#advent 4

I’ve had such great fun this year experimenting with fonts and how to use them. Yeah, I know fonts aren't that exciting, but I can post what I want, ok

My favourite font this year has to be IM Fell English, as I am a sucker for the old-timey look.

I went ahead and lit the fourth Advent candle. This Winter Solstice/Longest Night on the eve of Advent 4 hits in a tender and poignant place. Tonight’s O Antiphon is much needed.

By the Rev. Darren Miner

Gospel Reading

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Today’s Gospel reading is the story of the angelic Annunciation to the Virgin Mary that she will conceive and bear God’s Son. The museums of Europe are full of paintings of the Annunciation. Many are quite spiritually moving, but none captures even a semblance of the real event.

Imagine, if you will, an illiterate peasant girl around the age of fifteen, for that was the typical age of betrothal in Mary’s day. Out of the blue, she receives a strange greeting from a messenger of God. And she is told that she will conceive a child out of wedlock who will be acknowledged as God’s own Son and who will sit on the throne of David forever. Her response to this amazing announcement is pragmatic. She asks how such a thing can happen when she is a virgin. The angel goes on to explain that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and overshadow her, so that she will conceive.

Now, despite all this language about what will happen to Mary, in point of fact, the angel is announcing what is only a possible future for the girl and for the world. At this point of the story, the virginal conception of Jesus Christ is not a done deal. The teenage Mary could, in fact, say No (and in my experience, teenagers often do!). At this pivotal moment, the fate of the world hinged on the willing cooperation of a frightened teenage girl. For that one instant, the whole universe must have held its breath as it awaited its fate. Fortunately, Mary’s response was Yes, and the universe could breathe a sigh of relief.

Her “Yes” was an act of full and irrevocable commitment to God’s will. Mary knew how her culture worked; she knew that saying Yes to God might be very costly for her. For by agreeing to conceive outside of wedlock, Mary was accepting the very real possibility that she would be publicly disgraced and cast out from her family to fend for herself. Even so, she took the risk and accepted the cost of obedience.

But what does this story of Mary have to say to us today? More than I could include in one sermon, that’s for sure! But for us here today in our present circumstances, two themes come to mind: krísis and expectancy. Krísis is the Greek word underlying the English word crisis, and it can mean a moment of decision, an act of judgment, or even the interpretation of a vision. Today’s story of the Annunciation to Mary is a story about krísis in every sense of the word. In the moments following the invitation to be the mother of God’s own Son, Mary had to use her judgment, interpret a vision, and make a rather difficult decision.

As we know, what followed for Mary was a prolonged period of expectancy, the second theme of this sermon. Mary literally became expectant. But not only did she go through the normal nine months of expectancy associated with pregnancy, she also had to endure a much longer period of expectancy. She had to wait an additional thirty years to see the start of Jesus’ ministry as the Messiah of God. Only then did she know for sure that the promise of the angel Gabriel had indeed been fulfilled.

This time in which we live now is also a time of krísis and expectancy. Like Mary, we are being called to use our judgment, to make difficult decisions, and then to wait for God’s plan for us to unfold. For some, the difficult decision may be to keep going in the midst of loss and grief, waiting for the pain to let up. For others, the difficult decision may be to give sacrificially to the church in a time of great financial insecurity, waiting for the parish to return to life. And all of us are faced with the difficult decision to stay home and stay safe, even when we are desperate to gather with our family, and to wait for the day when God frees us from this pandemic. In so many ways these days, we are called to use our judgment, to make difficult decisions…and then to wait.

Now, our decisions may not change the world in the way that Mary’s decision did, but they have their effect. They either advance God’s plan, or they hinder it. So let us learn from Mary to decide for God at every turn and then to wait patiently upon the Lord.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Whatever Joseph’s intentions, a quiet divorce without public disgrace did not exist for Mary. Disgrace would have been inevitable. A young woman with no husband and a baby would have no place in society. Another marriage would be unlikely with a child in tow. She’s not even a widow to fit into that enormously vulnerable group that could at least be understood as blameless and worthy of charity. A…

Galilee during the Second Temple period didn’t have at home pregnancy tests. You couldn’t just take a test as soon as your period is late and know if it was pregnancy or just one of the dozens of other things that can make a period late. Stress? Diet? You counted wrong? Random hormonal fluctuations? A variety of medical conditions? Irregularities associated with menarche or menopause? Could be…

#Lectionary post: Some more musings on Mary.

I don’t know if Mary really believes this message. We don’t have any tone markers here so it’s hard to tell if the humble sounding agreement in Luke 1:38 is really an agreement or if it’s the kind of deescalating phrase you use on someone you suspect of being delusional but who is nonetheless in a position of some power. I’m getting “if you say so” vibes from Mary’s response at the end of this…