Daily Devotion – December 15, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Luke 1:26-38
1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
1:29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
1:30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
1:31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.
1:32 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.
1:33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
1:34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
1:35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.
1:36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.
1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God.”
1:38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
This visit of Gabriel to Mary must have been highly unusual. It would be unusual if Gabriel came to one of us, surely. But maybe, back in the day when it might have been plausible in people’s imagination that angels brought messages from God to human beings, maybe it was not totally far-fetched. Maybe to Mary it wasn’t impossible-seeming. After all, why did God choose Mary (and her fiancé, Joseph) to be Jesus’ parents? Wouldn’t God have known them to be faithful folks, to whom a visit and an ensuing task from God might be not only believable but also an honor?
Mary gets just one emotional reaction and just two lines in this story of the visitation. First, the emotional reaction: perplexity to the angel’s calling her Favored One, which the angel takes to be fear. Gabriel responds by telling her not to be afraid.
Her first line, after hearing that she will conceive and bear a son who will be the most amazing human being in history, is “How can this be, for I am a virgin?” After the angel explains how it will be done, and that other miracles, like Elizabeth’s pregnancy, are also proving that God can do anything, her second and final line is, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Remember Moses, that great leader? When he is chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt he makes 53 excuses why he’s a bad choice. Remember Abraham and Sarah who don’t believe she can conceive and so they laugh at the messenger? Not Mary. What made Mary different? She is often portrayed as “meek and mild,” partly because of her acceptance of this news. But I wonder if God hadn’t been shaping her and Joseph all their lives to this point, so that, at the peculiar moment in time for the incarnation, they would accept God’s appointing them and do it boldly. The Mary of the Magnificat is surely not meek and mild. She is low in stature/class, but she is feisty and well aware of what God is up to, placing God’s son in the family of people who were tradesmen, working class, in a land occupied by a foreign empire.
If God came to you, or has perhaps already come to you with a mission, would you be as ready to accept and as feisty and forward-thinking as Mary?
Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for Mary’s boldness and willingness. May we be bold and willing when you come to give us something to do for you, too. Amen.
