Sunday 23 December 2018

Psalm: Psalm 80:1-7

Background

For hundreds of years, God’s people had looked and longed for the Messiah to come. Over that time it wasn’t too surprising that people had either become complacent as to what this might mean or alternatively had imagined how this would take place – with the Messiah charging in to save his people, a warrior king, or God taking charge of the chaos that was in the world. I don’t suppose anyone thought that God’s plan would personally turn their lives upside down.

The news delivered by the angel to Mary did exactly that – and in the most personal of ways. She was a young girl (a teenager) and she was to be the key to God’s plan for the salvation of the world! What do you do with news like that? To whom do you turn? Fortunately the angel had given a strong clue: go to someone else whose world had turned upside down. Elizabeth, once barren but now full of new life, would help her understand.

So Mary enters the house and immediately things begin to change. Rather than interrogate Mary with questions such as “What on earth have you been up to?”, there are instead expressions of pure joy, both from Elizabeth’s lips and from the child she carries; the child leapt in her womb. Elizabeth had already experienced nothing is impossible with God (v 37).

As we move through this Christmas week, our readings remind us that when God moves in people’s lives very little follows a standard plan, and it has the potential to turn things upside down for the better. We are also reminded that God knows what is on our hearts and knows our potential to help bring about his kingdom here on earth.

To Ponder:

• If your world was turned upside down today, in whatever way, to whom would you go?
• When have you seen God alive in someone else’s life? How did you celebrate it?