We arrive at the fourth week of Advent, and Christmas is close. This year, given the vagaries of the calendar, only one day away. Our readings now change character and emphasize that closeness, not so much as a matter of timing, but rather that God’s actions are now positioned clearly and directly within our day to day experience.
Only four weeks ago we were celebrating Jesus as King of the Universe, about as large scale a view as one could possibly take. During Advent so far we’ve followed the prophecies of Isaiah as they take us through the trials and triumphs of the Jewish people, and reflected on human history in the large. Now the camera zooms right in, as it were. We are just the length of a single pregnancy away from God being with us in human form.
To the people of Jesus’ time a god coming to earth was not in itself surprising. It would have been more controversial to Jews than to most of their pagan contemporaries. Stories of gods walking the earth were common, and even Roman emperors, who were very clearly human, were considered divine (and required to be worshipped as a matter of State law).
What was really strange about the Christian belief was that their God became human via the most commonplace miracle of all. One that everyone has experienced. The miracle of a human birth. God chose to come amongst us in the most familiar, the most intimate, the most basic way possible. He was born as a baby.
We don’t have long to do it, but in the final day of Advent we can walk with Mary, as she walked with Elizabeth, experiencing both the challenge and the joy of her pregnancy. A pregnancy leading to just another birth, like so many countless others, before and since, but a birth that was also different from every other, before and since.