Meditation on Luke 1:26-38
Pastor Karen Crawford
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown
Fourth Sunday of Advent/Christmas Eve
Dec. 24, 2023
In Nazareth today, two separate holy sites commemorate the annunciation. Sometimes more than one holy site commemorates the same event because two different communities claim their stretch of land is the place where a given story really happened.
Well, that’s not the case with the annunciation. This is according to Katie Kirk, a scholar living in the interfaith context of Jerusalem and studying at St. George’s College (Christian Century, Dec. 2023). One site is near an ancient well, she says in Christian Century this month, and the other is just down the hill in the traditional location of Mary’s house.
So, why two separate sites? Because “some traditions tell the story this way: the first time the angel Gabriel appears to Mary is while she is gathering water at a well. When he starts his announcement with ‘Greetings, favored woman,’ Mary is so startled that she runs all the way home. Despite what holiday cards and Christmas pageants may have entrenched in our collective memory, Gabriel was probably not an Italian painting’s angel with great hair,” Katie says, “nor was he garbed in a floppy surplice and crooked pipe-cleaner halo. I would be startled, too. What’s more, some versions of the story say that the angel follows her. The angel Gabriel follows her to her house, eventually making it all the way through his announcement, at which time Mary agrees to be the mother of God.”
In these 12 verses, Luke describes Mary as “favored, perplexed, thoughtful, and afraid.” She “questions, believes, and submits” to her calling, to her vocation! This is the first time reading this passage that I have thought about Mary having a calling to be the mother of God. This thought came to me while reading an article by Cynthia Rigby, a theology professor at Austin Presbyterian Seminary. Cindy co-led my Doctor of Ministry course a year ago June in New Mexico.
Cindy, like Katie, also considers how Mary has been depicted somewhat inaccurately in artwork. “Some show Mary and Gabriel talking as two old friends sharing a secret,” she says. “Others show Mary sitting at Gabriel’s feet in submission, agitated by the news he is sharing.” (Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol 1, 2008, pp. 93-95.) Neither one of these images really fit the story in Luke—when she is perplexed, thoughtful—pondering what his words mean because she doesn’t understand!—and afraid. So much so, that the first thing the angel says after greeting her and telling her the Lord is with her is, “Do not be afraid!”
I can picture Mary dropping her water jar and running home from the well to escape the angel, only to be more terrified when she discovers that he has followed her home!
Somehow, the realistic image of Mary painted in Luke as being doubtful, questioning, and afraid—rather than being chosen by God because she is sinless and perfect—makes ME feel better about Mary, her calling, and my calling, which was NOT accompanied by an angelic visit, but is something that has unfolded over the years and is still unfolding as I imperfectly seek to be obedient to God’s will.
Protestant Theology, unlike the belief of our Roman Catholic neighbors, is that the extraordinary thing about Mary isn’t her SINLESSNESS or PERFECTION, but her sheer “ordinariness”! She, like us, “is a member of the ‘priesthood of all believers’ who emulates for all of us sinful, embodied saints the mysterious reality that we are integrally included in the work of God.” (Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol 1, 2008, p. 94) Reformer John Calvin “rejects the idea that Gabriel’s identification of Mary as ‘favored’ suggests that she is ‘worthy of praise.’ Rather, Gabriel recognizes Mary as the ‘happy one’ who has received the undeserved love of God, who alone is to be adored.”
Mary is the one who says YES—after fear and doubt dissipate, after her question of HOW it will happen is answered. She says YES! After the terrifying angel tells her about Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy and says, “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Mary says YES. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
The angel departs. And I can’t help but marvel at all the things the angel didn’t say.
He didn’t tell her how difficult it would be to share the news with her betrothed—Joseph, who would consider calling off the engagement, quietly, when he learns she is pregnant. But then an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and confirms what she has said. He didn’t say that there would be a long, hard journey for young Mary to make in her 9th month of pregnancy when the emperor decrees that all the world must be registered for a tax. She and Joseph will walk—she had no donkey to ride, contrary to our Christmas cards– about 90 miles in four days, averaging a 2.5-mph pace for roughly eight hours a day. He didn’t tell her that when they finally arrive in Bethlehem, the town is completely overwhelmed by travelers forced to return to register for the census. There will be NO place to stay. He didn’t tell her that she would give birth to Jesus in a stable, far from her home and family, including her mother. And that a manger of hay would serve as her firstborn son’s cradle. He didn’t say that King Herod would be seeking to kill the child who would be King of the Jews. And that Mary and Joseph would have to flee with Jesus to Egypt for a time—even farther from their home and family.
The angel also didn’t tell her about all the good things that would happen when Mary would see evidence of the angel’s promise coming true– when the 12-year-old boy Jesus is found in the temple, astounding his teachers. When Jesus preaches the good news in the synagogue, on a mountain, and from a boat pushed off from shore. How he heals the sick and casts out demons, stills a storm, and feeds a multitude with a few loaves and fish. How he turns water into wine, eats with sinners and opens wide God’s salvation to all people. How he forgives people of their sins, including those who persecute him cruelly at the end.
The angel didn’t tell her about the cross—or the empty tomb. Not when Mary said YES.
Today, on the morning of Christmas Eve, we welcome 9 new members. Today, we say YES as a church of Jesus Christ to their request to be more formally one of the flock. All have answered the call to discipleship with this particular congregation. Though they have been Christ’s followers for years—and our sisters and brothers– most were strangers when they first came. Since coming, they have become our friends.
We rejoice and give thanks that 9 people have said YES. We don’t take credit for the growth, for it is by the grace of God, who uses ordinary, imperfect people, trying their best to follow Christ each day.
Some of our new members may have had some doubts and fears before making the commitment to join with us. They might have been hurt by churches, Christians in the past. They may need our help and God’s help to experience healing and to discover their gifts for ministry.
Doubts and fears, as Mary models for us, are natural and normal in our journey of faith. Doubts and fears don’t make null and void our call to be Christ’s disciples! They are part of it! They help us seek answers and grow in peace, hope, love, faith, and witness. We might wonder, sometimes, what we were thinking when we said YES to God and YES to a particular church when we see some of our imperfections up close. Fear and doubt will fade as we learn to trust our gracious God, prayerfully, together. God will help us!
As Mary was Christ’s faithful disciple from the moment she said YES to the angel, despite what he didn’t say that would come to pass, may the Lord strengthen us to be Christ’s faithful disciples, no matter what surprises and challenges God has planned for our future.
May we wake up every morning and say to God, as Mary did on that long ago day to a terrifying angel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Let us pray.
Gracious God with Us, thank you for your love and mercy for imperfect people, seeking to follow you. Thank you for choosing and using ordinary people to do extraordinary things, like Mary, who acted freely when she offered herself as a servant of the Lord, embraced the call to be the mother of God, and became Your Son’s first disciple. Help us to believe and live out our faith in your everlasting presence with us and that with You, nothing is impossible. Amen.
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