Advent 1 – You Are A Blessing

What was something you were called as a child, an endearing nickname, a secret name known only by your mother or a dear grandparent? I’m not going to ask you to share it, but take a moment and try to find that name or word.
‌For me, what comes to mind, is how when I was little, my parents would call me a “snuggle bug.”
‌Again, no need to say it aloud, but hold that name in your mind. If you’re having trouble finding a word, then think about what your name, your given name, means. I’ve told you many times that my son’s name, Asher, is the Hebrew word for “happy.” My name, Seth, means “chosen” or “set apart.” Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, the one who, after the folly of Cain and Abel, is chosen to continue on the family line.
‌What does your name mean? Hold that, roll the word over in your mind.
‌The words from our beginnings are significant, in that they frame our worldview and how we see ourselves in it. Some of us change our names to reorient to the world. When we marry, we customarily combine family names as a sign of solidarity and binding to one another.
‌And beyond names alone, the words we use to describe ourselves and others matter greatly.
‌Our names and self-descriptive words often originate from a family story and a sense of place. From whom and where we come from matter.
‌And that is what we will explore during this season of Advent. What words and places describe our beginnings? And, as we hear the familiar stories told again, what ways is God speaking a new word of hope to us once again as we anticipate the coming of Christ? What are our words for beginning?
‌Today’s text directs us to the Mary narrative, the story of a young woman who receives a word from an angelic messenger, a word of blessing and calling. Mary is challenged to receive this blessing willingly, to yield to the matters of God’s design.
‌As we hear our Gospel reading today, think about what words Mary hears and how those words echo to your ears today.
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Luke 1:26–38
NRSV
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 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 ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “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 holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
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‌Who is Mary?
‌For generations since, we have venerated Mary as the virgin mother of Christ. Around the world, Mary is a figure of immense religious importance. Throughout the Catholic Christian faith, as I’m sure you know, Mary is prayed to and reflected upon as an exemplary, blessed woman who took upon herself the role of childbearer for God Most High.
‌But it’s also important to think about who Mary is in terms of her context. A few things to note.
‌First, Galilee. Specifically, Nazareth. Later in the Gospels, Nathaniel asks, “what good can come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth is in the north of Israel, away from the centers of religious and cultural power in Jerusalem, but still under occupation from Rome. We might describe it as the frontier or the backwoods, depending on how you look at it.
‌As always, it’s important that we pay attention to our daily news, especially this week, as this region where Mary and Joseph live features in our modern times. Nazareth and Galilee are in the northern reaches of Israel, near the border of Lebanon, where fighting has been ongoing for the last year between Israel and Hezbollah. This week’s ceasefire agreement has been followed by descriptions of people returning home to their towns along the border, taking in the spectacle of cities torn by war. This geographical center is not far from our story of ancient Galilee. People are still fleeing and returning along these same roads, living on this same land, looking for salvation and peace upon this same ground.
‌It’s also important to note that Luke connects Mary to Joseph, her betrothed, and the line of David. At this time in the Hebrew people’s story, the line of David, the great king of Israel, has scattered. There is no king on the throne, rather, as we looked at last week, there are strongmen like Pilate or Caesar who overshadow the political environment of the day. Whether Jospeh will have an air to the throne isn’t a remote dream — these are scattered, dispossessed people.
‌So, then, why Mary?
‌Is there some secret reason why Mary is chosen? Or, perhaps even less comfortable to ask, is this just a story of covering up sexual abuse and putting a nice spiritual bow on the spectacle of an unwed mother? Why Mary?
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‌Let’s go back, for a moment, to those words and names we thought of earlier.
‌I hope you were able to find an echo, a memory, of some term of endearment. If not, even the very nature of your name, that it was given to you with intention and out of hope…what do these things tell you about your beginning?
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‌I have a favorite album that I like to listen to when I travel, Daniel Lanois’ “Here Is What Is.” Interspersed through the album is a recording of a conversation between Lanois and Brian Eno, two modern music legends, discussing creativity. I’d like to share an excerpt of this with you, as I think it pertains to this question of “who is Mary?” and, perhaps, “who am I?”
‌Brian Eno: Well, I tell you, one thing I would say about your film is that, what would be really interesting for people to see, is how beautiful things grow out of [rubbish — that’s not the word, but for our purposes, let’s say rubbish].
‌Because nobody ever believes that. You know, everybody thinks that Beethoven had his string quartets completely in his head. They’d somehow appeared there and formed in his head. Before he, and all he had to do was write them down and they would kind of be manifest to the world. But I think what’s, what’s so interesting and what would really be a lesson that everybody should learn is that things come out of nothing. Things evolve out of nothing. You know, the, the tiniest seed in the right situation turns into the most beautiful forest. And then the most promising seed in the wrong situation turns into nothing. And I think this would be important for people to understand, because it gives people confidence in their own lives to know that that’s how things work. If you walk around with the idea that there are some people who are so gifted, they have these wonderful things in their head, but you’re not one of them, you’re just sort of a normal person, you could never do anything like that, then you live a different kind of life, you know. You, you could have another kind of life where you can say, where you say, well, I know that things come from nothing very much and start from unpromising beginnings, and I’m an unpromising beginning, and I could start something.
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‌Who is Mary? Who are you?
‌As we move through the Advent season, asking about words that describe us and perhaps are a starting point for us on this journey, one of the first things we must learn is that God’s work comes out of very little things, like you and me and Mary and Joseph.
‌It would be very fitting for this story to be told of the messenger Gabriel, coming to a young girl in war torn Lebanon or Gaza. Places of great upheaval and violence. Worlds of uncertainty.
‌And God’s work of opening up a new way of hope for humanity, the promise of Messiah, comes into this fragile, broken, hurting, uncertain space. Into Mary’s perplexity, God moves to bring hope.
‌Could it be the same with you?
‌Could it be that God has a purpose and design for your life, the very little thing that it may be, a purpose that is beyond what we imagine for ourselves?
‌Let’s look a little deeper at the interaction between the messenger and Mary.
‌First, Mary is greeted and called Favored One.
‌Just preceding this story, in Luke, we have the narrative of Zechariah and Elizabeth and the pregnancy which would bear John the Baptist. Zechariah is a temple priest, a favored one in society. And out of he and his wife’s long-standing barrenness, a child is promised. Now, to Mary, a nobody besides her lose connection with Joseph, is called favored.
‌Why? Why Mary?
‌Because this is a story of God meeting humanity in an unlikely place to bring hope. The child does not come to a royal family in a palace. The child would be born to unlikely parents who are displaced and far from their rightful home and line. Just like Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, she is a rather simple woman who is shown grand favor by God.
‌Could it be that God has something to teach us here? God finds favor in us when we don’t even realize it’s there. God knows our name and what we are capable of.
‌The interaction goes on — “do not be afraid.”
‌No, the angel has not gone to the wrong house. And the uncertainty of the world that surrounds Mary…this is a greater movement than even that.
‌Mary’s story shows us how God brings blessing to even the least of us, the young, the outsider, the virgin, and the barren.
‌How does Mary respond?
‌How would you respond?
‌She says, “here I am.”
‌Mary echoes the words of the prophets of Israel, great paragons of faith like Samuel or Isaiah. As God calls to God’s people, the faithful reply, “here I am.”
‌Again, I want to draw you back to that name that you’ve been holding in your heart.
‌Can you hear your mother’s voice, calling you? Or a dear friend, whispering a word of love in your ear?
‌You are beloved.
‌You are enough.
‌You are chosen.
‌You are perfect, as imperfect as you are.
‌You are my friend.
‌You are my love.
‌You are good. You are welcome.
‌Can you hear those words, favored ones? Beloved children of God, can you hold those words? I feel at times these words of goodness and blessing might break me, as I am not worthy of them.
‌But God’s message comes to us — out of the very little that you are — you are a blessing.
‌How shall we respond?
‌Today, as we remember the light of hope that begins to shine in Advent, we respond with, let it be.
‌I pray that this season, you will take time to quiet your heart and listen to those words of blessing that God speaks to you. I pray that you find ways to speak those words of truth and love to others around you, knowing they need to hear it. I pray that we find those quiet spaces to acknowledge God’s love for us, to receive it, and to grow from the very little we are into the people of purpose and action in the world God has made us to be. May it be with us, according to God’s word of blessing.
‌Amen.
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