Advent 4, 12/21/2008

Sermon on Luke 1:26-38, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" 29But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32He 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 father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" 35And the angel answered 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 called holy- the Son of God. 36And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God." 38And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

HAIL MARY

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I'll never forget this letter to the editor in Christian Century magazine back when I was in my first solo parish in 1982. It must have been around this time of the year, and the letter writer was ranting about the intellectual dishonesty of those that believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Of course, the issue was less about Mary's innocence and more about the man's problem with the divinity of Jesus. How could God become human? How could anyone believe that? Of course, the writer wasn't a Christian and couldn't believe that anyone could believe that Jesus was both God and human.

My childhood sweetheart was furious with me for going to seminary. It wasn't in the plan. She didn't want to be married to a pastor, and she didn't want me to be a pastor. She had always loved Christmas time, all the songs, all the presents, and all the parties. It was a kind of Santa Christ that her parents had taught her to love. But spending your whole life not only going to church but working for the church? How could anyone do that? So in anger she said: "How could anyone believe that the death of one man was the answer to anything?" Christmas was one thing, culturally fun and all that. But basing your life and your hope on the death of God in human flesh?

Others who doubt the Christian story point to parallels in other world religions. In the old stories before the time of Jesus, Greek and Roman gods seemed always to be fooling around with humans and producing super offspring. Zeus' or Jupiter's wife was always throwing a fit because of the old boy's dalliances. The Egyptians thought their Pharaohs were the mediators between the gods and humans and that the Pharaohs went to live with the gods upon their death. The Aztecs believed that their god Quetzalcoatl both died and rose again. Centuries later American Mormons would suggest that Quetzalcoatl was the Savior Jesus come down to earth in Mexico.

Because many have such trouble with the uniqueness of the Christian story, it is right and good today that we spend time with Luke's story of the annunciation, when the angel Gabriel announced God's plan to the Virgin Mary. We need to revisit the story to be sure that we know what is being said here in Luke 1.

Because Jewish girls were, in those days, formally engaged to be married at puberty, Mary was likely twelve or thirteen years old. Luke tells us that she is engaged to Joseph, a descendent of King David. As we noted several weeks ago, the formal engagement typically lasted about a year and was considered tantamount to marriage having been solemnized before a rabbi. Presumably the groom was gathering the necessary resources to be married, and the bride and her family were likewise preparing for the big day. Proof of virginity on the bride's wedding night was absolutely expected, and both sets of parents were expected to verify that proof...enough said

Despite the fact that engagement was tantamount to marriage, the bride and groom were not only expected to remain pure prior to the wedding night. There was to be no physical relationship with anyone outside of the marriage. To break the engagement in such a manner was considered adultery, a key concern in Matthew's story about Joseph.

Rationalistic interpreters of the Bible have frequently doubted the virginity of Mary and have even suggested that Joseph was Jesus' biological father. Of course, such an interpretation does violence to the story, because the key assertion of Luke's account is that Mary's pregnancy is by asexual reproduction. Mary becomes pregnant by God's saying so. Just as God's Word has power to create in Genesis 1 and accomplishes God's purposes in Isaiah 55, so here in Luke 1, God says: "Let there be the Son of God," and there is!

So already at the outset, this Christian story defies explanation. You can doubt it. You can laugh at it. You can wince at it. You can try to ignore it. But Luke simply says that God's Word has power to accomplish His good and gracious will. Twelve or thirteen year old Virgin Mary becomes pregnant by God's speaking. And this part of the story is an absolute deal-breaker for those that find Jesus attractive but stumble over the God part.

Some interpreters make much of the fact that the Roman emperor Augustus had declared his murdered uncle Julius Caesar a god, thus, because of his adoption by Julius Caesar, making Augustus the son of god. Some spend a great deal of time pointing out how Luke tells the story as a polemic against Augustus who called himself the prince of peace. Some interpreters just can't seem to accept the historicity of this account, rather making much of Luke's highly political agenda: Jesus and Augustus going "mano a mano" from day one.

This leads to a kind of childishness like one older pastor, who should have known better, going into another pastor's congregation and telling the people that the beloved Christmas narrative was simply Luke's made-up story, and that we should just appreciate Luke's literary genius.

Back to the story, Gabriel actually says: "Hail, Mary, the Lord is with thee." Now that makes protestant translators nervous, so they generally come up with different words. Luke will continue in v. 39 with the visitation story when pregnant Virgin Mary visits pregnant cousin Elizabeth who says: "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." Again this makes protestant translators nervous, so they generally come up with different words. Because it's all getting awfully close to western Christians adding the words: "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

I like to tell the story of my last remaining aunt, Mary Frances, my Dad's baby sister who was raised Catholic by my Dad's mom. Back in the 70s Aunt Mary's oldest son started attending a rabidly anti-Catholic church in north Dallas pastored by TV evangelist Robert Tilton. The upshot is that my cousin went home and told my aunt that she had to stop saying the rosary.

My aunt asked him: "So, do you ask any of your friends at church to pray for you?" He replied, "Yes, of course." She responded: "Well, I ask my friends at church to pray for me, too, and that happens to include Jesus' mother and the saints. And I'm not going to stop asking them to pray for me, so get over it!"

When I heard the story, I had to laugh. My Aunt Mary, who like my Dad is half-Sicilian, is a real sweetheart. But she can be feisty if you back her in a corner as her son tried to do. While praying the rosary or talking to the saints is not part of my piety, I appreciate her great religious imagination. She senses she is surrounded by that great cloud of witnesses that the book of Hebrews describes. And Aunt Mary knows that her namesake the Virgin Mary is the mother of God, as Luke declares. And Aunt Mary believes that the faithful in heaven are praying for us, which I happen to believe, too.

So score one for Aunt Mary Frances. The Hail Mary is firmly rooted in Scripture!

Now the encounter between the angel Gabriel and Mary is a beautiful description of the Blessed Virgin's rapid acquiescence to God's plan of salvation. Gabriel tells her that God wants her to bear His Son and that this Son will be the fulfillment of God's promise of an everlasting dynasty to David in 2 Samuel 7. Jesus or Yeshua will, like His namesake Joshua, lead His people to the heavenly Promised Land. He will rule over His people forever. Mary's response is to ask how this can be, since she is a virgin. Gabriel answers that God is a God of the impossible. God has allowed her infertile cousin Elizabeth to become pregnant. And now the Holy Spirit will create this child in the Virgin Mary's womb as the holy Son of God. And Mary responds: "Behold I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your Word."

Martin Luther loved the Virgin Mary and even to his death accepted the Catholic doctrine of her perpetual virginity. I have been told by one liturgical scholar that Luther always celebrated the Eucharist on those days of the liturgical year associated with the Virgin Mary (namely the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation, and her Falling Asleep or Assumption into heaven). Luther called her the model Christian and wrote glowingly of her in his commentary on the Magnificat (Mary's song from Luke 1 that we will sing momentarily in the hymn entitled "My Soul Proclaims Your Greatness Lord").

Luther pondered often what it meant for Mary to be pregnant with the Word of God. The Greek version of the Nicene Creed calls the Virgin Mary "the God bearer" ("theotokos"). And indeed Luther urged that all Christians are called to be God bearers. And so happens in the washing of Holy Baptism as we are buried and raised with Christ. Paul says to the Galatians: "I have been crucified with Christ, and so it is now no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." And so it happens in our receiving of the Lord Jesus' body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. The Lord says: "This, my body, and this, my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." We Christians are God bearers by the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus. This is probably a greater stretch for us men than it is for women.

Notice the movement of the text. God never forced the Virgin Mary to become the mother of God. Through Gabriel, He declared His plan. Then Gabriel patiently explained the plan. And then she accepted her part of the plan that was and is absolutely essential to the plan. For sinners to receive salvation, God's Son has to be both human and divine. An only human death, as my old girlfriend pointed out, helps no one; however, the death of God on the cross, as the letter writer in Christian Century pointed out, is beyond reason or explanation. Only Jesus who, through the Virgin Mary is both God and man, can delivers us sinners from sin, death, and evil. He has to be both God and man, crucified and raised for us and our salvation, or there is no hope beyond tragedy and loss and the grave!

That letter writer many years ago and that old girlfriend both got what Paul later calls the scandal of the Christian Gospel. The God of love who has no beginning or ending, the God who relates within Himself as Father-Son-Holy Spirit, speaks His Word and it has power to change lives forever. A twelve year old Virgin Mary had her whole future mapped out, and it was utterly changed in an eye blink. In the same way, God's Word still comes not to coerce or even to take away our ability to say "no" to Him. Rather, the Lord God who has made Himself known in Jesus still graciously comes to us hoping that we will gladly become God bearers like Mary. The Holy Spirit graciously works on us as Jesus comes in Word and Sacrament, inviting us to say: "Behold the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your Word."

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Zumwalt
St. Matthew?s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wilmington, North Carolina USA

E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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