Mary's Advent Story - Faith

Introduction

As I looked at Mary’s story, it reminded me of a story that my Grandma Moellenhoff still likes to tell whenever she gets the chance about the birth of my Aunt Diane. Aunt Diane is the youngest of my grandparents’ 5 children by 7 years. Grandma was not expecting to have another child when she found out she was pregnant at the age of 39. Grandma says that she was troubled and confused at the news. She didn’t understand what God was doing, and she was worried about having another child at her age. She had a lot of questions. But what she remembers most about that time was being in church and singing the hymn “What God Ordains is Always Good.” She took the words of that hymn, “what God ordains is always good, His will is just and holy. As he directs my life for me I follow meek and lowly. My God indeed in every need Knows well ow He will shield me; to him then, I will yield me” as the answer to her questions. It was enough for her. I’m sure she still had her worries, but at that moment she left them in God’s hands and trusted that he would see her through.

Mary Troubled and Confused

As wonderful a woman and as great of a mother as my grandmother is, I think the title of greatest mom ever has to go to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. And yet we see in our reading that even young Mary was not beyond being confused and troubled at what God had in store for her. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her and greeted her as the highly favored one, it says she was troubled and tried to figure out what this all might mean. Visions of angels don’t just happen for no good reason. What was God about to ask of her? What astonishing thing was he about to do? Once Gabriel had told her that she was going to give birth to the Messiah, she was still confused. “How will this be?” she asks. Being unexpectedly pregnant at almost 40 was troubling for my grandma; Being unexpectedly and supernaturally pregnant when you’re barely a teenager and not properly married yet is its own whole set of challenges. No surprise then that Mary was so disturbed at what the future held for her. Left to herself, Mary was not capable of taking this all in, or doing what God was calling her to do.

Are You Troubled or Confused by What God is Calling You to Do?

We all meet circumstances when we get troubled by what is happening in our lives, and confused at what God seems to be calling us to do. Maybe you can relate to Mary’s experience of an unexpected pregnancy that makes you worry about the future. It isn’t limited to pregnancy though, there are other situations where you might believe that God is calling you to take care of someone, and you’re just not sure how to do it. It might be a new baby, or it could be an aging relative. It might be a family member or friend who has been struck by illness or disaster. You know they need help, but you don’t know if you have the means, or the patience, or the strength to do it.

Maybe you’re facing a situation where your conscience is telling you to do the right thing, but it means sticking your neck out and standing up to someone else. You know deep down from listening to the Word of God what’s right, but you still feel confused. You don’t know if you have the strength or the courage to do it.

Life is full of situations like this. We may have a general idea of what God wants for us, but the details of how to carry it out are more complex. We can be put into situations that feel impossible, that burden us beyond our strength. It doesn’t always seem like there’s a clear answer. Left to ourselves, we are confused and troubled. We’re full of questions like “How can this be? Why would God put me in this situation? I can’t do this on my own.”

Mary Has Been Favored by God and Empowered by His Spirit

But Mary was not left on her own to rely on her own devices. When we look at Gabriel’s words to Mary, there are two things that accomplish everything in this scene: The grace of God and the Holy Spirit. The starting point for everything Gabriel tells Mary is that Mary is the “favored one.” That is, she is one who has been given the gift of God’s grace and now stands in God’s favor. She is one on whom God’s grace has been working for a long time to prepare her for this moment. It is God’s grace that gave her the faith that enables her to respond the way she does. The grace of God enables Mary to listen to the astounding things Gabriel says in spite of her confusion.

But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any questions. When Mary asks for clarification about how this unbelievable thing would happen, Gabriel’s answer is simple: the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” Gabriel calls The Holy Spirit the power of God, and that power of God has been at work giving life from page 1 of the Bible. In Genesis 1, The Spirit was God’s life-giving presence who broke into the emptiness and darkness of uncreation and hovered over the waters. At the end of Exodus He was there in the cloud of God’s presence that overshadowed the tabernacle, showing that God’s presence had moved into his dwelling place. In 1 Samuel, He is the same Spirit of the Lord who rushed upon King David from the time that he was anointed as God’s king over Israel.

And now that same life-giving Spirit would rush upon Mary to give life to Jesus, the Son of David, God’s new chosen king. The same presence would overshadow her and make her a new kind of tabernacle, the dwelling place of God as she bore God’s Son. And the same Spirit of God who filled an empty creation with life would begin the new creation in the person of Jesus by filling Mary’s empty womb.

And, as if Gabriel knows how unbelievable that all must be, he says, “for nothing will be impossible with God.” And because of the work of God’s grace and the Holy Spirit, she believes him. Her answer is truly remarkable, it is the reason that “all generations laud and honor her” as the hymn said, the reason we still call her blessed. But it’s an answer she never could have given on her own, without being inspired by the Holy Spirit: “behold, the handmaiden of the Lord. May it be to me according to your word.” She gives a hearty “yes” of faith to God’s plan of salvation, a “yes” that is given on behalf of all God’s people. She doesn’t assert herself or offer God any notes or suggestions about His plan. She simply steps aside and lets God use her as the instrument of His plan to bring the Savior into the world. There is so much she still doesn’t understand about what the future holds. “Mary did you know?” Well, as a matter of fact, no, she didn’t and couldn’t have known everything that her Son would do and be in the years ahead. But she didn’t need to. She didn’t have to understand every detail of what God was doing, she just needed to trust. And that was what the grace of God and his Holy Spirit accomplished in her. Faith. The trust that nothing would be impossible for God overcame her confusion and her troubled heart. There was still plenty she couldn’t understand. But she knew enough. She knew the power and the grace of God, and so she was ready to face whatever God had in store for her.

We Have Been Favored By God and Empowered by His Spirit

The grace of God and the Holy Spirit are also the starting point for your life with God. I give you the same greeting Gabriel spoke to Mary: “Greetings O favored one! The Lord is with you! You have found favor with God!” How do I know that? Because God sent his Son to be born of the Virgin Mary to deliver you from your sin. Jesus Christ is the gift of grace offered to every single person in this world. That means you! Hard to believe, right? Impossible in fact. But nothing will be impossible for God. The grace of God that gave the gift of faith to Mary enables you to believe that the grace and forgiveness of Christ is for you. You stand in God’s favor. And since faith grasps hold of Christ, the heart that has faith will also have Christ dwelling within it. Christ is present in faith as Luther says. The same Holy Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation to bring it to life, the same one that started a new creation in Mary’s womb is the same Spirit that makes you a new creation and brings Christ to life in you. Or as St. Paul says in 2 Cor, “God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” You share the faith of Mary and therefore you also have Christ dwelling within you.

And the Holy Spirit empowers you to give the “yes!” of faith to what God wants for you. You might still have questions, you might still feel troubled or confused. You probably won’t understand everything all at once. But you know enough. You know to listen to what God’s Word says and trust the grace of Jesus Christ to get you through. It isn’t ultimately up to your efforts, but up to the power of God. He is your strength for whatever he is calling you to do. His grace supplies whatever you are lacking. Take a lesson from Mary: step aside and let God do what he wills through you. You can say with her “behold, the servant of the Lord, may it be unto me according to your word.” Or to put it another way, “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Conclusion

I began by referencing the words of a hymn, so I leave you with the words of another hymn that also illustrates the faith of Mary: “My God desires the soul’s salvation, My soul, He too, desires to save. Therefore with Christian resignation All earthly troubles I will brave. His will be done eternally, What pleases God, that pleases me.” Amen.