All-Embracing Presence

Devotional Reflection, Friday, December 24, 2021

The Week of the Fourth Sunday in Advent: Christmas Eve

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us.”

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 939)

AM Psalm 45,46

Baruch 4:36-5:9; Gal. 3:23-4:7; Matt. 1:18-25

Christmas Eve:

PM Psalm 89:1-29

Isa 59:15b-21; Phil. 2:5-11

Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 1:18-25 (NRSV)

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us." 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

David’s Reflections

Gabriel announced to Mary (as recorded in Luke) that she would conceive and give birth to a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Matthew relates Joseph’s experience of an angel’s manifestation in a dream. The angel quotes from Isaiah 7:14, a promise given to King Ahaz by Isaiah eight hundred years before. In Ahaz’s situation, Isaiah was promising the birth of a son by a young maiden, a son who would lead the people as king.

Matthew saw in this ancient promise an unfulfilled remainder, the promise of an ultimate messianic savior descended from David. Even though Jesus was not his biological child, by the naming ceremony Joseph adopted Jesus as his own. Jesus was the descendant of David who would deliver his people.

Matthew underlines throughout his Gospel the concept of Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us. The very ending itself brackets that theme, with 1:23 being the front of the inclusio. There, Jesus promises his followers; “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

What an appropriate text for the end of Advent. God is with us. God is with you. God is with me. God lives in our souls. We live in God. God meets us in the loving presence of others. God comes to us in the rain, wind, and sun. God meets us in bread and wine each Sunday in the presence of God’s son, Jesus. God’s voice comes to us in Scripture, hymn, sermon, intuition, dream, imagination, inner voice, vision. The second person of the Trinity became enfleshed in a human life and brought God’s presence into human experience.

Julia Cameron in her creative classic, The Right to Write, shares one of her poems that expresses what I feel in the word Emmanuel.

Jerusalem Is Walking in This World

This is a great happiness.

The air is silk.

There is milk in the looks

That come from strangers.

I could not be happier

If I were bread and you could eat me.

Joy is dangerous.

It fills me with secrets.

"Yes" hisses in my veins.

The pains I take to hide myself

Are sheer as glass.

Surely this will pass--

The wind like kisses,

The music in the soup,

The group of trees laughing

As I say their names.

It is all hosannah.

It is all prayer.

Jerusalem is walking in this world.

Jerusalem is walking in this world.*

* Julia Cameron, The Right to Write, (New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 1998), pp. 124-125.

Collect of the Day, The fourth Sunday of Advent

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 212)

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 97)

Of the Incarnation

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 250)

A Prayer for Light

Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 280)