Advent IV 2020
II Samuel 7:1-11,16
Luke 1:26-38
“With God, nothing will be impossible.”
That classic passage from II Samuel establishing the Davidic dynasty forever --- and Luke’s somewhat free translation of it ~ ‘This child will be great and will be called the Child of the Most High; on this child the Sovereign God will bestow the throne of David’s lineage’ ~ speak, I believe, very powerfully to the challenging times we are living in.
Luke used II Samuel and his story in the Gospel to address a problem Luke faced, but which is not so much a battle for most of us anymore: people wanted to debate who Jesus really was and where he came from and why. It wouldn’t be too many years following Jesus’ death that theologians would begin to discuss whether Jesus was really human or really divine or some exotic combination, which possibly now interests only those trying to pass “Church History.”
Because of Luke’s issue, because he was fighting discrimination and ostracism by those with views different from his own {now we are getting closer to many of our lives}, because of his need to answer definitively who Jesus was and where he came from, subsequent theologians wrongly focused the meaning of this story on a. young girl’s virginity and a miraculous birth --- which they say proves that Jesus was God’s child and in a sense came from God’s seed.
But that’s not the real proof for Luke, or the real point of the story. What proves who Jesus was is his mother’s response. Mary is the focus of Luke’s story. She is the first to hear the Word of God and do it. Remember? That’s what the Gospels say make anyone family to God.
Mary is Luke’s model disciple. She hears the Word of God and responds openly and positively and willingly. Yes, she has a few questions, since she’s never “known” a man in the Biblical sense. {It’s that ”ya’da” problem that has caused our people so much heartache and grief since the time of Sodom and Gomorrah!}. Her question, though biological or physiological in orgin, merits a response on a wholly different level. Gabriel is talking about something different. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” the Angel Gabriel says, “and the power of the. Most High will overshadow you,” --- just like at Pentecost --- just like at the Transfiguration when Peter, James and John were on the mountaintop with Jesus --- just like in the beginning, when the Holy Spirit hoovered over the deep and called forth life out of nothing; out of emptiness and void. In some sense, where we’re coming from is the issue.
This moment, what you are being asked to participate in, Gabrielle is saying, is the birth of a new creation. God is seeking to move in this world in a new way ~ a way that this earth and its peoples have not seen since the foundations of time. It’s the new heaven and the new earth that breaking in here ~ and you, Mary, are being called to play a part/to enable the continued unfolding of God’s plan for salvation.
That Doctor in Mexico, Gustavo Gutierrez, himself having survived a bout with Covid-19, “has developed a rare practice in {these} turbulent times,” said the New York Times. “He relies on humor, positivity and intimacy, qualities most patients have been robbed of by the pandemic.”
- “People are suffering in ways you can’t imagine, and if we bring that fear with us, it only makes them more afraid. . . . The worst part about this damn virus is that we’ve lost our humanity,” says the doctor enabling, one house call at a time, sometimes with medicine and sometimes simply with compassion, the unfolding of a reign of healing and peace, if not cure.
All the Marys being called to play a part in a new heaven and a new earth breaking through in our world ---
- Andrus and Vintsuk in Belarus, giving life and hope to those resisting autocracy
- Polka Dot, a Polish drag queen living in England, giving exiles hope and a sense of home
- A Pope saying Queer people deserve to have families
- Legislators in New South Wales calling for equal treatment for gender diverse peoples
- Rev. Uthasyo in Mtito Andei building coalitions and hosting Christmas retreats for LGBTQIA affirming ministers of the Gospel
- A school board in Martin County Florida acknowledging LGBT history month as a way to call citizens to act for the equality of all God’s children
This story is not about sex --- Luke portrays no scandal for Mary. {That’s Matthew’s story. God does not need us to produce lie, as John the Baptist will say chapter 3, but to sustain it.}. Even those penguins living at a zoo in the Netherlands, two boys and an unhatched egg, taking turns incubating the egg ~ “very determined,” said the zoo keeper, to bring some new life into our world.
This story is about the power of God to do far more than we’ve ever imagined, or maybe allowed to happen through our lives for our world. It’s about God making a way out of no way. It’s about God’s plan that each of us be used for the birth of something new, something saving and hopeful and good and transforming. . . . Luke’s story is about determining that what we don’t have should never dictate what’s possible, because nothing is impossible with God.
God started with nothing Luke was saying ~ an empty womb with no seed in it ~ and though we might debate what appears to be the evaluative judgment of Luke’s world and at times our own about women and worth and basing destiny on something more than biology, Luke’s theological point was: no matter what the situation, no matter how few the resources, no matter the odds --- no matter if anything is going anywhere near the way we think it should, God can use us and our lives and all the circumstances of our living for something good and holy and saving. And that is good news.
Don’t box God in by trying to limit the criteria necessary for something good and saving to happen ~ that’s the call and the challenge.
All Mary did was say yes to the Spirit of God hovering over her, a Spirit that hovers over all of us all the time. It only takes you, it only takes me saying yes ~ being the Marys here and now {a task admittedly more native to some than others☺} ~ to birth the reign of God among us. It can happen, I believe, because, as Luke testified, nothing is impossible to God, which is the best news I’ve heard in a long, long time. Amen
PRAYER SUBMITTED BY:
Rev. Pat Bumgardner
MCC Council of Elders
