What new word is there to say about a story most of us have heard all of our lives? What more is there to say except that we wait eagerly for Bethlehem and managers, Joseph and Mary, shepherds and angels, and wise visitors from the East?

We welcome the birth of children, we smile at them and buy them presents and are interested in the baby’s length and weight, and how much like his or her parents the baby looks and what the child will become. We welcome babies into our lives, but a baby is a strange way to redeem the world. Yet, that is exactly what God, who loves this world has done. We celebrate in these days the coming of the baby Jesus and the coming of Jesus the Christ in all of the power and might God gave him. It is a holy time.

We have waited with eager longing for Christ to appear. With hope, seeking peace, and claiming joy, we wait. Now, today when we know that "the time is at hand and the birth of the Lord is near" (Texts for Preaching – Year C. Louisville; Westminster John Knox Press. 1994, p.30). We know that this is the day when all of our Advent themes come together not as concepts to be analyzed, or interesting ideas to be debated, or even fanciful dreams to be contemplated. This is the day when it all comes together as the sign of God’s love for the world through the birth of a child. Perhaps it is that we do not so much need a new word as much as a fresh word to remind us of the amazing, loving power of God shown to us in the birth of Jesus.

We do know the story well. It is above all the story of God’s love for us in a way we can understand. God’s love offers salvation to the world through Jesus Christ and it began with a young Galilean named Mary.

Can you imagine being Mary, who is "betrothed but not yet married to Joseph (v.34). In those days, betrothal, was legal and binding, it was usually arranged between families when women were quite young, still only girls" (Interpretation Series. Luke. Fred Craddock. Louisville. John Knox Press, 1990; p.27). Mary seems like an unremarkable young woman, but God has something special and remarkable for the sake of God and for the sake of the whole world. Gabriel comes and says some extraordinary things to this ordinary young woman.

"Mary, don’t get nervous, but I am a messenger from God who wants you to know that you are blessed, respected, honored, favored by God. You have been given the gift of grace that God has not given in quite this way before."

We might wonder with Mary, "OK, what does this mean? Who am I that God would come to me for anything? What does God want with someone like me? Are you sure you have the right house? There are women here in town much more devout and deserving than I am. Why me?"

I wonder if Mary felt relieved a little and a little more at ease when we hear those words that run throughout scripture, that offer comfort to us when we are anxious in our

encounters with God and God’s messengers: "fear not." An angel with a message from God, is enough to make anyone nervous, and the words, "fear not", may not be quite enough to make our hearts stop pounding. But this is not a time for fear. Mary will have to stand in the grace of this strange blessing, just as we do.

She will need to stand strong in the favor of God because she is learning that God’s love will sometimes ask us to do some amazing things and if we live in fear, we may miss the opportunity to know God and then, out of the confidence that God’s love gives us, we can do some great things. If we are overwhelmed by fear, we will miss the blessings, and we will be ill-equipped to serve God well.

What does this blessing look like? "Listen carefully, Mary. In a few months, you will become the mother of a son named Jesus who will be an heir to our great king David, and who will reign over Israel and over a kingdom that will not end."

"You still have the wrong person. Don’t you know I have not yet been intimate with a man, this thing you want me to do is not possible, how can this be?"

We know the feeling. Forgive someone who hurt us, let go of a painful past, grab onto a hopeful future. Embrace necessary change, listen for a new word from God, bear the savior of the world in our hearts and carry him into the world. It feels impossible, how can that be?

Here’s how it was for Mary and for us: "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of God will overshadow you, and a child will be born. He will be holy and will be called God’s own son. And, did you know that God is at work in the life of your kinswoman Elizabeth? This woman whom everybody just knew was unable to have children, is going to have a son of her own, in fact her son will help introduce the world to yours!"

Seems weird, doesn’t it. Why send the son of God into the world as an infant?

You may have read it last Friday in our Advent meditations: "The child that we have awaited is about to join us again, signaling newness of life and possibility, reminding us that God makes all things new, that God comes among us as one of us, vulnerable and weak, with the intention of making a way for us. God comes as a child and yet ruler of the world to ensure a future for us.

"This is the time when we begin to turn from dread to joy, from stress to celebration, as we remember, ‘God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him – John 3.17" (Sharon Watkins and Rick Lowery. Partners in Prayer -2006 Advent reading for December 22, 2006).

Maybe so he would understand what it is to know God fully and to grow into what it is to be fully human. Maybe so that he would what we know: pain and joy, hope and despair, disappointment and fulfillment, tears and laughter. Maybe so he would know how it feels to experience every human emotion and understand that God greets us with favor and blessing and love.

Maybe he will come in human form to remind us that what Gabriel says is true, for Mary and for Elizabeth, for you and for me, "nothing will be impossible with God" (v.37).

Mary could have listened politely to Gabriel and said, "no thank you", "no way." She could have said, "I don’t believe I heard you correctly. The Holy Spirit is going to do what, and the power of God will make what happen, and it’s all happening through me? I don’t think so".

But God’s amazing love for us can call amazing things out of us. That is what God did with Mary, and I believe it is what God calls us to do. We can believe and respond in faithful ways to God and to Jesus Christ. Mary responded in faith, she responded in obedience, she responded by overcoming her fear and confusion so that she could bear the Messiah. She shows us how to overcome our fear and confusion so that we can be messengers and bearers of the love of God in us. "I am God’s servant", she said, "let it happen according to what God wills. I will do as God directs me, I will not be overwhelmed by fear or shame. I will trust and love God because out of God’s love and trust for me, I will be an agent for changing the world."

We may not give birth to the Messiah as Mary did, but we do long for the Holy Spirit to come upon us, and the power of God to overshadow us so that we will be freed up to celebrate and make known the coming of Christ into the world and his arrival into our lives.

God’s love, given to us through the birth of Jesus blesses us, it leads and calls us to some wonderful things; we worship the living God, we reach out to others, we reflect the light and love of God. We find people to share our journey. I think Mary was seeking a kindred soul when she visited Elizabeth. When she got there, Mary must have had that certain Holy Spirit inspired glow about her because Elizabeth knows that Mary has been changed. Maybe there had been an unrecorded vision, or a voice that spoke to her to let her know that Mary was the earthly bearer of the Messiah.

Whatever it was, she knew that Mary was a blessed woman doing something remarkable for God. Elizabeth feels her own not yet born child leap for joy at the presence of Mary; she knows Mary is beloved and blessed and that the one she carries will be the Lord of all who receive him. She praises Mary for her faith and for believing the incredible, now possible thing God has said, and the great thing God will do.

We celebrate this morning and this evening this marvelous and miraculous thing God has done. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because it is the source of our salvation and deliverance. A son is born and the world is changed. He will be born in a town Micah tells us is small and besieged. Soldiers are everywhere, the king has been publicly humiliated, and into these difficult times God makes an incredible promise.

"Little Bethlehem, of small consequence in so many ways, will give to Israel the One who will rule in peace…the rule of this wonderful King is yet to come, but its joyful effect is already felt in the hearts of those who are aware of his nearness" (Texts for Preaching – Year C, p.29). We need the promise today as a healing balm for all of those times we feel besieged and belittled. We need to hear the word that tells us what Micah told that little town; that in the midst of despair, the light of God will shine, in all of the hopelessness, there is reason to rejoice.

Rejoice and be glad today. Our Lord is on the way. "Let it be to us according to God’s word" (1.38). "Blessed are we when we believe what God has said" (1.45). Amen.