Grace, mercy and peace be to you
from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our sermon
text today was inspired by the Holy Spirit by the apostle St Luke. And we read
from his gospel where the angel says
Greetings, O
favoured one, the Lord is with you!
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus—help us to
hear your word today as your faithful servants. Let your Holy Spirit overshadow
us, that we may also be strengthened with the same faith that says: Let it be
to me according to your word. Amen.
When people
have a new baby, it’s always interesting to talk about why people named the
baby a particular name. In different cultures, there are all kinds of different
customs and cultures about naming children. For example, in Holland, where my
family is from, it was common a long time ago to name the first son after the
father’s father, and then the second son after the mother’s father. Once I saw
in someone’s family tree from England, where there were three sons in one
family all with the same name, Nicholas. Why was this? The first two Nicholases
had died, and there was a custom to name the next child of the same sex after
the child who had just died. In Sudan, it’s common for people to name children
after something that was happening when they were born. For example, if it was
raining after a long drought, they might call the child “Rain”. If there was a
war on, they might call the child “War”. If there was peace, they might call
the child, “Peace”.
So you can
see that there’s all kinds of reasons in all kinds of cultures why people name
children what they do. Now, it’s strange, that half the women in the New
Testament who were alive at the time of Jesus all seem to have the same name.
On Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead, we read: Mary Magdalene and
the other Mary went to see the tomb. We read about Jesus’ friends in the
town of Bethany, Lazarus, and his two sisters, Martha and Mary. And then of
course in our reading today, we read about Jesus’ mother, who was also called
Mary.
So why do
you think there were so many people around at this time called Mary? Mary
actually means “bitterness”. It’s a name that people gave their daughters in a
time of great sadness. In the book of Ruth, we read about Ruth’s mother-in-law
Naomi, and the difficult times that they went through. Naomi says to the ladies
in the town of Bethlehem: Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the
Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. The name Mara is very similar to
Mary. Both names mean “bitter”, “bitterness”. And many of the Jewish people at
this time were particularly saddened by the fact that their home country had
been taken over by the Romans and there was no proper Jewish king. It was a
bitter time, and so it’s not surprising that so many people at this time called
their daughters, “Mary”.
And so we
read in our reading today: 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.
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!”
In this translation
of the bible, the angel comes and the first thing he says to Mary is
“Greetings!” Now the word in Greek was χάιρε, which was
a common way in which people used to greet each other. But literally, it means,
“Rejoice!” I think it would be much better to translate it like this!
“Rejoice!” So here, the angel comes to Mary, this young woman, who lives in
bitter times, who has a bitter name, and he has come to tell her about the fact
that she will conceive a son, who is Jesus. And what’s the first word that the
angel speaks? Rejoice!
You see,
this little greeting from the angel is a wonderful prophecy which shows us that
as Jesus enters this sinful, bitter, twisted world, he will bring with him
complete, perfect, eternal joy! Wherever Jesus is going to be, there is always
going to be joy!
Now
sometimes, we might think: does this mean that Christians have to be happy all
the time? Of course not. King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes has a
wonderful word to say about that. He says: For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to
die…a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and time to dance.
Sometimes as
we go along in our journey as Christians, and we experience so much more of the
powerful light of God’s word, we also find that we notice the darkness of the
world, and the darkness of our own hearts all the more. And so, we have to be
careful that we don’t try to feign happiness to try and give other people the
impression that we are true Christians simply because we are able to keep
ourselves in a good mood all the time. This just breeds hypocrisy. Many
Christians have sent themselves crazy with guilt because they find that they
can’t keep themselves happy all the time.
But there’s
something special about the fact that the angel says: Rejoice! This
word, this greeting, creates the joy! It bring the joy! It fills
Mary with the joy! And later an angel will go to the shepherds in the fields
and say: I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
God speaks,
and creates the joy out of nothing, simply through his word. It’s just as at
the beginning of the world. And God said: Let there be light! And there was
light. Here, God sends his angel and says: Rejoice! And there was
joy!
But there’s
a reason for the joy! Here’s the reason why Mary can be filled with joy. It
says: Rejoice, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!
Isn’t a
wonderful thing to be favoured by God! Think about how the angel calls Mary: favoured
one. The Lord is with you! I wish that we could all sit and think about all
the wonderful treasures that are contained in these words. Have you ever
thought about just how God favours you? He might have all kinds of reasons to
disfavour you, to condemn you—but he doesn’t. He favours you, just like he
favours Mary here. And the Lord doesn’t reject you, he doesn’t abandon you. He
doesn’t abandon the world that he has created, even when the world goes through
a bitter time. Instead it says: The Lord is with you!
Now, here of
course, these words are talking about Mary specifically. She can rejoice,
because she is favoured, and the Lord is with her! But there’s a reason why she
is favoured, and the Lord is with her.
The angel
says: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And
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.
Do you see,
all this joy, the favour which Mary has, and the wonderful presence of God,
which is promised to her with the words: “The Lord is with you!” all comes down
to one thing—there is a tiny Jesus who has been conceived in her womb.
Do you see?
All the joy in the world comes from the presence of this one person, Jesus
Christ. Here in our passage today—he is completely unseen, and so tiny, he
could only be seen under a microscope. And yet, this tiny embryo, this tiny
collection of cells is the child Jesus, and from him comes every joy, every
blessing that the world will ever need. Rejoice, O favoured one, the Lord is
with you!
All the
favour of God comes from this one person. Mary, in our reading, conceives a
child in a very unusual way. The angel speaks, the word of God enters her ears,
and the child is conceived. And same goes from us—the word of God enters our
ears, and Jesus is conceived in us, and grows in us. It’s always God who begins
the life of a new child. It is always God who chooses just what this new child
will look like and how their personality will be. And so, it is God who sends
Jesus into our hearts through the word of God. And Jesus comes into our hearts,
and even though there is so much sin there, he is happy to set up his home
there, not because he loves sin, but because he forgives it. He is going to die
for it, and pay for it with his own blood, and then he is going to rise from
the dead. And so all of God’s favour comes from him. When God looks at us, he doesn’t
see the sin and the corruption there, because it has all been paid for and
covered up by the blood of Jesus. When you were baptised, all the blessings of
Jesus’ death were given to you. When you were baptised, the blood of the lamb
was painted on your own personal door-post, just like the Israelites did in
Egypt. So when God looks at us, all he sees is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus.
And just as
the angel says to Mary: The Lord is with you! Jesus is also with us. In
fact, right at the beginning of the gospel of Matthew, it says that Jesus will
be called “Immanuel” (which means God with us). And then right at the
end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sends his apostles to go out and baptise
and preach the Gospel and he says: Behold, I am with you always to the end
of the age. When Jesus is with us, then we can be with the Father. Jesus
says: He who has seen me has seen the Father. And from Jesus’ mouth,
from his lips, comes the Holy Spirit. And so when Jesus is with us, we also
have the Father, and the Holy Spirit. And so what a wonderful thing that Jesus
is conceived in Mary’s womb! What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus is formed
and grows in us each time we hear the wonderful good news of the gospel. The
Lord is with you!
Here in our
reading today, where the angel goes to Mary, we learn about the great power of
God’s word. So often we think that God’s word is only powerful when we feel it.
We think the Holy Spirit is only here when we think that we feel the Holy
Spirit. But our reading shows us something really wonderful: Mary says to the
angel: How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you.” Here we see how God’s word speaks, and things happen. The
Word of God comes into Mary’s ears, and the Holy Spirit comes upon her, and the
power of the Most High overshadows her. She doesn’t feel it, she doesn’t see
it—but the proof is in the pudding. The effects come 9 months later, when she
gives birth to her wonderful son.
We have to
realise that for us too, the Holy Spirit always comes to us, and creates
something new in us all the time, not because we deserve it, but through God’s
word out of nothing. It’s not us who are able to control the Holy Spirit, as if
when we feel miserable, and bitter, and exhausted, the Holy Spirit leaves and
goes outside. No—it’s precisely right in the middle of all that, that the Holy
Spirit comes through God’s word and enters in and creates the joy. We might
think we have so many reasons to be sad: bad things are happening in the world,
we miss people who have died, we sin, we fail, we disappoint others, and we
disappoint ourselves. And yet—this is exactly why Jesus came into the world. He
comes and enters into the world, he is with us. He forgives and shines his
favour over us. And he pours out the joy of the Holy Spirit.
Here in our
reading today is a central part of our Christian faith. Not every Sunday, we
read a passage which teaches us something which we say every week in the
Apostles’ Creed. But today our reading teaches us that Jesus was conceived
by the Holy Spirit. Jesus entered into the world and was conceived, just
like all of us. But while we were all conceived by the union of a man and a
woman, Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit. This is such a wonderful mystery.
Here we
learn the wonderful value of human life. We see how the most important thing in
the world at this time of history is tiniest of unborn babies. And this is
exactly what the bible reveals Jesus as: a baby, a child that is precious, and
highly valued by God. And this is also part of the reason why Christians
throughout all time have always valued human life right from its very beginnings,
and have always taught against abortion. And this is not my private opinion,
but is a biblical teaching that can never be changed to suit our society. We
live in a society where there are organisations and individuals that tell lies
to parents, encouraging them to have abortions. People are told that this is OK
if it is an “unplanned pregnancy”. But no parent has ever planned the
conception of their own child—anyone who has ever had difficulty having
children knows this—the child has only ever been given to them by God himself,
and every child and every pregnancy is planned by Him. And it is an untold
sadness that pervades our society where mothers have aborted their children,
and now grieve their children’s death and they feel like they can’t tell anyone
because of their shame. Jesus entered the world to forgive these people too,
and to create the comfort and joy of his word and his Holy Spirit in the hearts
of these mothers and fathers too.
If only
people everywhere throughout our country would know the precious value of every
single human life! But when sin is committed, if only people would hear the
good news that there is not one sin that Jesus didn’t die for, and that
especially includes abortion. There is such a mission in our society today to
promote the value of every single human life, as we remember the wonderful
blessing of Jesus entering into the world as a tiny embryo in his mother’s
womb.
May we give
great thought and attention to this wonderful miracle in our reading today, and
listen to Mary’s words: Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to
me according to your word.
Amen.
Yes, dear
Jesus, let it also be to us. Let your word enter into us, grow in us, bear
fruit in us. Come and be with us. Show your favour to us, dear Jesus. Create
the living joy of your Holy Spirit in us. Behold, we are your servants, dear
Lord Jesus. Let it be to us according to your word. Amen.
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