In picking Mary, God shows not just who the invitation to grace is for, but how we get a similar invitation.
the chance to do God’s work in the world
Advent 4B | Luke 1:26-38
There’s something exciting and nerve-wracking about being picked. Even the thought returns me to the Ella White Elementary playground and those agonizing games of kickball. I was big and moderately athletic. So generally, I was picked at the top of the second tier. Mostly to kick cleanup. Whether or not I was strong, I at least looked the part.
The junior high spelling bee, quiz bowl, science olympiad, theatre, swim and tennis teams…being picked often felt good—I wanted the validation. But it also brought something else. Sometimes the anxiety of responsibility. To learn lines. Have other people rely on me. Make the shot. Perhaps even to want the ball so you can take the last shot.
Much like the pain of not being picked, of feeling unvalidated, of having no responsibility when you want something, there is excitement and fear in this moment, too! Even when it isn’t even something good! Something we want.
Mary was picked.
That’s a big part of the story. And something many of us dwell on as we approach the Incarnation. God picked Mary. God gave Mary an incredible opportunity that would scare the pants off of most of us.
And as we remember this incredible opportunity that comes with being picked, we also like to focus on what made Mary so pickable. Part of it is because we want to know why she is so special. And another part is that we want to know what God is revealing about all of this by picking her.
I love thinking about Mary and getting into the logistics of what she really means to the story.
But let’s go in a different direction.
For us, Mary is entering the story before John is born. The John we’ve spent the last two Sundays learning from. The prophet in the wilderness preaching a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, right?
We also encounter Mary three weeks removed from Jesus’s apocalyptic prediction which kicked off Advent.
We get Mary this morning after we’ve already been reminded of God’s intervention—and of God’s dream of turning the world in a new direction. Away from sin and toward justice and peace.
Now we get to read about Mary. A woman who is picked by God to help make that turning possible.
What is it that the angel Gabriel says to Mary?
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
He starts off with a greeting and an honor. She is the favored one! She has been picked to bear the honor. And continues:
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
Which, as a quick digression, that phrase makes me laugh: found favor. Like, oops! Did it get lost? Or she stumbled across it. Look at that! Favor just showed up.
Of course, I’m only half kidding. Because the phrase doesn’t truly reflect the situation. God has picked Mary. God wants to show favor to her. To lift her up. Esteem her. Bestow honor upon her. And ultimately, give her a unique opportunity.
Favor isn’t absently found here. It’s given by God to Mary.
Gabriel continues.
“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.”
Most of this runs over us as boilerplate churchy talk. There is nothing revolutionary about this to us because we’ve heard it all a thousand times before. And no amount of listening to “Mary Did You Know” will get us in her headspace. We can’t do it. Because we’ve already read the Cliffs Notes.
This woman is giving birth to Jesus who is the Messiah.
But what if we try to hear what God’s Messenger in Gabriel is communicating to the Favored One in Mary? This angel tells Mary something even more significant than you’re going to have a miracle baby. What he says after that part about…you know, having a kid…that’s the freaky part.
Think about it.
Gabriel shows up and says to Mary that she is favored. Favored above all women. You are favored to have a child. He will be the one of prophecy, who will be a king that no others have been, whose power will be supreme, and his reign shall never cease.
The complex trinitarian theology that is embodied in our creeds dulls the potency of that message.
But let us hear in Mary’s response a double meaning.
“How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
Yes, it’s a practical question about logistics. But it is also a question of station. For an unmarriedvirgin in her context means that she is likely under the shadow of her father’s care.
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”
Gabriel is describing an unconventional transfer of power. Unlike one with dowries and the transfer of the bride from father to husband—God is offering Mary something else: empowerment.
Favored, chosen, and protected by God.
This is what it means to be picked.
We’ve already been picked.
Not exactly like Mary, but you never know. Maybe that baby was just born during these strange times? Or maybe that messianic favor is already here. In us. And this good news we hear in Advent is the message come to us.
And we hear the words as much for us as anyone:
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Not later this week, on December 25th, but now! With you and all of us, in the present. God is present. And what is coming is the transformed world. And between now and then—that’s on us. Our work.
To be beacons of Christ, of hope, to a world that needs it. And needs us to be it.
Already picked to pick ourselves and each other. Because there’s room on this team for all of us. And all of our many, many talents.