4 Advent B December 18, 2011
2 Samuel 7:4,8-16
Ps.89
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
St.Paul in the Epistle lesson to the Romans,
writes about the "revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long
ages but is now disclosed." And
the Gospel of Luke is a story of that disclosure of this wonderful
mystery. And what is the wonderful
mystery that drove and motivated the people of the early church? The mystery that they wanted to share is
this: God is not far from the world....
God is not aloof from the lives of
people.... rather, God is intimately
involved in the lives of people. In fact God is with us.... God is Emmanuel. What is the best way for humanity to know that
God is with us? If God's life could be
found to be in a person, then we would have the nature of God put in human
terms so that we could understand what God is like. And that brings us to the infancy stories of
Jesus; in these stories are hidden spiritual direction for those who read them. The story of the annunciation and the
conception of our Lord Jesus Christ encodes within it the mystery that God has
for every person. Let us look at the
features of the annunciation story and see if we can find in it relevant events
for our own lives.
First, the Angel
Gabriel sought out Mary to deliver a message. Do we believe that God seeks us
out? Part of the Christian attitude in life
involves an esteem based upon an understanding that God cares for us enough to
seek us out. God's angels to us may not
be winged figures, but God’s messages are always being issued towards us. Are we in the practice of being able to
discern the message of God to us?
Next, God's
messenger had a special greeting for Mary.
He called her a "favored one."
He said, "The Lord is with you." You know every person needs to have this
experience of being God's favored one.
Imperfect parents could not give us all of the emotional strokes that we
needed. Spouses, families, friends, and
colleagues just can't give us the intensity of attention that we need to feel
good about ourselves. There are people who need to be universally adored, and
the people around them often are at lost to even know how to satisfy that need
to be adored. Christians need to know
God's favor and when we put ourselves in the place to know God's favor; we will
cease to make impossible demands for adoration on the people around us.
A third story
element is the action of the Holy Spirit upon the life of the Virgin Mary. In this story form, the Christian has encoded
the central belief of Christianity, in short, "Christ in you the only hope
of God." Mary is the paradigm for
every Christian soul. God's life is upon
our life, and it is a divine life. God's
Spirit mingles with our spirit. This is
not our own doing but it is a work of God.
A fourth element
of the story is that Gabriel told Mary that her child would be the Son of God.
The goal of Christianity is for you and me to realize our selves as sons and
daughters of God. Jesus did not regard
"Son of God" a title that was to be kept to himself. Adam and Eve were God's son and daughter; and
like them we lose our family identity with God in estrangement. The Gospel is a story about how that
estrangement has been overcome and how we can realize our restoration into
God's family.
The last element
of the Story is Mary's attitude.
"Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to
your word." Let it be. Let it be.
Mary's attitude is the Christian attitude.
We will not know the esteem of God's favor, we will not regard ourselves
to be sought out by God, we will not discern the life of God in us, we will not
reclaim our identity as sons and daughters of God, unless we have a receptive
attitude.
The story of the
annunciation to Mary, encodes for us the entire teaching of the Christian
faith. God so desired to be with humanity, that the divine presence was found
in Jesus of Nazareth. But God did not
regard Jesus of Nazareth to be the exclusive and exhaustive presence of God. It
pleased God to let humanity know that Christ is available to be born or
realized in the heart of every person.
As we approach
this Christmas, let us make the Christmas story live again in us. Let us
develop an attentive, prayerful, and receptive attitude, so that we, like Mary
of old, will know the life of God to be born in us. Christ in us, the only hope of Glory. This too, is the contemporary Christmas
Story. Amen.
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