“The Annunciation”
A Communion Meditation for the First Sunday of Advent
Preached by the Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
Sunday, December 2, 2012
First Congregational Church of Stoughton, United Church of
Christ
Text: Luke 1:26-38,
47-55
I am a philatelist. That’s a scary sounding word for stamp
collector. Philately is a hobby my
husband Peter and I are able to share together as a couple, and over the years
I have amassed what I think is a rather impressive collection of stamps
depicting figures and scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
Many of the stamps I collect
showcase masterpieces from great artists, and the most popular subject for such
artwork without a doubt is Mary holding the baby Jesus – there are hundred, if
not thousands, of different depictions of the Madonna and Child.
In your bulletins is a reprint
from one of my stamp exhibits on the Nativity Story, and you can see from that
insert, as well as your Bible Top 40 handout, the variety of ways in which Mary
has been portrayed art. In fact, in most
paintings, Mary does not look like a poor teenage peasant girl living in
poverty in a village occupied by a foreign power. Instead, she is often depicted as a gowned
and sometimes crowned young woman.
But no matter how many different
ways she is depicted in art, Mary is without a doubt the most recognizable
woman in human history. And yet, our
faith tradition tends to shy away from Mary and her story of faith. I will admit that for most of my very
mainline Protestant upbringing, Mary would appear only briefly at Christmas in
the gospel lessons I heard, in the carols I sang, and in the manger scenes I
set out on my table. And when I boxed up
the nativity sets at the end of the season, I would also put away Mary and her
astounding story of faith.
It is true that for many people,
the virgin birth can be a stumbling block to the Christian faith. And yet, if we read the birth narratives through
only the lens of reason, we will miss the timeless lesson of this story. Although I can’t say for sure if it all
happened this way, I am very sure that it’s true, because the point of the
story is not about science; it is about God and God’s power to make a way where
there is no way, to make the impossible become possible.
Mary’s story is one, I believe,
that needs to be reclaimed by our reformed heritage, but because we have heard
the account so often and know how it all turns out, it can be difficult to
recapture the initial shock of what the angel is saying to Mary. St. Luke tells us that when Gabriel appears
to Mary and says, “Greetings, favored one!
The Lord is with you,” she is "much perplexed by the angel’s words
and wonders what sort of greeting this might be."
Then the
angel says to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with
God.” Writer Elie Wiesel notes that
“whenever an angel says 'Be not afraid!' you'd better start worrying, because a
big assignment is on the way."
And a “big assignment” it is! The angel continues, “And now you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son
of the Most high, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his ancestor
David. He will reign over the house of
Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
What must
be going through Mary’s heart and mind when she hears Gabriel’s words? Bewildered, she asks the angel, “How can this
be?” She wants to make sense out of what
makes no sense, and we wonder if, behind this one question, she is also saying
to herself, "How do I explain this to Joseph? What will my parents think? Will the townspeople ostracize and stone
me?” If any such questions do occur to
Mary, the text doesn’t let on, but tells instead of the young maiden listening
intently as the angel tells her the barest details about how it will all come
to pass. And then it is Mary’s turn to
speak.
There are
instances in our life which become turning points, forks in the road –
significant, life-changing moments in which everything hinges on whether we
respond by shaking our heads and walking away, or we respond by lifting up holy
hands and saying "yes!" to life and to God.
And we
find here in Luke’s gospel a turning point – not just for Mary, but for human
history, for God’s plan of salvation.
What if Mary had said "no"?
After all, she faced possible rejection by Joseph, she faced a life of
poverty raising a child as a single mom, even death by stoning. We would have understood if Mary had said no. But she doesn’t. To Gabriel, she says, “Here am I, the servant
of the Lord. Let it be with me according
to your word.” Mary says “yes” to God’s
divine plan, risking rejection, death, risking everything in order to "smuggle God into the world through her
own body."[i] Mary says yes, and the world is changed
forever.
And after
she says yes, she breaks into song, proclaiming, “My soul magnifies the
Lord.” This treasured piece of
scripture, known as “The Magnificat,” served as this morning’s Gospel Call and
is the basis for both our hymn of reflection, “My Soul Gives Glory to My God,”
and our final hymn, “Tell Out My Soul.”
In it, Mary praises
“the God who was at work in her and through her, who was bringing hope and a
new future to the people, who was rewriting humanity's story by overturning
oppression and filling the hungry with good things..”[ii] Our story of
Christian faith begins when an ordinary young girl, with no credentials except
the love of God and a willing heart, trusts an angel’s message and steps out in
courage and faith to become an extraordinary conduit for God’s love.
And the
story of Mary and her visit from the angel Gabriel is our story, too, for each
one of us has the opportunity to say “yes” to God. Each of us has the opportunity to let the
Holy Spirit touch us so that Christ is born in our hearts, that we may be
vessels for the Holy, and carriers of the Divine Light. Each of us can say no to the empty messages
of Christmas consumerism, and say yes to the message of faith and hope that the
story of The Annunciation gives us.
And so, not
just during this season of Advent but all through the year, may we remember the
story of Mary, an ordinary young girl whose extraordinary courage and faith
changed the world forever. May we
remember her story, that we very ordinary people might also listen for God, and
in trust and in faith, say “yes,” that God might do something extraordinary
through us. May we remember Gabriel’s
words: "Do not be afraid” and “Nothing is impossible with God" so
that we can respond, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with
me according to your word." Amen.
