We have now arrived at the fourth Sunday of Advent and are getting closer to the celebration of Christmas. For the first time in Advent we meet Mary in the readings. The angel visits her and announces that she is to be the mother of Jesus. Advent is a time of preparation and hope. Today the focus shifts more squarely to the birth of Jesus at Christmas. But we should not forget the bigger picture that we have been seeing over the last three weeks. Mary is also part of that picture. She is one of the People of God who lived their lives in expectation that God would visit them and change their lives and their world. As our eyes are drawn to the birth of Jesus we too must allow him to shine a light on the bigger picture of what God is doing in our world. Mary will help us do this.
The gospel reading we heard suggests that Mary was troubled by the angel’s visit. Let’s notice why Mary might have been troubled – and I think she was troubled by several things. We all quickly recognise that the first thing to trouble her was the news that she was to be the mother of Jesus. She is astonished at the angle’s greeting because she is a virgin and not yet married. It doesn’t take much thinking to realise why she would have been troubled. It wasn’t just because there were so many things unexplained; perhaps more troubling was the prospect of where this would leave her in her family and community. She was about to find herself in an embarrassing situation, and could well end up being shunned and excluded from the family. In those days this was a terrible thing to happen to a young woman, because it meant she no longer had any place to live or any means of support. In her case it may have been even worse, because Joseph might have decided to divorce her. So, we can understand why she was troubled.
But the angel says something else that troubles her. He tells her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of God will overshadow her. Perhaps we don’t give enough attention to how troubling this news must have been. We have probably never much thought about what this means. I’m sure that Mary was a young woman who had grown up in the faith of her people, that she would have followed all the usual religious practices and worshipped God in the same way as everyone else. She probably had a sense of the dignity of every human being, remembering the words of the Book of Genesis that we are made in the image and likeness of God. But she had probably never considered that the power of God would come to her in any unique or particular way. So she had to think about herself and what God was doing in her life. It wasn’t just that she would be a mother, but that God was calling her to something special. Not just that – God was giving her all that she would need to live out the plan he had. She now had to decide to cooperate with God.
There was one other thing in the angel’s greeting that would have troubled her. And this was about the child, who was to be called the Son of the Most High. Even she would have recognised that this meant that the child would have a unique relationship with God. She wouldn’t have fully understood what this was about, but the angel made it clear that the child was going to have an impact far greater than just the local family or village. Jesus would eventually bring about God’s reign and would be more powerful than any of the kings of the earth. So, Mary was being drawn into something that was changing the world. We could say that she received earth-shattering news.
We can understand now why Mary was troubled. It wasn’t just that Jesus was going to be born. It probably had more to do with his identity as the Son of God. It probably also had to do with the dawning realisation that her son was going to change the world. Mary would have understood all this as bringing to fulfilment what she had heard from the prophets as they were read in the synagogue. God’s plan was unfolding in her life and in the world. But God also gives her the freedom to respond to the invitation. As we know, Mary’s response has become famous: “Let what you have said, be done to me”.
What are we to make of all this? I think that this scene with Mary invites us to ponder what happened. But in remembering what happened back then we should also consider what God is still doing in the world. During Advent we have been hearing about and pondering the promise God made about the future. Advent invites us to have hope, and to allow the present to be shaped by our hope about the future. In this way we are a lot like Mary: we are being called to become part of God’s plan as it unfolds in our world. Like Mary, we may find this troubling. Maybe it is what is unknown that troubles us; maybe it is the seeming enormity of being involved in God’s plan for the world; or maybe we don’t think of ourselves as so close to God that God would use us to bring about a new world. But if we think about it, Mary was asked to have a baby. She could manage that. The Holy Spirit worked through her to bring about God’s will. I think we are asked today, as Christmas approaches, to prepare a dwelling place for God in our hearts, and to allow them to be so transformed that we live out of the love that God has poured into our hearts.
Rev Dr Gerard Kelly
