The season continues apace. And if you’re anything at all like me, you feel as though it is going to roll right over you. Like it’s a train and you’ve stalled on the tracks, and you know it’s coming and usually that’s a good thing, at least in the past it has always been a good thing, and you can still find it in you to hope that it is a good thing that’s coming at you like a South Korean bullet train. But even a good thing hitting you at two hundred miles per hour is going to hurt.
Advent is all about getting ready. No, check that, Advent is all about being ready. But we’re not. Are we? No, no way. Ready for what? Umm, now that’s a poser. What exactly are we supposed to be ready for? Because most of the things that are rolling my direction this holiday season aren’t things I would have chosen to be ready for. Frankly, most things that are rolling in most people’s direction aren’t things they would have chosen. Am I right? We’ve all had plans, we’ve all had dreams, and suddenly things take a turn.
You’ve been on those curves, haven’t you? The road bends in unexpected directions. As if there was a detour, road construction, bridge out. Right? What could be worse than an interruption on your journey? A roadblock to your destination? Well, how about a disturbance that comes to meet you where you live? How about an angel in your living room? Huh? How about that? Right Mary?
Luke 1:26-38 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 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. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel said 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 holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
One biblical commentator wondered just in how many living rooms did Gabriel have to make an appearance before he found one who said yes? Never thought of it that way before. I mean we assume God knew who was going to say yes. That it was all worked out, a no brainer, a slam dunk, God had it in the bag before Gabriel ever set out. But if that’s true, then Mary’s response is somewhat diminished, isn’t it? If there wasn’t at least the possibility that she would say no, then her yes doesn’t count for much. And for centuries the Church has celebrated Mary’s yes.
She’s the model for what it means to be a follower. She shows us what surrendering to God is all about. She is the quintessential disciple of the one she is about to give birth to, if that doesn’t mess with your head a little bit. But it wasn’t an easy yes. It wasn’t just a “sure, whatever you say” kind of thing. It was startling, it was an angel in the living room, for heaven’s sake!
Luke, in his usual understated style, says that she was much perplexed. Not just perplexed, but much perplexed. I’m not all that sure that perplexed would cover it if I had such an annunciation. Perplexed is what happens when you don’t know what your next move in chess ought to be. Not when an angel is standing in your living room asking to take over your life. She was much perplexed.
And wondered at what sort of greeting this might be. Like she looked over her shoulder in case the angel was talking to her mom or something. Surely, this word wasn’t for her. Hail favored one. She couldn’t be favored. She was just ... Mary. A kid. A young woman giddy at her engagement. The Lord is with you. Really? With me? The Lord doesn’t have more important things to do? More important places to go? More important people to see? What sort of greeting was it? Was it for her or someone else? Well, yes.
It was for her and for someone else. Or rather it was for the someone else she was being called to be. See, that’s what sort of greeting this was, a life changing one. A nothing will ever be the same again kind of greeting. She was asked to give birth to the Kingdom through her own flesh and blood, through her own sweat and tears. She was invited to have faith in something beyond her understanding. She wasn’t given a whole lot of information. Oh, she asked - How can this be - I’m not qualified, I don’t have the credentials, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know what in the world I am doing. How can this be? And you can’t help but feel that Gabriel was embarrassed by the question. His answer is specific but lacking in detail. It is a declaration of faith and not a gynecological arrangement. He basically says, God’s got it covered. You can trust in that. Nothing, and when I say nothing I mean to include such outlandish things as this rather messy incarnation business, but nothing is impossible with God.
Which apparently is enough. Because the next thing that happens is Mary says yes. Without any more to go on than that, she says yes. Without a blueprint or signed contract, without an escape clause or planned compensation, she says yes. To the inconvenience of making God real enough to touch. To the imposition of surrendering her peace of mind, her quiet, cozy and hard but comfortable life. To the disruption of her plans and preferences, the way she had imagined her life might go. She said yes. And the angel left.
And she wondered, had to wonder, did she imagine it all? Was it really going to happen? So she ran to cousin Elizabeth’s house. That’s what happens next. She hightails it out of town. But not to run away from her yes. At least not completely. She went to see the other one who got an angel, although Elizabeth’s angel was a second hand angel. Still it was unsettling enough. That’s what they do, these angels in the living room. They’re like a force of nature, beautiful and awesome but they leave a mess behind them.
So, how do you deal with the mess from an angel in the living room? When we launched the year long fruit of the Spirit study, I thought it was ironic that during Advent and Christmas we end the study with the last on Paul’s list: self-control. Sorely needed in this over merchandised season of excess, self-control. And yet, self-control seems an odd summation to a list of attributes that are given like gifts. The fruit of the Spirit is the result of God’s activity within us, not the efforts of our own wills. We can’t generate more love and joy and peace, all we have is what comes to us from God. We can’t create patience and kindness and goodness, it has to be placed within us by a loving Parent. We can’t even make ourselves more faithful it has to be given as a gift. We can’t choose to be gentle if the Spirit doesn’t act gently with us. So, how in the world do we expect to have any hope of self-control? The name itself seems wrong. Self -control.
Some argue that Paul put self-control at the end of the list as the ultimate irony of faith. A life in the Spirit, he seems to be saying, is a life that best fulfills the self. But it fulfills the self by giving the self away. The self is controlled because the self is found in the other, in God and in neighbor. Self is found in service. Self is found in sacrifice. Self is found in the surrender of self.
It’s such a complicated idea, running against every natural impulse within us, that it takes something dramatic to make us grasp the concept. Or maybe not even grasp the concept, not even understand, but to say yes to this life of faith that brings hope to a whole world, through ordinary folks like Mary, like us. It takes a power beyond us. It takes a faith given to us like a gift at Christmas. It takes nothing less than an angel in our living room.
Shalom,
Derek
No comments:
Post a Comment