Christmas Eve is only two days away. The moment we’ve planned for and waited on is racing toward us like a runaway train…and we can’t wait.

We want these next few days to be full of joy and hope – peace and love. We want to be overwhelmed by gentleness and wonder, and we pin our hopes on the story that we will share: a tired couple, met with unexpected news in a strange place. To Mary and Joseph comes the gift of all God’s goodness and grace. It’s our favourite story, and we insist that it be told in just the right way.

But first – this.

Mary gets news – a stunning notice from the heavenly messenger, Gabriel. The angel insists that God is working in her life in a most unlikely way: a surprise pregnancy.

And not just for Mary, but her cousin Elizabeth. Women on opposite ends of life’s journey. Elizabeth, who thought her best years were behind her, and Mary, whose life is only just beginning.

It turns out that God blesses the most unlikely things…and God shows grace in the most unlikely ways. That God’s messenger would approach a woman at all is a most remarkable thing. Sure, there are Old Testament stories about women, but rarely are they contacted directly – engaged so intimately and completely…

And while we wait for the standard scene of gentle joy that is supposed to be the centre of our Christmas celebrations, Elizabeth and Mary share their news and dream of revolution.

To these women comes the idea that God is working (with them!) to establish something incredible. In a world where women are possessions at best – for whom childbirth is dangerous (for both mother and child) and whose biological marvels brings them the suspicion and scorn of the men who imagine they are in control; the gospel presents these two as agents of Divine change.

Their children will proclaim the reign of God – a movement that overflows with mercy – where ‘bluffing braggarts are scattered life dead leaves, and prancing, pompous tyrants are knocked off their high horses. Mary doesn’t just call for change. She (and Elizabeth) willingly and actively participates in this radical, God-driven change.

And that is what love looks like.

Love looks like clinging to the promises of God even when they don’t seem to be coming to life fast enough to suit your situation.

Love looks like calling for justice and singing about a change that still seems (two thousand years later) to be little more than a dream.

Love is God acting with the most unlikely, the least powerful, those who would be otherwise easy to overlook. The word of hope – the good news of grace – is in the song of someone who could not expect anyone to pay her much attention.

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I get it – this is a different way to look at Christmas. Those of you who hung in there with our most recent bible study will know that I’m not afraid to shake things up a little – to ask questions or look at Scripture from a different angle. And that doesn’t sit well with everyone.

But the central message of the Bible is NOT that all is calm and bright. The central message is that God is always willing to meet us in the midst of our struggles and suffering. Scripture reminds us over and over again that God shows up in unlikely ways and acts through unusual circumstances.

The first and second chapters of Luke’s gospel describe the work of God in the last place anyone thought to look for God: an old childless couple (Zechariah and Elizabeth) and a young, soon to be married couple (Joseph and Mary) whose children would go on to turn the ‘same old religious practices’ upside down.

John with his ‘repent and get ready’ message, and Jesus with his ‘love your enemies’ approach. These two – John and Jesus – appeal to the weakest and the strangest collection of God’s people ever gathered, and their legacy is present in the best practices of generations of God-fearing, Jesus-following people.

People who can’t abide the bragging tyrant or the arrogant rich. People who speak up on behalf of the marginalized, or who quietly work to feed the hungry and bring dignity to people who don’t fit into boxes designed to hide their strangeness from a culture that is terrified by differences.

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I pray that your Christmas will be calm and bright – that your gatherings will be full of peace and joy – that your families will honour this season of love by ignoring or resolving all their petty differences. I pray that this will be so, but I know that for many of us it will be something else.

There will be times of great joy and times of high anxiety. There will be bitter memories among the sweet reunions. Even as followers of Jesus we don’t always get what we want – which is the promises of God wrapped and delivered, to be enjoyed in their fullness.

What we do get is the presence of God – the Spirit of Christ – whose radical solution is to show up and offer encouragement, grace, mercy and strength.

What we get is God saying, ‘here I am – and together we can do something wonderful.’

We can complain about the slow-moving advent of the kingdom of God, or we can – with Mary – welcome God’s presence and join in the work of revealing that kingdom for our own time.