"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."

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

(This commentary was originally written as a sermon delivered in 1955.)

"The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever." Revelation 11:15

Additional readings: Isaiah 46, Psalm 138, Psalm 139

These words were written nearly two thousand years ago. When written, they were a prophecy, yet the present tense is used. In the prophecy in Isaiah concerning the coming of the Lord into the world the present tense is also used: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6). This is because what the Lord purposes will surely come to pass. "My counsel shall stand…. I have purposed it, I will also do it" (Isaiah 46:10-11).

And we should note that according to the Gospel of Luke the angel Gabriel, sent to tell Mary that the Lord would be born of her, says that the Lord will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and that of His Kingdom there will be no end, as Isaiah also prophesied (Luke 1:26-38).

This week our nation celebrates the ninetieth anniversary of the close of the Civil War, which marked one of the steps in the advancement of human freedom. Since that time, although there has been peace within our own borders, the world at large has been afflicted by its two greatest wars.

Yet we should find quiet encouragement in the words of our text: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever." In view of the disorders, wrongs, and enmities that are so widespread and so great this may not seem to be true. To some it seems that the world is getting worse instead of better.

Yet we can surely see that the world is better than it was when the Lord came upon the earth. The world seems so evil only because a higher and keener sense of right makes injustice and wrong appear more shocking.

The Lord's kingdom is first of all in the minds and hearts of men, and it is with this that we should be primarily concerned. It is in the heart and mind that war or peace is made. If the love of self rules, the kingdom within us is evil; but if justice and the desire to do right rule, the kingdom within us is the Lord's. Everyone who is trying to do right because it is right is in the Lord's kingdom.

For nearly two centuries spiritual forces have been at work trying to bring about a better world, and they have been contending against mighty adverse forces, individual selfishness, the love of the world and its riches, and the love of preeminence and power.

These evils are brought to light in wars, which lead people to see, to acknowledge, and to seek the means of overcoming them. And this makes the minds of men more receptive to the Word of God. Defects and evils cannot be removed until they are seen. Multitudes have overcome some evils. They would not lie, steal, or cheat. Groups of people, states, and nations are bound by the same laws, and it is clearly seen that the self-centered and self-derived principles in which men and nations have placed their confidence in the spheres of religion and morals, economics, and politics are what brought into being the conditions that led to war.

The last war left large parts of the world to be rebuilt. But, what is more important, in the realm of thought and conduct rebuilding on a vast scale is called for, and there is given an opportunity such as men never had before to rebuild on better, sounder, and saner lines. There are principles on which a new and true human society can be built, but it cannot be built without the Lord. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (Psalm 127:1).

God created man that man might know Him, live according to His laws, and be blessed with happiness and peace. His laws cannot be changed, because they are the laws of infinite wisdom and love. To live in violation of them can bring nothing but disaster. There is but one Prince of peace. Human cooperation is a factor, however, and becomes operative in the measure in which men understand the Divine laws, believe them, and apply them to life.

The victory the North won in the Civil War was the Lord's victory, not the victory of the winning army. So it was in the last war. Our thanksgiving should be to Him. And our rejoicing should show itself in an increased desire to learn of the Lord, to be led by Him, and to do His will.

It is only in this way that there can be any real progress either in individual or in national life. Mere natural learning with its development of the arts and sciences, though it contributes to more comfortable living, does not reach the hidden fountains of human life, nor can it even discover the soul or God.

We are living in a time when new spiritual knowledge has been revealed. In the era preceding the first Coming of the Lord, spiritual knowledge had been all but lost. Because of this men lived in fear, doubt, and enmity. War was a constant and accepted feature of human life. The coming of the Lord wrought a change. He taught that love to Him and to the neighbor were the fundamental Divine laws of life. From these laws follows the principle that true life is found in service to others, not in being served.

The Lord did not seek to establish His kingdom by force. No kingdom founded on force can possibly endure. Of the Lord's kingdom it is written, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end" (Isaiah 9:7). It is because His kingdom is founded on unselfish love, which seeks not to rule but to serve, that it will not come to an end.

The Lord has been called a visionary, and His principles beautiful and idealistic but impracticable. Yet His life was the only thoroughly practical life ever lived. He came into contact with and overcame the internal and elemental forces of evil that cause all the misery and unhappiness in the world. When men forget the Lord and look to themselves for wisdom, they rush headlong into selfishness and evil.

The prophecy, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever," is being fulfilled. He did establish His kingdom on earth and by His life and words He made known to the world the laws under which the peoples of all the world can live together in happiness, prosperity, and peace. Some people today look to the future in fear, and even say that they are glad that they may not live to see the disaster which they think will overtake the world. But we should know that the future holds ever brighter promise. This is the testimony of the Scriptures and of history. We should be able to read some of its lessons. One is that the nation that takes up the sword shall perish by the sword, and another is that nothing is settled until it is settled fairly and justly.

All Christians should know that the teachings of the Word are true; and if Christianity means anything, it means the power of the Lord in the human heart to remove evil and to implant new motives. We should not be afraid of the future, Fear is a liar and a false counselor always. Through faith the Lord's kingdom comes to us as individuals and through individuals to the world. The Lord said:

"Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment...But rather seek ye the kingdom of God: and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:22-32).