So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. [John 1:14 (NLT)]
If we were living in England or any of its colonies between 1155 and 1752, today would be New Year’s Eve. Back then, the British Isles used the Julian calendar. Named after Julius Caesar, the calendar year originally began January 1. After the fall of the Roman Empire, however, the new year’s onset gradually changed to the first day of spring. While starting a new year in the dead of winter seemed counter-intuitive, beginning it on March 25, the date of both the spring equinox and the Christian Feast of the Annunciation of Christ’s Birth, seemed a more logical way to start the year.
The Julian calendar, however, miscalculated the adjustments needed for leap years as well as the date of the spring equinox. Wanting Christians to celebrate Easter on the correct date, Pope Gregory instituted a new liturgical calendar with a better way of calculating leap years in 1582. Called the Gregorian calendar, January 1 was set as the beginning of the year. While March 25 no longer marked the equinox, it remained the date of the Annunciation. Although much of Roman Catholic Europe adopted Gregory’s calendar, Protestant England resisted and continued to follow the Julian calendar until finally adopting the Gregorian one in 1752.
While no longer New Year’s Day, for those in liturgical churches, tomorrow (March 25) is known as the Annunciation of our Lord. Commemorating the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary, it is a celebration as much Protestant as it is Roman Catholic. The Annunciation was celebrated as far back as the fourth or fifth century and its March date was set in the seventh.
Let’s not forget that the story of Jesus didn’t begin in Bethlehem; it began in Nazareth nine months prior to that night. It was when Mary became pregnant that God became incarnate—a human being made of flesh and blood. Granted, He was only two cells fused together at first. Nevertheless, that zygote had everything in it to become the man Jesus. It divided again and again, the embryo grew, the cells began to differentiate, and the fetus developed everything needed to live outside His mother. Since sin-filled man was incapable of going to God, on that day, our perfect God came to us. Fully God and fully man—that baby boy forming in Mary’s womb was the promised Messiah and savior of mankind!
While Jesus’ incarnation is the core of our Christianity, it is difficult to understand and, for some people, impossible to believe. Nevertheless, the God who spoke the world into creation, created night and day, scattered the stars through the sky, filled the oceans with water, and populated the earth with living plants and animals could certainly manage to plant a fetus in a womb without going through the ordinary steps. When Mary assented to God’s will, Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit!
Of course, since we really don’t know when Jesus’ birth took place, we don’t know the date of His conception. Nevertheless, having grown up in a liturgical church, I find a richness and strength in remembering and celebrating events in the life of Christ (even if the dates are wrong). Luke’s gospel account of Gabriel’s visit to Mary seems more appropriate in this spring season of new beginnings and fresh starts than in winter, a time of dormancy. On what I hope to be a beautiful spring day for you, please take the time to read the account of this blessed miracle found in Luke 1:28-36. Remember to thank God for His entry into the world as a man so that He could save humanity.
Jesus Christ became Incarnate for one purpose, to make a way back to God that man might stand before Him as He was created to do, the friend and lover of God Himself. [Oswald Chambers]
When I put my mug under the hot water tap, I saw the stain. Fresh out of the dishwasher, the mug was clean on the outside but had a dark tea stain inside. As I applied some elbow grease and Bon Ami, I thought of Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees. Like my mug, their exterior looked spotless but their interior was soiled. Unlike my tea-stained mug, however, it would take more than scouring powder to correct their problem. Rather than stained by tea tannins, the Pharisees were tainted by a host of sins starting with hypocrisy and moving right through to pride, judgment, self-righteousness, and more.
“Alleluia” (or “Hallelujah”), like “Amen,” is a word familiar throughout Christendom. Meaning “Praise the Lord,” it is the transliteration of the Hebrew hallel, meaning to shine, be boastful, praise, or rejoice and Yah, an abbreviated form of the name of the Lord: YHWH (Yahweh/Jehovah). Although two distinct words, they were consistently written as one (halleluyah). In the Old Testament, this extraordinary word occurs only in Psalms. Usually found at the beginning, halleluyah was an imperative call to praise or boast in the Lord—a call to shine a light upon Him! Whether we spell this beautiful word the Latin way as “alleluia” or the Greek way as “hallelujah,” the meaning is the same. Many modern translations simply translate it as “Praise the Lord!”
As I pondered my goals for this year’s Lenten practice, I remembered Alica Britt Chole’s suggestion to “consider Lent as less of a project and more of a sojourn.” While we often encounter the word ”sojourn” in Scripture, it’s not a word typically used today. Although the basic meaning of gûr, the Hebrew word translated at sojourn, is to “live, settle, dwell,” gûr usually included the sense of it being a temporary or transient stay. Typically, a sojourner was someone living outside their clan or a noncitizen in a strange place. Because of famine, Israel sojourned in Egypt for 430 years and, because of their disobedience, they sojourned forty years in the desert before entering the Promised Land. It is Jesus’ 40-day sojourn in the wilderness before entering His public ministry that is remembered in Lent.
We tend to think of fasting during Lent as abstaining from certain foods, drinks, or activities. Several years ago, however, I was asked, “What if you fasted regret? What if your friends fasted comparison? What would be the fruit of fasting stinginess?” Those questions proposed an entirely different kind of fast than refraining from sweets or social media. In truth, fasting from things like self-righteousness, discontent, and criticism is probably harder (and more meaningful) than giving up energy drinks or dining out.
Every evening, a man went to the local pub and ordered three beers. When asked why three, he explained that he ordered the two extra beers in honor of his two dear brothers who lived far away. One evening, when the man ordered only two beers, the bartender assumed the worst and extended sympathy for the loss of a brother. Correcting the bartender, the man said his brothers were both fit as fiddles and the beers were for them. “It’s me that’s not drinking tonight,” he explained. “You see, I’ve given up beer for Lent!”
Devotions of the Heart 