ニューイングランドの母校からアドベントの便り、その14
★Dr. Gwenfair Adamsは、私のゴードンでの説教学の教授・ウオルター先生の長女で、私たちの青梅キリスト教会時代、ご家族4人で訪問下さり、ウエールスの伝統に根差す証言をしてくださいました。
後年母校を訪問した際、教会史を教え始めたばかりの彼女と研究室で会い、忘れがたいひと時を持ちました。そして今回、感謝・
2016 Gordon-Conwell Advent Devotional, Day 14 Meditation
2016 Gordon-Conwell
Advent Devotional | Day 14 |
Luke 1:8-55
Gabriel received two very different reactions to his two birth announcements. The first announcement was made to a priest burning incense in the temple in Jerusalem, in the holiest building in the most important city in the nation. The second announcement was to an unknown young woman in a small village. One recipient was an elderly man married to a woman beyond her childbearing years; the other was a young virgin: a birth announcement to either made no sense. When the angel first appeared to each, both were troubled, and the angel told them both not to be afraid. For the man, it was because his prayer had been heard, for the woman it was because she had found favor with God: for both, what was about to be promised to them was overwhelmingly beyond what they deserved.
Usually, a birth announcement is made by the parents. And often it is made after the birth of a child. These birth announcements were made in advance. Even before the conceptions. And they were made to the parent. How strange it must be to receive a birth announcement about one’s own child before one is even pregnant. And how hard it must be to believe such an announcement. And here is where the two recipients responded differently. The priest did not believe the announcement. The young woman did. And so the first recipient was silenced until the announcement was proved true, while the second was allowed to sing her belief before she saw her child. Eventually both sang praise to God, but only one did it before seeing their promise fulfilled. Mary sang before she saw.
May we, this Advent, sing our carols from hearts of trusting faith, even before we see.
Dr. Gwenfair Adams
Associate Professor of Church History
