Luke 1
39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be[e] a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
In our reading from the Gospel of Luke we heard the story of Mary going to visit her relative Elizabeth. They were celebrating their two unlikely pregnancies, Elizabeth had been unable to have children and was old, and Mary was a virgin.
Jesus came into this world through a way marked ‘no entrance’ – the virgin birth, and left this world through a way marked ‘no exit’ – the resurrection.
The Gospel for today was set, I didn’t choose it, but it is most appropriate for today’s Christening. It is about a mother and a child, it is about family getting together to celebrate, but more than this, the birth of Jesus goes to the heart of why we are baptised. At Christmas we remember that Jesus came down to lift us up.
It is like humanity was gazing up to the top floor of a tower, to the Penthouse suite, wondering what sort of grand person lived in luxury up there when we felt a tap on our shoulder and discovered to our surprise the glorious one had come down to the pavement, to our level, and even more surprising, he was offering to take us up to the top of the building if we follow him.
Jesus bridges the gap between heaven and earth, he bring earth to heaven in his body and sets our feet on the way that leads to life.
His invitation to us is free, although this gift was purchased at great cost in his birth in the stable and in his death on the cross, but this gift of new life is offered to us for free.
It doesn’t rely on you being good, it relies on you turning to Christ and being forgiven.
The bible uses the word the Greek word charisma, which we render in modern English as gift but in traditional English as ‘grace’.
Grace is the free gift of salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ, it is the way of living taught by Jesus that leads to eternal life, and the visible sign of receiving this gift is baptism.
Ephesians puts it like this,
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God...
Amen.