2nd Sunday in Advent 2012
Daniel 9:20-23a; Luke 1:26-38
In the deepest and
truest center of her entire being, Mary knew God’s great blessing upon her
life. She, so very young and poor and pure, of all the
billions of people on earth, of every single generation of children since Adam
and Eve, she had been chosen to vitally help unfold God’s great design for the
salvation of humanity from sin. She was
asked to grow and then give birth to Jesus, son of God the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth. She said
yes.
Mary believed in this
blessing with all her heart, mind, soul and body. The question on my mind on this Sunday in
Advent, how did she live with it? Once
miraculously impregnated with our Emmanuel, what did she say and do while
carrying Him to full term?
One thought I have is that she could have
gone around and bragged about how tremendously special she was. She could have kept calling attention to
herself, reminding everyone absolutely all the time of just how very favored
she was by God.
I mean, if this Advent
happened in America today, perhaps she would have boasted about her blessedness
by signing a self-enriching deal for a reality show. Episode 1 would show her visiting a pastor
and a psychiatrist to see who offered her the best explanation for the vision
she had about an angel named Gabriel.
Episode 2 would recount the dramatic moments when she approached her fiancée
and said, “Honey, put your saw down for a second, because, boy, and I mean BOY,
have I something really big to tell you about myself …” Another episode would show her bragging
about how her blessed baby-to-be got her cousin’s Elizabeth’s
blessed-baby-to-be to worship him even from the womb.
Ah, we can be greatly
thankful that Mary did not reply by trying to make herself the center of the
universe. Any pointing to herself was positively
for the purpose of pointing back to God, whose claim on her otherwise ordinary
life she responded to with complete trust and faithful obedience. She
lived knowing there is no deep peace in sinful self-glorification. She understood the Polaroid picture of the
personal word of holy peace bestowed upon her was going to be enlarged into the
panoramic picture of peace for all suffering the oppressions of sin.
Mary’s faith, trust
and obedience were all a response to receiving a direct address from God. The announcement of God’s unfolding plan and
her blessed part in it arrived through one of God’s most loyal agents, the
angel Gabriel. “Greetings, favored
one! God is with you!” were the words of Gabriel’s wonderful welcome. “Do not be afraid … nothing is impossible
with God!” were his further encouragements as he explained all the holiness
that was to happen. This is the same figure, described as both
humanlike and swift as a bird in flight, which had spoken to the repentantly
praying, historic Hebrew person of Daniel and declared, “You are much
loved!”
Gabriel is only one of two
angels in the entire Bible given a name (the other being Michael, also
mentioned in the Book of Daniel), and his name says much about his
mission. It has been translated to mean,
“God has shown himself to be mighty.” Mightier
than any worldly power, be it the Babylonian Empire of Daniel’s day or the
Roman Empire of Mary’s day. Mightier
than we can ever imagine. Mightier than all of our sinful judgments
combined. And mighty enough to judge that
the world is worth saving, and to then decide to rescue us by becoming embodied
in Jesus, by way of the totally unexpected person of Mary.
I haven’t read or
heard of any recent stories about what Gabriel is up to these days. It’s the biblical ones that matter most,
anyway. But still, for all of us who
are hungering to be filled with the deep peace of God that Mary knew, which
guided her to accept God’s claim on her life and to live as a faithful servant with
great trust and obedience … wouldn’t we love a visit from this big time angel? In a world where criticisms and doubts and
failures constantly try to kill hope and slowly implode our sense of
self-worth, aren’t we all desperate to hear a word about how we are in God’s
favor? That we needn’t be afraid? That we have been chosen by God to
participate in holy purposes? That we
are much loved? That there is nothing we
can’t hope for because nothing is impossible with God?
I suppose we could
spend our time searching for celestial beings.
That sounds like an adventure. And
it would be a much better use of our days than consistently conjuring up ways
to make ourselves the center of the universe.
Again, there is no deep peace in sinful self-glorification. Christ Jesus is the center of the universe, the
only one we should ever be glorifying.
Yet waiting around on
angels to speak God’s word to us might not be terribly productive. It might not be the best way to broadcast
the news of God’s peace when and where it’s needed most. Plus, we might grow apathetic from all the waiting
and watching. After all, the timing of
such visits follows God’s unbounded and thus eternal clock, not our finite,
controlled measurements. So what is something we can do every day to hear
God’s word and be strengthened in faith?
To be reminded that God is mighty, that God has plan of salvation in
Jesus Christ, that God deeply loves each one of us ordinary human beans and
invites all of us – even and especially the least expected among us -- to share
Good News with everyone we know?
We can read the
Bible! We need to listen for God’s
call and claim on our lives through its words.
We need to read it, hear it, pray with it, and entertain faithful
interpretations of it. We simply can’t
rightly glorify God if we don’t get reminded on a very regular basis of God’s
great love story, God’s deep word of peace, and God’s magnificent holy promises. We can’t magnify God like Mary if we keep these
sacred Scriptures closed.
One survey, conducted
by Barna Research this year, revealed some good and bad news on this front. First the good news – 85% of American
households reported owning at least one Bible (most, on average actually
reported owning about four), and 69% of the Americans surveyed confessed their
belief that the Bible provides guidance on how to live a meaningful life. Now for the not so good news – about one
third of those surveyed admitted to reading the Bible less than once a year,
saying they “never have enough time to read it.” Half of this same survey group also could
not name the first five books of the Bible, despite saying they are
knowledgeable about the Bible.[i] Did you get a call from Barna? Would you have wanted to?
As I preached last
week, Advent is a time for proactive waiting on our Emmanuel, God with us. Not passive waiting, as if any copy of the
Bible – be it in print or on a tablet computer – will ever just open itself
up. I don’t believe those not so good
stats are really about not having time enough to read; I know from my own life
that it’s more about feeling awkward, uncertain, ill-equipped and perhaps even
unworthy to understand what the Bible has to say. We can feel oppressed by the holy claims we
anticipate it holds out for us, especially if we have parts of our past or
present we feel ashamed of.
Here is precisely where
being reminded – through our Bible reading -- of Mary’s blessed calling and her
humble example is such an inspiring help.
She wasn’t chosen because she was perfectly faithful or without
sin. And her yes to God had the
opposite effect of being shielded from shame, since she and Joseph were not
quite wed yet. She was as ordinary as
all of us, suffering worldly insecurities and injustices like we all do.
How amazing, how wonderful it is to believe that
it’s from the ordinary that the utterly out of the ordinary Good News of Jesus
Christ comes to us. We have no reason at all to ever feel inadequate
when opening ourselves up to receive God’s Word. We can be at peace with believing we are blessed,
and that through us others might be blessed, for each of us has found favor
with the Lord. Amen.
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