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Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. Today we have something maybe out of the ordinary, somewhat of an anomaly,
whatever you want to call it, as this is the fourth Sunday in Advent, but it’s also
Christmas Eve, and my math tells me this happens about seven years, every seven years or so.
Thank you. And the Synod’s lectionary tells us, well, it shows us that we could either
we can either use the readings for the fourth Sunday in Advent, or we
can use the readings for Christmas Eve, and I think sometimes this discourages
us to do either or both, but we do do both, and we’ve chosen to do both. And so
in doing so this morning, we get to hear this promise in 2 Samuel, this promise
given by the Lord to King David, and then in the Luke text we also get to hear
about the fulfillment of this promise and the Annunciation of the Lord to
Mary. And there’s a lot of stuff going on, actually, in Luke chapter 1, and it does
have this theme of fulfillment that all the entire Old Testament hope is about
to be realized. I mean, after all, we have, you remember, the foretelling of the
birth of John the Baptist, we have the actual Annunciation to Mary, we have
Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth, we have Mary’s Magnificat, we have the actual
birth of John the Baptist, and then we have Zechariah’s prophecy about his son
John, about how John will not just prepare the way for the Lord, but the
Lord God will raise up a horn of salvation for his people in the house of
his servant David, as he has promised. So I do want to take just a quick look back,
kind of rewind and look back at the angel’s revelation to Zechariah, because
I think that we ought to try to compare that with what happens with Mary, and
we’ll see there might have been a quite different response between the two. And
then I also want to fast forward just a bit, just a bit, and go and look at the
Magnificat, because I think in looking at these texts, we kind of, we kind of
get to know what it is we should be thinking about Mary, what it is we know
about her, and then also what we believe and confess about the promise and hope
the advent of Christ. So thinking back, we remember just earlier in the text that
the angel Gabriel comes to Zechariah when Zechariah is in the temple, and that he
tells him that his long-suffering dream, his long-suffering prayers for a child,
well, they’re going to be answered. And even more, not just that he’s going to have a child,
but this child is going to be great before the Lord, filled with the Holy
Spirit, and he will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah. Pretty
impressive. And yet Zechariah, he doesn’t exactly answer with, oh that is great, I’m
so excited Lord, you’re finally going to bring this child that you’ve promised to
us. Instead, Zechariah doubtfully asks, well how shall I know this? How in the
world am I to believe this? I think I needed some type of proof. And so we also
remember that Zechariah’s skepticism was reprimanded, if you will, with the
of being made mute until the birth of John. And that is quite a contrast from
what we hear about Mary and how she reacts in her own remarkable news. Now
Zechariah, he was, I guess we could say he was somebody in the grand scheme of
things. He was a priest, he was a member of the priesthood, and on this particular
day of his revelation he happened to be in the temple. Maybe he had this
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go in there and burn incense. Out of the
thousands of priests, this might only happen once in his life. So he seemed to
be a pretty big deal. But who was Mary and why was she so special? Well, although
she was engaged, she was betrothed to this man Joseph, this man of the house of
David. She really wasn’t anybody in particular. She was, as the text tells us,
a young girl, a virgin, maybe 12 to 14 years old, somewhere in that neighborhood.
and she’s living in this backwater town of Nazareth. So she had to be one of the
most unlikely young ladies in the world to receive this news and this visit from
Gabriel. So we can understand that she was visibly shaken, that she was trying
to figure out what this message was all about. I don’t think she thought it was
good news at first. And Gabriel knows this and to calm her fears he says to
Mary, do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God. And so in the
Lutheran tradition, we have to ask, what does this mean? What does it mean to have
favor with God? I mean, surely Mary has done something, she’s done something
quite remarkable to have this elevated status. Perhaps she was particularly or
extremely pious. Maybe she had done something of special recognition to
deserve this. But no, this favor is altogether unmerited, at least in the
ways that we think about how we merit grace and favor. No, because this favor
that Gabriel speaks of to her is merely the fact that she has been chosen among
all women, and the Lord chose her long ago to be that woman, to be the one who
would bear the Son of God. Her womb will now be the temple of the Lord. She will
bring forth the Messiah who will sit on the throne of David forever, for he will
be the culmination of the line, David. Gabriel even tells her how he will be
named. He will be called Jesus, Yeshua, the name that means Yahweh saves, for he
will be the one to save his people from their sins. The child will be called great
and the son of the Most High. So now you see why Mary was shaken, because that had
to be a lot to take in, and yet Mary doesn’t even seem to grudgingly protest
or have any smidgen of doubt whatsoever. And it’s not like she’s not aware of who
she is. She’s aware of her humble estate, her status, her state of engagement with
Joseph, but she doesn’t worry about embarrassment. Instead, she only asks, how
will this be? She’s not necessarily asking for an
explanation. She is a virgin, after all. She asked for an explanation, but not a
sign. She doesn’t demand proof that the angel is telling the truth. So Gabriel
tells her she will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit who
has given her the ability to have faith and the ability to receive all this news,
this shocking news that she has just been given. And the angel has told her
the Lord is with you.” That’s not like some kind of simple greeting, I mean we say
that to each other, the Lord be with you, and it’s a nice greeting, but this was a
special assurance in two ways. One, that the Lord would be with her, he would
protect her, he would keep her from this embarrassment, she would not be embarrassed.
But more importantly, that he would be with her, physically with her in her
womb. And the Lord wants to confirm Mary in her belief, and so he has Gabriel
appoint her to this visitation with her relative Elizabeth, this woman, this
relative once thought to be incapable of even having a child, that she, too, is now
a child. So Gabriel appoints her to that visitation, and we know that when Mary
visits Elizabeth that the unborn John the Baptist leaps in the womb at the
presence of the Messiah. And with all this news, Mary simply says,
behold, I am the servant of the Lord. To me be as it pleaseth God.” Well, Mary has
found favor, and at her visitation to Elizabeth, Elizabeth is going to even
heap more blessing and praise on Mary, and yet Mary points away from herself. In
her Magnificat, her song of praise, she proclaims,
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has
looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all
generations will call me blessed. Blessed not because of herself, but because
she is the one chosen for this great honor and purpose. Mary is full of grace,
but it is grace given to one who has faith in the power of the Lord to do the
impossible. Grace given in fulfillment of the promise to her, too, of a Savior. So
the Annunciation is not about Mary, and it cannot be all about her. It cannot be
the focus. It’s not a story, just a simple story about how a young girl found favor
with the Lord because of her own worthiness, that she is blessed because
of something in her. It’s about this fulfillment of the ancient promise for
all people. It’s the fulfillment of the promise of the Lord that he will
tabernacle with his people, that he will become flesh and dwell among them. This
one Jesus who from all time, from the beginning of creation, has
been and is now on the throne of David. And what about David? David had his
doubts, and David, through the prophet Nathan, proposed to tell the Lord what he
would do for him, that he would build the Lord a temple where the Lord may dwell.
But the Lord says to David, you say you will build me a house, and yet I have
not asked for this. No, I will build you a house. And also Zechariah, he only thinks of
himself. And Gabriel gives him this most wonderful news. What did he say? How will I
know this? But Mary, not Mary, she points away from herself and to God. And indeed
Jesus, later in Luke chapter 11, will do the same. He’ll point away from Mary when
a woman in the crowd says, “‘Blessed is the woman that bore you and the breast at
which you nursed.’ But Jesus replied saying, “‘Blessed, rather, is the one who hears the
Word of God and keeps it.'” Great are those who hear the gospel, who see the Word
made flesh and believe. And this is part of our confession. Over the past three
midweek services, we’ve looked at the Apostles’ Creed, and we’ve looked at the
primary work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we just confessed an
Ising Creed, which is kind of like a super creed, if you want to say that. And
about the Son, Jesus, we first confess what was made known to Mary in this
Annunciation, that in Jesus we confess that God the Son was begotten of
Father before all worlds, from the beginning of time, and that he was
incarnate by the Holy Spirit, that he was born of the Virgin Mary and made man,
that he suffered, was crucified, died and was buried, he rose on the third day, he
ascended into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father from whence he
has never departed. And we also confess that in his second advent he will come
again with joy with glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will
have no end because the throne of David will be established forever and like
Mary we are not able to confess this of our own a reason our own ability our own
understanding for as we heard from st. Paul today this was a mystery that was
kept secret for long ages but is now made known to all nations according to
command of the Eternal God, the Eternal God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who
has given us the power to understand and to reason and to come to faith. And this
is for all people, for all nations, the mystery revealed in Jesus Christ. So the
Annunciation delivered to Mary was the fulfillment of a promise, the promise
that was first given in the Garden of Eden, that the offspring of a woman,
indeed, this offspring of Mary herself would bruise the serpent’s head. The
promise that was repeated to the fathers, to Abraham, carried down 42 generations
through Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and to David. And to David, the Lord promised a house
and a kingdom to be made sure forever. And we are to be sure that we are in
this house, that we have been grafted into his people, into Israel, into the
church. Now, in just a matter of hours, the season of Advent is going to be over.
Shortly after the service, maybe within an hour or so, the altar guild is going
to come in here and they’re going to take out all the blue pyramids, and they’re
going to make way for the white pyramids of Christmas, which begins with our
services tonight at 4 and 630, just so you know. But the blue pyramids will be
up and they won’t see the light of day for 11 months. And some have asked, well,
why do we have blue pyramids? Some people use violet. Well, violet was and is still
often used as a symbol, a sign of repentance, of penitentiary, of being
penitential. And some use it, and yes, it’s a royal color, purple, violet,
whatever you want to call it. But in recent times, blue has kind of found this
way in. We do it here because it’s also a color of royalty, but it is also the color
the symbol of hope. So we have repentance, we maintain our repentance, but we also
still hope. Because Advent is indeed about hope. It’s about hope and the
promise of the return to us of the one who was born of Mary. It is hope that,
just like the grace that was imparted to Mary, that it will come to us too. Grace
that, like Mary, for us is not earned, it is not through our own merit, it’s not
through our own piety or our self-endowed perception of goodness. Grace
given only by the mercy of the Father through the Son. And like Mary, we rely
not on our own understanding but on the promises given in the Word of God. Now we
can’t help in doubt, we can’t help but have wonder, we can’t help but question
about things in this world. How did God even create the world and everything in
How is life given in conception? How does plain water and God’s Word wash us
from all of our sins? How does simple bread and wine become the body and blood
of Christ to strengthen our faith and work forgiveness? How is it that the Word
is preached to us and the Holy Spirit brings us to faith? How is it that our
Lord reaches down from heaven to us in our lowly estate and brings us unto
himself. So, brothers and sisters, the season of Advent is technically over. It’s
coming to an end, but our hope doesn’t end with it. In fact, the church year has
just begun, and in many ways I think we ought to always be in a season of Advent,
a steady and constant state of anticipation and hope and rejoicing.
Anticipation and looking to the day of the Lord’s return when he will come to
set us free. Hope in hearing God’s promises and believing by the gift of
faith which he has given us through his word, that word made flesh in Christ, and
rejoicing in coming to the Lord’s house again and again to celebrate and receive
his good gifts given in his word and his holy sacraments. So tonight and tomorrow
we will gather once again here to receive those gifts and celebrate that
which God has done in the impossible that he has come become down become man
and gave himself up for us that we may be freed from our sin and death so yes
the Lord was with his servants David and Mary and the Lord is our Emmanuel God
with us amen now the peace of God which surpasses all
understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord amen
