Day 23 Advent Reading -- Luke 1: 1-38

For the week of Christmas, we read through Luke's story of the birth of Christ.  Reminder -- there are only two of the four gospels that tell the story of Christ's birth (the other, of course, being the Gospel of Matthew).  Luke and Matthew tell the stories quite differently.

One challenge as you read the story in the coming days:  pay attention to what is actually in the Gospel stories of Luke.  Notice what we put into our pageant stories that are not really in the text.  If it's not in Luke, you can try to see if it's in Matthew, but unless it's wise men, it's probably not in Matthew either!

Extra challenge:  Read the story in Matthew as well (Matthew Chapters 1 and 2) and think about the differences between the two stories of the birth of Christ (I suspect you will also discover why most years we gravitate to Luke's telling of the story!).

Luke begins by making the point that the story he is about to tell came to him by eyewitnesses, and that Luke has investigated them to make sure they tell the truth (1:1-4).

Luke story is really two birth stories -- it begins with the birth of John the Baptist being foretold to the priest Zechariah, whose wife Elizabeth had been unable to bear children (1: 5-25)

     1.  This ties in to the theme of barren women having children that is seen in Sarah and Hannah in the Old Testament.

     2.  An angel appears to Zechariah to tell him the new.

    3. Zechariah was terrified, which begins a pattern in this story of everyone being terrified when they hear what God is doing.  I sometimes wonder if we have lost that sense of fear and trembling or awe when discovering what God has done.

     4.  When Zechariah does not believe, he is struke mute.  He will not speak again until his son is born.

Next the birth of Jesus is foretold to Mary (in Matthew Joseph is the one to whom the birth announcement is made).

     1. she is afraid when the angel arrives.

     2.  In perhaps the greatest act of submission in the Bible, Mary responds to the announcement of the angel with "here am I."

     3.  When in your life have you turned to God and submitted yourself with similar words?