I went to a Catholic high school when I was growing up. It was always fascinating for me as a Protestant to get to know this other large portion of Christianity. I can remember my freshman year and seeing that we had a certain day off. The day is the Feast of the Annunciation. This is the day that the passage we just heard took place. Catholics celebrate this in late March- nine months before Christmas. I was fascinated in how my Catholic sisters and brothers placed so much emphasis on this event. This always seemed so different in how we Protestants look at the birth of Jesus. This is changing, but it seems like in the past Mary was reduced to the pregnant woman on a donkey or the woman carrying the child in her arms. We don’t spend the time getting to know this woman who was chosen to bear the Christ-child.
This passage in Luke where we first meet Mary. She is a young woman, probably a teenager, betrothed to be married. She lived in a small backwater town of the mighty Roman Empire. In the scheme of things, she wasn’t that important.
And yet, she is visited by this fearsome being that greets her by calling her a favored one. I can imagine her hearing that and looking around to see if this person is talking about someone else. “Wait you mean me?” you can hear her thinking. Gabe tells her what’s going down and she looks at him with a skeptical look. “How is this all going to happen, since I haven’t slept with a man?” Mary knew how babies were made, and Gabe seemed to not mention that part of the “plan.”
Gabriel takes some time to explain and even tells her that her older cousin Elizabeth is pregnant even though she is well beyond her childbearing years. He then ends by saying that with God nothing is impossible.
It was then when Gabriel tells Mary that it is through God that anything can be done, that she understood that God would be with her in this odd time.
Mary had every right to be a bit skeptical. She was a young woman who wasn’t even married yet. And why would anyone choose her? She’s a nobody in this world. And yet, God chooses this woman to bear the one that would restore the Davidic line in the face of Rome that had installed its client king. Mary knew how the world worked and she didn’t fit the bill.
But then the angel tells her that with God nothing is impossible and gives her an example of her cousin.
Advent is a time of preparation, a time to get ready for the coming of Christ into the world. But Advent is also a time of surprise. The arrival of Jesus will surprise everyone. It surprises Mary who thought she knew what to expect in life and now was going to have a baby. It would surprise King Herod who would learn that there is another person that will be called king. As we read the gospels, we will see over and over how Jesus will surprise people by breaking boundaries and ways of being in the world.
And then I think about us today. Does God still surprise us? Are will able to see how Advent will overturn our expectations? I sometimes think about our little congregation and how easy it is for us to think that because we are small, we can’t do much. And so, we don’t expect much either. But what if we believe that God can surprise us? What if God can use us in ways that we never expected?
When Mary realized that God would be with her, seeing her through she was willing to be God’s servant and give praise to God. I am praying that our hearts will be prepared to be surprised by God and know that God is with us in these unexpected times and that in the end, we will also give glory to God.
Questions:
When Gabriel visits Mary, he calls her “favored one.” What do you think makes her favored?
Mary was perplexed by Gabriel’s words. What about God has left you perplexed?
Read Luke 1:5-25. An angel also visits Zacheriah months before and like Mary asks how this can be. In his case he and his wife were old. Why did the angel make Zacheriah mute? What makes him different?
In verse 36 Gabriel shares that her cousin Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy. Mary knows that Elizabeth is old and past her fertile years. Did that make a difference in her acceptance of what the angel said?
The angel says that with God nothing is impossible. What does that mean to you? Has God done the impossible in your life or the life of family and friends?