Fourth Sunday of Advent – morning
Sunday 24th December 2017
Advent 4
2 Sam 7. 1-11
Luke 1. 26-38
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Home. That little word has such an emotive meaning for us, hasn’t it. How many people have been listening to Chris Rea singing “Driving home for Christmas?” . Christmas makes us think of ‘going home’ – and many people will be, or have already travelled to be, with family this Christmas.
Human beings are essential social animals and we have strong bonds of affection that link us to our parents and siblings – even when we are very grown up ourselves; even when old sibling rivalries and quarrels are all too likely to re-emerge. The other day I was listening to a radio programme asking why it is that we revert to being our teenage selves when we gather at the parental home for Christmas?! Even when we have families of our own!
‘Home’ means a lot to us, and so it was natural that the ancient Israelites assumed God must also want to have a home of God’s own. When the Hebrews first left Egypt and were travelling through the desert to their promised land, the Arc of the Covenant – the box containing the special instructions that God had given Moses about how they were to live and how they should worship, well, that was taken wherever they were. And it was somewhere that God’s presence was particularly apparent. It had a special tent of its own – which became the Tent of Meeting for all the 12 tribes, but it was not a permanent construction, because the people were not settled.
And later, although the people eventually settled the land and began to build houses for themselves, the Arc remained in its travelling tent. For there were countless battles to be fought as the people of Judea and Israel established themselves and tried to push out the other people living in what they came to understand as ‘their’ land; their home. And God had to be seen to travel with the armies.
Eventually the King built for himself a handsome palace. He too was more established on his throne. The Threat of foreign invaders began to diminish at least a little, and he began to feel guilty that God too did not have his own significant abode to inhabit. Of course people realised that God did not ‘live’ anywhere specific… he was all around. But still they needed a focus for their worship and wanted to feel that God was ‘grounded’ with them… and only them if they were to conquer their enemies.
But it seems God was none too keen or anxious to be confined to bricks and mortar. God knew that – just as his troublesome children were curious to know his name as that would give them some power over him, so too they were keen to know where they could locate him. Definitively. And God is not a force that takes to being tied down!
So, although in due course it was David’s son, Solomon who would build the great Temple in Jerusalem, and while God did descend from time to time to occupy the Holy of Holies – rendering it unapproachable for ordinary mortals most of the time, God never ever really felt ‘at home’ there.
No, God is not a person in any normal sense of the word. God is far greater than that; but God wants, believe it or not, a relationship with us, rather like that between two loving human beings. Something that is loving, comfortable and comforting – a real home.
And the only way that could be achieved was to experience life; the whole of life, as a human person. So God crammed as much as was possible of God’s self into a human body in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and he chose a human mother to give birth. So you could say that the home of God’s own choosing was no grand temple or palace, but the nourishing womb of a human being.
Ancient mythology is full of accounts of the gods descending and lusting after attractive human girls. They are usually then either seduced or raped so that they become pregnant and give birth to an extraordinary child, endowed with special qualities.
But our story is different. There was no seduction. No rape. Mary is told of God’s plan, but she is then asked whether or not she will accept the honour of bearing the Son of God.
And as I have said before, Mary is no dreamy blond-haired, blue clad passive girl, meekly agreeing to her role as the Victorian images would have us believe. Mary may well have been young – very young perhaps to our way of thinking, but she is a strong minded and determined young woman. While she can think of all the practical barriers that stand in the way of this mystery happening, and she must have been well aware of the very real danger into which she was putting herself as an unmarried pregnant girl, she has little hesitation.
“Let it be with me according to your Word.” God needs a home? I will give him a home!
What courage! What strength!
And every Christmas since, God comes looking for a home in the willing hearts of human beings the world over. Are you ready to follow Mary’s example? Can you respond with her, “Let it be with me according to your word.” God is for life, not merely for Christmas. Amen.