Luke 1 – Christmas Journeys

Many of us will be travelling – or welcoming those who travel to us – over the coming days and weeks. These journeys have great significance, reuniting family and friends across the generations.

Malcolm Guite’s The Visitation takes inspiration from Mary’s journey, recorded in Luke 1, to her older relative Elizabeth:

Here is a meeting made of hidden joys

Of lightenings cloistered in a narrow place

From quiet hearts the sudden flame of praise

And in the womb the quickening kick of grace.

Two women on the very edge of things

Unnoticed and unknown to men of power

But in their flesh the hidden Spirit sings

And in their lives the buds of blessing flower.

And Mary stands with all we call ‘too young’,

Elizabeth with all called ‘past their prime’

They sing today for all the great unsung

Women who turned eternity to time

Favoured of heaven, outcast on the earth

Prophets who bring the best in us to birth.

 from Sounding the Seasons, reprinted with permission

Mary’s journey was prompted by Gabriel’s visit, and the message he brought to her.

I love the Bible’s honesty: it doesn’t flinch from the turmoil Gabriel’s words stirred within Mary. The NIV’s greatly troubled utterly fails to convey the overwhelming sense of the original Greek. As Mary struggles to take in what she’s hearing, she’s brought almost to breaking point, acute distress creating a vortex of thoughts and emotions within her.

I imagine most of us can recall such a time, and how it felt. Reading this, you, or someone you know may be saying to God, How can this be? It’s impossible … feeling like that can be even more painful at this time of year.

Two things happen, one before and one after Mary’s question (How will this be?) which enable her, just a few lines further on, to say, I am the Lord’s servant … May your word to me be fulfilled.

The first is the angel’s declaration that Jesus rules a kingdom which will never end. As Christians, whatever we face, now or in the future, we will ultimately be on the winning side with the King of kings.

But more significantly for Mary is the promise that the Holy Spirit will overshadow or envelop her here and now– the word is that used when Peter, James and John are enveloped by the cloud of God’s presence as they see Jesus transfigured.

Pray for yourself and others on your heart, that the Holy Spirit will envelop you and them with his presence, peace and comfort; and invite him to help you to bring your response to whatever you’re facing into line with his Word of life to you.

The fact that Mary was heavily pregnant and yet still hurried to travel the considerable distance to see Elizabeth shows how significant the older woman was to her. Think of and pray for the significant people you turn to when you’re facing something major in life.

Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks words of life and blessing over Mary – the assertion that it is the Spirit who enables us to minister to others is core to New Wine DNA. Holy Spirit, fill us afresh, that words of life and blessing may overflow to others …

Mary’s song is one of the most famous in all scripture. It’s been set to music countless times, and in many churches across the world forms part of the daily cycle of prayer and praise. In early English bibles, glorifieswas translated magnifies – and that’s why Mary’s song is known as The Magnificat.

Yet when we stop to think about the circumstances in which these words burst forth from Mary, they become even more remarkable. She’s a teenage girl, only months earlier planning her future with Joseph, and no doubt dreaming of all that is to come. Her pregnancy, at a human level, threatens everything – her future, her marriage, even her life itself. Matthew tells us that Joseph’s first instinct was to divorce her. This can be confusing – surely they were only engaged? Well, yes, but in those days, betrothal was a contract so binding that divorce was the only way to undo it.

The incident of the woman caught in adultery in John 8 reveals the very real threat to Mary’s life. While by the first century, stoning was almost unheard of in cities, it was still happening in the countryside. Mary joins other biblical figures like Moses, Joseph, Esther, and Daniel in facing mortal danger as a result of her obedient response to God’s call on her life.

Two lines of Mary’s song offer us a pattern as we approach God in this season: ⁴⁶ And Mary said: ‘My soul glorifies the Lord ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour …

The soul is the unique essence of each human being – the Greek word is the root for our psyche and psychology; and corresponds exactly to the Hebrew for soul, which is the direct result of God breathing (blowing) his gift of life into us. Humans are uniquely ‘en-souled’ beings – and so Mary’s soul (her essential being) glorifies God in his essential being as Lord.

The spirit (Greek = pneuma / Hebrew = ruach) refers to the unique capacity of human beings to respond to the divine invitation to new life – and so Mary’s spirit rejoices in God in his essential action as Saviour.

As we celebrate his birth in Bethlehem, may we both glorify Jesus as our Lord and rejoice in him as our Saviour. His present to us is his presence with us. May we be ready to receive him anew and rest in him this Christmas.

Paul Langham is Vicar of Christ Church Clifton, Bristol, and a member of the National Leadership Team