“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Ah. Those words just don’t have the same ring in English as they do in Aramaic. That was the language I spoke when I delivered that greeting for the first time 2,000 years ago. I am the angel, Gabriel. I am the one who was given the wonderful task of telling Mary of Nazareth that she was going to have a baby - and not just any baby mind you. She gave birth to the Son of God, the world’s savior. I want to tell you about my visit to Nazareth because the message I gave to Mary is God’s message for you. Yes, God sends you his greetings, for you, who sit in these pews, are highly favored too!
“Me? Highly favored by God?” Is that what you’re thinking? Good, because that’s also what Mary thought. If Mary would have been like one of those Pharisees that gave Jesus such a hard time, she would have said something like: “It’s about time, Gabriel. I was wondering when you were going to show up to acknowledge all the good I’ve done. What does God need me to do for him now?” But that wasn’t Mary’s attitude. Instead she was troubled at my appearance.
Think of how you feel when the school principal says that he wants to have a word with you. Don’t the butterflies start fluttering about your stomach as you wonder what you could be in trouble for? Even if the principal insists he’s not going to scold you for anything, you’re still apprehensive of taking a seat in his office because deep down inside you know that there are plenty of things you have done or failed to do that he could be angry with you about. That’s why I had to tell Mary to stop being afraid. She wasn’t in trouble. On the contrary, she had found favor with God (Luke 1:30)!
I suppose this is what has led many to believe that Mary was holier than others and that this is why God chose her to be the mother of Jesus. But what I really said to her was “You have found grace from God.” Mary didn’t need to be afraid because, even though as a sinner she deserved to have me unleash God’s righteous anger on her like one of your police officers firing his Taser at an unruly criminal, God was going to give Mary the opposite of what she deserved: instead of punishment, his love and forgiveness. That’s grace.
And so now you may be wondering, “So what made Mary so special?” Not Mary! She was rather ordinary - a teenager who lived in an out-of-the-way town in a “have-not” province. And while I know what Mary looked like, you don’t. Don’t you find that interesting? The Holy Spirit didn’t think it important to record what she was wearing or how her hair looked when I appeared to her. You don’t know if she was slim or whether she was good at sports or played an instrument. You don’t know any of those things because they’re not what makes a person important. What makes you important is what God thinks of you. And in God’s eyes Mary was extraordinary because he had given her his grace.
And now the same is true for you. You too are “highly favored” because you have received grace from God. How can you be certain of this? Well this is what my visit to Nazareth was all about. I had come to tell Mary that she was going to give birth to the Son of God. That in itself is amazing! You might think it difficult to jam all your post-Christmas wrapping paper into the recycling bin but that’s nothing compared to what God accomplished. The Son of God “shrank” to fit in Mary’s womb which was about the size of a fist. But God wasn’t performing some sort of circus act to entertain the world. The Son of God became man so that he could one day fit on the cross where he would pay for your sins. And he has done just that. Because of Jesus you are highly favored by God. How can you not be when he invested so much to make you his child again?
OK. But what does this all mean, practically speaking? It means this. The next time you see an angel it will probably be the Angel of Death. Yet think of how my message to Mary will still be appropriate for you then: “You are highly favored, you have received grace. Don’t be afraid. The Lord is with you.” Death my scare others but to you it’s simply the womb through which you must pass before you take on godly glory, much like Mary’s womb was the channel through which the Son of God had to pass to take on humanity.
“But how can this be?” That was Mary’s question and it may now be yours. How can God become man? How can a virgin give birth? This is what I told Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you…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. For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:35a, 36, 37). How can this be? “That’s simple, Mary. It can be this way, it will be this way because nothing is impossible with God.” What I really said was “No word of God will ever fail.”
Do you see how those words are comforting for you too? You may not understand everything in the Bible. For example, you may not understand how it is possible for a little baby like Sophie to be brought to faith and receive forgiveness just because water was dribbled on her head while God’s name was spoken over her in baptism, but you can be certain that it really happened because this is what God promised, and as I told Mary, no word of God will ever fail. Likewise when you come to Holy Communion you won’t see or taste Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine. But it’s there together with the forgiveness of sins, for this too is God’s promise and no word of God will ever fail.
Although Mary still didn’t fully understand how the Holy Spirit would squeeze the Son of God inside of her, she said: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Her response was refreshingly different from Zechariah’s. When six months earlier I told him that he and his wife were going to have a son, whom you know as John the Baptist, he thought it impossible because he and Elizabeth were so old.
Does it surprise you that a teenager would have a stronger faith than a veteran priest? It shouldn’t since it illustrates well what Jesus meant when he encouraged his disciples to have a child-like faith. Stop trying to figure God out. Not even we angels understand his ways. But we know that his ways are marvelous and always right and what is best. That’s why it’s such a joy to serve him. God has never sent us on a fool’s errand and I’ve been serving him for thousands of years!
Have you found joy in serving him? Or do you suppose you have to be an angel to do that? Look at Mary. She wasn’t an angel but a sinner like you. She wasn’t clergy or even an adult and God still chose her to bear his Son! You haven’t been called to do that but you have been entrusted with God’s Word. You carry that precious treasure in your heart. And now many of you children are getting ready to share that Word on Christmas Eve – the Word through which the Holy Spirit will enter into the hearts of those listening to create and strengthen spiritual life. Your job is no less important than mine was when I appeared to Mary. Practice hard so that you speak clearly and loudly for all to hear the message that they too are highly favored by God because he sent his Son, born of the Virgin Mary, to save them from their sins. Amen.
