"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."

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

1038. That 'this is the sign of the covenant' means a token of the Lord's presence in charity is clear from the meaning of 'a covenant' and of 'the sign of a covenant'. That the covenant means the Lord's presence in charity has been shown already at Chapter 6:18, and above at verse 9 of the present chapter; and that a covenant is the Lord's presence in love and charity is clear from the very nature of a covenant. The purpose of any covenant is conjunction, that is to say, its purpose is that people may live together in friendship or in love. This also is why marriage is called a covenant. The Lord's conjunction with man does not exist except in love and charity, for the Lord is love itself and mercy. He wills to save everyone and by His mighty power to draw them towards heaven, that is, towards Himself. From this anyone may know and conclude that it is impossible for anybody to be joined to the Lord except by means of that which He Himself is, that is, except by acting like Him, or becoming one with Him - that is to say, by loving the Lord in return, and loving the neighbour as oneself. In this way alone is conjunction brought about; this constitutes the very essence of a covenant. When conjunction results from this, it quite plainly follows that the Lord is present. The Lord is indeed present with each individual, but that presence is closer or more remote, all depending on how near the person is to love or distant from it.

[2] Since 'the covenant' is the conjunction of the Lord with man by means of love, or what amounts to the same, the Lord's presence with man in love and charity, the covenant itself is called in the Word 'a covenant of peace', for 'peace' means the Lord's kingdom, and the Lord's kingdom consists in mutual love, in which alone peace resides, as is said in Isaiah,

The mountains will depart and the hills be removed, but My mercy will not depart from you, and the covenant of My peace will not be removed, said Jehovah, the One who takes pity on you. Isaiah 54:10.

Here mercy, which is an attribute of love, is called 'a covenant of peace'.

In Ezekiel,

I will raise up over them one shepherd, and He will pasture them - My servant David. He will pasture them and He will be a shepherd to them. And I will make with them a covenant of peace. Ezekiel 34:23, 25.

Here 'David' is plainly used to mean the Lord, and His presence with a regenerate person is described by the words 'He will pasture them'.

[3] In the same prophet,

My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. And I will make with them a covenant of peace; it will be an eternal covenant with them. And I will bless ¹ them and cause them to multiply, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst for evermore. And I will be their God and they will be My people. Ezekiel 37:14, 16-17.

Here similarly the Lord is meant by David. Love is meant by the 'sanctuary in their midst', the Lord's presence and conjunction in love by the promise that 'He will be their God, and they will be His people', which is called 'a covenant of peace' and 'an eternal covenant'.

In Malachi,

You will know that I have sent this command to you, that it may be My covenant with Levi, said Jehovah Zebaoth. My covenant was with him, [a covenant] of life ² and peace, and I have given them to him in fear, and he will fear Me. Malachi 2:4-5.

In the highest sense 'Levi' means the Lord, and from this the person who has love and charity; and this being so 'a covenant of life' and peace with Levi' means in love and charity.

[4] In Moses, in reference to Phinehas,

Behold, I am giving to him My covenant of peace, and it will be to him and his seed after him a covenant of eternal priesthood. Numbers 25:12-13.

Here 'Phinehas' is not used to mean Phinehas but the priesthood which he represented and which means love and what belongs to love, as does the entire priesthood of that Church. Everyone knows that the priesthood did not remain with Phinehas for ever.

In the same author,

Jehovah your God is God Himself, a faithful God who keeps a covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and who keep His commandments, to the thousandth generation. Deuteronomy 7:9, 12.

Here the Lord's presence with man in love is clearly meant by 'the covenant', for it is said to be 'with those who love Him and keep His commandments'.

[5] Because the covenant is the conjunction of the Lord with man by means of love, it follows that it is also achieved by means of all the things allied to love, which are the truths of faith and are called commandments. For all the commandments, indeed the Law and the Prophets, are based on that single law that men ought to love the Lord above all things and the neighbour as themselves. This is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew 22:35-40; Mark 12:28-34. This is also why the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written are called 'the tablets of the covenant'. Since a covenant or conjunction is achieved by means of the laws or commandments of love it was also achieved by means of the social laws introduced by the Lord into the Jewish Church, which are called 'testimonies', as well as by the religious observances commanded by the Lord, which are called 'statutes'. All of these are called [laws] of the covenant because they have regard to love and charity.

As is said of King Josiah,

The king stood upon the pillar, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to establish the words of the covenant. 2 Kings 23:3.

[6] From these references it is now clear what a covenant is, and that the covenant is internal, for the conjunction of the Lord with man is achieved by means of internal things, and never by means of external things separated from internal. External things are merely images and representatives of those that are internal, as the action of a person is an image representative of his thought and will, and as a charitable act is an image representative of charity present within, in intention and mind. Thus all the religious observances of the Jewish Church were images representative of the Lord, and so of love and charity, and of all things deriving from these. It is by means of the internal things of a person therefore that the covenant or conjunction is achieved. External things are no more than signs of the covenant, which also is what they are called. That internal things are the means by which the covenant or conjunction is achieved is quite clear, as in Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming, says Jehovah, when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers, for they rendered My covenant invalid. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put My law in the midst of them and will write it on their hearts. Jeremiah 31:31-33.

This refers to a new Church. It is plainly stated that the covenant itself is achieved by means of internal things, and indeed within conscience on which the Law is written, the whole of which Law, as stated, is that of love.

[7] That external things do not constitute the covenant unless internal things are joined to them and so through that union act as one and the same cause, but are merely 'signs of the covenant' by means of which, as by representative images, the Lord might be called to mind, is clear from the fact that the sabbath and circumcision are called 'signs' of the covenant. That the sabbath is so called is clear in Moses,

The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their generations, an eternal covenant. Between Me and the children of Israel this is a sign eternally. Exodus 31:16-17.

And that circumcision is called 'a sign of the covenant' is clear in the same author,

This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you is to be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. Genesis 17:10-11.

For the same reason also blood is called 'the blood of the covenant', Exodus 24:7-8.

[8] The chief reason why external religious ceremonies were called signs of the covenant was so that from them people might call interior things to mind, that is, the things meant by them. All the religious observances of the Jewish Church were nothing else. For this reason they were also called signs that would serve to remind the people of interior things - for example, the practice of binding the chief commandment on the hand and of wearing frontlets, as stated in Moses,

You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And you shall bind these words as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 6:5, 8; 11:13, 18.

Because it means power 'the hand' here means the will, for power is an attribute of the will; while 'frontlets between the eyes' means the understanding. Thus 'a sign' means calling to mind the chief commandment, or epitome of the Law, that it may be constantly in the will and constantly in the thought, that is, that the Lord and love may be present within the whole will and the whole thought. Such is the presence of the Lord and from Him of mutual love existing with angels. That constant presence and the nature of it will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on. And in like manner here the statement, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I give between Me and you; I have given My bow in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of the covenant', means no other sign than a token of the Lord's presence in charity, and so man's remembrance of Him. But in what way the bow in the cloud provides that token and so remembrance will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.

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