The narrative begins with the initiative of God. God sends the
angel Gabriel to Nazareth, to a virgin named Mary. God favors Mary with His
presence and mysterious choice. The angel, as agent for the Most High, speaks
for the Lord as God commands His salvation into existence, “You will
be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.”
The Lord gives this child David’s throne, and causes Him to reign forever.
God is the mover and shaker of the passage. Whatever happens in the passage
takes place because God acts and speaks. Here is an explosion of God’s
gracious activity on the scene of human history.
An explosion of grace calls us to see new possibilities. A virgin
having a baby is a physical impossibility. No wonder Mary is taken aback and
exclaims in wonder, “How can this be?” How can an untouched womb
bear not only a child, but the child, the Son of the Most High, the Messiah?
There is no reason to expect such a feat to come true; even as there is no
reason to expect creation to take shape out of chaos, or seas to part, or
bread to fall from heaven, or giants to fall under the sting of stone and
sling. Yet the Lord calls us into fresh possibilities every time He acts in
saving ways.
The angel’s response to Mary’s amazement is to point
to the blowing of the Holy Spirit across her impossibility. The agent of creation
“hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2) will now overshadow Mary
as the Lord speaks a new creation into being. This new work of creation is
a child in a virgin womb, but even more than that, it is a kingdom of salvation
dawning on the pages of history. Elizabeth is the illustration that confirms
the angel’s message. The one barren and old suddenly finds life kicking
in her womb, “for nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary’s response to the gracious activity of God is exemplary.
Whether Protestant or Catholic, every reader understands Mary’s submission
to the Lord’s will to be a true display of faith. Here we discover a
faith we are to emulate as the Lord calls each of us into the amazing possibilities
of His saving initiative. Mary’s declaration, “May it be to me as
you have said,” opens wide the door for the hope God is creating. Mary
receives by faith the amazing miracle of God’s salvation implanted in
her womb. We, by an equal faith, open wide our hearts to receive the new,
saving realities God is creating in and through us.
Since the days of restoration from Exile, the movement of God
on the passing march of human history had been minimal. A dearth of prophetic
activity was especially noticeable. God’s people languished under the
closed realities of Roman rule and sinful failure. Hope for a better day brewed
in zealous hearts. Humbler souls, however, recognized that new beginnings
didn’t come with acts of military revolution. Impossibilities remained
so, unless the Lord intervened. Then an angel appeared to Mary in Nazareth.
God initiated hope in the midst of hopelessness because of His own purpose
and grace.
God’s startling initiative not only confronts young virgins
in Nazareth. The testimony of the people of God over and over again is that
God regularly surprises us with His gracious presence and amazing, saving
intent. Abram hears the call, “Go to the land I will show you” (Genesis
12:1). Moses hides his face as the voice from a burning bush says, “I
am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt”
(Exodus 3:10). David rushes in from the flocks as the Lord passes over his
brothers to make him king (1 Samuel 16:12). Peter, Andrew, James, and John
jump up from their boat and nets at the compelling invitation to “Come,
follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Biblical
history displays the gracious pattern of God surprising His people with His
saving activity.
When God acts in saving ways, newness is inevitable. Abram leaves
for a new land. David takes up a new vocation. Moses speaks with a new voice.
The disciples discover a new purpose. In Jesus, we find new life. Yet newness
is not always welcomed. Comfort is the name of humanity’s game. “Nothing
new under the sun” is our manifesto. God, however, is Creator. He is
constantly making all things new. New possibilities are His bread and butter.
When divine initiative crashes into our impossibilities, what is a guy or
gal to do?
Mary is the answer to the question. When God startles us with
the new possibilities of His saving activity, the example we are called to
imitate is Mary’s humble submission to the will of God. Such submission
falls under the description of faith. Trust and submission take shape in Mary
as an active giving of herself to the Lord’s purpose and plan. As Mary
does so, the salvation story moves forward unhindered. Mary opens her life
to God’s possibilities and receives God’s saving activity within
her very person. Her faith becomes the instrumental means by which God then
multiplies His saving initiative to the world.
(For the full manuscript of this sermon
go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons”)
Mary’s story is worth repeating. It leads us into the mysterious,
gracious activity of God that startles our closed lives with God’s saving
possibilities. It calls us to that wonderful, troubling embrace of God we
call faith. In short, it deals with the central, fundamental realities of
our Christian faith. We cannot pass up its telling.
The task of the sermon is to blend the collective story of human
experience into Mary’s story. In doing so, the listener hears of Mary’s
startling encounter with God, even as he or she experiences God’s surprising
coming personally. Mary may be brought up short in amazement at the plan and
promise of God, but as we tell the story, so should our listeners. Then when
Mary cries, “I am the Lord’s servant,” if we have told the
story well, the Holy Spirit might nudge our hearers to do the same.
The transformation of impossibilities into God’s possibilities is the ripe focus for developing this message. Remember, these are saving possibilities God is creating, and to which Mary is submitting herself. It would be dangerous to preach “health, wealth, and prosperity” possibilities using this text. We might undermine a response that gives the gift of me to the will of God, if our people hear that God gives the gift of himself to our will for comfort.
