+ Advent 4 – December 21st, 2014 +
Redeemer
Lutheran, HB
Series B: 2
Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today’s Gospel reading sounds like something out
of a Ripley’s Believe it or Not
exhibit or like something we watch on YouTube
and say, “Oh, that was fake. Impossible.”
“In the
sixth month”
the angel Gabriel was sent by God to
Nazareth. This is sixth month of Elizabeth’s unexpected and unusual
pregnancy. For Zechariah and Elizabeth it was the greatest episode of “I didn’t
know I was pregnant” ever. Both were very old and decades beyond child-bearing.
And yet, by the Word of God spoken through the angel Gabriel to Zechariah, this
couple somehow conceives a son. Sounds like something out of the National
Enquirer: “Elderly Couple Conceives! Barren Elizabeth is in her sixth month. The
father Zechariah won’t talk about it. But we are…read more of the impossible
account on page 12.”
Nothing is impossible with God.
In the sixth month
the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a
virgin…“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Rejoice, Mary. For you are the object of God’s
favor. Undeserved. Unmerited. She is full of grace because the Lord gave it to
her, as he does to you. And in the same manner: undeserved, unmerited. The Lord
is with Mary, in a greater way than she realizes. The Lord is with you; it’s
not just a statement of fact, it’s a promise.
Nothing is impossible with God.
Do not be
afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
Gabriel repeats the promise again. You too have
found favor with God in Christ’s death and resurrection. Do not fear sin. Do
not fear death. This child has come to bear your sin and die for you. Does that
sound too far-fetched? Too good to be true? Maybe even impossible?
Nothing is impossible with God.
Behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
Jesus’ name means YHWH saves. He will save his people from their sins,
the angel told Joseph in Matthew 1. Moses couldn’t get Israel to the promised
land, but Joshua, whose name means YHWH saves did the job. The greater Joshua,
YHWH saves, enters Mary’s womb so that you can enter an eternal promised land
through him. It sounds like a mission impossible.
Nothing is impossible with God.
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 father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary knew her Old Testament. She heard the same
prophecies of 2 Samuel we heard today. She knew God’s promise to David, that a
son of David would sit on his throne and reign forever. And out of all the
daughters of Zion, God chose her to be the Mother of the Promised One, David’s
Son yet David’s Lord, the Son of God. You can almost hear her thinking: “So
this is how the Lord will fulfill his promise to Eve and Sarah, Rachel, Rahab,
and Hannah, through this child…my child, and yet my Lord.”
“How will this be,
since I am a virgin?”
Mary doesn’t doubt what the angel says
will happen. She believes. Mary heard the Word and within her the Word of God was
conceived. Still, she wants to know how. She may not have taken biology 101
yet, but she knew what we all know: virgins don’t conceive.
How will
this be? Skeptics
still ask that question today. “It’s all a fairy tale. Keep the merry, dump the
myth. Virgins can’t conceive. Miracles don’t exist. Jesus is just another fable
like Leprechauns, Sasquatch, or that jolly fellow who shall not be named.”
How will this be? We ask. How will this
be since this child is called holy and my every desire, motive, and work is soiled
with sin? How will a little child do the impossible and destroy death forever? I
fail to keep the commandments. I fail to repent. I fail to love and serve my
neighbor. It all sounds so impossible. How will this be since I am a sinner?
Nothing is impossible
with God.
In the Virgin’s womb, behold the
impossible made possible for you. Christ’s incarnation is the grand miracle you
need. Unlike the legends and fairy stories, it happened in a particular place,
at a particular date, followed by particular historical events: Jesus lived. Jesus
was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Jesus rose from the dead and was seen by
over 500 witnesses. For you.
The infinite God, the almighty Word, the Word
through whom all things were made and in whom all things hold together, takes
up residence in the Virgin’s womb. The Creator becomes the creature. God
becomes Man. The Author enters his own story to write a new ending for you. In
Jesus, the fullness of Deity deigns to dwell in the womb of a human mother. Our
humanity in its most basic and helpless form, is embraced by God. What modern
man calls a myth, became fact.
Nothing is impossible with God.
“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 called holy—the Son of God.
It’s a Christmas miracle. God comes to do the
impossible for you. He moves heaven to earth and takes up earthly flesh and
blood into heaven. His kingdom comes in human cells and tissue. The throne room
of God is knit in Mary’s womb. In fact there were three miracles Mary’s
visitation: that God became man, that it happened through a Virgin, and that
Mary believed it (Bernard of Clairvaux). That you believe and confess along
with her is yet another miracle, the gift of faith.
It is impossible for the Word of the Lord to fail.
Nothing – even your sin and death – are impossible for God. That’s why this
King is born, to overcome the sin and death which have overcome you. Jesus lets
the power of death overshadow him on the cross so that he might call you holy.
Jesus gives up his Spirit so that he might send the Holy Spirit upon you. Jesus
dies so that you live. Jesus reigns, from the throne of Mary’s womb, to his
coronation on the cross for you.
Rejoice! O favored ones. The Lord is with you just
as he was with Mary. The same Holy Spirit who hovered over the waters
of creation and overshadowed the womb of Mary now overshadows the font where you
are made a new creation. You are a child of God. You are holy.
How will this be since this is just plain water? Certainly
it is not just plain water. But it is God’s word and promise which make the
font the womb of the church. The Word made flesh gives you new birth.
Nothing is impossible with God.
Once again heaven comes to earth. Rejoice, o
favored ones. The Lord is with you in the Holy Supper. His body and blood are
enthroned in bread and wine for you. The King enters the chamber of your mouth
to forgive you and bring you God’s grace and favor.
How can this bread be Christ’s body, and this wine
be his blood?
Nothing is impossible with God.
The same Word of God spoken to Mary by the angel
is spoken over bread and wine. Bread is his body. Wine is his blood. The Word
made flesh dwells among us in His body and blood.
You don’t need an angel to bring you good tidings
of great joy. That’s why Jesus gave the church pastors. To announce: The Lord
is with you. God’s grace and favor are yours in the humble signs of water,
word, bread and wine. Your Baptism cleanses you from sin. The Word spoken by
another brings you forgiveness. Bread is the Body of Christ and wine is His
Blood is as marvelous and wonderful and out of the ordinary as an old woman
conceiving in her seniority or a young woman conceiving in her virginity.
Let it be to each of us, according to His Word.
For nothing is impossible with God.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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