This sermon is for the 4th Sunday in Advent, which is also Christmas Eve Day, December 24, 2023, based on the Gospel reading from Luke 1:26-38. In this passage the gospel writer sets the stage—and the stakes—for the miraculous, prophetic, improbable birth of the Son of God, King of Kings, and Savior of the Nations. And it all begins with the courageous faith of a young, poor, unwed girl named Mary.
We’ll take a closer look at Mary, the angel Gabriel, the names of Jesus, and why these details were so important then and now. We’ll conclude with some ideas about what Spirit might be saying to us now, including some practical ways to apply God’s word this Christmas. So, now would be a great time to dust off your Bible, and open to the first chapter of the gospel of Luke and find verse 26. Let’s pray, then dive in. This prayer is verse four of a Christmas Carol: O Little Town of Bethlehem.
O, Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray: Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; Oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel! Amen.
Luke 1:26-38 (NRSV)
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
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Virgin Birth (Luke 1)
Introduction
Hello, welcome to the Will Preach for Food podcast. I’m Doug, a pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, based out of Shelton, Washington, a congregation of the ELCA. Thank you so much for tuning in. You can learn more about Faith at our website, www.faithshelton.org.
This sermon is for the 4th Sunday in Advent, which is also Christmas Eve Day, December 24, 2023, based on the Gospel reading from Luke 1:26-38. In this passage the gospel writer sets the stage—and the stakes—for the miraculous, prophetic, improbable birth of the Son of God, King of Kings, and Savior of the Nations. And it all begins with the courageous faith of a young, poor, unwed girl named Mary.
We’ll take a closer look at Mary, the angel Gabriel, the names of Jesus, and why these details were so important then and now. We’ll conclude with some ideas about what Spirit might be saying to us now, including some practical ways to apply God’s word this Christmas. So, now would be a great time to dust off your Bible, and open to the first chapter of the gospel of Luke and find verse 26. Let’s pray, then dive in. This prayer is verse four of a Christmas Carol: O Little Town of Bethlehem.
O, Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray: Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; Oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel! Amen.
Luke 1:26-38 (NRSV)
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
The gospel of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Something About Mary
Let’s start by talking about the Virgin Mary. One of the features of the gospel of Luke is how prominent a role women play in his account of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Luke begins with Elizabeth and Mary: both are named and given a voice, even while their husbands remain silent. A prophetess named Anna is the first to preach the good news of the Christ child. He tells us about the women were followers of Jesus, and how these women were the first disciples to find the empty tomb and tell the others. Luke also wrote the book of Acts, where he tells about how both women and men are filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, how they on to serve as leaders, pastors, apostles, and evangelists in the early church, from the Virgin Mary to Mary Magdalene, from Damaris to Dorcas, from Phoebe to Priscilla. The entire story of Jesus hinges on the faith and courage of a virgin named Mary.
Why is it important that Mary is a “virgin?” Some have seen this as a sign of her purity, character, or innocence. Some believe that this fact emphasizes her low estate—a poor, unwed, pregnant teenage refugee. This lines up with God’s particular concern for the least, the last, the lost, the lonely, and the left behind.
The gospel writers do seem to connect her virginity to an obscure prophecy story that is found in Isaiah 7. A king in Jerusalem named Ahaz was quaking in his boots about a particular upcoming battle. A prophet named Isaiah brought assurances to the king saying that God would give Judah the victory. The sign of this victory, he said, was that a virgin would give birth to a son, and by the time he is eating solid food, God will have given Ahaz the victory over his enemies. The gospels see the virgin Mary prophesied in Isaiah 7:14: “The virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
Maybe the point is to emphasize the divinity of Jesus: True God, son of the Father from eternity,” the Small Catechism teaches, “and truly human, born of the Virgin Mary.” John 1:13 describes it this way: “born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
Maybe Luke wants us to make a connection between the power of the Most High “overshadowing” Mary and the cloud “overshadowing” Moses when God met him on Mt Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments.
Angel Gabriel
Now let’s talk about the Angel Gabriel. Angels are generally thought to be heavenly creatures who serve as God’s “messengers.” Gabriel is one of two angels given a name in the Bible. Some have wondered if Satan is some kind of “fallen angel.” Angels are a thing. We just don’t know a lot about them.
And I suspect there are angels all around us, all the time. A prophet named Elisha once opened the eyes of his servant so that he could see, even briefly, what Elisha could see: the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around them. That would mean that maybe the angels singing at the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem were there singing all along and have never left. We just can’t see them or hear them, unless the Spirit opens our eyes and ears. That’s how Mary can receive the angel Gabriel. I wonder how often angels are talking and singing all around us, but we just can’t see them or hear them. Until we can.
Jesus: The One Who Saves
The angel Gabriel instructs Mary to name the child “Jesus.” Jesus is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, like the Joshua who succeeds Moses, who leads God’s people into the Promised Land. The same Joshua who “fit the battle of Jericho.” The name means “The One Who Saves” and this new Joshua/Jesus will save his people from sin, and will lead God’s people into a new kingdom, not on the other side of the Jordan River, not a kingdom of geography and borders, but a heavenly kingdom without end.
Notice the other titles assigned to Jesus: Son of God, and Son of David. The Son of David—that’s a nation of Israel thing. King David had been given the throne in Jerusalem a thousand years earlier. For a thousand years, Israel believed that God’s kingdom would be based in Jerusalem, with a son of David on the throne, and a nation worshiping in God’s Temple. But by Luke’s day, the Temple had been long in rubble. Now the risen Christ ruled God’s kingdom, not from Jerusalem, but from heaven (at the right hand of the Father). And with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Temple in Jerusalem was no longer needed: the new Temple of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of the Christ-following women and men across the globe.
And “Son of God?” To be sure, this is a statement about the divinity of Jesus: true God, son of the Father from Eternity. But it is also a direct challenge to the Roman Emperor. It was common back then for the Emperor du jure to refer to himself as “the son of God.” The beginning of Luke’s gospel declares the sovereignty and sufficiency of the son of Mary: Jesus, the true Son of God, savior of the nations, king of kings, lord of lords. The Messiah has come, has accomplished his purposes, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
O Little Town of Bethlehem
One more word for today, and it has to do with the place of Jesus’ birth: that little town of Bethlehem. You probably know this part of the story, from Luke 2:1-7.
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.
Even though Mary was well along with child at the time, Joseph and Mary were compelled by the government to leave their home and travel to Bethlehem. Their baby was born there, in an unheated, unhospitable barn.
The sad thing is that things haven’t changed. Two thousand years later, pregnant mothers and anxious fathers around Bethlehem are once again being uprooted from their homes, forced to be refugees in their own lands, their lives threatened everyday by warfare and violence.
The news this Christmas is of twenty-thousand lives lost in just two months: neighbors, women, and children. I read in an article from the Associated Press that many Christians in Palestine will not be celebrating Christmas this year. Their Christmas joy has been replaced with grief. Church leaders in Palestine say that traditional tree-lighting has been replaced with “fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace for our beloved Holy Land.”
At the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, the article says, they are displaying a nativity scene where a baby Jesus figure, wrapped in a head-scarf with the colors of the Palestinian flag, is lying in the rubble. “We see Jesus in every child that’s killed,” says their pastor, Rev. Munther Isaac. Another Palestinian Christian makes this plea: “When you sing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem,’” he says, “remember that Jesus was born in my hometown.”
This Christmas, Faith Lutheran is united with the Christian Church around the world condemning this violence. The child born in that man’s hometown is Jesus, the Son of the Most High, the Prince of Peace. With the Christian church around the world we fervently pray for a cease fire, for an end to the senseless cycle of violence, and for “a just and lasting peace.” Come, Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace, and Hope of the Nations: forgive our warring ways.
And, united with the Christian Church around the world, we reject and refute the so-called dispensationalist theology that promotes this bloodshed as God’s plan for some kind of fulfilment of Biblical prophecy and precursor to the end times.
This is our hope: Jesus Christ rules heaven and earth. Angels are all around us. The Holy Spirit has been poured out on you and me, old women and virgins, fathers and sons, Lutherans and Catholics, Palestinians and Israelis, rich and poor, young and old, and everyone in between. God is always coming into the world, bringing about a lasting and enduring kingdom of peace on earth as it is in heaven, with goodwill to all. So we end this message with the same prayer with which we began:
O, Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray: Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; Oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel! Amen.
Conclusion
Thanks for listening today. To learn more about the gospel or about getting connected to Faith, go to our website, www.faithshelton.org. I’ve got a couple of years of sermons stored up in the “Will Preach for Food” podcast. We also livestream weekly worship on Facebook. The links are there at our website. I’m grateful to Chaz for helping me produce this podcast. And I want to wish you and all of the people of Faith a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
May God bless you and keep you. May God’s face shine on you and be gracious to you. May God look upon you with favor; and give you peace. Give us ALL peace. Amen? Amen.