Luke 1:26-38
One of the things I like about storytelling, and listening to storytellers, is my fascination for the story itself. I become gripped by the magic of the moment, when story and storyteller and listener (or reader) become one. When you read a good book, and you become completely captivated by it, don’t you see yourself being in the story?
I may be reading in bed at night, but I’m not there--in bed. I’m in the story. I’m with the characters--a silent watcher. My imagination places me in the scenery of whatever moment I am at in the story. When I shut off my iPad and stop reading, I sense that I am at the same time, pulling myself out of the story. I’m disengaging myself from it. I can’t wait until the next time I pick up the iPad and start reading again. I can’t wait to jump back in the scenery--become a part of the story again. Does anyone else find the same things happens with them as you read a book?
I want the same thing to happen to us as we read the Christmas story. Some of you have been hearing and reading the story for years. That familiarity can dull our excitement and fascination about what is going on. We open the pages of our Bible to the story of the birth in Matthew and Luke. Then we think, Oh yeah, I’ve read this a hundred times before. Or, someone stands up to read the verses as they were a moment ago, and you immediately think, Oh yeah, I’ve heard this before. Your little “fascination switch” goes CLICK to the off position.
Maybe part of the problem of why we don’t get pulled in deeply enough to the story is because the details are so spare. Some stories we come to love and read over and over. It’s because we know so many details. We know what people look like. We know what they love and feel passionate about. We know the setting of their lives. We know details. We don’t just know generalities. We know particulars. That’s what makes stories interesting. Details feed our imagination. It’s been said, Life is in the details. That is certainly true about a good story.
But in the birth story of Jesus, we don’t get much detail. In this one part of the story, where the angel Gabriel appears to Mary, there is hardly any detail. For example, what details do we find out about Mary? We find out that she is a virgin. We find out that she is engaged to a man named Joseph. Those two pieces of information are fairly intimate details. Not many of us go around being introduced with statements like, “Hi; I’d like you to meet so-and-so. She’s a virgin.” We probably wouldn’t do that. But that’s how the Bible introduces us to Mary. If that one detail doesn’t pull you into the “raciness” of this story, it at least makes you raise your eyebrows.
As far as other details, there aren’t any to grab you. What does Mary look like? Anybody know? We don’t know. Was she short, tall, plump, or with abs of steel? Did she have a big nose or a little nose? Straight or curly hair? Was she big-boned or frail? Baby-face or a look of maturity? Did she get her clothes from Old Navy or Goodwill? We don’t know.
If you go by most nativity scenes, Mary looks to be in her early 20’s, has brown straight hair, and is as thin as a pencil--even though she just ended a nine month pregnancy. That’s a miracle in itself, at least according to the nativity scene statues, that she lost all her extra pregnancy weight in a matter of minutes after the birth.
Even though the story itself doesn’t give us much detail, we can deduce a few things. If she was betrothed to Joseph, it meant she was of marriageable age. A female of marriageable age in that time in Palestine would have been 14-16 years old. She would have gone through her first cycle to prove she was ready to bear children. She wouldn’t have been marriage material to any man if she wasn’t physically ready to have children. Most girls were married by the time they were 16 years old. So Mary is a 14 to 16 year old, physically ready to have babies.
Let’s get a visual picture of that. Brittany Whitson is in that age range, so in Palestine, she is of marriageable age. Look at Brittany. She is Mary. Ted and M’kala, are you ready to let Brittany get married? Bear a child? What feelings spring to the surface when you envision Brittany as Mary? Are you getting into the story now?
How many of you women were 14-16 year old girls at one time in your life? Can you remember what you were like at that age? From all the 14 to 16 year old girls I have dealt with over the years in youth groups, I find them to be caught in what I might call a “no-woman’s-land.” They go back and forth from the conflicting feelings of wanting to remain little girls and, at the same time, desiring to be young women. One minute they may want to sit on their parents lap, but the next they want all the freedoms adulthood dangles in front of them. One minute they are acting like children, the next they they are sophisticated know-it-alls. Back and forth they go.
Imagine that describes Mary. Caught somewhere between the innocence of childhood and the airs of adulthood. Even though her marriage to Joseph had been arranged by their parents, a wedding may or may not have been immanent. It could have been a year or two off, and she would still be free to run with her childhood friends; be carefree. She wouldn’t have to think about the adult world for some time to come.
But with the angel’s visit, all that changed. No more childhood. No more fun and games. No more running around with friends. In the blink of an eye, with a whispered word, Mary would be pregnant and in nine months go from childhood, to wifehood, to motherhood. Ted and M’Kala, look at Brittany and imagine her making that transition in nine short months. Girls, and women, and parents are you now getting into this story?
But let’s not forget about the angel. Even though Mary is the main character in this story, the angel is an interesting character we wouldn’t want to leave out. We met this same angel last week. His name is Gabriel. Details came out about him in his meeting with Zechariah.
As you will remember, Gabriel stands right next to God and God’s throne in the heavenly court. We found out Gabriel creates fear in those to whom he appears. We found out that Gabriel is a messenger angel, a herald of Good News. Gabriel is sent by God to create clarity and insight for people about what their mission in life is. And we found out that Gabriel gets a bit of an attitude when people question his message.
Imagine Gabriel’s task. Part of his mission was to convince an unmarried 14-16 year old girl to have a baby. Now here comes the hard part. By telling Mary that she is going to have a baby, is Gabriel giving her a choice in the matter? Could Mary have said, “No”? That is a question that Christian thinkers have speculated about for centuries. Was Mary the first girl Gabriel had visited? If there was a choice in the matter, how many doors had Gabriel had slammed in his face?
Imagine Gabriel as a tele-marketer:
“Hi! My name is Gabriel. How are you today?”
“Fine.”
“That’s good. I’m calling as a representative of God in heaven. I just want to take a minute of your time to tell you about a unique opportunity to be an unwed mother.”
(SLAM of phone being hung up.) Gabriel scratches that name off the list and dials up the next number.
It’s been thought by many theologians that Gabriel had to have given Mary the chance to say No. It had to be Mary’s decision. It had to be an act of her free will. She had to agree, in her heart, to accept Gabriel’s, and ultimately, God’s, proposal.
Just the thought of that is intriguing, isn’t it? Was Mary the first and only visit Gabriel had made. Or was Mary one of many in a long succession of visits? How many “No’s” had Gabriel heard before he finally found a girl who would yield to his proposition?
Or, did Mary not have a choice? Was she the one God had chosen, and it was up to Gabriel to talk to her until she gave in or was convinced? That would have been some task, wouldn’t have it? To convince a teenaged girl that, basically, she will comply and she has no choice in the matter. 14-16 year old girls: How much do they like to be told you WILL do something whether you like it or not? Parents of 14-16 year old girls: How do your young teenagers react when you tell them they WILL do this or that, and there will be NO discussion or negotiation?
If Gabriel had any inkling of what a young teenaged girl was like, maybe he was just as much afraid of being in her presence as she was in his. There is that saying about rushing in where angels fear to tread. Maybe that’s especially true about facing a teenaged girl.
One of the other problems facing Gabriel in his negotiation with Mary is that he really can’t offer her any safety nets. What I mean is this. The only question Mary asks is how it can happen that an unmarried, unsexually active girl can spontaneously become pregnant. It’s the same question Zechariah asked Gabriel previously. How can this be? Both Zechariah and Mary know how sex and pregnancy works. And they both ask questions about how it’s supposed to work when it can’t possibly work--each for their own reasons. Gabriel must have thought, “Oh, boy; here we go again.”
Gabriel assures her it can be done. He told her that great line at the end of his announcement, “For there is nothing that God cannot do.” (Evidently Gabriel never went to grammar school to learn about double negatives.) God can, and will, make pregnancy happen. If God can create the world with words, God can create life in a woman’s womb with a single word. But this time Gabriel doesn’t strike Mary silent like he did with Zechariah. It’s evidently different having to face down a teenage girl vs. an old priest.
But as much as God can do, God can’t protect Mary from other people’s mouths. Or thoughts. We will find out next week that her fiancé, Joseph, reacts by wanting to break off the engagement. We can only imagine the reaction of others, like Mary’s parents. Imagine your daughter comes home and says, “Mom, Dad, we need to talk.” You can tell this is going to be one of those, “Uh, oh,” moments.
Or what does Mary and Joseph tell the census worker, once they get to Bethlehem. Remember they went there to register for the census.
Gabriel has put Mary in an indefensible position. Does Gabriel tell Mary that? Does Gabriel let her know she is being set up, not only to have the Savior, but also for a life of unrelenting ridicule and mockery--at least misunderstanding? Did Gabriel say something like, “It’s going to be tough going for a while, but after everyone figures out what’s happened, there will something called the Catholic Church that will worship you and say prayers to you as the mother of God?
In Gabriel’s recruiting of Mary, it doesn’t appear that he tells her the downside of being the mother of the Savior. Just the good stuff. Which is usually the way it goes, isn’t it? When you interview for a job, no one ever tells you all the garbage you’ll have to deal with. And we don’t ask questions about those kinds of things either. We want to know about the “benefits.” That’s what Gabriel told Mary, leaving the other for her to find out on her own.
To her credit, Mary accepts the mission. Whether she had a choice or not, she humbly and willingly bows to God’s wishes. She agrees to be the Savior-bearer to the world. She agrees to be the one who will suckle the God-child: the one who will be the Savior of us all.
This is a wonderful story. This is THE STORY. I hope we find ourselves pulled into that story this Christmas. We aren’t just onlookers to a wonderful story, but participants--characters in the drama that started literally 2000 years ago with a young teenaged girl and an angel’s visit.
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