(for the Fourth Sunday After Advent, December 21, 2014)
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, favoured 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 favour 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 for ever, 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. (Luke 1:26-38, NRSV).
Mary’s faith is rightly celebrated. A young girl from a nowhere town. Not even married.
Yet Gabriel is standing before her with a message from the mouth of God. I suspect this angel is thrilled to get this assignment: ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ Is this warrior angel chuffed to meet this young girl?
And young she is. If Mary is typical, she may be a mere thirteen or fourteen years old.
Of course she is ‘much perplexed’!
But even so, Mary hears the angel out: ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour 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 for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ It must have been mind boggling.
Mary, however, asks only one question: ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’
Gabriel’s answer is full and deliberately faith-inspiring. God has a plan. God recently achieved something similar. It is an argument that climaxes with the angel’s final, memorable words: ‘For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Gabriel should know!
These words, however, are not the pinnacle of our text. That title rightly belongs to this teenage girl. Mary responds with a faith decades beyond both her experience and years: ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’
She cannot possibly know what she is saying.
But she does know who she says it to. Gabriel is just a messenger. Mary knowingly gives herself to the ‘Lord’.
It is enough. The plan of God continues to unfold…
But I am left wondering if Gabriel returned to heaven only to look back and marvel at the strength of this child’s faith.