"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

What amazing words these must have been to Mary, a young woman, when she first heard them. Just minutes before she had probably been engaged in some mundane task of daily life in her mother's home, perhaps grinding flour or baking bread, maybe weaving or spinning wool into yarn. If she was like most young women who are shortly to be married, her mind would have been turned to her future life with Joseph, what their home would be like, the children they would have and the life that they would lead together. Happy images of the future would have filled her thoughts. She would have had her hopes, dreams and expectations--images of how her life would be as the future wife of Joseph.

Suddenly with the appearance of the angel Gabriel, her visions of the future contained a new and dramatically different element. The angel told her that she was highly favored and blessed among women, that the Lord was with her and that she would soon conceive and bring forth a son whose name would be Jesus. This child would be given the throne of Mary's ancient forebear, King David, and reign forever.

Mary voiced the question of how this would take place. She knew the order of natural conception and knew that the angel's message did not fit into this order. In explanation the angel Gabriel told her of the greatest miracle of all time saying, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. Some people are troubled by the idea of miracles based on their picture of cause and effect in this world. They have accepted that the only causes are natural ones, the laws of physics and so on. For such a person the idea of Jesus being born without a natural father is fantastic beyond belief.

But we are called to believe that miracles have and do occur. There are forces that attack this belief. We have grown up in a culture that has a strong sense of natural order. Science today is capable of explaining so many events that previously were mysteries. It is capable of explaining them by means of fundamental laws of nature. For some this sense of natural law can become so strong that the Lord's active presence within creation vanishes. For some there is no Divine intervention within this system. All is fixed and moves along with changes taking place by mere random accident. But it could be noted that according to natural law most changes result in more chaos, not less chaos. Changes tend toward the break down of a higher order into a lower one.

Think of the example of a person quickly typing out a document on a computer. You would expect that errors would be introduced into the typing. What is the likelihood that the errors would improve the original document? It’s possible, but rather unexpected. But the argument for pure natural evolution is that given enough time and the forces of natural selection life as we now know it has developed. Asserting that human life came about purely by random accidents starting with the genetic code of the most primitive life millions of years ago seems akin to saying that given enough time and enough typed copies a simple child’s nursery rhyme could evolve into a Shakespearean play without any plan or higher thought being involved.

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. However, the Writings for the New Church have taught us that we are not to expect to see the miracles of the Old and New Testaments performed today in the same way they were performed in the time those books were written. We read:

The reason miracles are not done at this day, as before, is that miracles compel, and take away free will in spiritual things; and from being spiritual, they make a person natural. All in the Christian world . . . can become spiritual; and they become spiritual solely from the Lord through the Word; and the faculty for this would perish if they were brought to believe through miracles. (True Christian Religion 501)

Partially based on statements such as this, a person can come to a pattern of thinking that does not believe in the Lord’s ability to affect things for good in a miraculous way even today. A person could believe in God, but still tend to view the progression of his or her life as following laws of a machine-like system. Anything that does not fit into this fixed system is believed to be a miracle that would take away spiritual freedom--the very freedom that the Lord was born into the world to reestablish.

Perhaps, though, it is too easy for us to become too limited in our view. So limited that we block out a sight of the miracles that can occur within our own lives without taking away our spiritual freedom. Perhaps it is too easy for this limited point of view to block out a sense of the Lord's presence, a sense of the Holy Spirit's presence. How does the Lord reach out to touch our lives?

What of Mary's life? The events surrounding the first Christmas were a major intervention within her life. The same is true of her husband to be, Joseph. Both of them could have denied the possibility of a miraculous conception and this state of denial would have been far more damaging than that of Zacharias's. Could the Lord's birth ever have taken place if Mary was not willing to accept the angel's words? Her firstborn was to have a continuing effect throughout her whole life. His presence was not without many events that brought a sense of awe and wonder to both Mary and Joseph. We know of at least one event that showed that raising Jesus was not always easy. At age 12, they spent three anxious days searching for Him, only to find Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of teachers, listening and asking questions.

In addition to the way in which Jesus' birth and life intervened in Joseph and Mary's life, think of the way His presence affected the disciples. Many of them were happily going about their daily jobs when they were called to leave all behind and follow Him. While this intervention sometimes involved something of the miraculous, it also involved an element of free will. Just as Joseph and Mary could have resisted the words of the angel announcing that the Lord would be born, so also the disciples could have heard the Lord call them to follow and shook their heads and returned to their work. There were many, many others who were influenced in this same way. Many others who heard the Lord's words calling to them and had their lives profoundly influenced by what He said.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives many times each day. While we may not have anything occur in our lives that an objective observer would call miraculous, it is not true that our lives will follow some pre-established route, set by our inborn nature and directed by compelling experience of the natural world. The Lord's first birth represents the way in which He comes in any age to anyone who will receive Him. Just as the words of the angel Gabriel would have been a dramatic intervention within the happy normalcy of the future that Mary would have envisioned, so also the Lord can come to us announcing the conception of a future for us that is far different from the one our natural mind would envision. The Lord comes to us offering and promising a far different set of reactions to daily events from the ones we presently have--a different perspective, a far greater patience in some areas and a stronger resolve and commitment in others. He comes to us bringing light to areas of thoughts that we had resigned ourselves to being in deep darkness and bringing warmth to much that we might otherwise have done from need or duty.

The angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin, whose name was Mary. Ancient prophecies had promised that the Messiah would be born as the child of a young woman. Several hundred years after this prophecy was given, a Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, introduced a new element of the miraculous by using a word in this prophecy that was not the general one for a young woman, but rather the distinctive Greek term for "virgin." When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, the gospel of Matthew records that he quoted this prophecy according to the way it is presented in the Septuagint. The Writings for the New Church make it quite clear that this seemingly added idea is correct and even essential in our understanding of the Lord's advent.

There are two distinct reasons for the importance of a belief in the virgin birth. One reason has to do with the essential need for Jesus to be born with a natural mother but without a natural father if He was going to become our Savior and Redeemer. It was crucial for the work of Jesus that He not derive from His birth any of the internal evils that are passed on through the soul provided by the natural father in any natural conception. His soul and life came directly from the infinite God. His developing mind and life were the ever more perfect manifestation in human form of the Father and creator, our Lord and God. But it was important that He take on a natural mind at first empty of any experience and knowledge as you and I were born with. It was important that He take on the hereditary inclinations to evil that birth to a natural mother brought to His life.

The second reason for believing in the virgin birth exists because of the representation of the term virgin and what this says about how the Lord comes to us in our lives. We are told that a virgin represents someone who willing to have his or her life affected by truth. In this story, Mary represents a state of mind in each of our lives that is not controlled by self interest nor committed to a determined course of action. It is a state of mind that is open to new possibilities.

The Lord comes to us to each of us bringing the promise of a new conception of life just as the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary. He comes promising a rebirth or regeneration of life that is radically different from the one we come by naturally. It is not to the hustle and bustle of established life that He appears, but rather to those states of mind that, like the virgin Mary, look forward to something new and different and most importantly are willing to receive the conception of this new life. The life that comes to us naturally, apart from any presence of the Lord, is like a child conceived of a human father and mother. Without the Lord's presence, this life cannot have any other basis than self-interest and worldly concern. Experience may teach us to broaden this self-interest and to temper these concerns, but apart from the Lord's advent within our lives they will never rise above this level. The Lord is born within each of our lives within the states of mind that are willing to be affected by what the Word teaches--by the states of mind that are willing to rise above the prompting of our natural inclinations to be self-serving and natural in our interests, thoughts and actions. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to turn outward to recognize and serve the needs of those around us. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to recognize that natural things exist to serve the needs of mankind and creation as a whole and have their proper uses as well as their abuses.

Our preparation for the celebration of Christmas, more than any other event of the season, tends to turn people outward to others. It is a time that can help us to recognize the community of caring people that we live in. And it is a time that can remind us that many are in need--there are many people who can use our help. This help may be a matter of providing food, clothing and shelter for those have not been able to or have not yet come to be provident enough to provide them for themselves. It can be a matter of giving a hand to someone who could use some help with a job, sharing some burden with them. Christmas is a time when we give gifts that symbolize and love and friendship for others. The most lasting gifts are those that we give when we recognize the spiritual needs of others—when we recognize that, by our words and actions, we can help the Lord bring loving warmth to another person's life. We, by our words and actions, can bring the light of greater understanding to another person's life. We have the capability of helping others receive far greater blessings in life than they might otherwise. Our preparation for and celebration of Christmas can remind us of how a truly Christian life is one of wisely giving and of serving. The state of mind that receives this reminder is the one imaged by the virgin, Mary.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives, just as the angel Gabriel came to Mary. He comes telling of events that can take place, if we are willing, which far exceed anything we might picture ourselves. He promises us a new life, born within our own, but not taking its source from us. He promises the presence of the Holy Spirit within this new life. He comes with a miraculous intervention in the natural course of events. The words of the angel Gabriel to Mary are also words to us with the promise of a new life that will profoundly affect what we care about, think and do each day throughout the year. These words are the promise of a new life for each of us.

After the close of this service you are invited to take the sacrament of the Holy Supper. This act of worship represents our desire to receive the Lord’s gifts of love and wisdom within our lives, represented by our eating of the bread and drinking of the wine. There is a powerful reminder of the words of the angel Gabriel in The True Christian Religion description of this sacrament

...the Holy Supper for those who approach it worthily is a kind of guarantee and seal put on their adoption as sons of God ... the Lord is then present and introduces into heaven those who are born of Him, that is, who are regenerated. (True Christian Religion 728)

As the angel Gabriel said to Mary, so the Lord would say to us, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

(références: Arcana Coelestia 1573 [1-8]; Isaiah 7:1-15; Luke 1:26-38)

119. The second Memorable Experience from THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED. ¹ Awakened one time out of sleep I fell into a profound meditation concerning God; and when I looked upwards I saw in the heaven above me a most brilliant white light in an oval form. As I fixed my gaze upon that light it receded from the centre towards the circumference. And behold, heaven was then opened to me, and I saw magnificent things, and angels standing in a circle on the southern side of the opening in conversation with one another. And because I was consumed with desire to hear what they were talking about, I was allowed to hear first the sound which was full of celestial love, and afterwards their speech which was full of wisdom from that love. They spoke together concerning the One God, and concerning union with Him, and salvation thence. They mentioned ineffable things, many of which could not be expressed in the words of any natural language. But as I had often been among angels in their heaven, and had, then, a similar speech, because I was in a similar state, therefore I was now able to understand them, and to select from their conversation some particulars which may be intelligibly expressed in natural language.

[2] They said that the Divine Being (Esse) is One, the Same, the Very Self, and Indivisible; that so also is the Divine Essence, because the Divine Being (Esse) is the Divine Essence; that so, likewise, is God, because the Divine Essence, which is also the Divine Being (Esse), is God. They illustrated this by spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine Being (Esse) cannot possibly become several, in each of which is the Divine Being (Esse) and yet remain One, the Same, the Very Self, and Indivisible; for then each would think from His own Esse, out of and by Himself. If then each thought also from the Others and by the Others unanimously, and at the same time, they would then be several unanimous Gods, not one God. For unanimity, being the agreement of several and at the same time of each One from Himself and by Himself, does not agree with the unity of God, but implies plurality. They did not say a plurality of Gods because they could not; for the light of heaven from which they thought, and in which their words were spoken, prevented it. They also said that when they wished to pronounce the word "Gods" and to speak of each as a Person by Himself, the effort of utterance was immediately turned into the expression "One God," yea, "The Only God."

[3] To this they added that the Divine Being (Esse) is the Divine Being (Esse) in Itself, not from Itself, because "from Itself" postulates a Being (Esse) in Itself from another thus it supposes a God from a God, which is impossible. What is from God is not called God, but the Divine. For what is God from God, or what is God born of God from eternity, and what is God from God proceeding through a God born from eternity, but mere words in which there is not the least light from heaven? They said further that the Divine Being (Esse), which in Itself is God, is THE SAME; not the Same simply but infinitely; that is, the Same from eternity to eternity that it is the Same everywhere, and with everyone and in everyone, but that all variation and change are in the recipient, and are caused by the state of the recipient.

[4] That the Divine Being (Esse), which is God in Himself, is the Very Self, they illustrated in this way. God is the Very Self because He is Love itself and Wisdom itself; or, what is the same, because He is Good itself and Truth itself, thence Life itself. Unless these were the Very Self in God, they would not be anything in heaven or the world, since there would be nothing in them having relation to the Very Self. For every quality draws its nature from this, that there is the Very Self from which it is, and to which it has relation in order that it may be what it is. This Very Self, which is the Divine Being (Esse), is not in place, but is with those and in those who are in place according to reception. For neither place nor progression from one place to another can be asserted of Love and Wisdom, or of Good and Truth, or of Life thence, which are the Very Self in God, yea, God Himself; these are without place, hence their omnipresence. Wherefore the Lord says that He is in the midst of them, and that He is in them and they in Him.

[5] But, as He cannot be received by anyone such as He is in Himself, He appears as He is in Himself as a sun above the angelic heaven, and that which proceeds from it as light is Himself as to wisdom, and that which proceeds as heat is Himself as to love. He Himself is not that sun but the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom in their immediate emanation from Him appear round about Himself as a sun before the angels. He Himself, within the sun, is a Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, both as to the Originating Divine and as to the Divine Human; inasmuch as the Very Self, which is Love itself and Wisdom itself, was His soul from the Father; thus Divine Life which is Life in itself. It is otherwise with every man; for in man the soul is not life, but a recipient of life. This the Lord also teaches when He says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life;John 14:6. And in another place, As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:26. Life in Himself is God. The angels added that those who are in any spiritual light may see plainly from these things that the Divine Esse, which is also the Divine Essence, because it is One, the Same, the Very Self, and thence indivisible, cannot possibly exist in more than one; and that, if it should be said that it does so, manifest contradictions would follow.

[6] After hearing these things, the angels perceived in my thought the usual ideas of the Christian Church respecting God as a trinity of Persons in unity, and their unity in trinity; also of the birth of a Son of God from eternity. Whereupon they said to me, "What are you thinking about? Are you thinking of those things from natural light, with which our spiritual light does not agree? Unless you remove those ideas from your thoughts we must close heaven against you and go away." Then I said to them, "Enter, I beseech you, more deeply into my thought, and perchance you will find agreement." And they did so, and saw that by three Persons I mean three proceeding Divine attributes, which are Creation, Redemption and Regeneration, and that those attributes belong to the One God; also that by the birth of a Son of God from eternity, I understand His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time. I then told them that my natural thought concerning a trinity and unity of persons, and of the birth of a Son of God from eternity, was derived from the doctrine of faith in the Church named after Athanasius, and that this doctrine is correct if, instead of a trinity of Persons, there is substituted a trinity of Person existing solely in the Lord Jesus Christ; and if, instead of the birth of a Son of God from eternity, His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time is understood; because, as to the Human which He assumed, He is expressly called the Son of God.

[7] Then the angels said, "That is good." And they asked me to say on their testimony that if anyone does not approach the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, he cannot come into heaven; because heaven is heaven from this One and Only God; and that this God is Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah Lord, the Creator from eternity, the Redeemer in time, and the Regenerator to eternity; thus, Who is at once Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and that this is the Gospel which is to be preached. After this the heavenly light which I had seen before returned, and by degrees descended and filled the interiors of my mind and enlightened my ideas concerning the unity and trinity of God. And then I saw that the ideas which I had first had on the trinity, and which were merely natural, were separated as chaff is separated from the wheat by winnowing, and were carried away as by a wind to the northern part of heaven, and there dispersed.

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