Scripture: Luke 1:26-38 Series: Advent
A fourth-Sunday-of-Advent sermon on Luke 1:26-38 arguing that Mary’s ‘yes’ to Gabriel is remarkable because we naturally expect ‘no.’ Drawing on the pastor’s own fearful courtship of his wife, the sermon frames every faithful ‘yes’—marriage, relationship, response to God—as an act of faith against the fear of rejection. Mary says yes not for gain but in faith, trusting the God who freed Israel. God’s love is not zero-sum; God’s ‘yes’ is for all, supremely in the Incarnation as God’s ‘yes’ to the world over against the ‘no’ of the Flood. We respond by living the means of grace daily, and like the shepherds and drummer boy, by giving God our heart, echoing Rossetti’s ‘In the Bleak Midwinter.’
Illustrations: meeting-alina-church-under-the-bridge, counterfactual-gabriel-other-woman, marriage-act-of-faith, no-song-lyric, noah-flood-response-of-no, shepherds-drummer-boy-stable, rossetti-in-the-bleak-midwinter, waterhouse-lady-of-shalott-pre-raphaelite
December 24 (Morning)
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. - Luke 1:26-38
My wife, Alina, and I were set up, but not totally set up. It wasn’t a full on blind date. It was a dinner party. We were the only single people and there were assigned seats, but that did not mean that anything was going happen.
During the dinner party, we talked a little bit. It was nice. She was interesting and beautiful and I wanted to see her again. I found out that she worshiped at the Church Under the Bridge and I wanted to go and join her. So, I very, very, very timidly invited myself to go to church with her. This was definitely not a first date.
Now I don’t like visiting churches, which is one of the reasons why I am so grateful to everyone who ever visits here. It is a vulnerable thing to open yourselves up to a new community. So during the worship service under the I-35 overpass, I stood in a corner very stiffly. And then it was over. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t ask for her number. I think I waved, that is all. In hindsight, my behavior seems foolish (and it probably was), but what I was thinking about was that I did not want to put myself out there because she could say no. That is what I expected. Why would she say yes to me?
The story of our relationship goes on and on. It worked out (yay), we celebrated 12 years of marriage a few weeks ago.
I tell that story because I think it helps us understand Mary’s response to Gabriel a little more deeply. We should come to this passage with an expectation of No, just as I did standing awkwardly under I-35. It wasn’t clear that Mary would say yes to God.
Today, on this fourth Sunday of Advent, we are going to talk about saying yes to God. Saying yes to God is not an obvious thing. Saying yes to God is not a simple thing. It is not a passive thing, because most of the time in most of our lives, we lean towards saying no.
Mary’s yes to God is not a quid pro quo. She is frightened. We might think about Mary with an understanding of the possibility that the angel Gabriel visited other people, not that that happened, but that the counterfactual is useful. Counterfactuals are alternative histories used to help us understand actual history. So we think of Gabriel visiting another woman and this other woman’s answer is no, or “get away,”or she tries to attack the angel, all of these are quite rational responses to an angel telling you that you are going bear the son of God. A rational response to the angel would be the same as the song from a few years ago: “my name is no, my sign is no, my number is no, you need to let it go.”
But Mary says yes.
Mary’s yes is not for herself but for us. Mary doesn’t purchase anything with her yes; she conforms her heart to God. Mary’s yes is the example for all of us. Mary says yes to God by faith. She does not know what is going to happen.
And this gets back to relationships and fears of rejection and the expectation of no. The yes’s we say in our life are actions of faith. The relationships we have with other people are steps of faith. One of my teacher’s used to say that you never marry the right person because you never know who they are going to be in 10 years or 50 years. Marriage itself is an act of faith, whether it is in the high steepled church or with the justice of the peace, it is an act of faith in another person.
Saying no to someone is a reasonable thing to do. ‘I don’t know you. I don’t need you. Why should I say yes?’
Mary isn’t arbitrary in her yes to God. Mary believes in what God will do based on what God has done in rescuing the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Mary says yes to God because she believes that God will continue to be faithful.
God’s love is not zero sum but our love is. To say yes to a relationship with someone means saying no to someone else. There is an either/or going on with us but not with God.
If God says yes to you, that does not mean God will say no to me. God’s yes is for all people. When we flip it around again, a yes to God for us is zero sum. That is, when we say yes to God, we must say no to other things. A yes to God is a no to hatred. A yes to God is a no to pride and envy and all manner of sins. A yes to God is a no to living for yourself. And the amazing thing is, that in sending Gabriel to Mary, God is saying yes to the world. We have the ultimate counterfactual about how God could have responded to sin with Noah and the Flood. We have a possible response to overwhelming sinfulness. That response is destruction. That is the response of no. In sending the angel to Mary. In Jesus Christ becoming incarnate in the womb of Mary, God is saying yes to us.
Mary’s yes does not take place in a vacuum. It is in a particular time in a particular part of the world to a particular person. None of which point to this yes.
And yet she says yes.
This evening is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is Christmas Day. And pretty soon, it is the new year. In that new year, how can we say yes to God?
First, we must remember, that before everything, God has said yes to us. So anything we do is a response of the joy of God in our lives. You are loved. Whether or not another person says yes to you, God has said yes to you.
I finished seminary before Alina and I started seeing each other. Studying the Bible alone does not eliminate a fear of rejection. Studying the history of the church does not eliminate imposter syndrome and the idea that once people get to know me they are not going to like me. I can rationally see that God loves me without leaning on God in those moments of fear. I need to still practice the art of waiting and the biggest part of it is saying yes to God daily; Finding a way in your life to say yes to God. This is what John Wesley calls the means of grace. Saying yes to God by doing the things of God, by praying, by reading the Scriptures, by feeding the hungry, by clothing the naked. By not lying in a world full of lies and saying yes to God. By being truthful even when you know it will hurt you because you believe more in God than in the perceptions of the people around you.
We may seem overwhelmed by these ways, by how to respond to God. If we are not already praying and serving and feeding, then it can seem a mammoth undertaking. We may seem overwhelmed by how to say yes to God.
We may feel like those who come to the stable. Not the kings with their fancy gifts already prepared, but the shepherds, or the neighbors, or the drummer boy down the road. What do I give to the God who is love? How do I respond to love unmerited? I can’t do everything, where do I start?
We sang my favorite Christmas Carol earlier. In the bleak midwinter was written by the English Poet, Christina Rossetti. During her lifetime, her brother Dante was a much more famous poet and artist than her. He was a part of the pre-Raphaelite movement that sought to reject the manneristic art of Raphael and Michelangelo and return to the 15th century art of brighter colors. The famous John Waterhouse painting of the Lady of Shallott is a prime example of this style.
Christina’s poetry had modest success during her lifetime, but it wasn’t until after her death, when Gustav Holst, the famous composer of the Planets, set her poem to music and offered the carol we have today.
Who is speaking in the carol? Whose voice sings? We are the ones who speak. We are the ones who sing. The questions in the last stanza are for all of us who hope to say yes to God.
What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part. What I can I give him, give him my heart.
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, you offer us light in the midst of darkness. You offer us hope amid the chaos. Thank you for Mary’s yes. Help us to also say yes to you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.