Mary's response to Gabriel's greeting in the above passage is to be "troubled" or "fear". So often during Christmas, the word "fear" doesn't always sink in. We get too wrapped up thinking this season is all about being silent and holy, and we don't think there is room in either of those two words for 'fear'...or at least we don't know how to make the those words fit together. Or we think Christmas is about holly and jolly...again not words we associate with fear.
Yet, Mary is not the only one to fear. Zechariah earlier in chapter one is unsure about what to make of Gabriel saying Zechariah and Elizabeth are going to have a son who will prepare the way for Jesus. And of course the shepherds quake and are 'sore afraid'. Not to mention what Joseph or Mary must have felt on the night when Jesus was born two thousand years ago.
My earliest fear as a child was of the dark, which is natural and normal...or at least that is what I tell myself. In the dark we lose our perspective. We cannot trust if we are seeing a pair of pants on a chair or some strange being. We cannot trust if the house is settling or some creature is stirring that might be bigger than a mouse. Even when adults tell children there is nothing under the bed, we also know all too well that there are plenty of things that go bump in the night.
It makes all the difference that God appears to us in the flesh, in Emmanuel (a name that means God is with us and God is for us) at night. It is significant that there are three major evening services within most Protestant churches: Christmas Eve (where we find life in a dirty, drafty stable), Maundy Thursday (where we celebrate the last supper) and Good Friday (where we confront the nighttime and fear of death). Then, we gather at sunrise on Easter morning completing the cycle once again of how God moves in world and lives. In all places and seasons, in moments when we are drenched in the warmth of shine or shutter and feel the cold of fear shiver down our spine.
So what does fear have to do with Christmas? Lots! Because if God is willing to sit in the darkness with us, if God is willing to share a light in the night time of our soul, if God comes to us in those moments when we like the shepherds quake and tremble, then God truly is for us and with us.
May the traces of God's grace be with you this Christmas season.
God's blessings and peace!
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