A Christmas Present - Advent Day 10

What Are You Getting for Christmas? 

Isaiah 64:1-3    ¹Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!  ²As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!  ³For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 

Exodus 33:18-20     ¹⁸Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."  ¹⁹And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  ²⁰But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. "

Luke 1:46-55     ⁴⁶And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord ⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ⁴⁸for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.  From now on all generations will call me blessed, ⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.  ⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.  ⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  ⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.  ⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.  ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful ⁵⁵to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

Like the prophet Isaiah sometimes we want to cry out to God, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down.  Show them.  Show our oppressors that You are for real.  Show them Your power to destroy and to deliver.  Show them for sure, so that there can be no doubt in their mind, and cause the nations to quake before You.”  We might imagine that under the prophet’s cry came the whisper, “And by the way, Lord, would You show me, too?”

We long for certainty that God is real, that He is sovereign, that He cares for us, has a purpose for us, and that He has the power to give us life beyond the grave.  But certainty is something we cannot have, at least not the kind we so often seek.  Even Moses was denied the certainty he sought.  “Now show me Your glory,” Moses asks.  And God answers, “you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”  And among the Psalmist this denial of certainty was a common complaint, as in Psalm 89:46a, “How long, O LORD ?  Will you hide yourself forever?” 

 

We are told this lack of certainty is good for us.  It guards us against pride and complacency.  It moves us to keep on keeping on, following after God to learn more about Him and His will for our life and our world.  Certainty of the complete kind is simply something we cannot have.

What we can have is conviction.  Certainty is something we search for.  Conviction is something we are given.  Certainty demands proof.  Conviction requires “the heavenly vision”.  Certainty wants to eliminate the element of not knowing.  Conviction accepts this not knowing with a sense of wonder and awe.

Few people exhibit conviction more than Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Nowhere is the spirit of conviction more evident than in Mary’s response to the announcement of Jesus’ birth.  Everything that Isaiah had sought to see, Mary now sees with the eyes of conviction.  She sees the proud and haughty brought low in their awareness of God’s power and might.  She sees the oppressed and discouraged raised up by God’s power and will.  She sees all of this, even though none of these things has yet taken place.

In Mary we see the difference between certainty and conviction.  Certainty is something we search for.  Conviction is something we are given.  Certainty looks for visible proof.  Conviction is rooted in the heavenly vision.  Certainty wants to eliminate the element of not knowing.  Conviction accepts our limitations with a sense of wonder and awe.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 9

Building for Christmas   This sermon was delivered December 3, 1989, just 18 days after an F-4 tornado had struck the city of Huntsville, Alabama killing 22 people, destroying and damaging many homes, businesses, and churches, including Faith Presbyterian where Henry was pastor.

Matthew 7:24-27    ²⁴"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  ²⁵The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  ²⁷The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

Hebrews 11:1, 8-12    ¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  ⁸By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  ⁹By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  ¹¹By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.  ¹²And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

What are we going to get for Christmas?  This is the crisis we face every year at this time, whether we are wondering and worrying over what we will get, or wondering and worrying over what to give.  I wonder if it would help lessen the tension to remember that there are some things we cannot have at Christmas, no matter how much we might want to give them or receive them.  My hope is that this facing up to our limitations will help us receive with a deeper sense of gratitude and a greater feeling of pleasure the things we can give and receive at Christmas.

I will start with the most obvious.  One thing we cannot have this Christmas, as a church, is most of our church building facilities.  When the first flush of gratitude over lives spared has faded and even our sorrow for life lost has diminished, we face the frustration of trying to celebrate this season without the buildings we once had.  A church building helps us have well organized programs and an effective ministry.  If the building did not help us, there would be no need to build them.  Now we must do without. We must adjust to our new limitations.  But, we still have Christian community.  We have a community “whose architect and builder is God.”  We are a community of the spirit where the life of God is known and shared.  We are a community of the spirit, not a perfect community of the spirit, but certainly close enough to know that this community was built by God.  Our having to do without buildings, our efforts at repair and rebuilding will once again put us to the test.  Will we continue to be a community “whose architect and builder is God”, and you and I are His instruments?

The answer hinges on one word, faith.  The writer of Hebrews reminds us that everything the saints of old accomplished, they did by their faith and because of their faith.  This faith is not difficult to understand.  In a word faith is an inner confidence in God.  It is also the decisions we make and the actions we take in response to that confidence.  That confidence may call us to pitch in or stand aside trusting decisions and actions of others.  That confidence may cause us to speak or to be quiet, to stand up for God’s will or to give in.  We can never be completely sure what this confidence in God will require of us.  Perhaps that is why Hebrews gives so many different examples of faith.  But we can be sure and must be sure that it is this confidence that is moving and motivating us as we seek to be a part of this community.  The Master Builder can use all sorts of people, but He relies most heavily on those who are confident in Him and therefore most responsive to His leading and His plan.

Our confidence in God comes from Heaven in His Word.  Jesus says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”  This is a listening that goes on beneath the surface noise, confusion, and not knowing of our lives.  And if anyone doubts that, talk to some couples who have discovered how much damage they have done to their relationship because they did not listen to one another.  Our faith need not be perfect.  When the aging Sarah was told she was going to have a baby she laughed in disbelief.  She gave God a vote of no confidence in His promise.  The good news is that there can be some slippage in our confidence, but God can use us still.  So let us accept our limitations and let us give thanks for what we can have this Christmas season.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 8

The Mystery of the Magi

Deuteronomy 4:29-31   ²⁹ But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him. ³¹ For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath.

Matthew 2:1-12    ¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?  We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."  ³When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.  ⁴When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.  ⁵"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:  ⁶" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'"  ⁷Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.  ⁸He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child.  As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."  ⁹After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.  ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  ¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.  ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matthew may have had many reasons for including the story of the Magi in the birth and early life of Jesus, but two reasons are most obvious.  The first is Magi are heathen Gentiles in search of Jesus.  They are in search to learn of Him and to worship Him, in sharp contrast to Herod who wants to kill Him, and the holy men of Israel who could not care less.  Though the Magi may have been aware of an obscure reference in Numbers 24:17b, “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel,” their search for Jesus was prompted more by superstition in the stars than the promise of scripture. 

And that is the point.  A little off track in their goal, motivated by only partial information at best, they search.  They search in contrast to the dullness and complacency of the educated, the informed, the religious elite who know of the prophecy of the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem, but dismiss the whole matter as insignificant and unimportant.  It was for people like the Magi that Jesus later prayed, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” (Matthew 11:25 NKJV)  For in their understanding of God, the Magi were babes indeed. 

The Magi are still among us.  They are those who with little knowledge search for Him who was born King of the Jews, and for whatever reason and in whatever manner, have not given up the search.  It may be a driving force, a genuine desire, a flaming light, or a smoldering coal, but the search is still alive.  

The second thing we know about the Magi is that they found the One they were looking for. Our search is not an endless search or a futile search.   “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”  Our search is one in which we discover ever anew the truth of Him that is born in Bethlehem.  The Magi found the Child because they searched for Him with all their heart, and as God has promised, “you shall find me”, (Matthew 7:7).  Their whole-hearted, determined search took them past the barriers of race and prejudice.  It took them past the deceit and hostility of Herod, the yawning complacency of the priests, past over whelming odds.  And the Magi found the Child.

When weary from all we are doing to make it a good Christmas, the basic, most fundamental question of Christmas and of life remains:  Have we taken our lives in our own hands, or have we placed them in God’s hand to live moment by moment, day by day, seeking and following in an attitude of trust?

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 7

Where is Jesus to be Found? 

Colossians 3:1-3   ¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 

To all of us who feel that the Christmas season is sometimes too much, I bring you good news of some consolation – we are not far from remembering what Christmas is all about.

We live in a world ruled by the power of advertising and publicity where the best selling, the most popular, the biggest of all time, the new thing is what we are told to seek.  And the publicity mind-set sometimes spills over into our religious outlook as well, and people wonder, “If God really exists, why doesn’t He make His omnipotence more visible in this chaotic world?”

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, it is important to remember the hiddenness of His life. At birth, He entered this world without much fanfare, except for the angelic announcement to some insignificant shepherds on the hillside.  He was born away from the glitter and glamour of Rome or the pomp and ceremony of Jerusalem, in a stable on the outskirts of a small obscure village.  He lived his life in relative obscurity.  Even His miracles were often companied by the command to avoid publicity.  His entrance to Jerusalem drew a crowd, but His death drew only a few of His despondent disciples.

His Resurrection was relatively obscure.  There was no angelic host.  Just a single angelic being with the simple announcement, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:6 NIV).  While He made himself widely known to His disciples, there was no widespread publicity of His resurrection. 

So into our age of much noise and very little light, Jesus silently and secretly enters into our world.

The hiddenness of His birth, His life, and His resurrection are signals that we are to have hope in the hiddenness of His life.  It means that God steals silently down to be born in us today.  It means that His hidden presence is coursing through the day to day events of our lives to maintain a home, to raise our children, to earn a living, to get along with others, and to survive the hectic times of the Christmas season.

The hiddenness of His birth means that in all of these events we are upheld by a mystery we cannot see, we are sustained by a power we cannot measure, we are redeemed of mistakes by a mercy that is always a surprise, and that when we die, we die not into nothingness, but as Paul said in Colossians 3:3 we die into a life hidden with Christ in God.  The hiddenness of His birth means God lives in us even when we are not aware of His presence, and we can reflect the life of Jesus, working miracles and changing the face of the earth, not with noise and publicity, but with quietness and calm as we seek to know the Jesus hidden at the center of our lives.  And as we seek to imitate Christ, we can never be totally certain of what His life in us will mean for the undoing and redoing of our life, the lives of those around us, and of our world.  

From as sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 6

Power Comes in Small Bundles

Matthew 2:1-6, 16-18 (New American Standard)  ¹Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,  ²"Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."  ³When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.  ⁵They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:  ⁶'AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH, ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.'"  ¹⁶Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. ¹⁷Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:  ¹⁸"A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE."

John 14:1-4     ¹"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.  ²In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going."

 “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled.”  In some ways Herod was more perceptive in his reaction to the birth of Jesus than the Wisemen or the Shepherds. He was troubled because he could not bear even a hint of a rival to the throne.  Four years earlier he had had his two sons, Alexander and Aristobulos, put to death because he viewed them as a threat.   “And all Jerusalem was troubled with him.”  They were troubled because they knew that whatever troubled Herod could cause trouble for them.  And it did, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”  So Herod adds one more massacre to a long list of atrocities and cruelty.

But Herod had reason to be troubled by this baby born in Bethlehem, because He was born to rule.  And, He is as much a threat to our self-will as He was to Herod.  Babies always are.  This is the first shock wave that parents receive.  Their lives become centered around the needs and the demands of that bundle in the bassinet.

The baby born in Bethlehem is a revelation, a pledge and promise of God’s rule.  He is also a sign of the way God intends to overturn our self-will.  His rule comes to us in the vulnerability and power of the new born child.  He comes, not with the threat of harm, but with a love that demands a primary place in our life.  The baby in Bethlehem shows us the kind of power God uses to overturn our self-will, and shows what God intends to accomplish through His rule.

The first thing God intends to accomplish is to create in us a child-like trust in the heavenly Father.  He brings to life a certainty and confidence in God, a belief that God knows what is good and best for our life, and that God is active in all the events of life to accomplish His purpose for us.

He comes to give our eyes new sight that delight in the surprises of God’s intervention and a new heart that rejoices unashamedly at the work of the Father.

The first thing the baby in Bethlehem seeks to accomplish in us is this child like trust.  This trust is not some sacred treasure to be kept under protective glass.  It is a trust to be lived out in the world, where the Herods still rule.  Do what love requires, based on trust in God.  Whenever we are under the gun, whenever problems are popping up at every turn, whenever we feel we are helpless, listen for the quiet voice of the baby Jesus and you will hear him say, “Trust me.”   

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 5

If God Is With You

John 4:4-26     ⁴Now he had to go through Samaria.  ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.  It was about the sixth hour.  ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"  ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)  ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)  ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  ¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.  Where can you get this living water?  ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"  ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."  ¹⁶He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."  ¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied.  Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.  What you have just said is quite true."  ¹⁹"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet.  ²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."  ²¹Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."  ²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us."  ²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Emmanuel, “God with us.”  In times past God had spoken of His love through Moses and the prophets.  He had demonstrated His love in acts of mercy and kindness.  But now He declares His love most clearly and most convincingly because He came.  He came to us in His Son, Jesus, the Christ.  He came to seek us out in our sinfulness, harboring no false illusions of our genuine effort to do good and our failure to do so, of our belief in peace while causing conflict.  We often live with the hidden secrets of our defeats, failures, and flaws, and hope that no one will notice.  And the more we succeed, the harder the varnish of our life becomes.

Emmanuel means God is seeking us out in our sinfulness.  It also means He is seeking to bring out our saintliness. He is with us in an endless, patient, personal pursuit of our life.

That is why the woman at the well wanted everyone in her village to come and meet this man who knew everything about her.  Given her reputation in town, what would motivate her to bring people to see this man, unless He had seen and brought to light some things about her that even she did not know.  Whatever those things were, to her they felt like good news, in fact, the best news she had ever heard.

Emmanuel means God is with us that we might find our way to become something like Him.  And these shall be signs to us, wherever we see guilt overcome by grace, greed overcome by gratitude, self-centeredness overcome by a reckless reaching out to others, hostility overcome by graciousness, and narrow-mindedness overcome by great-heartedness, there we will see Jesus Christ, our Emmanuel.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell

A Christmas Present - Advent Day 4

Born of the Virgin Mary

Isaiah 7:10-17    ¹⁰Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹"Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."  ¹²But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test."  ¹³Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David!  Is it not enough to try the patience of men?  Will you try the patience of my God also?  ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:  The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.  ¹⁵He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.  ¹⁶But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.  ¹⁷The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria."

Matthew 1:18-24    ¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about:  His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.  ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  ²⁰But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."  ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  ²³"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."  ²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

Do you believe in the Virgin Birth?  There was a time when this question was considered the litmus test for 100% proof orthodox Christian faith.  As such, it is a good test of our orthodoxy, for the word literally means straight praise.  But, the Virgin Birth is not so much a doctrine that demands agreement as it is an event that evokes praise, wonder and awe. 

The Virgin Birth calls us to praise God because it was the act of God keeping His promise.  “All this took place,” Matthew says, “to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son …’”

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child…” (NASB)  Here is the assertion that the birth of Jesus came about by God’s initiative and not by any human thought or effort.  Here is the claim that what the mind could not conceive and the heart could not grasp, God caused to happen.  Here also is God taking Christmas out of our control. 

For people who like to be in control of things such a realization can be a little scary at first.  But fear melts to wonder and awe as we recognize that the Virgin Birth is overcoming all impossibilities to get to us, to reach us, to draw us into the closest possible relationship of love.  Even if we cannot accept it, if it is stretching our minds too far to believe it, we do not change the event, only cut ourselves off from one avenue of grace with which God seeks to reach us.

So the proclamation of the Virgin Birth is once again dropped into our lives as a kind of stop sign.  “Stop,” it says, “stop all this feverish activity to save yourselves from real and imagined woes.  Your efforts are futile and self-defeating.  Stop and hear the good news, ‘She will give birth to a son...he will save his people from their sins.’” 

While the Virgin Birth is a stop sign to all the scurrying activity to save ourselves it is a go sign for us to cooperate with God’s saving activity in human life, just as He called to Mary to cooperate in her way, and to Joseph to cooperate in his way, not to divorce but to take Mary as his wife.

As we heed these signs we are drawn into that mystery of Christmas that takes hold of us, the words, the stories, the songs that stir up something in us, and the silence that whispers hope to our deepest desires and there is that awakening of birth in us that feels like love at the core of our being.  And behold, you shall conceive the very life of Christ in you.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell