Advent Devotional Resource - San Francisco Theological Seminary

Wednesday, December 23Luke 1:39-56“My soul glorifies the Lordand my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”I’ll never forget my third week in pastoral ministry. My wife and I had just moved to Bellevue, Washingtonwith our 5 week old son, Taylor. Shortly after arriving on December 6th, the director of thechildren’s Christmas pageant asked us if Taylor could play the role of baby Jesus. With the trepidationof young parents, we said “o.k.”During each rehearsal, young Megan walked down the center aisle carrying little Taylor in her arms.Her mother, trying to reassure the young pastor and his wife, said to her daughter several times,“Whatever you do honey, don’t drop Taylor!” On Christmas Eve young Megan walked with Taylorheld tightly in her protective arms. As she walked up the first step of the chancel she stepped onher hem of her dress and took a small stutter step. We all froze and I stopped breathing. But Meganquickly caught her balance and kept going up the steps. When she reached the top step she looked atme and smiled, as if to say, “sorry about that brief scare!”During the pageant, as the lines were delivered and characters moved to and fro, I kept a close eyeon “Mary and baby Jesus.” I thought about the real Mary and how she probably wasn’t much olderthan young Megan and how courageous she was to have carried and given birth to Jesus our Savior.Despite being so young, she was an amazing person of faith.In the first chapter of Luke, when Elizabeth visits Mary, the Holy Spirit (and the jumping John theBaptist inside her womb), recognizes the presence of Jesus inside Mary’s womb. Elizabeth declaresMary “favored by God.” Mary responds with the memorable words, “My soul glorifies the Lordand my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” One commentator says, “It’s good when workers of gracerecognize one another!” I’d like to think that’s what we are at SFTS, workers of God’s grace. The HolySpirit in Elizabeth recognizes the Holy Spirit dwelling in Mary. For us, I believe it’s an Advent invitationfor our community at SFTS to recognize the Holy Spirit in each other.Rev. Peter D. CrouchSFTS Vice President for Institutional Advancement