For Sunday
Advent 4B / Christmas
Collect
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
What a greeting! And like most of us, Mary hears it incredulously. We can imagine Mary being weirded out enough by the angel. But when they greet her with these words—which are both uncommon for a greeting and, let’s be honest, fit strangely when you don’t feel so favored by much of anyone.
The experience of Mary in the whole Incarnation Ordeal is a popular centerpiece for a lot of Christmas pondering. The most famous example being the song “Mary, Did You Know,” which is loved and hated in equal measure. But the sense of kinship we try to find in Mary is both remarkable and predictable. She is just like each of us: at once typical and remarkable.
God favors her. And is with her.
I think we do struggle with how to understand all of this. Being special and common, favored and like everyone else. It reminds me of the trope of the regular girl picked to be a princess or the boy who gets to play for Notre Dame. People who long to be ordinary and extraordinary. To be special. To get picked.
What is remarkable about Mary is that she isn’t. Neither are the shepherds in the fields. These aren’t special people. But God is with them. Inviting them to join in a project. Showing favor to them when nobody else will.
This seems to be God’s MO. Favor people when they aren’t. Which means it isn’t about who you are. It isn’t part of our permanent identity! It is about the place we inhabit with God now. May you be blessed with God’s favor today!