• 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14-16
• Psalm 89:2-5, 27-29
• Romans 16:25-27
• Luke 1:26-28

What does God need for a Christmas present? In the first reading for next Sunday, the last before Christmas, David, abetted by Nathan, has conceived the bright idea that God might need a new house. David is in “a house of cedar, while the Ark of God is sitting in a tent!” Nathan is then very firmly instructed to tell David that it is God, and not David, who is in charge, “It was I who took you from the pasture, and from following the flock”, and that so far from David building a house for God, the Lord has already built David’s house, both in the sense of a building, and in the sense of someone to follow him on the throne. When God is in the equation, things are turned quite upside down.

That is the point of the psalm for next Sunday, which sings of “YHWH’s steadfast love forever…you have established your truth in the heavens”. Then we hear God’s side of things, “I have established a covenant with my chosen one”, and in a lovely picture of the relationship between God and God’s Messiah, or King, we hear “He shall call me ‘Father – you are my God, and the Rock of my Salvation’.” Then we are once more given the reminder that God is in charge of this relationship, “For ever I shall establish my steadfast love for him; and my covenant with him will stand firm.” Such a God has no need of our Christmas presents; our God is all gift, and all we can do by way of response is to gasp in admiration.

The second reading for next Sunday is precisely such a gasp of admiration. It is, as the manuscripts stand, the ending of the Letter to the Romans, a song of glory to this great God of ours, who needs no presents from us this Christmas, beyond the recognition that God is God. “To the one who can strengthen you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept in silence for the eternal ages…to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen”. We join our prayers to this admiring doxology; and that can be our Christmas present to God.

Or we could be like Mary in the gospel reading for next Sunday. Once again, God is very much in charge, as Luke indicates when he says that “the angel Gabriel was sent...”, and emphasises the unimportance of Mary and the tiny city from which she came. Gabriel’s greeting is a startling one (and it certainly startled Mary), “rejoice, grace-filled one – the Lord is with you”, so Mary has to be told “don’t be afraid”. Then she learns the enormity of the task, “behold – you are going to conceive in your womb; and you are going to bear a son; and you are going to call his name ‘Jesus’.” Nor does it stop there, “This one will be great, and will be called ‘Son of the Most High’, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David”. Now we are back in the world of that first reading, where God was unmistakably in charge, as we hear “He will be King over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his Kingdom, there will be no end.” Mary asks a cautious question, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” As in all our readings for next Sunday, the answer is with God, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore what is being conceived is holy, and will be called ‘Son of God’”. If Mary required it, evidence is then offered, “Behold – Elisabeth your kinswoman, she too has conceived a son in her old age…”

Finally come the words that we have been longing to hear from Mary’s lips, “Behold, the Lord’s slave-girl; let it happen to me according to your word”. The story ends, “and the angel went away from her”; but we are left there, contemplating Mary, and the astonishing power of a God who needs no presents from us this Christmas beyond what we can give by saying, “Let it happen”.