Sunday 22nd December
Read Psalm 88
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
This Christmas week we come today and next Sunday to two Psalms strongly connected to the person of Jesus. If we were to imagine a painting with variations of colour this would be the predominantly dark one for it comes with cries in the dark, “I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death” (v3) and it speaks of being cut off from God’s care. When we think of Christmas, the sentimentality of a new-born baby often sweeps into the emotions, but we must also remember that this Son of God comes to inhabit our poverty, hopelessness, suffering and pain, our helplessness in the dark. He does this, taking on our alienation from God, that he might raise us through faith in Him in due course. The last phrase, “darkness is my closest friend”, echoes Paul Simon. For some, Christmas isn’t always the time of jollity and laughter, but hear the Word of God, in the darkness Christ is beside you. Through the Sound of Silence there is the Bridge over Troubled Water, two songs that Simon said “came mysteriously” to him but say something of the dark silence broken through by the Bridge we know as Christ.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Zechariah was Jewish priest who had the privilege, often only once in a lifetime as it was chosen by lot, to officiate in the Temple service. As he burned incense, symbolic of the prayers of the people, he found himself in the presence of an angel which struck him with fear, the message he was given however was not one of judgement but that his elderly wife would bear a son who would be like the prophet Elijah when he grew up.
This message was not one about domestic happiness – it would be – but far deeper and more pertinent to the people of Israel. In the Old Testament God promised that he would bring an anointed King, of David’s line but greater than him, who would lead the people and bring them and the world into glorious obedience to God and into worldwide blessedness. This King, the Messiah or anointed one, would be preceded by an Elijah figure to prepare the way for him. What this message to Zechariah was telling him was that his son was going to be that preparatory figure and that the coming Messiah was near, even if not in Zechariah’s lifetime.
Zechariah’s astonishment was also met with an element of doubt which meant he was struck with dumbness, not able to share his message until the baby was born. We ought never to doubt the miraculous things of God.
There is a difference between the reception of the message to Mary and that to Zechariah. Zechariah raised a query about the credulity of what was said to him, whereas Mary received the message with quiet acceptance – “May your word to me be fulfilled” (v38). The two messages were linked but this one to Mary was of the giving of the Messiah himself. Although he would be the Son or descendant of David, he was also going to be Son of the Most High or Son of God (v32 & 35) for it would be through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit of God that he would be conceived in the womb of this young woman.
The virgin birth speaks strongly of the work of God and not of man. Joseph was set aside showing that man was impotent to bring about his own salvation. The name Jesus or Saviour was given to the Messiah apart from Man and only through the work of the Holy Spirit of God. It also shows that our own salvation does not come about through our own decisions but only by the grace of God to us.
Christmas Day Wednesday 25th Luke 2:1-7
Quirinius was appointed Legate of Syria with instructions to assess the Judean province for taxation purposes. Understandably the Jews who did not like censuses and despised their Roman rulers caused a great deal of trouble with an open revolt which led to the formation of the party of the zealots under Judas of Galilee. These were the things that were going on at the time of Joseph and Mary moving to the place of Joseph’s ancestry as a son of David. In the midst of political upheaval the baby was born, a seemingly insignificant family matter of interest only to the family.
The Bible is full of similar instances of what to the world will seem of minor importance but in the global scene, under God’s control, much greater and more significant things happen.
When we look out at the World’s politics today we remember that the final issues are already settled under the One who was born, died and rose again, and is our Lord who will come again in great glory before whom ever knee will bow (Philippians 2).
Thursday Luke 2:8-20
Why the shepherds? Well, why anyone, couldn’t the birth of Jesus have happened and been merely a family matter? The answer to that is no, it couldn’t, because Jesus was important to the world and witnesses were required to spread the word and the shepherds did that.
The angelic messenger was met, like all the other places in scripture, with initial fear. No angel brought cosy, warm feelings to the recipients because it was a messenger from Almighty God. The shepherds were also ordinary working men, yes, later, wise men would come to visit but the initial proclamation was through ordinary working men. Although today many become very interested in wise, academic apologists, it is often the case that they first become believers through ordinary friends, not the clever and intelligent. God chooses his messengers.
We return to one of God’s messengers, the Apostle Paul, and his further travels in the ancient world sharing the message of the Kingdom of God to as many as he could. He has been in Jerusalem and faced the anger of the Jewish establishment at the time but now he is on his way to Rome to be tried before Caesar.
The centurion in charge of delivering Paul to Rome decided that he wanted to move on post haste despite Paul’s suggestion that they stay put because winter was coming on. Sometimes we need to be guided by what I would call sanctified common sense but here that was not what happened and the ship once on its way got caught up in a fierce storm with the crew giving up all hope of being saved (v20). However, God’s plan was that Paul would be brought to Rome and he sent an angel with a message to be of good courage, he would be saved and the lives of all on the boat would be saved to. “I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me” (v25). Paul had faith even though what he said had not yet come about. Faith is not thankfulness for something in the past but certain hope for what has yet to come. A good message for us in all our lives.
The story of the voyage continues and the fear and panic of the crew and passengers becomes evident. Paul continues to hold fast to the message he has been given and warns the sailors, who were of a mind to abandon ship, and the soldiers who were planning to kill the prisoners when eventually the ship got stranded on a sand bar, to do no such thing.
Paul acted as normal in the midst of the panic, taking the bread they would have left of their rations and eating, encouraging the men to do likewise. The Christian’s witness in the world shines forth more strongly when we behave as normal, trusting God, and not diving into panic like those around. At the end, everyone was saved – all 276, which was a large number for a ship in those days.
