Our Scripture reading this Sunday is Luke 1:26-38.
It’s a challenge for us to read Luke 1 and 2 every year as we prepare for and celebrate Christmas. It’s a challenge because we know these passages. They don’t surprise us anymore. The angel Gabriel came to Zechariah and announced the birth of John, the one who would prepare the way for Jesus and we just keep on reading. We do the same when silent Zechariah witnesses his formerly barren wife, Elizabeth, who was way too old become pregnant, when Gabriel visits Mary, when John is born, and even as we read the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph and the shepherds.
We know the story.
It's so easy for us to read it without thinking about what it says.
But if we allow ourselves to do that – especially in our passage for this Sunday – we miss the so much of the surprise at what God was doing.
In almost every other religion the story is so different from what Gabriel tells Mary. Almost every other religion is about humanity making its way back up to God – through good deeds or sacrifice or certain religious practices. But God’s announcement through Gabriel is different. God comes to us.
This is the mystery of the incarnation. It marks the beginning of the climax of God’s redemptive plan in Scripture. God himself comes to us, taking on our flesh and blood, to redeem us. God does this because He loves us (“For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son …”).
During Advent and at Christmas we sometimes read this like it’s old news, like it’s just the way it is. But that doesn’t do justice to the fact that the birth of Christ as announced by Gabriel is earth-shattering news. It’s the kind of news that changes everything.
Gabriel’s announcement to Mary is about God’s mission of rescue through Jesus. It’s about a reckless and unending love that will do whatever it takes to save His people. It’s about the triune God, who created heaven and earth and all creatures, taking on flesh (incarnating Himself) and entering the world He made to save it and us because of His love.
However, our Advent celebration doesn’t stop there. We celebrate this mystery of the incarnation, but we also remember that we are called to live in response to this Good News. We are called today, as those who have been given the Holy Spirit, to practice “incarnation” by living out in our flesh God’s love for us, for our neighbours, for our community, and for our world.