Fourth Sunday in Advent
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Luke 1:46-55
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one who looks with favor on the lowliest of servants. Amen
Mary.
Theotokos,
which means “God bearer” in Greek,
a title especially used by our Eastern siblings for Mary.
She has been depicted as meek and mild
but that certainly doesn’t take into account Mary’s song
where among other things she sings
“surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed”
Some have wondered if she really had any say in this divine pregnancy
asking if this is something God just did to Mary,
but when we look again at her conversation with Gabriel,
we see that she thinks deeply about what the angel is saying,
and asks intelligent questions
before pronouncing “Here am I the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
And if we wonder,
‘well wouldn’t anyone faced with such a divine pronouncement act in the same way?’
We have the contrasting angelic visit to Zechariah
to show us the strength of Mary’s character
in responding to such a proposal.
Zechariah is terrified and overwhelmed with fear
by the angelic appearance,
and when he finally asks a question
it is entirely self-centered:
“How will I know that this is so?”
or “how can I be sure that this will happen?”
really?
You’re asking an angel of the Lord
if you can trust what they’re saying is true?
Especially when as a priest,
Zechariah is surely familiar
with the stories of other children given to men and women in their old age,
Sarah and Abraham with Isaac springs immediately into mind,
And for his disbelief
Zechariah is made mute until his son John is born.
Mary on the other hand,
while greatly troubled at the angelic appearance
is not overwhelmed
but ponders what sort of greeting this might be,
she is troubled yes,
but not so overcome
that she can’t still apply reason to the situation,
and when the angel has finished his proposal
Mary’s question is one of logistics,
“How can this be since I am a virgin?”
Mary seems to accept the premise of the plan
but sees a rather significant biological road block
- unlike Zechariah and Elizabeth’s late in life surprise baby-
there is no precedence for a virgin birth.
And the angel doesn’t object to the question
but goes on to explain how it will be the work of the Holy Spirit,
the power of the Most High,
concluding “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
and Mary ascents.
Clearly God chose correctly
when God chose Mary to work with,
but even then God doesn’t leave Mary on her own for this
but gives her support and affirmation
in the form of her cousin Elizabeth.
John not only prepares the way for Jesus,
Elizabeth prepares the way for Mary.
It is after hearing that Elizabeth is also miraculously pregnant
that Mary finally agrees to the scheme,
and when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth
it is Elizabeth’s greeting
(and John’s reaction within her)
that affirms what Mary is doing
and inspires her to sing her magnificat,
a prophetic proclamation of what the power of God is doing.
The power of God working through the angel,
through Elizabeth,
and through her very self,
empowers Mary to participate in the impossible possibility of God,
to envision and live out in the present
what seems should be relegated to the future,
the scattering of the proud,
the bringing down of the powerful and lifting of the lowly,
the filling of the hungry,
the keeping of the promise to Abraham and his descendants.
By all appearances (with one notable exception)
Zechariah seemed a better candidate for all of this
but God went to Mary instead,
God knew that however lowly and ill equipped she seemed
from the point of view of the world,
she was the one to call upon,
to partner with in this moment,
this moment of turning the world upside down.
And God knows us too
and God calls on each of us
to participate in God’s turning of the world,
it may not be as dramatic a call as Mary’s,
but when it comes,
we can trust that even if we consider ourselves lowly and ill equipped,
God has deemed us worthy and capable
to accomplish what God is asking of us,
that the power of God working through the Spirit
and others around us will in turn empower us
to participate in the impossible possibility of God
for nothing is impossible with God. Amen
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