December 18, 2005

The Angel's Message

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38

One of the most delightful ways of communicating the Good News of the nativity story is by way of the annual Christmas Pageant. Ours is coming up again next Saturday on Christmas Eve at the 4:00 service. If you have never been, come experience it; the children are always wonderful.

Churches over the years have compiled stories of miscues, ad libs, or flubbed lines in pageants, that may have been embarrassing at the time, but are amusing in the retelling. Let me share a couple of these with you as we begin today - these are not from Pilgrim Church pageants. In the first, two children playing Mary and Joseph, having circled the sanctuary on their way from Nazareth to Bethlehem, finally arrive in the front corner where the innkeeper is waiting. Joseph asks for a room, and is told that the inn is full. He points out Mary's pillow-stuffed condition, and the innkeeper points them to the stable. They turn, with downfallen faces, and begin to trudge away. But then something unscripted happens. The innkeeper, swept up by his compassion for the two, suddenly shouts after them, "Wait! You can have my room!" (i)

In another pageant, as the curtain opens, Mary and Joseph, again played by children, are in the stable, and the innkeeper makes his entrance, strides to the crib, and in a loud voice ad-libs, "What is it? A boy or a girl?" Before the audience can recover, the next performer, an angel carrying the most important message in history, comes onstage and completely forgets her lines. She stares at the shepherds kneeling before her, peers offstage for a cue, raises her eyes to heaven, then shrugs her shoulders and says, "Hi, there." Aren't children wonderful?

We need to get to our Gospel lesson for today. I'm remembering a headline I saw during Advent a few years ago that said: "Mary May Emerge as Significant Model for Today's Women." That very well may be true, but frankly, Mary is a significant role model for all of us. Her faithful response to the angel's message is a model of human responsibility and obedient discipleship for any person. Let's look more closely at the dialogue between the angel and Mary in today's lesson.

The first thing to note is the pattern of this conversation. It's almost identical to the one between the angel and Zechariah (Elizabeth's husband and John the Baptist's father), that comes just before our passage in Luke. There is a greeting and a startled reaction. The person is reassured by the angel, and the upcoming birth is announced. An objection is raised, and final reassurance or a sign is given. Then the word is accepted.

There are other annunciations also in the Bible. Remember when Sarah and Abraham are told that they will have a baby in their old age? Their "startled reaction" is laughter and their response is something like, "You've got to be kidding, Lord!" Similar details surround the births of Ishmael to Hagar, and Samson to the wife of Manoah. But the annunciation to Mary, though there are some similarities, is quite different from these others. For example, Zechariah is standing before the temple altar in the holy city of Jerusalem when he is greeted by the angel. But Gabriel meets Mary in her hometown, in Nazareth, of which was once said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Not only that, but Mary was supposedly a virgin. Abraham and Sarah, and Zechariah and Elizabeth, though quite elderly, were well-established couples. But Mary? There is no precedent for Mary's story.

Second, let's look closer at the concept of angels. In the Bible angels are always understood as messengers of God. Looked at another way, messages from God are our angels. Thus, we all have had angels visit us, though we may not have called them such. God's messages to us get conveyed in a variety of ways: letters, emails, phone calls, casual conversations, times of quiet reflection, meditation, prayer, a passage in a book, an inspiring piece of music - all these and others, are messages borne on great wings, regardless the every-day disguise they may have worn. We really don't know what form Mary's angel took. Maybe it was the majestic Gabriel, resplendent in white robes with gigantic, glittering wings. Maybe it was nothing that explicit. We don't know what voice brought to her the realization of her destiny. We only know that she accepted it, and the future of humanity was changed forever. (ii)

What was the angel's message? Was it a message just for the teenager from Nazareth? Or is it a message important for our ears also? It begins, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." There's a lot packed into these few words. Mary realizes this and is troubled, and well that she should be. She may be a poor peasant girl, but Mary is no dummy, so she considers in her mind what this might mean. Messages have to be evaluated, for we're never 100% sure what they mean. They may appear to be angelic and creative, but woe to us if they are demonic and destructive. Mary shows great wisdom to be concerned, even to be fearful. Fear has a legitimate role. It can act as a warning or give us time for consideration. It can clear our vision to see falsehoods, traps, or dangers. But, of course, fear, if carried too far, can prevent action, or worse, can immobilize us. (iii)

The angelic messenger recognizes Mary's fear and responds, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." Just before this she is called "favored one," and now it's reiterated. In a word, the message is "God believes in you, Mary." "That sense of being believed in by God, being trusted and accepted as one fitted for a particular task, in itself provides the grace for Mary to say yes." (iv) I believe that each one of us has "found favor with God," but unless we believe this ourselves, unless we accept God's acceptance of us, we will find it very hard, if not impossible, to do the tasks God sets before us.

"And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son ..." says the angel. Mary questions how this will be possible, and so might we. We question because we do not recognize that within each of us God has planted some seeds that God hopes will emerge as plans, dreams, purposes, actions - that which God has willed for each of us. Each seed planting is different, just as you and I are different one from another. But, just as Mary is puzzled because she knows that such conception is impossible without a partner in the process, so we too think we always need help, others to interact with us, to give us directions, to provide us with ideas, to help stir up what is already within us. But sometimes the message God is trying to convey is - "you already have all you need to respond to me." Within ourselves we already have the seed that can grow and become a worthy instrument for God's use. (v)

And what fertilizes that seed? Listen again to the angel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." Similar words are used at the Transfiguration of Jesus and on the day of Pentecost. But the most striking comparison are the opening words of Genesis: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." As God's Spirit moved over the void before it was filled with the heavens and the earth, so the same Spirit overshadows Mary to place within her God's own Son. This is not a simple conception; this is creation. (vi)

And the same message of re-creation is given to us. We are encountered by the Holy Spirit in many ways - in a time of worship, in a moment of reflection or prayer, while reading or listening to a passage of scripture, while reading a book, listening to music, or doing whatever - there is a sudden rush of feeling, a deepening sense of God's presence, and we know that the seed within us has been blessed by the indwelling of something holy. Words often fail us; we can't explain it. That's the mystery we call the Holy Spirit.

There is one final part of the angel's message, perhaps the most important part. We've heard it before, but we need to keep hearing it again and again. These are the last words before the angel departs: "For nothing will be impossible with God." How like God to choose impossible situations to make new beginnings. God has done this throughout history, taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary, coming unexpectedly as new life in the midst of despair and darkness - even coming to an ordinary, obscure, poor peasant girl and bestowing upon her the future of all creation. And so God also comes to us ... but we flippantly say, "impossible!" "Our bland religious beliefs come alive in a new way? Impossible. Our carefully measured commitments become total commitment? Impossible! Our carefully cordoned off religious interests suddenly spill over into everything we do? Impossible! All the while the messenger waits until our alarmed protestations pause for breath, and into the interval a voice says quietly, 'With God nothing is impossible,' and if we are wise, we are silent," (vii) and we accept the message.

The angel's message begins with a possibility. Only if Mary accepts the message will the possibility become actuality. And this is true for each of us. God invites. God offers. But we must respond by trying to align our wills to the will of God. This is never easy, and always requires faith and trust, a trust like Mary's, that says, "let it be with me according to your word." So listen, listen to your heart song - do you hear what I hear? Do you hear an angel coming to you, even now, on this Advent morn? Listen for the message: "Good news, favored one, the Lord is with you! Do not be afraid. For nothing will be impossible with God." (viii) May yours be a blessed and holy Christmas, one filled with great joy and new possibilities. Amen.

The Pilgrim Church of Duxbury
Rev. Kenneth C. Landall

i Emily K. Rodgers, Preaching Word & Witness, 12/24/05.
ii Herbert O'Driscoll, "A Year of the Lord," pp. 24-29.
iii Ibid.
iv Ibid.
v Ibid.
vi Byron L. Rohrig, "Mary As Role Model," The Christian Century, 11/26/86, p. 1063.
vii O'Driscoll, op. cit.
viii Claire S. Strandberg, Word & Witness, 12/20/87.