Certainly this isn’t the only or the best way to interpret the Annunciation. Nevertheless, it was the version I needed that day.
Waiting For God by Elizabeth Desimone
Prayer
Great and merciful God, from among this world's lowly and humble you choose your servants and call them to work with you to fulfill your loving plan of salvation. By the power of your Spirit, make your church fertile and fruitful, that, imitating the obedient faith of Mary, the church may welcome your word of life and so become the joyful mother of countless offspring, a great and holy posterity of children destined for undying life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year B, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.
Some Thoughts on Luke 1:26-38
Are we confused? So what is the meaning of Advent and Christmas? As we wait we might ponder and think about the meaning of our life and the life of those closest to us. If we stop for a moment we might look and around and ask what are we doing and for what are we making this great effort? If the bumper sticker wisdom is true and Jesus is the reason for the season we might pause on this Sunday and ask ourselves do our actions tell that story or a different story?
For many people life is simply moving along. We are getting by. We are making our way towards another Christmas. The anxieties about family and being together are growing. Perhaps financial stress and strain is pulling on our souls. We are ramping up and we are wondering is this or that really important?
We are going to Christmas parties and making the rounds and something in the midst of those conversations and relationships may actually seem more real, more worthwhile, than the rest of the business of the season. More people are in church and more people are thinking and wondering as well as wandering quietly about life.
We are confused. It is in fact a confusing time of year with competing messages. It is a confusing time economically. It is a confusing time as people look to the past and then forward into the future. We are a bit confused and we are hoping someone might offer some good news.
I think that is what we are waiting for...a little bit of good news. We are waiting for a little direction. On this Sunday as the fervor is building I believe people are hoping our preachers will some how give us some wisdom, some direction, perhaps interpret what we are experiencing and what it all means.
Mary was confused to be sure. Luke Timothy Johnson translates Mary's response to the angel's words as "utterly confused." (Luke, p 38) At the same time it is likely that all those who heard this story were not confused but rather expected it to be so; this is the way great births happen. This is true in other parts of scripture and it was true in the writings and story telling of Jesus' own day. We might look at the birth of Samson in Judges 13:2-7 as an example of such writings. (38)
Mary is a woman with no special position within the body of faithful people like most of us. Mary is not a particularly righteous person (according to Luke); she is not known and a pious woman but rather an ordinary citizen like most of us. "She is young in a world that values age; female in a world ruled by men; poor in a stratified economy. Furthermore, she has neither husband nor child to validate her existence." (Luke Timothy Johnson; Luke, 39) She actually is of very little value at all. I think that is actually how most people feel about themselves.
In a society which has more, spends more, consumes more, and prides itself on liberty, freedom, and happiness, we are today a body of individuals who feel pretty miserable, imprisoned by our stuff, and of very little value. I think that is why there is so much unrest in our culture. We are confused about our place in the world; our place in relationship to one another. In this world there are those who are poor in spirit and poor in individual wealth. While most Americans may not be the latter we are more often than not poor in spirit. And, in that recognition we discover how much we need one another and how much we are bonded to those who in this holiday season will go without.
It is to Mary, and to humanity, that God comes and gives grace. God gives grace and favor to all people in this moment of annunciation. God conceives in the world grace and love incarnate.
Unlike Zechariah who demands proof of this coming Christ, Mary simply wants to be less confused. She just wants to know, in a simple way, how can this be? How is it that such a simple person with no seeming value can be a bearer of God's grace and favor in the world?
After all that may be the question for which we are all seeking the answer.
Such a simple question and we seem so adrift. I think this is the great travesty in our church, that we may have forgotten the answer to this question. We in our church have forgotten that everyone, ALL people, those like us, those unlike us, those we agree with, those we don't agree with, those who worship like us, those who do not worship like us, those with money and those without money...ALL people are created in such a way that through God's power (and God's power alone) we are vessels of grace in the world.
In a world where reputations, wealth, and personal identity are more often than not built upon tearing others down we desperately need to be reminded of this simple truth - god chooses Mary particularly and in so doing God chooses all of us.
We in the mainline denominations in this world have spent a lot of time making clear who the righteous and who the righteous are not. We have chosen to use our pulpits publicly to require proof of people's righteousness. And, we have chastised used our power to make others feel bad about themselves. I believe that preachers (both liberal and conservative) do this. And, in so doing what has happened is that the rest of the plebes sancti dei (the sacred people of God) have born witness and are left wondering if they too may not be good enough. Who is? We have echoed consumerism's maxim that we are not worthy enough alone we must need something else to make us special. We have translated right belief (whatever you define that as) to be the status criteria for all believers; and in the end we have preached the leaving out of one another from God's embrace.
When we make Mary out to be anything other than the poor, culturally worthless, outsider she is we destill a message that is not good news at all.
This Sunday, across the globe, Episcopalian and Anglican preachers will stand in pulpits and in front of their congregations and look into the eyes of virtually every kind of person that God has created. And, we have a moment. Sure some will preach for 8 minutes others longer, but in that sermon there will be but one moment in which we have an opportunity to offer God's people an answer to the questions and concerns they bring with them and set before God and God's church. They are asking, they are wondering, is it possible...is it just possible... that God's grace and favor if meant for the likes of Mary is meant for me? Overwhelmingly the answer must be a loud cry of "YES."
May we have the courage to look our people in the eye and see their hearts and speak to them and to say: "Yes, you are chosen like Mary, and God's Holy Spirit is upon you, and you are of value to God, for in you and through you God has chosen to make his Grace, favor, and love known in this world. Yes, you are the one. You have been chosen."
A Little Bit for Everyone
Luke 1:26-3826In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He 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. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The 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. 36And 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. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then 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.
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