Advent Perspective: Rediscovering Advent (Part 2)

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Rediscovering Advent
(Part 2)

Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."

Luke 1:38 (NRSV)

I have traveled many moonless nights
Cold and weary with a babe inside
And I wonder what I've done
Holy Father You have come
And chosen me now to carry Your Son

From "Breath of Heaven" by Amy Grant

As I noted last week, during this Advent season I've enjoyed encountering the stories associated with this time of year in my personal Bible studies and gaining new perspectives on Advent.  Previously, I shared some of the things I learned from the stories of the elderly priest Zechariah and his son John.  At that time, there was still one story I had yet to encounter, namely the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus.


A Time to Believe

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, six months after a messenger of God named Gabriel gave a certain elderly priest some news that left him speechless,¹ the same messenger appears in Nazareth to a young woman named Mary.  He says to her, "Greetings, favored one!  The Lord is with you."²  Gabriel can see that Mary is wondering why he would approach her with such a greeting,³ so he says 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.⁴

Gabriel is basically telling Mary that she will soon give birth to her people's long awaited Messiah.

Mary is engaged to a man named Joseph, and, since she has not done anything that would result in a pregnancy, she wonders how she could possibly be having a baby.  She says to Gabriel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?"⁵

Gabriel says to Mary,

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.⁶

Mary's becoming pregnant will be miraculous, because the Son whom Mary will bear will not be an ordinary baby boy.  Twice Gabriel has told her that her Son will be called the Son of God.

Mary says to Gabriel, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."⁷

In the last week or so, I've found that there is a lot to be learned from Mary's interactions with Gabriel.

It is worth noting that, of all the women God could have chosen to bring the Son of God into the world, God has not chosen anyone wealthy, powerful, or famous.  God has instead chosen a peasant from a backwater town.  Preacher Troy Hatfield recently suggested that Mary's question to Gabriel might not be merely a question of biology.  Maybe Mary is wondering how she of all people could possibly be the mother of the Messiah.  Hatfield suggests that, when Mary says, "Let it be with me according to your word," she is submitting to "a pronouncement of truth that is greater than the one she is familiar with."⁸  God can see in us what we might not see in ourselves.

Dr. Jung Choi points out that Mary exhibits the "seemingly contradictory virtues" of "obedience and boldness."⁹  She writes,

Mary's obedience to God's will in her life - to have a baby through the Spirit - is a fierce one: It is not for the faint of heart.  In a world colonized by the Roman Empire, to be a woman in such a society was really hard on so many levels.  She could have imagined that there would be gossip and misunderstanding about her.  In this way, Mary's obedience and faithfulness serve as a model for many people of God who come after her.  This fierce and bold obedience must have come from her relationship with God, her trust in God, who leads and takes care of God's people as God promised.¹⁰

Like Mary, all of us are called to do things that will require not only courage but also radical trust in God.

Preacher Adam Hamilton recently pointed out four things Gabriel says to Mary that all of us need to remember, especially if we are going to respond to God's call as Mary did.¹¹  First, Gabriel encourages Mary to be joyful.  The Greek word translated as "greetings" in some Bibles can also be translated as "rejoice."¹²  Next, Gabriel reminds Mary that God is with her.  Then, he encourages her to not be afraid.  Finally, he assures her that "nothing will be impossible with God."¹³

Perhaps this time of preparation called Advent is a time to believe.  We can prepare for what God is doing in our midst by believing what God says about us, by believing that God has called us to participate in what God is doing, and by believing that God is with us to empower us.


A Time for Praise

Mary heads south to Judea to visit her relative Elizabeth,¹⁴ who in her old age is now six months pregnant.  As Gabriel had told her husband Zechariah, their child will be "filled with the Holy Spirit" even before he is born,¹⁵ so, when Mary arrives, the child starts kicking in the womb.  Elizabeth is then empowered by the Holy Spirit to prophesy, so she blesses Mary, saying, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...  And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."¹⁶

Mary also begins to prophesy.  First, she praises God for what God has done for her, saying,

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.¹⁷

Next, Mary praises God for God's favoring the humble, saying,

His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.¹⁸

Finally, Mary praises God for God's faithfulness, saying,

He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.¹⁹

Mary's song of praise, which is also called the Magnificat, has been used in Christian prayer liturgy, like the Benedictus, the song of Zechariah.²⁰  Choi points out that, in both of these songs, God is praised for God's mercy.  The Greek word eleos, which is translated into English as "mercy," means specifically "compassion and mercy to the unfortunate and the poor."²¹  Advent is a time for praise, as many of the songs that are sung this time of year are songs of praise to God.  Like Mary and Zechariah, we can praise God for what God has done for us and for God's faithfulness and kindness.


I have learned a lot about the season of Advent over the last few weeks, but I know that there is so much more that can be said about it.  Advent is, among many other things, a time for silence, a time for prayer, a time for doing good works, a time for belief, and a time for praise.  I hope that this time of year is meaningful for you, dear reader, whatever meaning you find in it.


Notes:

1. Luke 1:5-25
2. Luke 1:26-28 (NRSV)
3. Luke 1:29
4. Luke 1:30-33 (NRSV)
5. Luke 1:34 (NRSV)
6. Luke 1:35-37 (NRSV)
7. Luke 1:38 (NRSV)
8. Troy Hatfield.  "How Will This Be..."  Mars Hill Bible Church, 12/10/2023.
9. Laceye Warner, Amy Valdez Barker, Jung Choi, and Sangwoo Kim.  All the Good: A Wesleyan Way of Christmas.  2021, Abingdon Press.  p. 94
10. All The Good, pp. 82-83
11. Adam Hamilton.  "Angels and Annunciations."  Resurrection: A United Methodist Church, 12/10/2023.
12. Blue Letter Bible: "chairō"
13. Hamilton, "Angels and Annunciations"
14. Luke 1:39-40
15. Luke 1:15
16. Luke 1:41-45 (NRSV)
17. Luke 1:46-49 (NRSV)
18. Luke 1:50-53 (NRSV)
19. Luke 1:54-55 (NRSV)
20. All the Good, p. 54
21. All the Good, p. 84

The Annunciation was painted by Domenico Beccafumi in the 1500s.