wrapped. Is it too late to ship gifts to Minnesota via UPS Ground? The Christmas tree is up, but don’t forget to stop at Home Depot for poinsettias. What’s for dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? When can I find time to bake some Christmas cookies? And so on and so forth!

What about preparing our souls? I have a slim book of Advent devotions that I have been trying to use since the end of November, without much success. They leave me empty and dissatisfied and, after Pastor Dave’s sermon on Sunday, I think I understand why. The essays in the book are based on the writers’ experiences. For example, one writer described his visit to war-torn Ukraine last year at Christmastime. Dave, in contrast, invited us to reflect deeply on a very familiar story – the angel Gabriel’s visit to the virgin Mary. We don’t need something new and novel to get our souls in proper alignment for Christmas; we need to marinate in Scripture, asking God to awaken in us a renewed sense of awe and a desire – a need – to worship.

How do we do that? How can we keep our eyes from running swiftly over the page and our impatient minds from saying, “Yeah, yeah, I knew that”? Dave modeled for us two concrete practices for slowing down and engaging afresh with the Christmas story.

First, ask questions of the text. For example, we know Jesus is the King, but Dave pointed out that this passage does not actually use the word king. How do we know from this passage that Jesus is King? Dave highlighted three words associated with kings. (Can you find them?) A question I have – which we cannot answer but is worth thinking about – is … was there a pause (maybe a long pause) between verses 37 and 38, before Mary said, “May it be to me as you have said”? Did she count the cost? Or … what does it mean that Mary had found favor with God? In what way, how? Posing questions of the text slows us down and makes us think.

Second, make connections. Dave connected Jesus’ kingship with the kings we have been learning about in 1 & 2 Kings. He sketched the ways that King Jesus is superior to even the best of those kings. Reflecting on Jesus’ eternal kingdom (v33), Dave recalled the precarious situation of the Israelites when the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh who knew Joseph ended and a new pharaoh came to power. (Exodus 1:8) Finding and reading cross-references can be fruitful. As cross-references for verse 37 – For nothing is impossible with God – Dave gave us Genesis 18:14, Job 42:2, and Jeremiah 32:17.

I challenge myself and you, dear reader, to write “Open my Bible and reflect deeply on the Christmas story” at the very top of our To Do lists each day between now and Christmas. Let’s start with a prayer like this: King Jesus, you are worthy of all the honor I can give. By your Holy Spirit, help me think deeply about the amazing, true story of your incarnation. I need help to slow down, read with fresh eyes, and really engage with the familiar text. Draw me to worship you with all my heart.

In Christ,
Carol Gilbert

P.S. Look for the next edition of the prayer blog in January.