November 29, 2008 – Advent 1 – “Hope is Coming”
Isaiah 9:6-7; Luke 1:26-38
Christmas holds a place in each of our hearts. In our culture it’s a time when family, or family and faith converge. Even those for whom the season we’re approaching holds mixed feelings or painful feelings, it’s rare that Christmas is a time empty of meaning.
It is, instead, a time where children hope and parents wait and light becomes colourful and snow covers what once bloomed, yet always with the anticipation of a new day, a spring time not too many months away.
Our first Scripture passage today from Isaiah tells us of an ancient, distant foretelling of that first Christmas.
Our second passage tells us of a foretelling of the first Christmas, one received by Mary, much closer, of course, to the actual event of Christmas, which we know as the Incarnation…God becoming flesh. Let’s first read the passage from Isaiah.
[Reader 1] Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
The Isaiah passage falls within the Old Testament, which is the story of God’s creative bringing-into-being of humanity…the story of humanity’s willful denial of the One who made it…and the story of God’s ceaseless effort to reclaim for Himself those who denied Him.
It falls within the story of ancient Israel, a people to whom the One true God had revealed Himself as One, and not many (as in every other religion that existed at the time).
And yet this passage proclaims that: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Written 700 years before the time of our second reading, before the time of Christ, this passage begs a response from us as it did ancient Israel.
And that response depends on where we stand right now, today. If we believe in one God, as did ancient Israel, then we’re thrown into a mystery.
How, when the world we know was made and is sustained by One God, how can it be that a child is born, a son given upon whose shoulders the government…order, justice…will be placed?
How can this child, this Son, be called the Mighty God? The Everlasting Father? We understand that there is one God…but then the Scriptures tell us He is to have a Son.
And if we do not believe in one God; if we either deny the existence of our Creator or assume a host of gods…this passage still draws from us a response.
For polytheists among us, we’re told that this Son will be the Mighty God, Everlasting Father. This pretty much discounts the possibility or relevance of other gods, for they are swallowed up, should they exist, into the majesty and magnificence of this One. This One and only Son.
For those without faith in a Maker, a Creator…this passage may perhaps deposit a notion of hope. A suggestion that there is reason for reading the story to its conclusion.
That’s because this child who would be born, this Son given…this aspect of the divine life yet to be revealed, is here described not in some of the toxic ways that God has been imagined in the past.
Not as a white-haired old man sitting on a cloud and watching every wrong turn we make. Not as a judge, a cosmic killjoy who somehow manages to such all the fun out of life just by the fact of His existence.
Rather this expression of the divine is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.
This Biblical description of the divine presence flies in the face of what I’ve already suggested are toxic notions of God.
If it was those toxic imaginings of God that led to the rejection of God, or the choice to disbelieve, we see here that the challenge here is a profound one. We need to reimagine God not according to our culture’s description, but according to the description of God that Scripture gives us.
And Scripture tells us that a Son will be born whose Kingdom is adorned with justice and right living and right understanding. A Son who will be known as God, whose intimacy with God will be such that He is able to wear the name of the Everlasting Father. Whose royal rank is prince…the Prince of Peace. Shalom’s royal regent.
So that is how our Old Testament passage contributes to our conversation today. Perhaps it rattles our cage a bit. Perhaps it gives some history to what those who already have faith in the Son of God believe.
Let’s look at our New Testament passage: Our second passage tells us of the first good-news promise, the first gospel-promise spoken and how a young girl responded to that gospel-promise. That gospel-call.
And that gospel-call, we discover, captivated Mary’s imagination; this gospel call captivated Mary’s heart. It was a story to be told in her flesh…and then to be lived out in infancy in her arms.
I’m going to ask __________ to read:
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Mary’s response to this message is fascinating. Remember, Mary was a young girl…perhaps fourteen years of age. She was told by the angel that she would, while still a virgin, give birth to a son who she was to name Jesus. And this son was to be no ordinary son.
He would be called the Son of the Most High. He would possess the throne of king David forever, and the Kingdom He ruled would last forever. She was, at this tender age, to give birth to the Son of God. She was being invited into a vital role within God’s purposes.
She was being invited in a very real sense into the gospel, the good news of God’s redemptive love that was to be expressed in Jesus. And how did Mary respond? She was captivated by all that she heard the angel say. She responded by saying: “"I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."
What was it about this call into the gospel that got Mary’s attention, that captivated Mary, that captured Mary’s heart?
First, it was its mystery…something that’s hard to do, but really worth while, is to hear these words with fresh ears, because that’s how Mary heard them.
This was early in time, nothing of the story of Jesus was known, even though the beginning and the end of Jesus’ life in particular were foretold in the Old Testament.
The story of Jesus was just now for Mary, as she heard the words from the angel, beginning to unfold.
It would be months before Jesus would be presented in the temple at 8-days of age.
It would be months before the old man Simeon would say, upon seeing and holding the infant Jesus: “Luke 2:29-32 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."
Months before her newborn son would be declared by Simeon to be the salvation of God.
And months before that same prophet, Simeon would utter words that 33 years later would come back to sting Mary: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."
So there was mystery to this gospel that captured Mary’s heart. Barely unfolding. Not fully grasping. The power of the Most High overwhelming; yet the gospel grabbed her heart and hope was born.
What else was it about this call into the gospel that grabbed Mary’s attention? Well, the second thing was its weight. Its profundity…She was to bear a child who would be called the Son of God.
This would have resonated powerfully with even a young Jewish girl like Mary who would have heard the words of Isaiah 9:6-7 read in synagogue.
This One to be born, this Son of God would be the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. You gotta appreciate…this is huge to Mary. Completely defying the limits of her current understanding; opening doors to what was humanly impossible in every imaginable way.
The angel, of course, knew this. So in response to her wondering, her doubt, her skepticism, her amazement, the angel simply says: “Nothing is impossible with God”
So to Mary there was a weight and a sense of something profound in the journey she was invited into. There were unanswered questions, yes, but the gospel grabbed her heart and hope was born.
What else caught Mary’s imagination? I think the third thing was its personal call…this profound mystery, this buoyant hope was imposing itself on Mary in a sense. But she had a decision to make. She could have said “No!”
She could have delayed her response, put off indefinitely this mystery pressing in on her. She could have attributed the visitation of the angel to some undigested bread in her stomach in a manner like Scrooge.
She could have argued the theology of the situation, the propriety of what was being suggested by the angel.
All manners of escape were available to her, and yet Mary, it seems, even before the visitation of the angel, had known something about herself. She knew, as she said to the angel, that she was the Lord’s servant.
Something in Mary had already yielded to God.
At some point the songs of the synagogue and the reading of the ancient texts and the frequent conversations about God and the people He had called to Himself…at some point that went from out here [wave arms around head] to in here [point to head], and travelled all the way, the very, very long way to here [point to the heart]. The greatest distance of all.
“I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said”. And with those words Mary opened up her life to the mystery presented to her by the angel, the promise that she would bear the Christ child.
Mary chose to enter that mystery. She chose to enter into that gospel hope: that profound and intensely personal hope that would lead to her life being transformed, her faith enlivened even further.
Mary didn’t know all the answers but she lived in that part of the self where the question is born.…she lived with an attitude of listening, of awareness of presence, of an openness to mystery. She considered the impossible, and she learned that with God all things are possible
This Christmas, this Advent, is where hope begins. May we each choose to live in that gospel hope, that hope that began when a simple Jewish girl responded to God’s love and God’s mystery.
May we each come to echo Mary’s heartfelt commitment, and in response to the hope that God wants to give to us, in response to the joy He longs for us to share in, in response to the generous gift of salvation that God offers each of us here today, may we each, in our own heart and in our own way, say to God, "May it be to me as you have said."
Let’s pray. Holy God, in your perfect love you chose to dwell in human flesh. This Advent and this Christmas season as we consider these challenging things, as we think about the Christ Child who would be born to Mary and who would grow up to become the Saviour of the world, would you enter our hearts and minds in a fresh way.
Give us afresh understanding of Your self-giving love. And give us hearts that turn to you in faith, even as young Mary once turned, that we might live the remainder of our days in confident hope of dwelling with You and Your Son for all eternity. In His name we pray. Amen
