The Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B, December 24, 2023

This Sunday morning the pastors of small congregations will debate with their leadership about holding a morning service on Christmas Eve.  In many ways, it is a “low Sunday” in advance.  Larger congregations may choose to have abbreviated services or combine, if the have multiple services, all their services.  Other churches, especially large churches that hold multiple services may see the morning service as the first of several Christmas Eve services.  Despite the logistic challenges, the Fourth Sunday of Advent can be a life-changing service.  Although I discussed Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46b-55) in last week’s lectionary commentary, I see this Sunday morning as a Mary Sunday, incorporating both the Visitation and the Magnificat.

Everything hinges on Mary’s response to her angelic visitor.  Mary said “yes” to Gabriel and on that “yes,” our future and the future of the  planet depends.   The power of the Visitation is in Mary’s embracing an impossible possibility, in carrying God’s beloved child, not in some supernatural gynecological miracle.  While a universe of a trillion stars has room for a virgin birth, and while great religious and political leaders are often identified with unique births (Gautama the Buddha and Augustus Caesar, for example), Mary’s embrace of God’s call is more significant than a supernatural intervention.  Were others asked before Mary? We will never know.  But, Mary’s “yes” allows God to embody in flesh and blood the prophetic and Messianic hope of Israel.  Perhaps the conception of Jesus is a naturalistic miracle, revealing God’s presence in the flesh and blood and in companionship with the DNA of Mary of Nazareth.  God chose to be more fully present in the conception and birth of Jesus, although the birth and conception of Jesus is in continuity with our births.  Jesus incarnated God, and we too can be incarnations of God in our world.

Mystics throughout the ages have spoken of our calling in terms of “midwifing” or “birthing God.”  Each child, as (Saint) Pelagius says bears the face of God. Every child is a miracle.  Every child deserves nurture, safety, support, and love.  Our children and grandchildren are miracles, fearfully and wonderfully made, as Psalm 139 notes. Every child is born with a vision of possibility oriented to their culture, history, and family.  Mary’s recently conceived child can be perceived as fulfilling the prophetic hope of the ages.  The child to be born will gather up “the hopes and fears of all the years” and reveal to us the intersection and congruence of full humanity and full divinity. Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophetic vision is not supernatural nor does it supersede Judaism.  Rather within the Jewish tradition, God acted decisively in the call and response of Gabriel and Mary.

We can’t speculate on the mechanics of Jesus’ birth.  We can say that God is at work in Mary’s womb for us – our salvation – and the healing of the planet.  God is at work in our lives aiming at salvation and healing as well.

In the pastor’s morning meditation, we can revel in the angelic visitation.  But, more importantly, Mary’s response inspires us to open to Christ being born in our lives and the world.  These moments of Christ conception and birth take place within history and within our lives.  We receive guidance from God – the initial aim or panorama of possibility – and then choose how we will respond to God’s moment-by-moment and long-term vision for our lives and the lives of children around us.

The incarnation is political, as Mary of Nazareth, shouts in the Magnificat.  The incarnation turns everything upside down and realigns our values.  The humility of Jesus’ conception and birth challenge us to see Christ in the poor of the earth, the struggle for justice, and the dream of a new heaven and new earth.  Mary said “yes” to an impossible and provocative possibility.  Let us listen to God’s possibilities in our life and communities and follow Mary in bringing new and abundant life to our churches, communities, and the world.  The “low’ service of Christmas Eve morning invites us to the “heights” of revelation and spiritual transformation.

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Bruce Epperly is a pastor, professor, spiritual guide, and author of over seventy books, including JESUS – MYSTIC, HEALER, AND PROPHET; THE ELEPHANT IS RUNNING: PROCESS AND OPEN AND RELATIONAL THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM; PROPHETIC HEALING: HOWARD THURMAN’S VISION OF CONTEMPLATIVE ACTIVISM; MYSTIC’S IN ACTION: TWELVE SAINTS FOR TODAY; WALKING WITH SAINT FRANCIS: FROM PRIVILEGE TO ACTIVISM; MESSY INCARNATION: MEDITATIONS ON PROCESS CHRISTOLOGY, FROM COSMOS TO CRADLE: MEDITATIONS ON THE INCARNATION, and THE PROPHET AMOS SPEAKS TO AMERICA.  His most recent books are PROCESS THEOLOGY AND THE REVIVAL WE NEED, TAKING A WALK WITH WHITEHEAD: MEDITATIONS WITH PROCESS-RELATIONAL THEOLOGY, and SIMPLICITY, SPIRITUALITY AND SERVICE: THE TIMELESS WISDOM OF FRANCIS, CLARE, AND BONAVENTURE. He can be reached at [email protected].