Walking In Peace

Imagining Sunday’s Gospel

Click here to read the Gospel for the Fourth Week of Advent

One day before Christmas this year we are at the fourth Sunday of Advent. Tomorrow (or tonight) we will celebrate the birth of Jesus. For the Sunday reading, we have the story of the Annunciation. An angel sent by God, drops by Nazareth for a chat with a virgin women betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David, who is a king/shepherd/sinner/father/husband about a thousand years gone. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Our version then says “and coming to her…” whereas the Jerusalem bible say “he went in and said to her…” If Gabriel went in, he must have been outside to start with. Did Gabriel knock before entering?

Jesus says in Matthew 7 and Luke 11, knock and the door will be open to you. Responding to a knock in a positive way is to let someone into your home. Mary was troubled by what she heard at first but the rest was, well, not easy, but certainly an adventure. 

In chapter 12 of Acts, after Peter was imprisoned, then freed by an angel, Peter proceeded to the home of Mary, the mother of John/Mark. Peter knocked at the gateway door and Rhoda the maid recognized his voice but ran to announce that he was at the door rather than let him in. They eventually got around to letting him in and were amazed he had escaped prison. 

God likes it when we knock at his door in prayer. His reaction is always the same, he lets us in. After all, He is busy knocking on our door! In chapter 3 of Revelation, John writes, that if you hear a knock at the door and the voice of the Lord, open it and He will come in and dine with you.