Third Sunday of Advent

Third Sunday of Advent
Luke 2: 46-55
Have you noticed how peaceful and tranquil are the Christmas Cards we receive? They are designed to make us feel warm and secure through their quiet scenes with gentle animals and non offensive language. WOW, what a difference from one of the first Christmas Greetings. When Mary visited her Aunt Elizabeth, who was pregnant with the baby that would become John the Baptist, Elizabeth felt the baby jump at the arrival of Mary and Mary broke into a song that we call the Magnificat. Hardly a docile greeting, it was a revolutionary song. (Before India won its independence, it was under British rule. Bishop William Temple of the Anglican Church warned his missionaries to India not to read the Magnificat in public. He feared that it would be so inflammatory that it might start a revolution!)

Actually, it is not Mary’s song that started a revolution two thousand years ago. The song was about Jesus and Jesus did in fact start a revolution. His revolution was on several fronts: Spiritual; Social and Economic and his revolution is still causing upheavals around the world.

A very good question to consider this Third Sunday in Advent is whether Jesus’ Revolution is still causing an upheaval in your life and in the life of your church. If you are experiencing his revolution still raging I suspect you will also experience his peace that passes all understanding because you will certainly be experiencing Emmanuel, God with us.