Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He 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. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The 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. And 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. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then 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.
When Mark and I talked about this Advent sermon series and he asked me to preach, he said, by the way, you get Mary.
You see, all sorts of theological conundrum surround Mary: the virgin birth; the catholic doctrines of her perpetual sinlessness and her bodily assumption into heaven. Myths have sprung up about her which Martin Luther said cannot be validated by scripture. But so, it is and has been.
We will focus on what she said and what she did in the high calling that God, through the angel Gabriel, laid on her. There are but a very few references to Mary and what she said in each of the Gospels.
Who in the Christian church and beyond, has not heard of Mary? I discovered that she is also mentioned in the Quran. Mary is central to the life of Jesus and to our remembrance of her in the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Lent. She even has a place in our Lutheran worship book on page 57 -- a commemoration prayer for Mary, mother of our Lord.
What did this young Mary say about being chosen to be the mother of the Messiah and what did she say during his life that can shed light on her faithfulness, courage, and discipleship—and how can that inform our own faithfulness, courage, and discipleship?
To put it into the vernacular of today, I am guessing that after Gabriel told her she was favored, would conceive, and have a son and that she would name him Jesus, I think Mary said, “WAIT, WHAT?!!”
After all, she was a teenager living in the small, no count village of Nazareth. What and why was an angel of the almighty God appearing to her there with such startling news? According to St. Luke she did ask, how can this be since I am a virgin? Gabriel simply begged off saying that the Holy Spirit will take care of it and that the power of the Most High God will handle it. Could you, as a woman, have lived with that? Looking at Joseph’s response to stay with Mary, could I have lived with that?
Amazingly Mary simply said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Wow.
And the angel departed leaving Mary and Joseph with their shock, their questions, their amazement…and their decision to follow God’s plan going forward.
We learned last week that Mary traveled to have a conversation with Aunt Elizabeth about all of this and received good counsel and comfort. And then unexpectedly comes Mary’s beautiful song that we know as the Magnificat. It is such a soaring poetic proclamation recognizing the greatness of God who is strong in love and justice. This great song comes from the voice and heart of a teenager! We marvel at it still to this day.
We are told that Mary pondered all these things and kept them in her heart. That is a good place to keep the things we ponder regarding the mysteries of God.
So finally, the time came for Jesus to be born, and to fulfill the ancient prophecy of the birth to happen in the city of David, Joseph and Mary made the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem – ninety-three miles so that Jesus could be born in the city of David. A long ride on a donkey. Mary was tough and Joseph was faithful and loyal.
In Bethlehem they found only a stable for the birth. (There is a Facebook meme showing up that has Mary saying, “Joe, I told you to make a reservation!”) I am not sure if that’s what Mary said or not.
But the birth took place with animals looking on…shepherds showing up and eventually Wise Men bringing gifts. I assume Mary greeted them with awe and maybe with suspicion, but her words are lost to antiquity.
But another dream came to the couple and told them that they had to make another difficult trip—this time to Egypt to protect the young Jesus from the wrath of Herod. Surely Mary was worried, but we don’t know what she said about it. Maybe only saying, “Joe, we must do it, we have to go.”
The trip to Egypt was again around ninety miles—walking and carrying a young boy...and perhaps sharing time on a donkey. Feeding him, changing him, protecting him—Mary did it all, again exhibiting great trust and faithfulness. We don’t know what Mary and Joseph talked about, but I’m sure she was pondering and keeping all these things in her heart. It seems that she had made up her mind to protect Jesus to witness to the tumultuous future of her son.
We that Jesus grew up in a family with siblings and parents who, even knowing that he was different, treated him like the others with care and love.
We do have some words that Mary spoke within the context of raising Jesus. When he was twelve years old and he took off on his own while in Jerusalem, Mary expressed her care and displeasure saying, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look your father and I have been looking for you in great anxiety.” What parent today has not parroted that rebuke while raising our children? But Jesus simply said he was about God’s business and so Mary went home and again treasured all those things in her heart. She trusted God’s plan. Perhaps a lesson for us?
We hear what Mary said again at a wedding in Cana. The wine ran out, and exhibiting motherly sternness, she asked him to do something about it, but he pushed back just a bit asking her what that had to do with him, and she said with a flip of her head (my imagination) to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” We know the rest of the story and it was Jesus’ first miracle.
Later in the narrative, we get this scene from John’s Gospel: Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is our son.” I imagine that Mary’s heart was too broken for her to blubber a word. She would only have been about 43 years old. Can we imagine?
So, we are left with only a few things that Mary said, and yet we get a vivid example of a simple, profoundly faithful, strongly courageous young woman who trusted God and who therefore is worthy of our emulation and remembrance as the mother of our Lord who is on the way. Amen, Come Lord Jesus.
Amen.
