Advent 2. "Gabriel and the Believing Maiden"

Readings; Malachi 3:1-4, Philippians 1:3-11, Isaiah 11:1-9, Luke 1:26-38
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, MD, December 5th, 2021

A few years ago, there was a church campaign that involved wearing badges or T-Shirts that said, 'I've found it!' The idea was that when people asked, 'What did you find? you could explain the gospel message and invite them to church.

The angel Gabriel comes to Mary with a message that says, 'Mary, you've found it!' Found what? Luke 1:30 'Mary, you have found favor with God'. ' Another word for favor is 'grace'. Grace is something God wants us all to discover.

Who is this Mary? Outwardly, she was from the tribe of Judah. She was a native of a place called Nazareth. She was betrothed to be married to a guy called Joseph.

Inwardly, she had a deep faith in God and pondered spiritual things in her heart. When told she would be the one to bear the Christ - Child she responded by saying 'Let it be'. (Who knew she predated the Beatles by 2000 years?) She is described by her cousin Elizabeth, in Luke 1:42, as the most blessed of all women. 'Blessed among women are you; and blessed is the fruit of your womb'.

Over the centuries Mary grew to occupy a prominent position in many Christian traditions and became a focus for prayer and contemplation. She holds a unique place in the gospel story. As we come to a table laid with bread and wine on the Second Sunday of Advent, what lessons can Mary teach us about God's favor. In this angelic encounter we find Mary...'Surprised by Grace', 'Supplied by Grace', and 'Stretched by Grace'.

Surprised by Grace

It's not what you expect in the middle of making wedding plans. The angel Gabriel to turn up and tell you that you are about to have a baby. As soon as Gabriel opens his mouth and says, 'Greetings Favored One, The Lord is with you' then in Mary's mind alarm bells start to ring.

Scripture tells us that she was perplexed. When Gabriel then tells her ‘Not to be afraid' you can imagine her thinking, 'This is getting worse. I was confused, but now you are telling me there is something that I should be afraid of. Being singled out for God's good favor may not be all it's cracked up to be.'  Mary had been to Sunday School. She was aware of the crazy things that had happened to prophets and chosen ones of God in the past. Did she really need this, right then and at that point in her life?

There is a reason why the song 'Amazing Grace' is so popular. Grace... the favor of God upon our lives... is always awesome, terrifying, exhilarating and amazing. That God should consider people, such as we know ourselves to be, as fitting vessels through which to express the love of Jesus Christ to a hurting and needy world is … well... both perplexing and a little terrifying.

God is counting on us, depending on us, relying on us... to let the world know about the gospel message. We are to be the carriers, the ones who birth that message and allow it to grow inside us so we can share it with all people. Mary wasn't exactly thrilled at that prospect. She questions Gabriel. Verse 34 'How can this be?'

She hadn't taken the necessary steps for a birth to take place. 'I'm new to this! I'm not ready! I'm not prepared.' It didn't make sense to her. There had to be other more qualified, better placed people than she was to carry out God's mission. She was just a young girl about to get married. It didn't make sense!

One of the crazy messages concerning Mary's observation that she was still a virgin is that when it comes to birthing God's plans into our world, God is not prepared to wait till we consider ourselves ready. God is not prepared to wait till we have done everything we need to do before we start sharing the message of Jesus with others.

Often our first reaction when we aware of God's call to do just about anything is to say... 'Not now. Not ready. Not possible. How can this be?' Gabriel's reply to Mary is something we all need to hear! Verse 37 'For nothing will be impossible with God'”

The most important part of that verse might be the phrase 'With God'. Mary is not just surprised by grace; she is also promised she will be...

Supplied by Grace

Verse 35 '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' '

It is an oft repeated phrase. Those whom God calls; God also equips. God never invites us to single-handedly sort out the world by ourselves, in our strength and in our own time. Always, God calls us to work with others who are equally empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's purposes.

Mary needed to visit with her cousin Elizabeth to have confirmation that this was a work of God. Mary needed Joseph, just as she would later need an innkeeper, a group of shepherds and some visitors from the East to fulfill all that God was calling her to do.  Mary, above all things, needed the Holy Spirit.

In 1774 the English scientist Joseph Priestly discovered the gas we know of as oxygen. Actually, he didn't discover it. It was already there. What Priestly did was identify and recognize oxygen for what it is and what it did. The grace of God has always been there. Everywhere we go and whatever we do, God is there. But recognizing and responding to God's grace is not an automatic process.

Maybe in a sunset or in the laughter of a child we catch glimpses and hear echoes of grace. But claiming it and making it ours is a process of belief. When Mary visits Elizabeth, she is greeted by the words 'Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by her Lord' (Luke 1:45)

God equips us by grace as we go forward in faith. 1 Peter 3:18 invites us to be people who are 'growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ''. When we exercise our bodies, we receive the oxygen that we need. A swimmer or a runner in a competition takes huge deep breaths and takes them more rapidly as the activity increases. If your intake of oxygen is too small, you struggle to breathe.

The same could be said for being supplied by grace. Our grace capacity is increased by repetition and by exercising our faith. The more we give ourselves to disciplines such as worship and serving alongside others in mission, then so our grace capacity increases.

We are surprised by grace. We are supplied by grace. But thirdly, we are...

Stretched by Grace

Gabriel tells the believing maiden; 'You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you will name Him Jesus. 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. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end' (Luke 1:32-33)

Mary is told that her body will be the channel through which the grace of God would become incarnate and bring into the world the Messiah of Israel, the greatest and final King in the line of David, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. That is unbelievable. That stretches the limits of faith and possibility. But that is what we are anticipating during Advent and what we celebrate at Christmas.

Now, for sure, in our lives we are not going to have the same role to play as Mary had. Yet in order for our lives to be all that God wants them to be, we need to do some stretching. We need to stop putting limits on what God can or cannot do in us and through us.

A famous book by J.B Phillips was titled 'Your God is too small'. One thing grace can never be is 'SMALL! Grace is always HUGE. Grace is always going to stretch our imaginations, stretch our hopes, stretch our believing. Grace will always challenge our preconceived notions about what God can or cannot do in our lives, in our churches, in our communities and in our world
 
We shouldn't need to wear a badge or a t-shirt that declares 'I've found it'. For most of us, it is fair to say that, like Joseph Priestly discovering oxygen, what we have discovered is the grace that was always there. Like Mary, who was not anticipating a close encounter of the angelic kind, it is not so much that we found grace, it is that grace has found us.

As we come to the table this morning, we contemplate the end of Jesus life rather than its beginnings. But without Mary, we would not have the rest of the story. As we come today and remind ourselves of all that Jesus was, let us also reflect on these lessons of grace that Mary has offered to us.

•    Grace is always surprising. Allow room in your life to be surprised by God.
•    Grace supplies all that we need to do the tasks God calls us to achieve.
•    Grace stretches us to attempt things we may otherwise have never considered possible.

We have a lot to reflect upon in this encounter between Gabriel and the believing maiden we know as Mary. Consider her words of praise, recorded in Luke 2;

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
For He has looked with favor on the lowliness of His servant
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.”

To God's name be all glory. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.