Series: The Call of Christmas
Message: The Call to Prepare & Provide
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 39.
Read: Luke 1:1-38 - Read the Message paraphrase, and note 1-3 insights/questions that arise.
Reflect: Again N. T. Wright in Luke for Everyone, page 10, shares an important insight, especially for us today overwhelmed with sexual identity issues.
“It’s important to stress that the story says nothing about Mary remaining a virgin after Jesus’ birth. That’s a much later idea. Nor does it say anything about the goodness or badness of sexual identity or sexual relations. Whatever Luke (and Matthew) are trying to say with this story, they aren’t saying that virginity is a morally better state than marriage. They are not denigrating sex, women, conception or birth. They are simply reporting that Jesus did not have a father in the ordinary way, and that this was because Mary had been given special grace to be the mother of God’s incarnate self.”
There is mingled within this moment the Image of God, the image of the Trinity expressed in the birth that has us for millennia wrestling over the nature of Christ and sadly missing the purpose of the Trinity providing through humanity our Savior. As the apostle Paul tries to draw our attention to in Hebrews 4:14-16:
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for strength.
Research: Watch the video depicting how we would react to Mary sharing that she is pregnant with Jesus today. Provided by Igniter Media