Readings:
Isaiah 7.10–16;
Psalm 80.1–8, 18–20;
Romans 1.1–7;
Matthew 1.18–end

Collect:
God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Reflection:
As the last Sunday of Advent comes and goes, so we have journeyed through several readings from scripture exploring how God’s salvation history has become written into the map of human history. As we approach Christmas Day, we see that salvation culminating in the birth of Jesus, God’s ultimate self-revelation in human form. The God who expressed themself in creation, become Immanuel, the ultimate act of incarnation. Today’s readings strengthen the story…

They start somewhere around 700 BC. Firstly, Yahweh (the lord) is speaking through Isaiah the prophet against one of the most corrupt and idolatrous kings of Israel, Ahaz (Is 7:10). But amid this reprimand, we find a prophecy (14) that goes far beyond the context of the immediate encounter, and beyond Israel’s imminent exile, to find its journey’s end at the birth of Jesus, as Matthew explicitly recognises (Mt 1:23). 

There are many such prophesies, that Matthew and other gospel and epistle writers recognise following the ministry of Jesus. They start in the Old Testament and lead us onwards on paths that all meet in the life of Jesus, the ‘God with us’ (Immanuel) (Mt 1:23). These prophecies had sat in scripture for centuries, waiting to make their journeys’ ends, hidden in plain sight until then.

We move on to Psalm 80, which was written during one of the exiles (scholars still argue about which one!), half a century later. It likens the people of Israel to a choice vine, planted with care by God. It laments over many humiliations. After all the good things that God has done for them in establishing the tribes of Israel as a nation, they only lose them again through rebellion against God. There is no direct prophecy here, but there is the constant repetition of the call to ‘save us’ (2, 3, 7, 19) and a sense throughout of ‘advent yearning’: a people waiting in repentance and hope for that salvation to come. And the very name Jesus itself means, ‘God saves’ (Mt 1:21). 

Finally, in the late first century AD, Paul recognises the prophecies of the incarnation and their fulfilment in the same: Jesus, promised by God through the prophets (Rom 1:2), humanly from David’s family line (3), spiritually from God (4), brings us the grace of salvation.

From time before time, the paths of the incarnation journey wind their way subversively, quietly, yet in plain sight, into human history, undetected by leaders and announced initially only to the most unlikely, common people. 

Around 1566 the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel (the elder) depicted The Census at Bethlehem in that way. Cast in the context of his homeland and culture, hidden in plain sight, wearing common clothes, Mary and Joseph quietly make their way to join the queue to register. For all the people engrossed in their general household chores, commerce and recreation, the incarnation is about to be revealed, did they but know it. See if you can spot the couple! (You can see the painting on the next page!)

May the subversive gospel become known equally in today’s Christmas – to the unlikely, the unexpecting, the undeserving – and salvation find its journey’s end in the yearning of their hearts.

Revd Dave Talks