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For this second Sunday of Advent, our text this morning is Luke 1:26-38:
May God add His blessing to this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
When reading the Gospels in our English Bibles, it is helpful to remember that we are reading a translation of a translation.
Most Jews living in region we call Palestine today, were tri-lingual; that is the spoke three languages fluently.
Aramaic was their common language, Hebrew was their liturgical language, and Greek was their trade language.
So, when the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, he most likely spoke to her in Aramaic or Hebrew.
Most certainly his greeting to her would have been in Hebrew.
Even today, when Jews greet one another, they do not say hello, but rather Shalom.
The Complete Jewish Bible translates Luke 1:28 this way:
Shalom, Favored Lady!
Shalom is a very special word in the Hebrew language.
It speaks of peace in its most comprehensive sense.
In English, when we speak of “peace” the first things that comes to mind is the cessation of conflict.
For example, this past week President Biden presented to the Ukrainians and Russians his proposal to get “peace talks” started.
However, peace can have a much broader application even in English.
We often hear people say, “All I want is a little peace of mind.”
Conflicts are not only international and interpersonal; they can also be internal.
We have all experienced conflict within our souls.
Perhaps we are worried about our finances, our future or our families.
We can also be conflicted in our emotions and desires.
How you ever felt like a rat in a maze, not knowing which way to go? Finally, because of sin, we are all in conflict with God.
Shalom is a word that speaks to all of these conflicts.
It is the Hope I spoke of last week of God, through Jesus, undoing all things what are bad.
When Gabriel said to Mary,
…he was saying that from her womb would come the most ancient of hopes.
The promise that a son would be born of a woman who would undo all that is bad was first given to Eve in the Garden.
As the years became centuries, and the centuries became millennium, this hope was fleshed out in God’s progressive revelation to Israel.
The high water-mark of this Old Covenant revelation came from the mouth and pen of the Prophet Isaiah.
In Isaiah 40, we read these words immortalized in Handel’s Messiah:
In chapter two of Luke, we meet an old man by the name of Simeon.
We are told by Luke that all his life Simeon had been “waiting for the consolation of Israel”; that is the “comfort” or “hope of Israel”.
Having seen the child Jesus, Simeon exclaimed:
Perhaps you saw the video that was circulation a few weeks ago around Veterans Day.
It was of an old United States Marine wearing his parade uniform.
As he was talking about the state of our nation currently, he began to tremble and cry.
He said, “This is not what we fought and died for.”
I have thought often of all the men and women who have died to secure the vision of hope our nation was founded upon, we have now come to the place were that vision is dead or will soon be; but this should not surprise us.
Scripture makes clear our hope cannot be placed in the kingdoms of this world.
Like sparklers on the Fourth of July, they may shine brightly for a season, but in the end, they will burn out.
If our hope is in the kingdoms of this world, we will have no comfort and peace; but the message of Advent is the promise of another Kingdom.
A Kingdom in the words of Gabriel will be “forever”!
This brings us to...
The Messiah’s Kingdom of Shalom
In Luke’s gospel and in his companion work, The Acts of the Apostles, the word “kingdom” appears 53 times in 51 verses.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ ministry begins with Him preaching on the Kingdom of God and in the last chapter of The Acts of the Apostles we find Paul in house arrest, “proclaiming the kingdom of God”.
One of the more important of these passages is found in Luke 17:
As we go through the Gospel of Luke, it will become clear that Christ’s Kingdom is in this world, but not of it.
It does not manifest itself in this “present evil age” as a geopolitical nation-state.
It does not even manifest itself in the visible church, but rather in the invisible church—in the hearts and minds of true believers.
None of us can know who these people are with infallible certainty.
In the New Testament, and throughout church history, there have been those who seem to be true believers (even church leaders), but in the end they have proven themselves false.
This is why the true church is called the invisible church.
However, this does not mean the invisible church is not real and powerful.
Through Christ and His Bride, the Church, God will undo all that is bad!
You may not see it the headlines of your newspaper, but it is happening even now.
In Luke 13, we hear Jesus teach us that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or grain of leaven.
In the eyes of this world the Kingdom of God seems insignificant, (even invisible), but in reality, it is filling both heaven and earth!
It is this hope that gives us Shalom.
The message Gabriel brought Mary was truly Good News; it was a message of hope, comfort and peace!
In including this story in his history of the Jesus Movement, Luke is telling Theophilus that this Good News was not only for Mary, but for all who believe in Christ.
This brings us to the final and most important point:
Will You Receive God’s Shalom?
Luke was a companion of Paul, perhaps he was even acting as Paul’s secretary when he penned these words:
Paul in this verse is using a double metaphor, not only is Paul like a woman giving birth, but the Galatians are like pregnant women who have Christ being formed within them.
In other words, we can share in Mary’s blessing of Shalom if we receive the Good News as she did!
To make this clearer, let us look at another passage in which the metaphor of childbirth; this time it is from John’s Gospel.
In this passage Jesus is speaking to a man named Nicodemus:
Nicodemus, just like Mary, asks how the impossible can happen.
The answer that Jesus gives is the same as Gabriel gave Mary:
The point I am trying to make is this: We should honor Mary, not because she is a “co-redeemer”, but rather because we can be co-recipients with her of God’s miraculous grace!
She is not in a class by herself, but rather, she is the first in a class that is beyond number!
So, I ask you again, “Will you receive God’s Shalom?
Will you be one whom the angels can greet, “Hail, (place your name there) full of grace.”?
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