Sunday, December 23, 2012
This Sunday’s scriptures document a visit by Mary to the house of Elizabeth. Both women were expecting a son to be born in the next few months, sons that were introduced to their mother’s before birth. They were informed from above that these men would have a unique significance in the plans of God for his people. Jesus was to be born to Mary and Elizabeth carried the revivalist John the Baptist. Their story is the Christmas story.
St. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 1, verses 39 through 45 (Mary visit’s Elizabeth)
39. At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,
40. where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.
41. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the
Holy Spirit.
42. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
43. But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44. As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
45. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
God’s timing is hard to figure. Why would God choose this time and these people to work a fundamental change in God’s redemptive plans? Why are we asked to believe these happenings and these people who convey what cannot be proven? The cynic prefers to swim in the sea of self made doubt. Let us try to believe what cannot be proven, try to put our lives in the midst of these two unpretentious ladies who posses the arrogance to believe that their anonymity had been noticed and that God was about to do something grand.
This is how Mary, the soon to be mother of Jesus, rejoiced at her winning number.
St. Luke’s Gospel, chapter 1, verses 46 through 55 (Mary’s Song)
46. And Mary said:
My soul glorifies the Lord
47. and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48. for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49. for the Mighty One has done great things for me--
holy is his name.
50. His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52. He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53. He has filled the hungry with good things
but sent the rich away empty.
54. He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55. to Abraham and his descendents forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
Mary and Elizebeth were celebrating and rejoicing with the certainty that the hand of God touching their lives through their babies. Their joy was expressed as a additive to their Jewish religion. They expected the baby Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, would raise the Jewish religion far above all others and somehow make it’s performance creditable within their community and to all the world. Rather than the birth of a localized Jewish messiah or savior, God sent Jesus to be the focal point for the salvation of all men, everywhere. Jesus was given to earth to end all religion.
Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 10: 5-10
5. Therefore when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offerings you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me:
6. with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7. Then I said, ‘Here I am---it is written about me in the scroll--
I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”
8. First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were
you pleased with them”--though they were offered in accordance with the law.
9. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will”. He sets aside the first to establish the second.
10. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Done Deed
The world is celebrating “when Christ came into the world” at this Christmas season. Again the question should be asked, what are we celebrating? Is the celebration about a new born baby, a nativity scene or the warmth of a shared moment among family and friends. In the affairs of mankind, what actually happened so long ago in a remote corner of the world that warrants a celebration? A happening that has resulted in 33% of the worlds population declaring that they adhere to the Christian understanding of God. Is the incarnation about the religion of Israel, is it about the Christian religion?
According to the writer of Hebrews, who was writing to those who had a Jewish religious mindset, the answer is no, the Christmas story is about the end of religion. Quoting the words of Jesus, God was not pleased with the Jewish religion that could not touch our sin. We should ask, can any religion of man actually touch our sin even when we perform certain ritual or adhere to certain intellectual precepts or use a sacred writing as a rule book? No, these efforts on our part to find religious salvation must seem so juvenile to God. Only God has authority to forgive sin so that the religious mindset is always a life failure.
The newness of the Christmas story is that all men, regardless and in spite of their religion, have been rescued from the emptiness of human existence by the action of God in Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen baby of Bethlehem. That newness should be celebrated at Christmas because a new holiness for mankind was given at Christmas and on the cross of Calvary. An undeserved holiness given only because God through Jesus Christ so willed it. The last three words of verse 10 are most instructive, “once for all”. God has rescued his creation and it is complete and a done deed.
Did the writer of Hebrews understand the universal scope of God’s Christmas gift? Probably not, the “we” of verse 10 may indicate a limited mindset that is beneath the grandness of Christmas. Of course the holy “we” could be interpreted as the entire community of mankind. Which interpretation do you prefer? Which is the bigger Christmas Gift?
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
