This sermon was preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon, 7pm.
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 1:26-38)
Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Tonight’s sermon is number 3 in our series of 4, the first sermon being on the genealogy of Jesus, last week we read the passage about the angel Gabriel going to visit Zechariah in the temple to tell him about the birth of his son John the Baptist, next week we will look at the passage where Mary goes to visit John’s mother Elizabeth, but tonight, we are going to study the passage where the angel Gabriel goes and tell Mary that she is going to become the mother of Jesus.
When we look at the creed, and especially the second part of the creed which is about Jesus Christ – we often call it “the second article of the creed” – each of the parts of Jesus life have often given birth to a church festival. So we say: he was born of the Virgin Mary – we celebrate that at Christmas. We say, he suffered under Pontius Pilate – we celebrate that during Lent and Holy Week. He was crucified and died – we celebrate these things on Good Friday. He was buried – the traditional day to commemorate this is Holy Saturday, the day after Good Friday, but often church services are not held on that day. He descended into hell. – This is often something that was taken together with Jesus’ burial. Then it says: On the third day, he rose again from the dead – that’s Easter. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. – That’s Ascension. And the last part says: From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. – This last part we celebrate especially on the last Sundays of the church year.
But there’s a very special festival that has been ignored a bit sometimes. Each of these parts of Jesus life that we confess in the creed was an historical event in history. And the first event that we confess as an article of faith is that “he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.” Does anyone know what church festival commemorates Jesus’ conception? It’s called Annunciation, which is held on March 25th, exactly 9 months before Christmas.
And so tonight, I’d like to give a little plug for this church festival which I hope we can celebrate in our churches here in Gippsland this coming church year, and focus on some of the details of this reading, which of course, is the gospel reading for Annunciation on the 25th March.
One of the great problems of the church today is that we don’t know who Jesus is. Sure, we know that he is a “nice, friendly guy”! We know that he preached great truths from God. We even might know that died for our sins, and that he rose again. But every year we come to Christmas, and we sing in the second verse of “O come all ye faithful”: “God of God, Light of Light, Lo! He abhors not the virgin’s womb, Very God, begotten not created: O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!”
And many people have no idea what this means. But Christmas Carols are popular, and if there is one thing that they do, they imprint back onto our minds the great truth about Christmas and what happened.
I was driving in the car during the week, and they were announcing on the radio that they were going to sing “O come, all ye faithful”. And the radio announcer said it was going to be sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Now Mormons don’t believe that Jesus Christ is God of God, Light of Light. And guess what? This recording of “O come, all ye faithful” didn’t have verse 2!
The Mormons knew that they didn’t believe what those words confessed. And there would have been plenty of Christians who didn’t even know that the verse was missing, or why it was missing. We really need to get familiar with this verse of the Christmas Carol again, and take to heart what it means.
So let’s have a look at this reading from the Gospel of Luke.
It says: In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
The sixth month refers to the reading we last week. This event happened six months after the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah. And we read that the angel Gabriel was sent from God, and that he was sent to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, and specifically in this city, he was sent to a virgin. And we read that this virgin was betrothed. And whom was she betrothed to? A man whose name was Joseph. And where was Joseph from? He was from the house of David. And what was the virgin’s name? The virgin’s name was Mary.
Isn’t it amazing how much more this passage is than last week’s text! All this detail I think most of us already know. All of us have heard it before. But there’s so much detail here. There are so many things that are significant. We read that they are from Nazareth, even though it was prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. But later in Luke’s gospel we read that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered… And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.
We also read that Mary was a virgin, and she was betrothed. If she weren’t betrothed, she probably would have been stoned to death. So all this happens in that short time of engagement, after she was promised to Joseph, but before Joseph began to live with her as his wife. Everything happens right at the proper time, and with all the proper protections in place.
And we read that the virgin’s name was Mary. Mary seems to have been a common name at this time. In fact, in the Gospels, it seems as if half the women were called Mary! But this is probably quite significant, because Mary is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Miriam, which means bitter, or bitterness. These were difficult times for the Jewish people, living under Roman rule with the brutal King Herod on the throne. So it’s no wonder that so many people called their daughters “Mary”.
Then we read:
And he [Gabriel] came to her and said: “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!”
Greetings! This word can also mean “rejoice”, but it’s a happy greeting, a friendly greeting. The angel doesn’t come and say: “Oi!” or “Hey!” or “Get out of the way!” He wants to bring good news.
And the angel Gabriel calls her: “O favoured one.” In Greek, this is one word, κεχαριτωμένη (kecharitomene) which means someone who has been graced, someone who has been shown favour.
The whole event of Jesus’ conception happens completely by God’s action alone. There is nothing that Mary does to contribute to it. Nothing that is described to her happens because she earned it, or because she contributed to it, or because she made an effort. All of this happens because of God’s grace alone. God is the one who makes the effort, he’s the one who gives the gift.
Then the angel says: The Lord is with you. Here the angel announces to her that she is pregnant. This is not some sort of wish, like in Star Wars: May the force be with you! This is something completely different. Here the angel is saying that the Lord is with her, in such a way that she will become the mother of her Lord. The Lord was always with her, just like he here with us all the time. But this is something special. In Matthew 1, we read that Jesus is called “Immanuel”, which means “God with us”. Here the angel says that the Lord Jesus, the true Immanuel, God with us, is first of all with Mary, the Lord is with you. By the way, when we say: “the Lord be with you” in church, this is not just a nice wish, as if it’s the church version of saying: “How are you?” “Fine thanks”. – “The Lord be with you – and also with you.” Every time we say these words, we always say them before we say a prayer. It means: “The Lord Jesus Christ is with you now as we come together with him in prayer, and enter God’s holy house together with him, covered in his blood”. That’s what it means: The Lord be with you.
These words: Greetings, O favoured one! are first words of the Catholic prayer, called the Hail Mary. The word Greetings! is translated as hail, and the word “favoured one” is translated “full of grace”. So the prayer goes: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. The translation “full of grace” shows that the word “grace” is embedded in the Greek word. But the only problem with this is that in John 1, Jesus is called “full of grace and truth”, but it’s a completely different set of words. When we say, Jesus is “full of grace” we mean to say that he gives grace, and that he answers our prayers for grace by giving grace to us, and by showing favour to us. But if we say Mary is “full of grace”, we mean to say that she was filled by God with grace, that God showed grace and favour to her, and not that she gives out grace to those who ask her for it.
And so we read: But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
Just a little note, that the Roman Catholic church teaches that Mary was conceived without original sin. This is called the doctrine of the immaculate conception, which was first made official Roman Catholic doctrine in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. His official pronouncement says: “We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.”
Nevertheless, we read in the Scripture here that she was greatly troubled by the angel’s greeting. She experienced fear in the presence of God’s angel. And such fear belongs to the realm of original sin. Where there is no sin, there would be no fear of the angels’ greeting. We never see this sort of thing in the person of Jesus, however. We read even when he was asleep during a sea-storm, and Peter came to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that we are perishing!”, he didn’t say that he “was greatly troubled” by the saying, but that without fear of the elements, he stood up and said, “Peace! Be still!”
And so we read that Mary was greatly troubled, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
And so the angel explains himself. He says: “Do not be afraid, Mary!” This is what I meant when I said “Greetings!” But now that you are a frightened, there’s no need to fear. “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God”. You have found favour – this is what it means when I said: you are the favoured one, highly favoured one. You have found favour with God.
And now let me explain what it means: The Lord is with you. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name 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 father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Notice all this talk about the house of David, and the throne of David, and his reign, and his kingdom which will have no end. All these things show us that Jesus is a king, and the true king from the house of David, and also that he is an eternal king. He will not stop reigning when he dies like a normal king. See how important here as well the genealogy of Jesus here: the throne of David, the house of Jacob. Jesus is from a real family with a real history.
But there’s something that is very important. Jesus will be Mary’s son. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son. And then he says: He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
He is the Son of God and Mary’s Son. There are not two people here. There is not one son in Mary’s womb, and another son who is God’s. They are one and same person. There is only one Lord Jesus Christ. As it says in the small catechism: He is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary. Or as it says in O come all ye faithful: He is God of God, Light of Light, Lo! He abhors not the Virgin’s womb (he doesn’t shy away from being in Mary’s womb, he doesn’t hate it, he’s happy to be there), Very God, begotten not created.
In the early church, they always used the picture of a piece of iron which is heated up by fire and glows hot. The Son of God and the Son of Mary are not two people, but one. So just as iron turns red when it goes into the fire, so also Jesus Christ is a true man (like iron) and true God (like fire) and these two things are together. So when Jesus touches a person with his human hand, God touches them. When he speaks with his human voice, he speaks the words of God, and it is true God who made heaven and earth who speaks. Also, when he dies on the cross as a human being, we say God died. And also, we say that Mary is not the mother simply of her own human son, but that he who is in her womb is truly God, and so the church has always called her the mother of God. If there’s ever a time when you can’t call Jesus “my Lord and my God” like Thomas, you’ve got it wrong.
And so, Mary doesn’t understand how she, a virgin, will become pregnant. So she says: How will this be, since I am a virgin? Or literally in Greek it says, since I do not know a man.
And the angel says to 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.
Just as fire comes upon iron, so the power of the Almighty God comes upon human flesh and brings the two things together. Just like the glory of God overshadowed the tabernacle in the Old Testament, so the Holy Spirit overshadows the Virgin Mary and her womb becomes a temple of the living God.
And then the angel says: And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her was called barren. For nothing is impossible with God.
The angel wants to encourage Mary in her faith. And so the angel shows Mary the double miracle: Elizabeth has become pregnant, and not only is this amazing because she was barren all her life, but also because now she is an old woman. Nothing is impossible with God.
And then Mary simply says: Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. (I will do whatever he says. I am at his service.) Let it be to me according to your word.
Do you see once again how Mary contributes nothing here? All she does is say “Amen”, “yes”. Let it be to me according to your word.
And that is what faith is – we simply say: Let it be to me as you have said, as you have promised. If you say my sins are forgiven, I won’t contribute anything, I will simply believe it. I will trust it. Let it be to me as you have said.
Let these last little things be a motto for us. The angel says: Nothing is impossible with God. And Mary says: Let it be to me to me according to your word.
This passage we have read tonight is a true event in history, but many people don’t believe it, because they think that it is impossible. But they forget that God is involved. The angel doesn’t come and say like an inspirational speaker: Nothing is impossible. He says: Nothing is impossible with God. But if you look at the persecution the church received in the book of Acts, who would have thought that Christianity would have reached so many people in 2000 years and be the world’s largest religion? Nothing is impossible with God. What is possible in the Gippsland Lutheran Parish, and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church?
So as we look to the future as a church, we always have to keep God’s promises in mind, and be faithful to him, remembering that nothing is impossible with him.
And our reply is not: Let it be to me according to my opinions, my ideas, my schemes, and my strategic plans. The reply is: Let it be to me according to your word.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that you chose to take flesh from the Virgin Mary and to be conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Teach us to receive you simply in faith, to say amen to your gracious words, without any trust in our efforts or works or contributions. Send us the Holy Spirit, by your grace, and by your grace alone. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment