This sermon was preached at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Holliston, MA on December 21, 2014.
Gospel: Luke 1:26–38
26In
the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged
to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was
Mary. 28And he came to her
and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." 29But she was much perplexed by his words
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, "Do not be
afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.
32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most
High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34Mary said to the angel, "How can
this be, since I am a virgin?" 35The
angel said to her, "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. 36And
now, your 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. 37For nothing will be impossible with
God." 38Then Mary said,
"Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your
word." Then the angel departed from her.
Greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ,
There are some things in the Bible that puzzle me…ok,
there are a lot of things.
One of those things, is our Gospel story today. Now, in
this story, the angel Gabriel appearing, and the whole idea of Mary giving
birth in a highly unusual manner are kind of par for the course when it comes
to God.
What puzzles me, is Mary. I would love to be a fly on the
wall for this conversation she had that evening with Gabriel, and the ensuing
nine months, when everything in Mary’s life was turned upside down. I wasn’t
there of course, but if I had been, if it was me, instead of Mary, I would not
have been quite as receptive to Gabriel’s message. In fact, my response to it
all would have been, “are you kidding me?” rather than Mary’s words of, “Here am
I, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your will.”
So, on behalf of Mary, here’s my list of grievances.
First, an Angel just shows up in her room at night, that’s a little creepy.
Second, is the whole abnormality of the conception process. And those are just
the minor things. What I’d really take umbrage with, was the fact that God was
really messing up Mary’s life. This child she was going to bear, was not only
going to put her marriage at risk, but, because being an adulteress could mean
death in those days, this unplanned pregnancy was putting her life at risk as
well. So, I wonder, how Mary could have been so receptive, so gracious to
Gabriel’s announcement, is beyond me.
And, I think that’s the point. Mary’s response wasn’t a
human response, it was a response, an acceptance of God’s will, that could only
happen by the work of God’s grace. Somehow, God was able to elicit enough trust
from Mary, that she commended herself to what God was doing. The fact that Mary opened herself, her life to
God, so that she may bear God’s son, Jesus Christ, was a miracle in and of
itself.
This morning, what’s a little unnerving, is that the same
grace that called Mary to trust God with her life, well-being, and future, is
also calling upon us to do the same.
First, this grace comes and says to each of us,
“Greetings, favored One, the Lord is with you,” with the same amount of
sincerity and love that it was uttered to Mary with. Think about that, God
loves each of us, just as much as Mary.
Second, this grace of God doesn’t come to us by way of
fear. God isn’t trying to scare us into submission. God is compassionate, and
reassuring, saying, “Do not be afraid. For you have found favor with God.” God
is calling us out of love, not because we owe God a favor.
Third, when God calls us out of grace, God is calling us
in order to use us to do something, in order to bring about the transformation
of our lives and our world. God’s grace is given to us, so that the sin and
death that make up our lives will be made into eternal life and abundant love.
In other words, when God’s grace calls, we can expect, that just like it did to
Mary, this grace will interrupt our lives, change our plans, and turn the world
we know, upside down.
Just over 2000 years ago, God sent an angel, to a young
virgin named Mary, and the rest as they say, is history. Mary did conceive and
give birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Now today,
God doesn’t send an angel, but comes to us in the life of the One who Mary gave
birth to, Jesus Christ. In Christ, God comes to us full of grace, offering his
life, giving us his body and blood, so that we may know a life that surpasses
all our expectations. Truly, the light, and hope, the Savior of this world has
come, and the trust that Mary put in God, the trust that led her to say “Let it
be with me according to your will” has not been in vain.
And because through Jesus, God has fulfilled the promise
given to Mary, we by the grace of God, are called to grow in our trust of God, so
that we may grow in our openness to the will of God. In other words, when God
gracefully calls us, interrupting our plans, and even our own desires and
aspirations, God is transforming us to go from, “Are you kidding me?” to “Let
it be with me, according to your will.”
In this season of Advent, O favored ones, God is calling
us, like Mary, to bear the One who is the hope, the light, of the world. God is
calling us to bear Christ, however inconvenient it may seem, so that our lives
and the world may be transformed in love and life. For we know, that:
“Christ
has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the
eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with
which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the
world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his
body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Amen
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