Sermon by Pastor Brian - December 4, 2024
Sermons
The Godbearers
“But I haven’t had my first period.” Young Mary must have murmured just beyond the earshot of her heavenly visitor. “What do you mean the test turned up positive with two pink lines? How can a child- a sixth grader from Galilee Elementary- raise a baby? Will Joseph’s carpentry business survive the scandal? What will my parents think about this unplanned pregnancy?”
She had been going about her day, like every other day, grinding barley seed at the hand mill for dinner rolls, shuttling wool thread on the loom for another winter blanket, hauling ceramic jugs from the well to water the beasts of burden, and daydreaming about a quiet life to come with her new fiancé. Until her domestic routine was interrupted by a feathery voice, the archangel Gabriel.
Flipping to page three of his divine assignment, wondering if he had the wrong girl and the wrong town, Gabe finally spoke up, “Mary, Mary, tremble not. You are highly favored, the one chosen not to conceive a son but the Son. Your infant, Jesus, will be salvation come to earth wrapped in diapers. But only with your consent.” Shaking, the twelve-year-old tried to settle herself by asking questions, not knowing that language can’t penetrate mystery.
Lacking an answer, without her mother’s counsel, without time to stack the consequences, she had to decide: finish her chores or say yes to God’s yes. After she responded with “Let it be,” the angel vanished, and the world began spinning in a new direction. As we enter the season of Advent, according to our text, what makes Mary worthy of our veneration?
Luke 1:30-38
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, 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 will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 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. 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. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 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.
Congregational Responses:
She believed without knowing.
Her selfless act delivered love into the world.
She modeled sacrifice for her son.
Tom Long, the gifted preacher, tells of a local church that performed Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The fellowship hall was transformed into a theater with painted backdrops of tenements and sooty chimneys from nineteenth-century London. The lay leader, an amateur thespian, took the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, the old miser. He growled through the opening scenes, shouting, “Bah Humbug!” By the end of the play, after his dramatic conversion, Scrooge- face radiant with generosity, heart pulsing with cheer- throws open his bedroom window to announce, “Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!” Then, wishing to bestow gifts upon the needy and looking for help, he calls down to a young passerby, “Hey you, boy, you there,” pointing to an imaginary figure beyond the horizon. “Come up here,” he continues, “I’ve got something wonderful for you to do!” Completely off script, a six-year-old, seated with his family near the front row, spontaneously rose from his chair and walked on stage to answer the call. The audience held its breath, uncertain how this troupe of novice actors would respond. Bounding down from his perch, Scrooge strode across the stage and embraced the waiting child. “Yes, indeed,” he improvised, his voice full of blessing. “You are the one, the very one I had in mind.”¹
Christian folklore holds that God searched near and far, knocking on doors, tapping on shoulders, and interrupting schedules, inviting countless women to participate in heaven’s invasion here on earth. Dutifully returning to the day’s errands, they all declined. But not the peasant from Nazareth. While Mary wasn’t the first choice, she was the only one to say yes.
By raising her hand, Mary volunteers for the cause, allowing the divine to take up residence inside her body. For consenting to have her womb become a tabernacle, an incubator of the sacred, Mary is worthy of our veneration. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Holy Mother isn’t called by her given name but rather Theotokos, a Greek word translated as the God-bearer.
Reflecting on her willingness to co-create, the German mystic Meister Eckhart said, “We are all meant to be mothers of God. [W]hat good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not…? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to [God’s] Son if I do not also give birth to him…? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us.”²
Parents-to-be, young and old, fertile and barren, you are the one, the very one God had in mind. Your prophetic voice, your moral imagination, your healing touch, your strong back, your empathetic presence, your maternal instinct, your flesh and blood. For Christmas to fully manifest- in ancient Palestine and modern Asheville- human partners, surrogates from conception to delivery, are required.
Even though it may not be the gift you hope is waiting under the tree on December 25, the angel Gabriel is en route, arriving with the most important invitation you’ve ever received. In a few short weeks, Mary’s contractions begin. When will you go into labor?
¹ Thomas G. Long, citation unknown.
² Meister Eckhart, citation unknown.