Greetings, Favored One

Luke 1:26-38 – The Annunciation, 2019

Surprises can be good or bad and you may enter the land of unexpected consequences if you are the one delivering a surprise.

Knowing your victim – I mean, the honored recipient of your surprise – and all the possible detours and deviations that may arise when pulling off a surprise, and then preparing for them is really important.

Take, for instance, these surprises that were prepared for me the year I turned 50:

The first happened in Connecticut, where my parents and brother lived, and where I had gone to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mom. My birthday is just a couple of weeks later, in May.

The ruse they had carried out was for me to visit my brother’s house, about 30 minutes or so from my parents’ while the party planners went to work at my parents’ house. What nobody expected was that a day’s worth of heavy rains would cause the tributaries of the Connecticut River that wound their way between those two places to rise so much during the day, that many of the roads I needed to take were flooded and closed.

When I was finally able to find a clear way back to my parents’ place well over an hour after I left my brother’s, I discovered a group of old friends and family who had all been waiting all evening for my arrival, poised and ready to shout “surprise” only to have themselves be surprised by the lengthy and unexpected delay. All was well, however and we were all “gotten” by the surprises that had played themselves out that night.    

Then, the actual weekend of my birthday, our oldest son, Bill, conspired to get me out of the house by taking me out to lunch so Jim and friends could prepare. Bill lived in Smyrna, Delaware, about 45 minutes from our home and just down the road from a really great gardening center I didn’t get to visit very often.

My birthday is in May, and gardening is one of my favorite things to do, so after lunch I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to go shopping for flowers. I took my time, browsing through the flowers, the shrubs, the trees, the vegetable plants, the hanging baskets, the yard ornaments – until finally my cell phone rang.

“Where are you?” my husband asked me. “Think you’ll be coming home soon?” Then he covered his tracks by asking me where we kept something.

So, we chatted and then I finished up my shopping, filling my mini-van with geraniums, perennials and a few other annuals. Then I made the leisurely drive home, still totally in the dark about what was in store for me. When I got to our house, I was greeted by friends and family who had been waiting for a very long time for my arrival!

In today’s Gospel, Mary receives an infinitely more astonishing surprise. The angel of the Lord appears out of nowhere. Gabriel might as well have shouted “Surprise!” at the unsuspecting girl.

When he first comes to her, “shock” doesn’t even begin to describe Mary’s reaction. First there is this grand intrusion into her life, but the words Gabriel speaks confuse, confound, and trouble her: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

Greetings, favored one?  Mary may be young, but she has no illusions about who she is. She is a person of no account in the culture in which she lives. She is young, and though she is engaged to be married, she is probably only between 12 and 14 years old, the usual age for betrothal in her world.

Typically, after such a match was made, legally binding her to Joseph, she would continue to live in her parents’ home for about a year. Once she reached child-bearing age, she would go to live with her husband.

Further, we know that she comes from a small, po’-dunk town, for that is what Nazareth was in the Ancient Near East. The equivalent of “the wrong side of the tracks.”

So, in case you’re keeping track, in a nut-shell, in Mary’s world, she has these strikes against her – she’s female, she’s poor, she’s from the wrong side of the tracks, and she’s barely more than a child herself. You can’t get much more “lowly” than that.

Yet, Mary’s story is surrounded by and enclosed in the surprising, and the impossible story of God’s astonishing, amazing, saving advent into the world.

We might be surprised at the Lord’s choice of mother for the Messiah, but God knew what he was doing.

There is an adage I’ve heard, and you probably have too, especially as it is applied to trial lawyers headed to court. The adage is this: do not ask a question you do not already know the answer to.

“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

What follows Gabriel’s greeting is not so much a question as it is an astonishing announcement: that God has chosen Mary to conceive and bear the child, Jesus, who will reign over an everlasting kingdom.

Could Mary have refused God’s desire for her? Perhaps. But God knew Mary as God knows each of us, and God called this young, powerless woman for this role in transforming the world. Throughout the Scriptures, God has often surprised those through whom God has chosen to work, allowing and causing the most impossible of events to occur through them. By the same token, God has called and used the most unlikely characters to do the impossible, transforming them and the world through them.   

As we contemplate this Gospel passage, one that we are quite familiar with, God invites us to be surprised once again at the way in which God works. This invitation is especially timely as it comes at a time when we as a people are discerning how God is calling us to function in a world actively opposing the goodness and unending mercy of God, and God’s ceaseless compassion and love for those least likely to be among the “favored” of God.

As we contemplate Mary’s story, God is inviting us to be surprised once again by the ways God does the seeming impossible through the most surprising means and through the most surprising people.

When we have gone astray, diverted by the floodwaters of our own desire and sin, when we have become distracted by the things of the world that appeal to us, while ignoring the things of the world God has instructed us to focus our attention upon, when we have broken our relationship with God over and over again, and when the floodwaters have risen and we have felt lost and isolated, God has faithfully waited for us, prodded and pursued us. To our great surprise, our brokenness and propensity for getting lost and being delayed from answering God’s desire for us doesn’t keep us from God.

Greetings, favored ones. The Lord is with you!

Friends, the good news of the Gospel is that God is still active in the world, still surprising us by his choice of disciples. Through Jesus, God has made each of us as favored as Mary, as blessed as Joseph, as chosen as any of the most unlikely but holy people we read about in the bible.

God’s activity and promise did not end at the cross, and resurrection. Instead, God does the impossible through the cross - it blossoms there, for the salvation of the whole world.

God pursues us through the least likely places and makes us people of God’s own creating and redeeming. The same God who worked through the lowly teenage girl from the wrong side of the tracks is still at work in you, even when you feel that you are unworthy, too messed up, not gifted enough or faithful enough to be God’s vessel for the healing of the world.

God’s favor is with you, and you, and you – and me. Sinners that we are, God’s favor is with us, redeeming us, abiding with us, and using us to bear Christ into the world.

Greetings, favored ones! The Lord is with you!

God favors the lowly ones. Amidst our weakness, our self-centeredness, our apathy, God is at work. Amidst our pain and illness, our depression and despair, God is at work in us. Amidst our confusion and worry, our loneliness and isolation, God is at work in us.

Greetings, favored ones! The Lord is with you and intends to do great things through you!

As we reach out to the other, God is at work in us. As we serve our neighbor, God is at work in and through us. When we extend forgiveness to others God is at work in and through us. When we ask forgiveness of those whom we have hurt, God is at work in and through us.

As we pray and meditate, God’s favor is here, and God is at work in us. As we worship together and share in the feast of Jesus Christ, God’s favor is here, and God is at work in us. As we prepare for the coming of the Christ Child as Mary herself did, God’s favor is here, and God is at work in us, actively doing the impossible, transforming us for God’s service, doing great things in and through us.

I invite you to join me in this exercise this week: reflect on these words: “I am favored by God. Indeed, God wants to do great things through me. One of those things might be…..(fill in the blank). Surprise! May God’s will be done, through you. Amen.

Whose Person Am I?

Matthew 1:18-25

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            I came across those words this week as I was preparing to write this sermon, and I had to read them again. “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.” Does it ever!

            I think there is something profound in this statement, it connects faith with action in a deeply personal way. Being God’s person does not simplify our lives, as much as we would like to say and believe that it does. Instead, it ‘complicates’ them - in a holy way.

            Being God’s person calls us away from comfort and complacency. Being God’s person requires us to go to places of discomfort and challenges us in ways we never thought possible. But in the midst of those places, God also blesses us and gives us the gifts we need to thrive as God’s agents of mercy and love.

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            Joseph may not have had the words to express this reality, but I bet he felt this disruption and complication to his very core. After all, Joseph must have thought he had it made. What a satisfying, if not downright happy time in his life.

            He was secure. He was engaged to be married. Better yet, he was engaged to a young woman, a virgin, someone whom he had every reason to believe would serve him well as he strove to have a family - perhaps a few sons to keep his business going, as well as someone to care for and to be cared by for the rest of his life, God willing.

            This engagement, or ‘betrothal’, was a binding contract, a legal piece of business in those days. It was not likely to be the romantic relationship sealed with a proposal on bended knee and a beautiful diamond ring – or even a simple cigar band – as we might expect to take place today.

            Rather, the agreement between Mary and Joseph was, in keeping with their times, a solemn pledge, part of a process leading to marriage. Because they were betrothed, Mary and Joseph would be looked upon as if they were married, even though they would not live together until after the second stage of their marriage, consummation, took place, which might happen as much as a year later.

            This commitment was commonly considered impenetrable; A betrothal was serious business. You didn’t just break this contract – a divorce was required, and you had better have a good reason to seek this option.

            But Joseph wasn’t thinking about divorce on that day when he found out that Mary was pregnant. Before her confession, perhaps he was dreaming about how he might be expanding the carpenter business someday, with all those sons he hoped to have. If they worked hard enough, and if they were blessed by God, they might be able to not only expand their little carpenter shop but maybe even open a franchise; they could name it ‘Joseph and Sons.’ It was good to dream.

            It also felt good to know that you were committed to another – and Mary was a fine catch-young, innocent, a promising helpmate. But then God intervened, even though Joseph didn’t fully understand it at the time. And his life, his world, were never to be the same again.

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            After Mary shared her news with him, what turmoil, what utter chaos Joseph must have felt his life had devolved into. The scandal of having his young fiancé show up pregnant was beyond embarrassing, it was mortifying, and it held dire implications for Joseph’s next steps.

            What pain and embarrassment he must have felt as he listened to Mary’s story about a heavenly visitation and an immaculate conception. I cannot even begin to imagine what that conversation or Joseph’s initial reaction must have been like; Mary insisting that she had been visited by an angel and was with child by the Holy Spirit of God, and Joseph in shock at what he was hearing.

            So – Joseph considers his options and, being a decent kind of guy decides that he will ‘quietly dismiss’ Mary, avoiding scandal as best he can, while also avoiding subjecting her to legal prosecution and potential execution by stoning. Because that was a very real possibility if the truth got out.

            Then, God interrupts even those plans. God had determined to use Joseph to serve as an ally in God’s own work, because that is what God frequently does – recruits allies to serve God’s purposes in the world, all for the grand purpose of the salvation of humankind. Joseph learns firsthand how true it is that “being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            Suddenly, an angel of the Lord visits Joseph, too. This time the angel, the very messenger of God comes in a dream and reveals to Joseph the truth of Mary’s pregnancy – indeed, the child she will bear will be a son, conceived from the Holy Spirit. Joseph is recruited to be this child’s father, to name him Jesus, which means “God saves,” for he will save his people from their sins.

            Being God’s person means for Joseph that he will take Mary as his wife and will live with her and raise a family with her, beginning with this child, the holy child soon to be born. He will name the child – an important task and one reserved for a father.

            He will claim this child by naming him, and he will name him Jesus. Thus, he will confer upon this child not only a name but a lineage as well – the child will descend from the house of David, through Joseph.

            Joseph will protect Mary now and he will protect this child in the future, even to the point of giving up the life he is building as he flees from the wrath of Herod and takes the holy family into exile in Egypt.

            We won’t hear much about Joseph after that, but we should never forget the way he, like Mary herself, responded ‘yes’ to the summons of God to serve as an ally in God’s saving work, thus altering not only his own life, but the history of the world as well.

            Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in holy ways. Joseph’s life took on a new dimension and direction as its course was interrupted through the scandalous circumstances of a virgin birth and holy mission for God.

            What does being God’s person mean for you and for me? What does it mean for us today? Where might we see points of contact between this story and ours today?

Certainly, none of us that I know of has had recent angelic visitations, but certainly, through Christ, God has called all of us to “be God’s people.” As we observe Joseph’s dilemma, [Melinda Wagner writes,] a light is shed on the rocks and hard places that squeeze us today. God’s people must regularly decide whom to believe, what to risk, and how to choose among disagreeable options. Those may be things that feel all too familiar to many of us today.

            When God spoke to Joseph through an angel in that dream, he discovered something about God’s mission to redeem the world and he learned he had a role to play in God’s plan.

            Our scripture reminds us that all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God With Us.” To make for better English, translators often insert the word “is” into this phrase. But I think there is something significant about the literal translation, “God With Us”.

            Because the thing is, God does not only accompany us, walking by our side as God makes us his people and then calls us as allies in God’s saving work. Rather, God dwells in us, abides with us, and joins us in a unique way through the incarnation of Christ.

            In the person of Jesus, God is with us to save, to comfort, to forgive, to empower, to challenge, to make us a part of God’s reign of justice, love, peace and mercy. But God doesn’t just accompany us we seek and strive to bring about the change in our world that will make it more reflective of the kingdom of heaven, God joins with us blessing us with hope and calling us to make choices that advance God’s just and loving reign in the world.

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            Being God’s people calls us out of our own comfort so that the comfort of the oppressed and those who suffer injustice might increase. It means looking around our community, places of work and school and our everyday lives and seeing the low places of the world, where our neighbors are disadvantaged, their rights and needs neglected, and where injustice takes place.

We remember Mary and realize that being God’s people may mean advocating for the rights of women and childlren, especially those in abusive relationships, those abandoned, alone, isolated, and struggling.

            Being God’s people may require us to face the ways we turn away from those who seem scandalous in our community – those who struggle with addiction, homelessness, unemployment, those recently released from prison, the differently abled. Our lives become complicated when we acknowledge that God calls us to embrace and love those whom the world rejects and judges. We remember that God’s forgiveness thrives where people are the most vulnerable and hurting, but then we remember there is no place more scandalous that the cross itself.

            While it is true that “being God’s person does not simplify our lives; It complicates them in a holy way,” it is also true that God with us, Emmanuel, is always present, always abiding, freeing us from whatever binds us.  God with us strengthens us, blesses us as we respond, as God’s people, to the messiness of life into which God is calling us.

            The good news of this gospel for us today is that indeed, despite the ways that being God’s people complicates our lives, there is deep gladness, knowing that God continues to act in scandalous ways to become one with humanity.

            As we prepare our hearts and our homes for the coming of Christ during this final week of Advent, let’s remember we are indeed God’s people. Think of Mary and Joseph, and know that God has beautifully complicated our lives, bringing love, mercy, and justice through the miraculous albeit messy story of scandal and forgiveness, renewal and hope, mercy and love, in the one named Jesus, God saves.

Indeed our Emmanuel, God, is with us. Amen.