Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Luke, the first chapter:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name 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 father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered 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 called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The holy doctor, Luke, when he was writing the Gospel, went to each and every person he could find that was attached to the life of Christ. He went to every house, every town, and recorded every incident they could remember. In today’s Gospel, we should imagine Luke, in the house of John, interviewing the elder Mary, probably around 60 years old. And we should perhaps, imagine Mary, a gleam in her eye, as she recounted the days when she was but a young virgin, remembering all the things she treasured and pondered in her heart.
And so, in this eye-witness account, we see Mary, the young virgin, here, in the middle of the Jewish year, probably doing some unassuming task, washing the clothes, cleaning the dishes, sweeping the house, while her parents are away. There, the angel Gabriel appears in her house. And we should not assume that Gabriel, whose name means “God is my strength,” is as unassuming as her duties. Angels get a bad rap today. We tend to think of the Precious Moments angels, so sweet and cherubic, or just a simple man in a white robe with a halo.
But, the angel tells Mary to not be afraid. So, we should probably imagine Gabriel, decked out in armor forged in God’s fire, sword in hand to beat back the demons, wings spread to cover the entirety of the house. A soldier, hardened in battle against Satan and his minions, the scruff of duty upon his face. I’d be afraid, too, especially if I was a young woman, alone, armed with nothing but a broom.
But, he says to not be afraid, for even his greeting, “O favored one,” tells us of his message. He does not strike down God’s chosen people, nor would he strike a woman, entering into her womanhood. He declares to her with these words a word of comfort, a word of election for a serious task. His Word is God’s Word, spoken from of old, that the virgin would conceive and bear a son. Mary was chosen to be the woman through whom the promises of Genesis 3, the first Gospel, the first mention of the one who would crush the serpent’s head, and the one who would be struck down in the process, she was the one through whom that prophecy would be fulfilled.
Every Jewish woman had hoped that she would be the one who would bear the Messiah, and so Mary, in hearing this angel’s message, would become the mother of God Himself, the mother of Jesus, the one who He would someday leave and cling to His wife, the Church. For it was written, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
And so our Lord, who would leave His Father in heaven, would one day leave His mother, in His death, and again in His resurrection, leaving her in the care of His beloved disciple, John, He would leave both parents at some time, and cleave, cling, to His bride, the Church, becoming one flesh with Her, so that we would be called sons and daughters of the same Most High God, whose power would overshadow the meek Mary.
And this truly is our hope, even this day, that the Mother of God would bring forth a Son, and this Son would be our hope, living in our flesh, but living a perfect life, dying a sinner’s death, and bring to us sinners the hope of the Resurrection of the Dead. And so, as Christ came forth from His mother, Mary, so, we, too, who have come forth from our mothers, would receive the same life of Christ, a life without sin, but not yet. This is the Advent hope. We long for this day, we long for the day of Resurrection, as a mother longs for the day she would see her son’s face for the first time.
But, until that day, as was Mary, we are filled with great fear at the message of the angel. We see that we are not worthy to be recipients of such a great gift. For truly, we should not think ourselves worthy of any gift of God. We are sinners, great sinners. We lie, we cheat, we steal. We deceive, we have other gods, we hate. We grumble, we complain, we gossip. All of us. None of us are perfect, and so, with Mary, we wonder how these things should be, that we have received such a magnificent gift from the Lord.
Yet, Gabriel’s message to Mary, that she is highly favored, that she is chosen to do such a great and noble act, to bring forth the Son of God through her womb, is also for us. Not that we would give birth to Jesus. Not that we would give birth really in any way. But, that the child coming from Mary, through the delivery of a child, would be for us. This is Immanuel, our God with us, forever through a woman.
And so He is with us, even today through Word and Sacrament. It is said that Mary conceived Jesus through the ear. She heard the Word of God, and as the Holy Spirit always works through the Word, the Word that said she would conceive and bear a Son, the power of the Most High God, the Holy Spirit, overshadowed her, and conceived Jesus, even as she heard the angel’s message. And Jesus is, in us, living in the same way. As we hear the Word of God, the Holy Spirit tells us that we are poor, miserable sinners. And He brings also to us a word of comfort, that we are chosen, that we are favored, and that acknowledging our sinful, wretched condition, the Lord has an absolution for us, He forgives us, He makes us alive in Him, even as He lives in us.
And He works through His Sacraments. Not through water, or bread and wine, alone, but by these elements with His Word. His Word works, it is efficacious. It does what it says it is going to do. So, when Jesus gives the name of God, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and binds it with the washing of water, you may know that the name of God rests upon you, just as the power of God overshadowed Mary. And when Jesus says, “This is my body… this is my blood,” you may know that it doesn’t just represent Jesus in this meal, but that you actually, truly, eat and drink Jesus.
This is why we reverence the altar when we approach, for our Lord has deigned, He has lowered Himself, to be in, with, and under the bread and wine. He is in the cup, He is in your hand. And He enters into your mouth.
We do not know how the Spirit of God does such great things, to deliver Jesus to us, but, we answer, with Mary, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word.” And so it is. Luther says that whoever believes the words, “Given and shed for you,” has exactly what the Word and the Sacrament promise, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And so Mary, too, had these things, not because she was more holy than you are, not because she bore the Christ and not you, but because she believed the Word of God delivered to her through the angel, Gabriel. His Word is God’s Word, and God’s Word always works.
For God is the worker of miracles. The one who was called barren, even in her old age, the cousin of Mary, Elizabeth, was even to be found with child. She would give birth to the prophet, John the Baptizer. He would be born first, six months even before Jesus would be born, so that he would prepare the way for the Christ to come. John would preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and point to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world.
And so, Jesus, the Lamb of God, would go to His slaughter like a sheep before the shearers, silent, bleating not, but accepting the Father’s plan for His life. This life that Mary grew in her womb, in her belly, would come out, bloody and gunky, just like every child. He would nurse at her breast. He would grow in wisdom and stature. He would skin His knees. He would cry for His mother when He was pushed down. He would play with friends. And His mother, Mary, would watch it all.
And she would watch her Son be led to the hill at Golgotha, watch nails be pounded into His hands and feet, hands and feet that she had kissed with a mother’s love, and would watch her Son be lifted high above all the people. She would watch as He would be tortured, and the words of the prophet Simeon come true, that a sword would pierce her heart as she watched her Son, the hope of the entire world die.
This is the hope of the world, this is why we have crucifixes and crosses, instruments of torture displayed through the Church, even during this time leading to the joyful Christmas celebrations we will have this week. The cross is the hope of the world, for, upon that cross, Christ, the Lord of All Creation was killed in grisly manner, so that we would be freed, saved from our sins. The same God who would take on our flesh, could use His power to be born of a virgin, could make a barren woman pregnant, could save the world through His blood, could wash us in the waters of Baptism, could deliver to us His body and blood in His Supper. This same God, who is all-powerful, omnipotent, could free Himself from the cross, but He went willingly, being led there all His life, so that He would save His beloved Bride, the Church. Nothing is impossible with God, not even the forgiveness of our sins.
And so, we need not fear sin or death any longer, for the Lord’s high place of reigning is upon that cross, and He shall reign forever and ever. The Son of David, the ruler and scepter in the house of Jacob, lives and reigns through all eternity. He has watched over Mary and chosen her, and He has watched and will watch over you, for He reigns through the shedding of blood. First, through His birth, then, through His life, and now, through His death and resurrection. The life of Christ is in the blood, and you have received it, and you shall continue to receive it, all your life. He reigns for you, from the womb to the tomb, and to the Resurrection of the Dead. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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