In the Nordic tradition the Feast of the Annunciation is observed on the fifth Sunday of Lent (bit odd to some of you with different liturgical calendars, but there is something to it). Below are last and this year's reflections.
Sermon-for the service on the 5th Sunday in Lent/Annunciation
[Is. 7:10-14; Rom. 8:1-4; Lk. 1:26-38]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen (Rom. 1:7 et.al.)
In the Middle Ages the feast of the Annunciation was actually New Year’s Day, our 1st of January. Spring has begun, new life is on its way; Easter life… but we’re not quite there yet, it’s still Lent, we’re still travelling, on our way to Jerusalem.
But our Gospel reading today does bring us back to the beginning, the point where the setting for Holy Week and Easter were put into place. It’s a beautiful reminder as in the church calendar we’re nearing to the celebrations and commemorations of the end… and then the re-beginning.
“The virgin will conceive…”, Isaiah wrote; other translations mention a ‘young woman’ (not yet a mother). “And give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (‘God with us’); “you will call him Jesus” (‘saviour’).
‘God with us’… it’s what’s known as the Incarnation: in carne, literally ‘in the flesh’, the Word made flesh (we read it at Christmas). The Creator becomes created; the Creator who doesn’t shy away from His creation, who in such great love and out of compassion joins it fully. God for us. Just like we will be celebrating at Communion in a little while: “given for you”. (SC, Sacrament of the Altar) Heaven and earth touching.
Our relationship was broken, and certainly humankind should have made the first step to rectify this, to mend it, but it was God who actually did. God took that step –perhaps we even might call it a leap of faith?- and came down and took our form and walked among us… all the way to the cross even.
And what about the human side then? Mary, or Miriam as her name would be in Hebrew.
Many sermons focus on Mary’s obedience; an other translation reads: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word.” All very passive.
But was it really such a placid, demure affair? Because in true Old Testament style, Mary doesn’t just accept this divine statement, but argues, questions; like the prophets of old. In fact, probably to the surprise of many of us, Mary’s name, Miriam, actually means ‘rebellion’. “How”, she asks Gabriel? Tell me, explain it to me! I need more information!
Was she really just a submissive peasant girl? Or perhaps a quick-witted pre-teen, who in a flicker of understanding saw and understood that slice of heaven revealed to her and recognised that it cared for earth, it cared for and loved creation, and it would never let go! And that perhaps made Mary agree to be at the starting point of all those later events, even the events we will be re-reading and re-enacting from next Sunday onwards.
The story, Gabriel’s greeting, it almost becomes a play on words:
The angel said: “God is with you”
Immanuel: ‘God with us’
And Mary said: “Behold –or- Here I am”
And God said to Moses: “I am that I am”
Incidentally, which sister rebelled against Moses? Right, Miriam. Saint Paul already made that connection between Moses and Jesus.
Heaven and earth touching.
Most of the time we separate the two in our heads far too much. The same is true of body and soul. Throughout her history the Church has emphasised that last disconnection far too often and fiercely as well; it’s in fact Greek philosophy, in Jesus’ Jewish tradition they were far more connected. Heaven and earth, body and soul. Connected and together because both were created by the same Creator God.
God doesn’t seem to have been scared of the body, from material existence, or disconnect Himself from His creation. God doesn’t shy away from His creation, God cares and loves His creation, God actually cares! So why so often don’t we?!
Like God we too are to care for creation, for each other, for the other. And like Mary we too are invited to question, to ask questions, to wonder, to be greatly troubled at what’s happening around us; God doesn’t turn away from our questions and wonders.
At the Annunciation God took that first step to mending our relationship to Him; compassionately, wondrously, mercifully. He took on our form, perhaps so we might start to learn to appreciate our own form, our own creation more; perhaps so that we might start to learn how to care for our creation more. Do you know that TV advert slogan for shampoo ‘because we’re worth it’. Well, that’s what God started to explain when He sent the angel to a young girl in Nazareth: I will show you –in the flesh- how much I value you, how much I am concerned with you, how much you’re worth it.
From Christmas, to Good Friday and Easter, to the moment when Jesus returned to the Father and sent His Spirit again, but now over all of us; the Church put it in a liturgical calendar, but hopefully it runs deeper than that: it’s a cycle of forgiveness and hope and creation. We too are part of this.
It sets an example to us all; heaven and earth touching, together, just like the restored, holy and whole people we are allowed to be, enabled to contribute to creation, to do our bit, and to say to the Lord: here I am, behold, may your word to me –in me- be fulfilled.
Sermon-H.Communion, Annunciation 2016
[Micah 5:2-4; Rom. 4:18-21; Lk. 1:26-38]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Raise your hand if you think that our Old Testament reading from the prophet Micah today sounds very familiar, very similar to the Christmas story? Let’s have another look:
‘But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.’
3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned
until the time when she who is in labour bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
to join the Israelites.
4 He will stand and shepherd his flock
in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
will reach to the ends of the earth.
The lay-out paraphrases as follows:
A Ruler will be born in Bethlehem
He is of old, before time
When He is born He will restore Israel
He will be a Shepherd, a Rock, the Glory of God
And He will gather all people
How is it that the writings of a Jewish prophet from the 8-7th c. BC remind us so much of a story which we ourselves celebrate every year on 25th December?
Perhaps we should remind ourselves not to read the Bible too chronologically, one book at a time, one Testament at a time, detached from each other. Perhaps we should keep them all interconnected, keep them more as a circle o, not a line -. As Lutherans we believe that there is Law in the New Testament just as much as there is Gospel in the Old!
The prophesies made in Micah and also in the Letter to the Romans when St Paul quotes Genesis (Rom. 4:18=Gen. 15:5) are directly linked to the Annunciation or announcement made to Mary by the archangel Gabriel.
Just like the Bible is interconnected, so the Annunciation is grounded in a story of a family, of a people and of humanity as a whole.
It links heaven to earth, the spiritual to the material, matter to mind, the human to the divine.
When Mary said “I am the Lord’s servant” or in another translation “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord”, she didn’t say yes to the subjugation of women for all time, that women should be second class human beings; no when that young unmarried –perhaps teenaged- girl said yes to God’s messenger, she mirrored a relationship that could be traced back all the way to Abraham and Sarah as Patriarch and Matriarch of the Hebrews (as we read in Romans this morning) and their descendants, all the way to the time of the prophets including Micah, all the way to Christ and the Early Church, all the way to our time here today. It also brings it closer to home -so to speak- when Luke mentions Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, a relative, a family-story; he does so twice: once to set a time and place and condition, once to offer ‘proof’ to Mary and reassure her.
It’s a relationship between God and His people, and when in the story the relationship went array and astray –usually to do with idolatry- God put into motion His plan to amend the next chapters of His Creation’s life and future.
Micah had foreseen this, even though he was brutal in his condemnation of his own people. “Israel will be abandoned”, he wrote. In a post-Holocaust world it’s understandable that this verse is very upsetting to many.
But Micah also foresaw the redemption after the fall.
“Until the time that she who is in labour bears a son.”, he added reassuringly and quite assuredly.
And immediately Micah also makes the link in time: “whose origins are from of old, from ancient days.”
The bond between God and His people stretches and connects, sometimes it expands, sometimes it feels as if it diminishes, sometimes it even goes horribly wrong because of human sin.
But God will never let it disappear! God will keep coming back, perhaps even annoyingly so, when we don’t want it, but He will do it!
Ever since Adam and Eve God has been reaching out to people, communication with and to them, and some of those people felt they were being haunted and harassed, others like Mary –though afraid and concerned!- had a different faith, a different trust, and took the plunge, knowing or at least hoping that God would safely catch them.
Ever since the very beginning of Creation God has been announcing His will and good intentions to His people, to all of them. And nothing will ever change that because the Lord is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! (Hebr. 13:8).
The Annunciation by the archangel Gabriel to the virgin Mary in Nazareth in that sixth month is a reminder of that. And what a reminder it is; in fact it’s probably one of the biggest reminders humankind ever received from the Divine: ‘You may think I don’t care, but I do and here it is: Jesus, ‘God saves’! Immanuel, ‘God with us’!’
No matter how small our clan or tribe (to use Micah’s words), no matter how small we feel or how small others make us feel.
No matter how ‘dead’ our bodies or our general being, by nature’s course, by our own stupid mistakes, or by the interference of others by no fault of our own.
No matter how great or small our faith or our hope.
God will turn it around, God will keep the story going and announce a new chapter.
Amen.