26<\/sup>In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,\u00a027<\/sup>to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin\u2019s name was Mary.\u00a028<\/sup>And he came to her and said, \u201cGreetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.\u201d\u00a029<\/sup>But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.\u00a030<\/sup>The angel said to her, \u201cDo not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.\u00a031<\/sup>And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.\u00a032<\/sup>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.\u00a033<\/sup>He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.\u201d\u00a034<\/sup>Mary said to the angel, \u201cHow can this be, since I am a virgin?\u201d\u00a035<\/sup>The angel said to her, \u201cThe 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.\u00a036<\/sup>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.\u00a037<\/sup>For nothing will be impossible with God.\u201d\u00a038<\/sup>Then Mary said, \u201cHere am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.\u201d Then the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26-38, NRSV).<\/em><\/p>\n In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Several years ago at our congregation\u2019s Sunday School Christmas pageant, I spotted a little girl dressed for the pageant in a pink robe.\u00a0 \u201cWho are you,\u201d I asked, \u201ca pink angel?\u201d\u00a0 And she very proudly and indignantly said, \u201cI\u2019m not an angel, Pastor, I\u2019m Mary!\u201d\u00a0 And I have to admit, to my shame, that my first thought was, \u201cReally? That seems impossible! You\u2019re too little, too small, too unprepared for such an important role.\u201d With two growing daughters I now know better! But today in our gospel lesson we hear St. Luke\u2019s account of the Annunciation, the story of the Angel Gabriel coming to Mary, announcing to her that she will bear the Son of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s such an unbelievable and incredible task, that our human reaction to this announcement, even Mary\u2019s own reaction, is similar to my Christmas pageant objection: \u201cBear the Son of God? How can this be? Isn\u2019t this impossible? Isn\u2019t she too little, too small, too unprepared for such an important role?\u201d<\/p>\n Luke\u2019s gospel tells us that the Angel Gabriel arrived in little nowhere Nazareth, and coming into Mary\u2019s house the first words out of his mouth were, \u201cGreetings, favored one.\u201d\u00a0 What must it have been like for Mary–probably very young, probably very poor with nothing to her name–what must it have been like for a young unmarried teenager living out in the sticks of Galilee, as far away as possible from anywhere important, a nobody in the world\u2019s eyes, the kind of person you wouldn\u2019t look twice at–what must it have been like for her to hear those words from God\u2019s own angel: \u201cGreetings, favored one!\u00a0 The Lord is with you!\u201d\u00a0 Mary is noticed!\u00a0 Mary is seen!\u00a0 Mary is given favor just because.\u00a0 Mary is chosen, not because of anything extra special about her, but just because God chooses her out of pure grace, out of pure undeserved love.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the kind of God we have.\u00a0 A God who notices us, who sees us, who gives us his favor and love not because we\u2019ve earned it, but just because he does.\u00a0 You too, as little and unworthy as you may be, are also chosen to belong to God, not because of anything special you have done, but you\u2019re chosen out of God\u2019s pure grace, his pure undeserved love.<\/p>\n We think: \u201cWell, that\u2019s fine, but let\u2019s not take this too far! This is fine for Mary, but not for me! I am too small, too unimportant, too much of a sinner, spiritual but not too religious, I\u2019ve seen far too much, I\u2019ve been far too broken. In fact, if God knew me, he\u2019d change his mind and yank that Angel Gabriel all the way back up to heaven!\u201d<\/p>\n Even Mary herself wonders about this. The Bible tells us that \u201cshe was much perplexed by the angel\u2019s words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.\u201d\u00a0 Which is really saying something, that when you see an angel you might only be perplexed!\u00a0 But Mary pondered, debated, reasoned, and wondered about this.\u00a0 Mary is smart: she is a thinker, a theologian, her still waters run deep. So what does this mean, to be favored by God?\u00a0 What a joy, and how terrifying to be favored!\u00a0 Most of us are starving for, but also terrified of really being known, of really being loved for who we really are.\u00a0 And now God does it!\u00a0 \u201cGreetings, favored one, the Lord is with you.\u201d<\/p>\n But into that terror, into that anxiety, the angel speaks the most repeated command in the New Testament. In fact, any time an angel comes with a message from God, this is how the \u2018angel manual\u2019 says you have to start off your speech:\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u201d\u00a0 What could a penniless, teenage, unmarried girl out in the sticks having just been visited by an angel to announce an unplanned pregnancy have to be afraid of, except for everything?\u00a0 And what are you and I scared of, what do we most dread, what are those things that keep us up at night, or that we try and not even think about?\u00a0 The angels\u2019 message to you today is clear: \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what we say when we try and comfort a child? Isn\u2019t that what we say when we hold onto a loved one? Isn\u2019t that what we all need to hear, like children this season: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid!\u201d<\/p>\n But God\u2019s grace and favor always come with a job, with a task, with a vocation, and so Mary receives the greatest one ever:\u00a0 \u201cYou will conceive in your womb, and bear a Son, and his name will be Jesus.\u00a0 He will be great, and will be called the son of the Most High, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.\u201d<\/p>\n God is establishing his kingdom, God is establishing his dwelling place, God is establishing his throne in the most unexpected place, in the womb of Mary. This is the place where each and every one of us begins, where our lives begin, where we are cared for and develop before we can do a thing to help ourselves.\u00a0 And God meets us right there!\u00a0 Of all the places God should keep out of, Jesus enters! The one who created the heavens and the earth, whom heaven could not contain, is now contained within his mother\u2019s womb.\u00a0 The one who gave spread out the waters and created all things, now grows himself, floating in the waters of his mother\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n But Mary also knows about the birds and the bees, and so asks the angel, \u201cHow can this be, since\u2026?\u201d \u201cThe Holy Spirit will do this,\u201d the angel says.\u00a0 \u201cAnd remember your old cousin Elizabeth, down at the nursing home, she is also pregnant too, all around you what cannot happen is happening, for nothing will be impossible with God.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s the message this morning for us all.\u00a0 We who think ourselves so wise, so in control, we who like actuaries tabulate up what we know is possible or not possible, we need to hear that nothing will be impossible with God.\u00a0 Whatever it is in our life, whatever it is in our family, whatever it is in our church, whatever it is in this world, whatever we have already closed to the door to, whatever we cannot hope for anymore, we need to hear the angel\u2019s truth: that \u201cNothing will be impossible with God.\u201d<\/p>\n Mary waits a moment.\u00a0 And responds in faith: \u201cHere am I, the servant of the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.\u201d\u00a0 W.W.M.D.–What Would Mary Do?\u00a0 She trusts God.\u00a0 As Martin Luther observed, she is quick to hear and believe the Word she heard. Mary invites us to open our lives all the way to God, to trust that we have his favor and to say, \u201cYes, here I am, Lord\u201d. She is truly the first Christian believer, the first to believe in the promise of the child growing within her. Her exalting obedient faith is the undoing of our disobedient fall, her openness to the Word fills her with the Word, she so overflows with grace as she carries God\u2019s Word for us that now you and I and all generations will call her blessed. Trusting in the Lord she herself will bear, she shows you and me how to trust today: \u201cYes, Lord, let it be with me according to your Word.\u201d<\/p>\n And she says this, knowing that the child she will bear will be taken away from her.\u00a0 Her pain of childbirth will be nothing compared to the pain she feels as her Son offers his life upon the Cross for broken sinners like you and me.\u00a0 Mary says yes, so her Son can say yes.\u00a0 Mary says to her Son today, \u201cThis is my body, given for you\u201d so that on the night in which he was betrayed, her son can say to us, \u201cThis is my body, given for you\u201d.<\/p>\n Mary, little, humble, fierce, wise, trusting Mary, found favor from God.\u00a0 So have you.\u00a0 She said, \u201cYes,\u201d and so now God waits upon you to answer with your life. As we wait and watch in these last days before Christmas, listen to the angels sing: \u201cDo not be afraid. You have found favor!\u00a0 And now nothing will be impossible with God.\u201d<\/p>\n And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills<\/p>\n New Haven, Connecticut<\/p>\n Pastor@TrinityLutheranNH.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 20, 2020 | A Sermon on Luke 1:26-38 | by The Rev. Dr. Ryan D. Mills | 26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,\u00a027to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,122,157,108,110,262,3,109,212],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-3986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-adv_weihn_neujahr","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-01-chapter-01","category-nt","category-predigten","category-ryan-mills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3987,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3986\/revisions\/3987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3986"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=3986"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=3986"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=3986"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=3986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}