THE FIRST CHRISTMAS

The first Christmas wasn’t the kind of holiday we often picture today. 

It wasn’t filled with storybook charm or the familiar warmth of a Midwestern gathering. It was something more powerful and transformative. It was the Christmas Mary sang about — the kind that still resonates through the ages.
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This kind of Christmas centers completely on God.

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​It was a Magnificat Christmas. 

Mary lived in poverty and under oppression. She and so many others in Galilee and throughout Israel held onto a deep hope: the day when God would show up, set things right, and free God's people.

Her vision of Christmas wasn’t wrapped in sentimentality. It was about God arriving to take action — to bring justice where there was injustice, to offer freedom where there was bondage, and to create peace where there was conflict. Her song expresses this bold hope. In the birth of her child, she saw God’s promises beginning to unfold, right there in real time.

Spend a moment with her song in Luke 1. Take a moment and open your Bible to Luke 1 and underline or highlight Mary’s words. Let her words soak in. Notice how they speak of what God has done, is doing now, and will continue to do. 

Mary’s vision of Christmas is a reminder: God’s justice-filled, liberating presence is at work in the world — then and now.

And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

The God of Christmas — the God at work in a Magnificat kind of Christmas — is a saving, liberating, mighty, and merciful God who is faithful to God's promises. This is the God who stands for justice and peace for everyone — not just the rich, but the poor too.

With you. With me. Right now.

That’s a Magnificat Christmas.

A Christmas where the poor finally receive the gift they've longed for — the gift God brings: justice.

In Peace,
Pastor Travis