Delivered December 11, 2011
This Advent we are looking at the passages in Luke that prepare us for the birth of Jesus. They are filled with angels. In fact about the only times we see angels in the gospels are in the stories surrounding the beginning and end of Jesus’ life – his birth, death and resurrection. At this time of year in particular angels are everywhere in the stories. In every church I have pastored I have had at least one person who loved angels, who collect angels and decorate their homes with angels and send angel Christmas cards. In this church it was Bertha Gotshall, if you remember her – the postmaster at lower corner. She just died this August at the age of 98. She loved angels and wanted to know all about angels. She owned hundreds of angel ornaments and figurines. She decorated her tree with angels. She would ask me about angels often, and I eventually gave her Billy Graham’s book on the subject, entitled “Angels, Angels, Angels.” I don’t know who has now taken her place here as the Federated Church angelologist. If you are an angel lover, let me know on your way out of church.
The angel Gabriel plays an especially important role in the Advent and Christmas stories. Last Sunday we saw him in the Holy place of the Jerusalem temple when he appeared to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Our passage today takes place six months later. This time this same angel appears to Mary in her home in Nazareth, and a conversation ensues. We are going to look at that conversation this morning and see what it tells us. It breaks down naturally into three exchanges, each one has the angel speak and Mary responds.
I. First is verse 26-29 “26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.”
This first exchange talks about the presence of God. If I had to describe the purpose of angels in scripture this is what I think they mean. They represent the presence of God in our midst. That is the message of this angel to Mary. He appeared to her and the first words out of his mouth are “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.” That is the message of Christmas as well. It is the meaning of the name Immanuel. The most famous OT prophecy of the birth of the Messiah is from Isaiah. He said, “Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a Son and they shall call his name ‘Immanuel.’” Mary and Joseph didn’t name their son Immanuel; they named him Jesus. But we understand that spiritually he was Immanuel, which the gospel writer Matthew in his Christmas story reminds us means “God with us.”
That is what Christmas is about. That is what the birth of Jesus is about. It is a celebration of the experience that God is with us. That we are not alone in a senseless universe. This is the meaning of the incarnation – that God became a human being and dwelt among us. That is what the gospel writer John says in his Christmas account. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is what Christmas is about, and the angel announced it. “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.” And even though those words were directed to Mary, through Mary they come to us. We are highly favored, for the Lord is with us.
The angel goes on to say, “blessed are you among women!” God is present and we are blessed. Of course Mary has a special blessing; she was doubly blessed because she was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. But we are also blessed through that blessing to her. We are the recipients of this grace that came into the world through Mary in Jesus Christ. Do you realize how blessed you are to know the presence of God with you? There are different ways that we can talk about the presence of God with us. One is this Christmas doctrine of the incarnation – that God became enfleshed in Christ. In Jesus’ preaching he talked about the Kingdom of God within us and in all around us. After Easter the church speaks of God present with us as the Holy Spirit indwelling us. These are all different dimensions of this wonderful truth that God is present. The Lord is with you. That is what the angel said to Mary.
Mary’s response in verse 29 is this: “she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.” I love her response. She was taken aback at this message, as we should be. She was silent. She did not say anything. This is a correct response to the experience of the presence of God. This is why silent prayer and silent meditation is so meaningful to me. I also pray with words, but I spend most of my prayer time in silent prayer. Words seem to get in the way for me. Words put a distance between God and me that I don’t want there. When I have to, I use words. I am a preacher after all, so I use words a lot. But silence is so much better, so much more direct. So it makes perfect sense to me that Mary’s response to the announcement of the presence of God was silence. And wonder. We can’t understand the presence of God. All we can do is be aware of it. That is Mary’s initial response.
II. The second round in this encounter between the angel and Mary is in verses 30-34. “30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
Here is the big announcement. This is why the angel came to Mary – to announce to her that a miracle was going to happen. She was going to give birth to the Son of God. Every birth is a miracle. Our daughter Sarah is going to have a child, and we are going through this pregnancy with her in a much closer way than with our two daughters-in-law. The birth of any child is a miracle. But what was happening in Mary’s womb was a miracle of a whole different order. It is called the Virgin Birth, and is attested not only here in Luke’s gospel, but also in Matthew’s gospel, so the story was well known. She is going to give birth without a man being in the picture. She knows enough to know that this is impossible. So her response is in verse 34 “Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
The doctrine of the Virgin Birth is a stumbling block to many people. They consider it legend or myth, a fantasy story invented by the church. Many people assume it is a biological impossibility and therefore reject it out of hand. But what seems at first glance to be impossible is not impossible with God. The angel says in verse 37, “For with God nothing will be impossible.” The whole point of Christmas is that God does what seems to be impossible. If you take the seemingly impossible out of Christmas you are left with nothing. You might as well just celebrate the Winter Solstice, the natural rhythm of the seasons and the tilt of the earth in relationship to the sun. It is natural and normal – no big deal. But Christmas is a big deal. Christmas is about impossible possibilities or possible impossibilities. It is about something that we think cannot possibly happen, and yet it does.
The virgin birth is not really impossible. Virgin births, known by the scientific name of parthenogenesis, are known to happen naturally in some invertebrate animal species. Parthenogenesis has been induced artificially in the laboratory in fish and amphibians. This type of asexual reproduction has even been induced in mammals – mice and rabbits in the laboratory. So it is not impossible. It has just not been scientifically duplicated in humans yet. But it could be one day, if we want to spend research monies doing something like this. Humans share most of our DNA with these mammals. It is just a matter of switching on the right gene. So let’s not get hung up on the virgin birth. Virgin births are not impossible; they are reality.
If you are going to hung up on something, get hung up on the incarnation - that God can become a human being. That is what is important. God is spirit. How can spirit become flesh? How can the immaterial become the material? That is the real stumbling block. That is the real mystery. Yet that is what we are celebrating at Christmas. Again, “37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
III. Let’s move on to the third exchange. Verses 35-38 “35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Here the angel talks about the power of the Holy Spirit doing a miracle in Mary’s life. In her case it was the conception of a child in her womb. But I want to apply this principle to us. Advent and Christmas is not just about something that happened to someone else 2000 years ago. It is about also about something happening now to us. The Christmas carol says: “Oh holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born in us today.” The virgin birth and the incarnation are not just doctrines to be believed. They point to spiritual truths to be experienced.
The virgin birth is about the mystery of God literally indwelling Mary. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit (who is mentioned here specifically in this passage) is about God indwelling us. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “he is with you and will be within you.” The apostle Paul speaks of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” This story is about much more than a birth announcement to Mary. It is an announcement to you - Christ in you, the Holy Spirit in you, God in you. Christmas is not just about the physical birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, it is about the spiritual birth of Christ in us. The incarnation is about God becoming flesh in an historic way in Jesus. But it is also about God becoming flesh in his people, in his church, in history in us. The carol continues: “We hear the Christmas angels / The great glad tidings tell; Oh come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel.”
There is an announcement to be made at Christmas time. But it is not just the announcement of a baby born to Mary. It is the announcement of Christ’s life to be born in us. The question then becomes how are we to respond to this announcement? Mary responds in our passage in verse 38 by saying, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” She responds in faith. She accepts that what she thought was impossible is possible with God. She responds in faith as a servant of God, deciding to surrender her will and life to God – to let God do with her life whatever he wishes. This decision changed her life forever and it changed history forever. Likewise when we respond in faith it changes us. Christmas becomes not just a date on a calendar, but a truth to be experienced every day of our lives. God with us, Immanuel.
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