ADVENT IV - B - 17 LUKE 1. 26-38
For weeks now, we have been
receiving Christmas greetings, via cards, and the playing of Christmas music
and carols through loud speakers as we shop for that last minute gift or
listening to them on our car radios as we drive around looking for a parking
space at the mall.
The many wishes of a Merry
Christmas are in themselves an announcement that the day is drawing near when
we will celebrate once again the birth of the Savior of the world. Advent is a
season of patiently waiting. This morning we light the fourth candle on our
Advent wreath in anticipation of our journey to Bethlehem coming to an end, but
not quite yet.
There is one more
announcement to be made; a birth announcement that comes in today’s gospel. It
is a divine announcement delivered by a messenger of God to a young maiden in
the village of Nazareth. Her name is Mary. Today the Virgin Mary is our focus.
Mary we are told, has found
favor with God, but we are not told how or why. Could it possibly be that God
knew that Mary would consent to be the mother of His Son? I have always
envisioned the scene of the annunciation as being a routine day for Mary. It
started out like any other day.
I can see Mary sweeping and
cleaning the house or perhaps involved in preparing a meal. Her day was like
any other day until she was not only suddenly surprised by the appearance of an
angel, but of his greeting! “Greetings favored one.” What did he mean that she
was favored by God and that God was with her?
When the angel announced that
she had been, she reacted as any of us would. She did not ask to be chosen. It
was only natural that she be somewhat perplexed and not a little afraid. I have
often wondered was her fear do to the angels’ sudden appearance or was it the
message he brought? Perhaps it was both.
She listened, as the angel
Gabriel not only told her the name of the child she was to bear, more
importantly who the child was and what he would become. His name will be Jesus, Gabriel told
her. He will be great, and will be
called the son of the Most High. He will be a king and his reign will be
forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end.
What could it possibly mean
for her to be the mother of God’s Son? What could it possibly mean for the life
of the world?
Months later, she would find
herself delivering her first-born son in a common manger in the little town of
Bethlehem. Some might say a strange place for a “king’s” birth. Once again,
unannounced visitors would surprise her. This time it would be a contingent of
local shepherds who would uncharacteristically abandon their flocks on the
nearby hillside and hurry to the manger to see what the angel had told them was
true.
Mary will watch as they kneel
in humble obedience before her child, as if they are in the presence of a king.
They will tell her and her husband Joseph what the angel told them concerning
the child, that he would be the Savior and Redeemer of the world.
Once again, Mary will listen
and hold their words in her heart uncertain of what it all would one day mean. At
that moment, she would be unable to contemplate the day when she would kneel at
the cross and watch her son die a cruel death. That day would come, but for
now, she could only ask how what the angel is announcing could be happening to
her.
Unlike the old, priest
Zachariah, John Baptist’s father, whom Gabriel had announced earlier that he
would have a son in his old age and then in his unbelief asked for a sign, Mary
simply asks for an explanation.
How can this be since I am
still a virgin? The angel gives what looks like a double explanation: the Holy
Spirit will come upon Mary, enabling her to do and be more than she could by
herself. The power of the Most High will overshadow her.
Mary was given special grace
to become the mother of God’s incarnate Self. She is the extreme example of
what always happens when God is at work by grace through human beings. God’s
power from outside, and the indwelling Spirit within, together result in things
done which would have been unthinkable any other way. For with God all things
are possible.
We read the stories in scripture where God
appears to individuals and delivers His will for them. Other times He sends a
messenger to speak for him, like the prophets of old, or in Mary’s case, an
angel. When we read them, we say to ourselves “God has never spoken to me. I
have never seen an angel.” But can we be so sure?
I can only speak for myself
and confess that there have been moments in the past when I have been certain
that it was God who was speaking. Oh, not directly, like “hello Gregg, this is
God.” But moments and occasions when He sent a messenger who spoke for him and
delivered the word I was listening for or pointed me in the direction I needed
to take.
Sometimes it was an answer to
a prayer. Other times it was a solution to a problem I had been struggling to
solve. Always these “announcements” came as a surprise, and I might add were
not always delivered by individuals I was acquainted with. Some were total
strangers.
Think about it. How many
times has God “announced” his will for you? Did you listen? Did you question?
Did you give Him your “yes?” Did you, like Mary, simply ask how or were you
more akin to the old priest Zachariah and ask for a sign so that you could know
for sure that it was indeed God speaking? Faith allows us to ask “how?” Our
unbelief always seeks a “sign.”
The only legitimate attitude
of man to God is represented in Mary‘s; “let it be with me according to your
word.” As always, the divine purpose of God for each of us waits for our “yes”
and our cooperation with God’s Holy Spirit so that we too might be filled with
God’s grace and enabled to do and be more than we possibly could by our self.
It is the Virgin Mary’s “yes”
to God, her humble obedience that has rung down through the centuries as a
model of the human response to God’s unexpected vocation. Her “yes” answers the
question why God chose her to be the mother of His Son, the Savior and Redeemer
of the world.
It is Mary we focus on today
as we draw near the crèche. It is her example of humble obedience we seek to
follow by giving our “yes” to God. AMEN+
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