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God's Kiss

Philippians 2:5-7 5  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Luke 1:26-28 26  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
27  to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
28  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

 Yesterday I taught out of Matthew 1 and tried to put a human face to the Christmas story.  Scripture tells us the story of Christ's first Advent from the perspective of both the human and the divine.  My problem is that for so many years all I did was focus on the divine aspect - which is fine and important to do.  Yet, God comes to humans and there is in this a human response.

 Over and over in the Christmas stories of Matthew and Luke, various divine beings are saying to various human beings, "Do not be afraid".  
As a father who raised four kids there are many things that can cause fear.  Saying to my children, "do not be afraid", is first of all admitting that they are afraid.  
When the angels speak the words, "do not be afraid", one can sense that they realize they've just intruded onto a world that does not know what to do with their presence. 
In heaven the heavenly space is filled with angelic beings...but so is the earth...we just don't see them (at least most people don't).  When angels break into our presence to be seen, there is something that happens both "in" us and "to" us.  It's not always a good beginning...Mary is a good example of that.

 Luke 1:29-30 
29  But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
30  And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary..., 

 Mary is at first troubled, and then the angel (Gabriel) acknowledges to her what is going on "in" her - "do not be afraid..."

Why?  "...for you have found favor with God. "

The angelic intrusion is to give a message - Mary is graced...found favor.  Luke chooses the greek word, charis, which is translated "grace", although sometimes can be seen as "kindness" and "blessing".
I had to memorize Greek words in Seminary and one trick of memorization was to associate a word with an idea, or a picture.
Charis, which is grace, favor, kindness, blessing... is "God's Kiss".

The angel Gabriel comes to Mary to say, "Mary, God loves you and he wants you to know that among all the women who have ever lived, you are the one he wants to choose to bear His son".

It is God's Kiss to be graced...and we who have put our faith in Jesus Christ have all be kissed by God.

Peace

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