Two parts of this scripture...
Illustration
Two parts of this scripture, when put together, provide a fresh sermonic approach: (1) "... you will conceive ... and bear a son." and (2) "... with God nothing will be impossible."
(1) Have you observed a bum panhandling on the corner, a bag lady in a doorway, or reflected on the final lot of hardened criminals, and then been overwhelmed with the thought: this person was once the new-born infant, full of potential and promise? What happened between the glorious new life and the derelict you see?
(2) If nothing is impossible with God, then everything is possible. The child, Jesus, when he reached maturity, capitalized on every situation that came his way. He moved through events that would have destroyed others and thereby created new realms of human meaning. This quality of Jesus is constantly being repeated in the world, in lives of people for whom prospects are dead or dying. He sparks in believers the quality for renewal he incarnated in his life.
The advent of any child is surrounded by promise of good news, new beginnings, light in darkness, a fresh start! For a while nothing seems impossible. This ever-recurring hope was lived out in daily life by Jesus. When we meet him he touches that part of us that can open to new beginnings, fresh starts. We recapitulate the advent. By his being reborn in us, he brings to be that which, if left to our own recourse, would remain forever only a possibility.
(1) Have you observed a bum panhandling on the corner, a bag lady in a doorway, or reflected on the final lot of hardened criminals, and then been overwhelmed with the thought: this person was once the new-born infant, full of potential and promise? What happened between the glorious new life and the derelict you see?
(2) If nothing is impossible with God, then everything is possible. The child, Jesus, when he reached maturity, capitalized on every situation that came his way. He moved through events that would have destroyed others and thereby created new realms of human meaning. This quality of Jesus is constantly being repeated in the world, in lives of people for whom prospects are dead or dying. He sparks in believers the quality for renewal he incarnated in his life.
The advent of any child is surrounded by promise of good news, new beginnings, light in darkness, a fresh start! For a while nothing seems impossible. This ever-recurring hope was lived out in daily life by Jesus. When we meet him he touches that part of us that can open to new beginnings, fresh starts. We recapitulate the advent. By his being reborn in us, he brings to be that which, if left to our own recourse, would remain forever only a possibility.
