Now when the king was settled in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” 3 Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the LORD is with you.”
4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” 8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. […] Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. – II Samuel 7:1-11, 16
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And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” – The Magnificat, Luke 1:46-55
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In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 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. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 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. 36 ¶ 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. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 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
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The story is so simple.
And yet it’s so profound.
The angel Gabriel comes to Mary, tells her she’s going to be the mother of the Messiah, Mary says OK, and the angel departs.
It’s that simple.
And yet… it’s anything but simple.
This brief conversation is the focal point of history. It is the focal point of the history of Israel, and it is the focal point of human history. Everything that has come before has been leading up to this.
Which means that to begin with the story of Mary and Gabriel is to start in the middle of the story. We don’t have time today to go back to the very beginning and tell the whole story over again, but we can touch on the highlights. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” – and everything that was in them, including human beings – and everything that God created was good.
Until it wasn’t. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and God had some hard words for them, but God also spoke of hope: that one day, the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent (and the serpent would nip his heel, but that’s the Easter story – for now we’re talking Christmas). So today we hear the angel telling Mary that her son will be the one who will crush the head of the serpent, as God had promised.
Also leading up to this day is our Old Testament reading from II Samuel. King David says to the prophet Nathan that it’s not right for the king of Israel to live in a house of cedar while Israel’s God lives in a tent. It’s David’s way of saying “I’d like to build God a house.” And the prophet says “God is with you; do whatever is on your mind.”
But God says to David through Nathan “No – David, I will build YOU a house.” The house God describes will be a safe place for all the people of Israel: a place of peace, free from those who would harm them. God says, “I will give you a name and I will provide you a place…”
In Israel today there is a museum to the Holocaust called Yad Vashem – which literally means “a place and a name”. It was built in memory of the millions who died without a place or a name, in order to give them both. In this passage in Samuel, God promises the descendants of David will always have a place and a name – yad va’shem.
More than that, God says David’s house – David’s kingdom and David’s throne – will stand forever.
Two generations later David’s kingdom was divided, and about 300 years after that the temple was destroyed. It seemed like God’s word had somehow failed. But God had a plan from the very beginning. And God kept that plan moving forward through the Babylonian Captivity, and the rebuilding of the temple, and then through hundreds of years when there were no prophets at all and it seemed like God was silent.
And now, in this moment with Mary, God’s plan is moving forward in a big way.
We notice that God, in choosing Mary, chooses not to deal with kings, priests, philosophers, Caesars, the rich, or the centers of earthly power. God chooses instead a young girl of around thirteen or fourteen, without formal education, from a poor family, from a rough town called Nazareth in the backwater of an insignificant nation that had been overrun by Roman legions.
God sends his angel to her.
The angel Gabriel greets Mary with the words:
“Rejoice, highly favored one! The Lord is with you!”
I want to stop there just for a moment because the phrase the Lord is with you is not a throwaway phrase. It’s a phrase heard in other places in scripture, always meaningful, and usually spoken in times of crisis or trouble. To give a few examples: in the book of Genesis says “the Lord was with Joseph” in Potiphar’s house and when Joseph was in jail. In the book of Joshua, God says to Joshua as he is about to take over leadership of Israel, “as I was with Moses so I will be with you.” The Lord was with Samuel as he served as prophet in the tabernacle under corrupt leadership. God protected Samuel and eventually led him to anoint David as king over Israel. The Lord was with David too… and with King Solomon and King Hezekiah because these kings honored God.
And now the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and says to her, “the Lord is with you” – and with these words Gabriel places the young teenager squarely in the company of the Old Testament prophets. And when we hear Mary’s words in the Magnificat, which we heard a moment ago, we find she is indeed a prophet, speaking God’s word and God’s truth into human society.
So who was this young lady named Mary? Scripture tells us very little about her, but we can piece together a few things from the history of the time. Growing up where she did, Mary would have spoken Aramaic but would also have known Hebrew and a few phrases in Greek and Latin as well. She was economically lower class. People in those days – if they weren’t the top 10% – were either farmers or artisans, and Mary’s family were carpenters. Farmers were slightly better off than carpenters economically, but all of the working classes suffered under triple taxation: paying taxes to Rome, to Herod (the king of Israel), and to the Temple.
Mary, like most people in her community, had to work hard physically: carrying water into the home, doing all the household labor. She was probably physically strong, tan, and athletic. And she knew something about God. She probably went to synagogue and certainly would have heard her parents talk about God. And she had faith… but until the angel showed up nobody knew just how much faith she had.
Mary has the kind of faith that sets an example for everyone around her, as well as those of us who come after her.
Mary is called “blessed” not only because she is the mother of Jesus, but because she is a woman of great faith. During the ministry of Jesus a woman in the crowd once said to him, “blessed is the womb that bore you!” But Jesus replied, “blessed rather are those who hear God’s word and obey it.” That’s what Mary did, and that’s what makes her ‘blessed’. Her kinswoman Elizabeth confirms this, saying, “blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken by the Lord!”
So back to the scene at hand. The angel Gabriel told Mary a number of things. He starts off by saying (1) Don’t be afraid. Gabriel could see that his presence and his words were turning Mary inward; she was debating within herself, struggling to understand. (2) You have found favor with God. (3) You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and name him Jesus. (4) This child will be great, the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David (which is the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken to David by God through the prophet Nathan in our Old Testament lesson). (5) Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Mary knew enough about the history of her people and her family (since she was from the house of David) to understand what the angel was saying. Mary understood she was being honored by God, and chosen by God, to give birth to the Messiah – the one who would rescue her people and who would reign forever.
We can’t help wondering what we might have said or done if we had been in Mary’s shoes. Pondering this question we realize Mary really was one in a million. God knew her heart and God knew that she could do this.
Mary only had one question. She’s not doubting God’s word. Even though men and women twice her age have fainted dead away at the appearance of an angel, Mary is standing on her own two feet. She’s not self-conscious and she doesn’t worry about being from the wrong side of the tracks. She knows it’s God’s opinion of her that matters. Just one snag: “how will this happen, since I don’t have a man?” (Did I mention she’s practical?)
Gabriel responds:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cast a shadow over you, so the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And by the way” – Gabriel says – “your elderly relative Elizabeth who was barren is now in her sixth month. Nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary’s answer is one that is worthy of being spoken in a throne room before a king: “I am the Lord’s servant. Be it to me according to your word.”
This is a faith that risks all: risks being cut off from family, being shamed, being divorced, being seen as a sinner – or as a crazy person when she tells people the baby daddy is God. Mary doesn’t worry about that. She just believes and says ‘yes’.
As one theologian puts it, “Mary’s story moves us all from who we think we are to what God has called us to be.” Mary invites us to have the same kind of faith: a faith that moves us from Advent into Christmas. A faith that can sing along with Mary:
My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant…
He who is mighty has done great things for me…
He has scattered the proud… he has brought down the mighty… and exalted the humble…
he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty…
This is a song our world needs to hear – and needs to learn how to sing.
If we look at ourselves this Christmas – if we look at our neighborhoods, our families, our churches – and we see nothing powerful, nothing big, nothing of particular value in the eyes of the world – then we’re in the same place Mary was. And that’s a good place to be. We are the ones who can join in with Mary’s song. We are the ones who can say, “nothing is impossible with God.”
“Look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near.” (Luke 21:28) AMEN.
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