INI

Luke 1:26-38 * March 25, 2007 * Lent 5 * Rev. Dr. Paul Lehninger

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 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. 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.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

In the name of the Father, and of the ] Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord is not often celebrated in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, at least according to my experience, even though there were readings and prayers appointed for it in the old Lutheran Hymnal, as well as in Christian Worship, and it’s listed in the church year calendar of both hymnals. Perhaps one of the problems with it is the time of the year it falls. A few years ago Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary was going to observe the Annunciation, but before it happened, some of us were contacted by e-mail asking for advice regarding how to harmonize with the season of Lent something we associate more with Christmas. Then again, because the Virgin Mary is so prominent in the Gospel lesson appointed for this festival—which includes the first few words of the Ave Maria—and given the lingering anti-Catholic sentiment among some people in the WELS, perhaps we feel everyone would just be more comfortable if we ignored it. I disagree. The deep spiritual insight of our Christian brothers and sisters of all time led them to set apart this day to commemorate an important event in salvation history, and there’s much we can gain from following their lead. The Feast of the Annunciation celebrates heaven coming down to earth. Jesus was made man for our salvation, and the Virgin Mary’s consent to God’s plan makes her an example for all Christians.

But back to the time of year in which this festival falls. After December 25 was agreed upon by the Western church as the day on which to celebrate the birth of Christ, some enterprising church father—fully informed regarding human reproduction, although he himself may have been celibate—counted back nine months and suggested March 25^th as the day on which to observe the biblical account of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her she had been chosen to be the mother of the Lord. I can almost imagine someone objecting, “But you can’t do that during Lent!”

Nevertheless, the Annunciation and Lent fit together beautifully, as we hear in the Collect—the Prayer of the Day—for this festival: “Pour out your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we, to whom your Son’s incarnation was made known by the message of an angel, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection.” Gabriel told Mary that her son’s name was to be Jesus. In Matthew’s Gospel the angel explains, “. . . for he will save his people from their sins.” The purpose of Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity taking human nature on himself, taking up residence in the womb of a human woman and developing there as we all did, was not to give us warm cozy feelings about the relationship between a mother and child. It was not primarily to make a point about the sacredness of all human life, including life in the womb—although secondarily, that’s certainly true. And it was not a mere expression of solidarity, God saying, “You guys aren’t so bad after all.”

The purpose was, in fact, to leave us gaping open-mouthed in amazement at how great God’s love for us is. God from God, who gave his people the Law on Mount Sinai, put himself under law as true man for us. He who knew no sin took on our human nature and was made sin for us. He who made the heavens and whom the heavens cannot contain limited himself to the confines of a woman’s body. He who is beyond change developed and grew as an embryo, a fetus, an infant, a child, and an adult. The Alpha and the Omega, the eternal Son of the Father, began a life and ended it in time so that we might live with him in eternity. The Son of the Most High, the King of kings and Lord of lords, chooses the woman who called herself the Lord’s servant for his mother. The children of Adam and Eve, who in their selfishness grasped at being gods, are embraced in their humanity by the selfless One who does not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but empties himself and takes on the form of a servant. Jesus is made man so that by his death he may pay the penalty humankind deserved—the goal of the incarnation is the cross. And Jesus is made man so that, sharing our nature, his defeat of sin, death, and Satan would also be our defeat of sin, death, and Satan, so that we also may know the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory. Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we, to whom your Son’s incarnation was made known by the message of an angel, may by his cross and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection.

And what about Mary. Perhaps we miss the edge-of-our-seats drama in this Scripture reading and take it too much for granted. The angel Gabriel didn’t give his message to Mary and then, before she could say anything, fly away saying, “Like it or leave it, you’re stuck with it.” Instead, all creation holds its breath waiting to hear what Mary’s response to the angel will be. After all, although Mary is being given the greatest honor a human being could possibly be given, she’s not going to be spending the rest of her life on soft silken cushions in a palace in Jerusalem while someone peels grapes for her. She’s an unmarried woman who will be pregnant, and when she tells them that the way she got pregnant was because the Holy Spirit worked a miracle inside her, not just everyone will respond, “Oh, I see.” In fact, Joseph himself thought he should break their betrothal quietly. After Jesus’ birth, at his presentation in the temple, Simeon turns to Mary and says, “A sword will pierce your own soul, also.” And indeed, thirty-three years later she stood at the cross and watched her Son as he suffered a cruel and humiliating death. She could have said, “No way, Gabe. Fly back to heaven and find yourself another candidate.” But this is a sanctified child of God with incredible faith. Breathlessly we wait, and then we hear her say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your word.”

In her consent to God’s will, Mary is an outstanding example for us. Jesus said that anyone who wants to come after him must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him. This often includes suffering for him. He asked James and John, “Can you drink the cup—the cup of suffering—I am going to drink?” And then there’s this dramatic moment again as we wait for their response: “’We can’, they answered.” In the form of confession and absolution used at St. John’s—Wauwatosa when I was growing up, the pastor said, “Is this your sincere confession that you heartily repent of your sins, believe in Jesus Christ, and earnestly purpose, by the assistance of God the Holy Ghost, henceforth to amend your sinful life? Then answer, ‘yes.’” And there was that breathless moment again; what will we say? Are we really willing to turn our backs on our sin and live according to God’s will? And then—whew!—the congregation answered, “Yes.” We regularly experience this moment when the pastor serves Holy Communion to us, and as he says, “The body of Christ, the blood of Christ,” we whisper, “Amen. Lord, I believe what your messenger has said. Come and make me your dwelling place, Lord Jesus; I am the servant of the Lord. May it be to me according to your word.”

I first became a member of St. John’s over fifty-one years ago. I remember the 75^th anniversary of the congregation, and I was privileged to preach one of the sermons for the 100^th anniversary. It would be easy to become complacent in a large congregation that God has richly blessed through the years. It would be easy to become smug by looking at the progress made from my first grade experience in a firetrap frame school building, to my daughter’s years in what I still thought of as the “new school,” to the school we have now, what seems to me to be the Taj Mahal across the street that my wife helped plan. It would be easy to become bloated, lethargic, and apathetic because of the rich banquet available to us week after week of edifying worship; confessionally sound preaching that drives Christ home to our hearts; Bible classes that are orthodox and relevant; nice people, people you can trust, people you look forward to spending eternity with in heaven; and the list goes on.

But we won’t be complacent, smug, or apathetic, will we. Even if we had laurels, we wouldn’t rest on them. This is another one of those breathless moments. We’re overflowing with thankfulness for the incredible blessings God has given us for the past 125 years, but at the same time we’re aware that it’s only by Jesus’ cross and passion that we enter the glory of his resurrection. Anniversaries are a time to celebrate and give thanks for the blessings of the past, but also a time to think about the future. We have boards and committees of skilled and dedicated brothers and sisters who crunch numbers and balance budgets and formulate long-range plans, and that’s good. But there are no guarantees. What’s in store for St. John’s for the next 125 years, or seventy-five years, or fifty years, or even one year? Only God knows. This is another one of those breathless moments. And as we look to the future, all God asks of us is to say with Mary, “We are the Lord’s servants. May it be to us according to your word.”

Amen.