Angels!

Angels!

Luke 1:26-38

December 18, 2011

JW McNeill

The angel, Gabriel, is sent to Mary.

This is not the first time the Gospel writer Luke has told us something about Gabriel. A few paragraphs earlier, Gabriel visited Zechariah.

Zechariah was a priest. He and his wife, Elizabeth had a problem. They had no child and they were getting on in years. They had been praying for a child for a long time.

As the story goes, Zechariah was in the sanctuary of the temple offering incense to God. As he was doing so, an angel of the Lord appeared – Gabriel. Zechariah was terrified. Gabriel tells him not to be afraid. Moreover, Gabriel tells him that God has heard the prayers of him and Elizabeth and that Elizabeth would have a son. Not only a son, but a son that “will be great in the sight of the Lord.” That son, of course, would be the one whom we know as John the Baptizer.

Zechariah is dubious. He asks how he can rely on this promise. The angel replies, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.”

Angels are spiritual beings that are able to be the bridge between God and the world. As the Bible thinks of angels, by the way, they are not the spirits of human beings who have died. They have their own existence and power and purpose.

 Often in the Bible, when God has an interaction with a person, an angel is the form in which this takes place. When angels visit, it is as if to say that God is visiting. Since God does not have a body with which to interact in the world, it is angels who take a physical form in the world by which God can communicate. Angels are one form of the inbreaking of God into the world. Or, we might say, angels can be a manifestation of God in the world.

In the case of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Gabriel’s appearance was the answer to prayer. Gabriel came to tell Zechariah something he wanted to hear, but couldn’t believe. It was an announcement that Zechariah could scarcely believe because it was desired so desperately.

Now some of us can think of times when it has seemed that some sign of God’s presence in our lives has come as something welcome and refreshing. Something we had prayed for and a relief.

Some of us can recall a time when our lives seemed empty and without purpose, without meaning that gave them direction and fulfillment. Or we can think of some time of trouble when we were about to give up hope and something happened that restored our confidence that we would be able to see through to healing or even joy.

Some of us can think of a time when we have been burdened by guilt or regret or vindictiveness that has kept us from peace and we have prayed to be restored to the wholeness that set our hearts at rest.

We do at times pray for  this kind of inbreaking of God’s presence. A sign that God is still involved. An indication that we have not been exiled from God’s care and concern. And when those prayers are answered it is as if an angel has visited as a sign that one whose love embraces the world has once again connected with our hearts.

But sometimes, for some of us, we have not asked for anything. We have not been seeking the presence of God in our midst. We have just been minding our own business. Travelling along our own merry way.

This was how it was with Mary. When Gabriel told her of what was to happen in her life, she was perplexed. This was not something that she had anticipated or had asked for. This inbreaking of God’s messenger angel was not an answer to prayer – at least not an answer to her prayer or her desire. She had other plans.

Instead, it was the announcement of her being taken into a story that was beyond her understanding, beyond her experience, and beyond her expectation.

Let’s consider how this sort of divine encounter with an angel went for Mary.

There are four stages to this encounter and these four stages may be a part of our encounter with God as well.

1.     Favored One

Mary is told that she is favored by God. The angel says to her: "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." I invite each one of you to listen for that in your heart this morning. Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.

I especially say that because I suspect that some of you might be sitting here thinking, well this has nothing to do with me. I'm not that religious, or I'm not good enough, or I've done too many bad things in my life, or I'm not disciplined enough.  But God refuses to be bound by our limitations. Instead, God makes our limitations part of the story.

God has this remarkable habit of choosing the most unlikely people and places.  Many times when an angel of God makes an invitation, the person to whom the invitation comes, gives some excuse or reason to doubt the appropriateness of the invitation.  Why did God choose Israel, after all to be the chosen people? Why not a big power like Egypt or Babylon? Why have the Son of God born in a barn? Why to parents who are on the road?

 God isn't limited by our expectations.  Instead God begins with us where we are.  And then God can shape and transform our lives beginning right where we are.  We might not know where God is eventually leading, but we can trust that God's promise of faithfulness and steadfast love will go with us.

Greetings favored one. The Lord is with you. This leads to the second stage.

2.     You are to be part of a great project

In Mary’s case, the message is “You will have a son who will be great.” But for us, more broadly, we are invited in all that we say and do to become entry points for God's love to come into the world. 

I ask you, Can you imagine anything more wonderful than that opportunity? We are invited to bear the Christ into the world.  Each of us is being called to do so according the grace given to us and the situations into which we live each day. We are offered the opportunity to bring forth Christ into the world.

Our lives are not insignificant. What we do does matter. Our actions are being woven into the fabric of God’s tapestry in a way that is magnifying God’s justice and compassion or not.

I sometimes wonder whether (apart from the money) folks who are desperate to go on some reality television show are not thinking that by doing so their lives will gain significance. But the fact of the matter is that what we are about as sons and daughters of the living God is part of God’s wondrous activity. We are each day being called to be a part of the wonders of God’s ongoing blessing of creation – whether or not anyone seems to notice.

This great project moves forward as we show compassion, as we listen to the needs of those around us – even our own family. This great project moves forward as we practice forgiveness and seek reconciliation. It moves forward as we set aside retaliation. As we practice patience and look for ways to love and serve others, we see this project gain increasing traction all around us. It all counts! It all creates the atmosphere in which God’s goodness is revealed in abundance.

This is how Christ enters the world through us.

You are favored. You are invited to a great project. Which leads us to the third stage.

3.     How can this be? The Holy Spirit will come upon you; the power of the most high will overshadow you.

Mary, of course, wonders how this can be. She is aware of how small she is. She has no position in the world from which to do great things. How can she have such an impact? Gabriel tells her that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her. And in that connection, Jesus will be conceived.

Again, this does not depend on her strength, or her talent, or her feeling “religious.”  Instead it depends on her letting go  and opening herself to the power of God.

So for us: this does not depend on our strength, or our talent, or our feeling “religious.”  Instead it depends on our letting go of our need to prove ourselves and instead open ourselves to be proven by the power of God that embedded in all of creation – even us.

It involves risking ourselves in participation, trusting that we will be given what we need, and discovering that God is already at work preparing us and opening the way for grace to shine through.

You are favored. You are invited into a great project. You will be empowered by the Holy Spirit. This brings us to the fourth stage.

4.     Here am I.  Submission.

Once Mary has taken this in she says: Here am I. Let it be with me according to your word.

Mary submits herself, trusting that God is present in this encounter.

Sometimes this passage has been presented as a choice that Mary has as to whether or not she will go ahead with this and be the mother of Jesus, the messiah, the Christ, the son of God. I may have even spoken in this way as well – imagining that Mary somehow was being offered the opportunity to say no.

But as I read the passage again as it is written, I do wonder whether that is the best way to understand it, actually. It is not so much a choice as a surrender: this is how it is to be and I offer myself to it so that I will be fully open to be the vessel of God in this circumstance. I will embrace this offer to be God’s entry point into creation.

I will embrace this encounter with God so that the world will encounter God in human form to share this life together in this time and place so that God’s purpose will take root in this new way to burst the powers of sin and death for love and life.

So we, too, are offered the possibility to embrace our encounter with God – whether in answer to our prayer or out of the blue as an intrusion to a well-planned path of our own – and surrender ourselves to be an entry point for hope, and peace, joy and love in this world. To create that space where the presence and power of God can gestate in our lives, so that our attitudes, our words, our actions can each be a womb in which the presence of Christ grows strong enough to be birthed into reality by our words and deeds.

You are favored. You are invited into a great project. You will be empowered by the Holy Spirit. You may submit yourself to all this to be an entry point for hope, peace, joy, and love in this world.

Gabriel, an angel of God, stands in the presence of God and, at the same time, encounters human beings in the world, telling them what God needs them to hear, so that they may be prepared to join in.

Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and Elizabeth will have a son. That child will grow up to be John the Baptizer. Gabriel tells Mary that she is to have a child by the power of the Holy Spirit and that child will grow up to be the messiah, the Son of God. Gabriel bridges the realm of God and the realm of earth.

There is a sense in which this is what Jesus does, as well. The Word of God takes on flesh and lives among us in this world as an inbreaking into creation.  In fact, there was some thought that perhaps Jesus was simply an angel, and that was a way to explain his power and his goodness. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews takes some pains to argue that this is not the way to understand Jesus.

[That was the wind up. Now here’s the pitch.]

It is not too much of a stretch to say that we might understand ourselves as angels in this sense: as we offer ourselves to God’s plans and purposes, we can bridge the realm of God and the world. We can be messengers of God’s peace and compassion, God’s love and mercy.

We can approach others as the answer to their prayer or as an invitation that they might grow closer to God.

Over the next week, emotions come nearer to the surface and tenderness in many ways becomes the order of the day. Some of the callouses that build up over the course of life become softened in the holiday sentiment. Over the next week many of us will notice that our hearts are somewhat more open to God’s messages of love: both as receivers and senders.

I invite you to pay attention to those messages as angelic visitations connecting you to God’s call on your life and an opportunity once again find yourself being drawn closer into God’s embrace and more deeply into God’s designs on the world.

Mary and Zechariah are not the only ones to be touched by the power of God. May the Lord also be with you!