This morning we are celebrating the 4th Sunday of Advent, and all the candles of Advent now are lit. Advent is, and has been, for us, a time of waiting and preparation, so that we might be ready for the coming birth of baby Jesus, a birth which will be touchingly brought to life by our own Christ Church children in our Christmas pageant during the 9:30 service.
Our Gospel reading for today, for our 4th Sunday of Advent, is the Annunciation, a pivotal moment for Christianity, as the Angel Gabriel came to a young peasant girl, Mary, to tell her the astonishing news that she would bear a son and name him Jesus, and “the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. “
Frederick Buechner, a wonderful spiritual writer and an ordained Presbyterian minister, invites us to imagine how the Angel Gabriel might be feeling, setting off on his assignment from God, as he approaches Mary.
Buechner writes: “She struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child, let alone this child, but he’d been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it. He told her what the child was to be named, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her. “You mustn’t be afraid, Mary”, he said. As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn’t notice that beneath the great golden wings he himself was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a girl.”
And, what do we really know about ‘this girl’, Mary? We know that she was a peasant girl in the small town of Nazareth, and we know she was engaged to be married to Joseph. Under Roman Law, girls were allowed to marry as early as age 10, but historians believe Mary was about 12-13 years old, which was the average age at which young Jewish girls in Nazareth married. We can go to You Tube and electronically visit the Church of the Annunciation, established at the site where the Annunciation is thought to have taken place, and we can see the spot where Mary was drawing water from a local spring, near the home she shared with her family, when the angel arrived.
You can imagine the scene: the Angel Gabriel, himself trembling with fear, approaching Mary, interrupting her at her work at the well. His first words are, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” We are told that Mary “was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.”
The Angel Gabriel quickly reassures her saying, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High,.”
Mary’s response, to all of this extraordinary news, is very reasonable, She simply asks, “How can this be, as I am a virgin?”
She’s not saying yes, and she’s not saying no. Mary, simply, is wondering how she could possibly become a Virgin Mother?
We now understand that it is God’s way to choose the impossible places to be born into our lives and into the world. Mary is saying, in effect, this is the place in my life where it is most impossible for God to be born. To which, the Angel Gabriel replies, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”
Also, Mary is told she will not be alone in this seemingly impossible situation, as her relative Elizabeth “in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Are we, today, truly able to believe this, that nothing will be impossible with God? That God always is present and active in our world, that we live in a vibrantly alive universe, and that God can and perhaps will intervene in the laws of nature on our behalf?
Mary’s faith and trust in God, and in his messenger Gabriel, standing before her with the trembling wings, is beyond all doubt.
To this incredible and amazing news, that she will give birth to the holy child, who will be called Son of God, Mary’s assent is immediate and complete.
Mary says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Then, the Angel Gabriel, his task successfully completed, departed from her.
“Let it be with me according to thy word.” These words prefigure The Lord’s Prayer’s “Thy will be done.” Mary responds to her call with complete surrender and obedience to God’s will. Mary’s normal everyday life, her peaceably drawing water at the well, has been interrupted by this extraordinary visit and request from an angel sent to her by God, and her response is an immediate yes.
If Mary, instead, had said, “Let me think about this and get back to you”, what might have been her decision-making process?
She might have been assaulted by logical questions and fears coursing rapidly through her mind. Her own Mother would no doubt become aware of her pregnancy. Mary’s family had her future all set; she was engaged to be married to Joseph. What might Joseph have to say when he hears the news? Mary may fear being humiliated, as she’d be not yet married to Joseph, yet be great with child in the small town culture of Nazareth. Her family and friends did not see the angel Gabriel and hear his message to her, and they’d be full of questions and fears. Would they stand by her? Would they still love her? What would happen in the future, after the child was born? What would her life be like? What did all this really mean for her?
These are some of the questions that might be twirling around in Mary’s head, had she been a different kind of girl, a normal everyday girl whose most pressing concerns rotate round herself, rather than being totally open to God working in and through her.
The angel did tell her, “The Lord is with you.” And “You have found favor with God.”
Hearing that, Mary might have swelled up with pride, impressed with her own importance. Or, and somehow this seems more likely, she might immediately go in her head to, “I’m not worthy. Not me. Not at all. I’m not the right one for this amazing request. Find someone else, someone more popular, prettier, smarter, more accomplished.
She might have said, “Angel Gabriel, I can’t do this. It’s too hard, too scary, too unreasonable. “
When God intervenes in any of our lives, is it ever ‘reasonable’? Here we have what I’d call a divine paradox: what is unreasonable, even scandalous, in the everyday world, is really a deeply blessed event. Mary does not know, or even ask, why she is the one chosen; she simply is the one chosen, by God’s grace, and, in total faith, she accepts her call. Chosen by God, she knows, deep in her innermost knowing, that she will be nurtured and sustained throughout by God’s abundant love. For Mary there is no question that God always is active and present at every second of our lives. Our God is a God of power, who can act beyond any limitations, beyond all reason and normal human logic, even beyond all our fears, to do what we might, with our limited imaginations and expectations, believe to be impossible.
I’ve heard it said that at the end of our lives, it’s not years, or periods, that we remember. Rather, we remember moments, when there’s a subtle shift, when it all makes sense, and we feel in total alignment with something at work deep within us. At these times, we experience a deep sense of congruence, of unity, within us, with God, and with everything around us. These experiences of grace are moments to note, and to ponder, for guidance may be coming through, if we’ve prepared a place deep within us, a space for God to enter and to begin to work through us as his instruments to bring peace and love into the world.
God chose Mary, a young woman in the small town of Nazareth, to carry out God’s purposes for humanity. Mary, for us, exemplifies the willingness of ordinary people, people like you and me, to receive God’s grace in our own lives, perhaps in the parts of our lives that seem the most impossible for God to enter and to work in and through us. This Advent, as we wait for the blessed birth of the Christ child, let us intentionally create and nurture a space within, for God to enter into us, and through us, also, to bring some light into the darkness.
Amen
