2nd Sunday in Advent
Luke 1:26-38
A Weary World Rejoices - From Discord to Peace

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. —Luke 1:26-38

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’, or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.” —C.S. Lewis on interruptions:

“Life is what happens when you are making other plans.” —John Lennon

“It is not an easy thing to be confronted with a message from God. We pray that God will hear our prayers and draw near to us; we pray with ease, and some of us with frequency, but perhaps we pray with such ease and relative frequent because we do not expect any response.” —Peter Gomes

But Ephesians 1:4 says it: “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.”

2. Becomes the peace of God. (v. 38)

Proverbs 9:10: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

So ask yourself: Where am I not at peace?