Advent Reflections
WEEK 1
01.12.24
Genesis 1:26-27
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Advent is a time of remembering and preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. As followers of Jesus we believe that the coming of Jesus into the world was the most life changing event this planet has ever known.
The bible text above is the most profound in scripture. It reveals our heritage and purpose and tells us why we exist and why on earth we are the top species. It also reveals something to us about the creator which also has a bearing on the Christmas advent story. God the creator created us knowing the full potential of his decision to make us in his image. A God who is able to see the end from the beginning could have easily desist from creation yet God proceeded to create.
As we journey through this advent season and focus our attention on Jesus. My prayer is that we would encounter God the Father who loves us and longs to be in relationship with us. I pray we encounter God the Son who gave his life so we can have life and I pray we encounter God the Holy Spirit who left the glories of heaven to come and equip the church to do its mission here on earth.
I pray the daily readings will inspire us to pursue God through this season.
PRAYER
Lord reveal yourself to us afresh as we journey through this season we pray.
02.12.24
Luke 1:26-27
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.
In a world of millions of emails, receiving a text message is definitely quicker and some might say better than an email, but in a world of billions of text messages receiving a phone call is even better than text but nothing can beat face to face communication. There are millions of ways God could have spoken to Mary – dream, vision, audible voice, writing on the wall but God chose face to face contact – He wanted Mary to know she was not just a face in the crowd, but the God of the universe knew her name, knew which country, region and village she lived in, so God sent an angel to her house.
Christmas is a story of an encounter and right at the beginning of the Christmas story Mary had an encounter that would change her life forever. There is so much we can learn from Mary’s example because the Christian story continues to be one of an encounter that leads to change and that is the story of millions of people today who have encountered God and experienced transformation.
PRAYER
Lord, help us to be aware of your visits in our lives and open our eyes to see your invitation.
03.12.24
Luke 1:28
Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Greeting, favoured woman! The Lord is with you
It’s amazing how most of us are acutely aware of the things we do wrong rather than the things we do right. You will most likely find it easier writing five things you want to change in your life rather than five things you are proud of. Equally our subconscious view of God leans more towards the God who wants to change us rather than the God who is pleased with us.
Christmas is a story of Good News and Mary’s first encounter was Good News to her and also to us. “Greeting favoured woman! The Lord is with you”. I wonder what our experience would be like if any angel appeared to us and his first statement was ‘greeting favoured man/woman’. Will you be shocked, delighted or puzzled? Mary did not wake up that morning humming to herself ‘I am the favoured one’ yet that was how God saw her.
Since that statement was made to Mary over two thousand years ago God’s favour has been turned towards you, me and the whole of humanity.
PRAYER
Lord, help us to see ourselves from your perspective and learn to live in your favour
04.12.24
Luke 1:29
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean
As human beings we have this great ability to see ulterior motives behind compliments rather than just accepting them. I wonder what makes women say to their partners ‘what have you done?’ when they buy them gifts or compliment them when it’s just a normal day. I wonder why men are always nervous of their partner’s kindness and start wondering ‘what does she want?’.
Mary on hearing the words of the angel became confused and disturbed – I wonder what is confusing or disturbing about hearing ‘Greeting, favoured woman! The Lord is with you’.
Research has shown that most human beings carry an innate guilty conscience. There is an unverified story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator and author of the Sherlock Holmes series. He sent a telegram to 12 men of great virtue and respect in society.” The telegram read “Flee! All has been discovered.” Within 24 hours, the story goes, all 12 had fled the country.
Christmas is a story of wonder, God saying I am for you not against you and that truth still carries today. The fact that we have double meaning when we speak should not be applied to God – Mary was favoured and the Lord was with her and God had no better way of saying that, than making it plain.
PRAYER
Lord, help us accept the truth of your grace this Christmas season
05.12.24
“Don’t be afraid, Mary” the angel told her, “for you have found favour with God!”
It seems any time an angel appears to human beings the first thing they seem to say is ‘do not be afraid’. I guess seeing an otherworldly being must induce panic in most of us. But in Mary’s case it is not the appearance of the angel that seemed to frighten her, it was more what the angel had said to her.
Mary, unlike lots of people in our culture today, understood the power of words and was also aware of the responsibility that came with her supposedly favoured position. Mary became aware that there was a responsibility that comes with being God’s favoured person.
The Good News however is that God wouldn’t place on us a burden that we are unable to bear. Mary must have looked puzzled, we know she was confused and disturbed, but she was reassured again that she had nothing to fear.
Christmas can be a puzzling story – God sending his son into the world – God becoming human so humanity could be saved – God appearing in a back street town called Nazareth rather than in Rome at the heart of the ruling empire – But like Mary, when our eyes becomes open and we realise and understand the love that brought God into our world, we become favoured and God will say to us ‘don’t be afraid’ but embrace and receive the Good news for yourself and then share it with others so they can experience the Good News of God’s love.
PRAYER
Thank you for opening our eyes to see your love for us and others.
06.12.24
Luke 1:31-33
“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
As human beings we have this great ability to see ulterior motives behind compliments rather than just accepting them. I wonder what makes women say to their partners ‘what have you done?’ when they buy them gifts or compliment them when it’s just a normal day. I wonder why men are always nervous of their partner’s kindness and start wondering ‘what does she want?’.
Mary on hearing the words of the angel became confused and disturbed – I wonder what is confusing or disturbing about hearing ‘Greeting, favoured woman! The Lord is with you’.
Research has shown that most human beings carry an innate guilty conscience. There is an unverified story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator and author of the Sherlock Holmes series. He sent a telegram to 12 men of great virtue and respect in society.” The telegram read “Flee! All has been discovered.” Within 24 hours, the story goes, all 12 had fled the country.
Christmas is a story of wonder, God saying I am for you not against you and that truth still carries today. The fact that we have double meaning when we speak should not be applied to God – Mary was favoured and the Lord was with her and God had no better way of saying that, than making it plain.
PRAYER
Lord, help us accept the truth of your grace this Christmas season
07.12.24
Luke 1:34
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
Any skeptic reading Luke’s account of Mary’s interaction with the angel would soon see clearly that Mary was not a stupid, ignorant little girl who got herself pregnant and then looked for a convenient story to extricate herself.
Mary displayed all the rational thoughts you will expect from someone who was self aware and had a good grasp of how life functions and biology. She was aware that appearing angels telling you ‘you are favoured’ was not the norm and then informing you of your conception and the birth to follow, when you knew you were still a virgin would pretty much generate the question that Mary asked. To have not asked the question would have made the story more difficult to believe or understand.
The Christmas story raises questions that we need to ask – Was Mary really a virgin? How does God become a baby? And more importantly why did God not eradicate human suffering and deal a death blow to tyrannical issues like slavery, poverty, sickness and misogyny that existed prior to Jesus coming. ‘If God truly loved us, why did he send a baby into the world?’
Some people feel that asking questions is a sign of a lack of faith but the truth is the bible challenges us to come and reason with God and we shouldn’t be afraid to do so.
PRAYER
Lord develop in us an enquiring mind, help us to explore your truth so we could understand your heart.
08.12.24
Luke 1:35
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.”
When Mary asked the question ‘how can this happen’ she revealed a certain lack of understanding of who God is and what God can do. If Mary was familiar with the scriptures which I assume she would have been, she would have been aware that God already had three different ways of bringing human beings into the world so far.
In Adam and Eve we have human beings brought into the world with no assistance from any other human being, but God simply created them. In Cain and Abel we see God’s normal means of reproduction by creating human beings from other humans in line with his principle of things reproducing in kind. In Abraham and Sarah we see God using normal means but this time re-awakening the womb after it was long past child bearing age.
So Mary’s question even though reasonable showed a lack of understanding of who God is and what he can do. It is important to state however that every human encounter with God is an opportunity to learn more about the creator.
The Christmas story shows that God’s logic and ours are totally different. Whilst we go for problem solving, God is more concerned about dealing with root causes. That is why the story of a baby coming into the world will end up being more significant than first imagined and as the story develops we start to see that God’s approach to humanity is always different from ours.
PRAYER
Lord help us see what you see and learn to look at life from your perspective
