"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."

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

372. And behold a black horse. That this signifies the understanding of the Word destroyed as to truth, is manifest from the signification of a horse, as denoting the understanding (see above, n. 355); and from the signification of black, as denoting what is not true; thus by a black horse is signified the understanding destroyed as to truth. The reason why black signifies what is not true, is, because white signifies what is true. That white is predicated of truth, and signifies it, may be seen above (n. 196). That white is predicated of truth and signifies it, is, because white derives its origin from the brightness of light, and light signifies truth; and the reason why black is predicated of what is not true, and signifies it, is, because black derives its origin from darkness, or from a deprivation of light, and darkness, because it exists from the deprivation of light, signifies ignorance of truth. That a black horse here signifies the understanding of the Word destroyed as to truth, is also evident from the signification of the red horse treated of above, as denoting the same destroyed as to good. In the church, also, in process of time good perishes first, and afterwards truth, and at length in the place of good succeeds evil, and in the place of truth falsity. This last state of the church is meant by the pale horse, which will be explained presently.

[2] That black signifies what is not true, is clear also from other passages in the Word, where it is mentioned; as in Micah:

"The night shall be unto you for a vision; and darkness shall arise to you for divination; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall grow black over them" (3:6).

By the prophets, of whom it is here treated, are signified those who are in truths of doctrine, and apart from persons, the truths of doctrine; that those who are meant by prophets should see evils, and divine falsities, is signified by, "The night shall be unto you for a vision; and darkness shall arise to you for divination." That they would know neither good nor truth, is signified by, "the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall grow black over them," the sun signifying the good of love, and day, the truth of faith, and to become black their not being seen or known.

[3] In Ezekiel:

"Yea, when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine" (32:7).

These words are spoken of Pharaoh king of Egypt, by whom is signified the Scientific applied to falsities, as is the case when the natural man enters from the sciences into things spiritual, and not the reverse. Thus, because it is contrary to order, they seize upon falsities and confirm them for truths. That then there is no influx from heaven, is signified by, "I will cover the heavens"; and that there are then no knowledges of truth, is signified by, "I will make the stars thereof dark," for stars denote the knowledges of truth; that, consequently, there is no good of love and no truth of faith, is signified by, "I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not make her light to shine," the sun signifying the good of love, and the moon the truth of faith. (That such things are signified by the sun and moon, may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell 116-125.) Similar things are signified by the sun, moon, and stars, in Joel:

"The earth was moved before him; the heavens trembled; the sun and moon became black, and the stars withdrew their shining" (2:10; 3:15).

And similar things in the Apocalypse:

"The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood" (6:12).

What is specifically signified by those things will be seen in the following pages.

[4] In Ezekiel:

"In the day when he shall descend into hell I will cover the abyss over him, and I will restrain the streams thereof, so that the great waters shall be shut up, and I will make Lebanon black over him, and all the trees of the field shall faint over him" (31:15).

Assyria is here treated of, which is compared to a cedar, Assyria here signifying reasoning concerning the truths of the church from one's own intelligence, and a cedar the truth of the spiritual church. That thus all knowledges of truth would perish, and with them all truths which savour of good, and have their essence thence. The abyss that is veiled above him, and the streams that were restrained, denote the knowledges of truth, and intelligence thence; the abyss, or sea, signifies the Scientific and the cognitive faculties in general, which belong to the natural man, and the streams signify the things pertaining to intelligence; the great waters which shall be shut up signify truths which savour of good, and thence derive their essence, waters denoting truths, and great in the Word being said of good. Lebanon becoming black over him, and the trees of the field fainting over him, signify that the truths of the church will cease to exist, and that its knowledges will be without the perception of truth; for Lebanon, like the cedar, signifies the church as to truths, thus also the truths of the church; and the trees of the field signify the church as to the knowledges of truth, thus also the knowledges of the truth of the church; trees denoting the knowledges themselves, and a field the church; hence it is evident that to make Lebanon black signifies that there are no longer any truths of the church.

[5] In Lamentations:

"The Nazarites were whiter [albi] than snow, they were whiter [candidi] than milk. Their form is obscured beyond blackness; they are not known in the streets" (4:7, 8).

No one can know what these words signify, unless he knows what the Nazarites represented. The Nazarites represented the Lord as to the Divine Celestial; and because all the statutes of the church at that time represented such things as belong to heaven and the church, thus to the Lord, for all things of heaven and the church are from the Lord; and because the Nazarite was the principal representative of the Lord, hence by the above words is signified that every representative of the Lord had perished. The genuine representative of the Lord is described by the Nazarites being whiter than snow, and whiter than milk, by which expressions is signified the representative of Divine truth and Divine good in their perfection, white (album) being predicated of truth, [and] in like manner, snow; and whiteness (candidum) of the good of truth, [and] in like manner, milk. That every representative of Divine truth had perished, is described by, their form is obscured beyond blackness; they are not known in the streets; form signifying the quality of truth; blackness signifying its no longer appearing; streets signifying the truths of doctrine; and not to be known in them, signifying not to be recognized by genuine truths. What is further signified by the Nazarites will be told elsewhere.

[6] In Jeremiah:

"The whole earth shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a consummation. For this shall the whole earth mourn, and the heavens shall become black from above" (4:27, 28).

The whole earth shall be a desolation, signifies that the good and truth in the church will perish, the earth denoting the church; yet will I not make a consummation, signifies that something of good and truth would still remain; for this shall the earth mourn, signifies the weakness of the church thence; the heavens shall become black from above, signifies that there would be no influx of good and truth from the Lord through heaven; for the heavens are said to become black when no affection or perception of truth flows in from the Lord through heaven, because in the churches before the Lord's coming, which were representative churches, mourning represented spiritual grief of mind because there was no truth and good. For mourning was on account of oppression by an enemy, on account of the death of a father or mother, and other like circumstances; and by oppression by an enemy was signified oppression by evils which are from hell, and by father and mother was signified the church as to good and as to truth; because these things were represented by mourning with them, therefore they then went in black.

[7] As in David:

"I say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why shall I go in black on account of the oppression of the enemy?" (Psalms 42:9; 43:2).

In the same:

"I bowed myself in black as bewailing a mother" (Psalms 35:14).

In the same:

"I am bent, I am bowed down greatly; I have gone in black all the day" (Psalms 38:6).

In Malachi:

"Ye have said, What profit is it that we walk in black before Jehovah?" (3:14).

In Jeremiah:

"Upon the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt; I am become black" (8:21).

The daughter of the people signifies the church.

In Jeremiah:

"Judah hath mourned, and her gates are become languishing, they are become black even to the earth; and the cry of Jerusalem hath gone up; for their great ones sent their lesser ones for water; they came to the pits, and found not waters; their vessels are returned empty" (14:2, 3).

That black signifies spiritual grief of mind because there is no truth in the church, is evident from the particulars herein in the internal sense; for by Judah is signified the church as to the affection of good; and by Jerusalem, the church as to the doctrine of truth; by gates is signified admission thereto. That truths no longer existed in the church, is described by, the great ones have sent their lesser ones for water; they came to the pits and found not waters; their vessels are returned empty; waters signifying truths; pits, those things that contain them, which are doctrinals from the Word, and the Word itself, in which they no longer see truths. From these considerations it is evident that black and sable in the Word signify that there is no truth. Similarly also darkness, clouds, obscurity, and many things from which blackness arises; as in Joel:

"A day of darkness and of thick darkness, a day of cloud and obscurity" (2:2); and in other passages.