Words bolt like lightning
“Most highly favored you are”
God’s message received
I watch the comments on our church’s Facebook Live page before I deliver my message. People will say something like, “Glad to be here,” or they’ll check in, letting others know they are a part of the online worship service. It gives a sense of community to our fellowship. Sometimes people leave prayer requests, and when I can, I pray for them online.
This past week, one left a comment, “I am so missing our Christmas music.”
“Me too,” I thought. I miss the Christmas cantata for which our choir so diligently prepared before their presentation about this time each year. It’s part of the Christmas tradition at our church and many others.
Almost every Sunday this Advent, this COVID Christmas season, I’ve been silently replaying one of my favorite songs: “Mary Did You Know?”
I’ve visualized a child singing that, backed up by the choir, of course.
What did Mary know? As Luke tells the story in his gospel, the angel Gabriel told Mary not to be “greatly troubled.” She wondered when she heard Gabriel’s greeting if this would be good or bad news. That was what distressed Mary. Who wouldn’t be a bit discombobulated at the sudden appearance of an angel?
As Gabriel unpacked the news, it became more and more disturbing.
Mary was likely a young teenager, as most brides were during that day and age. The couple’s parents would have pre-arranged the marriage.
Gabriel didn’t come with judgment; he had good news: God had highly favored Mary with grace. She would give birth to the Christ child.
I’ve often wondered if she flash-forwarded a bit, surely wondering how she would explain this concept to Joseph. “I’m pregnant, but I’ve never had sex.”
“What?”
And how was that conversation supposed to go with her parents? “I’ve got some wonderful news for you. Let’s see, how can I explain this…?
What about the ladies who liked to meet outside the synagogue to catch up on the week’s events? How they would relish chewing on this juicy morsel of news that Mary had a little “surprise” on the way. “And she claims she’s never been intimate with a man?”
How was an innocent young teenager to handle something that had never happened in history, something that was nothing short of scandalous?
She did it by trusting God at his Word and not doubting, though she still sought to know how it was going to happen. Her faith was a faith that sought understanding. It was Anselm of Canterbury’s motto, in the Middle Ages, and became a classic definition of theology: “Faith seeking understanding.” Mary lived it.
Gabriel’s explanation to Mary that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” still left a world of questions unanswered.
Although Mary didn’t ask for a sign, Gabriel did give her something of one by pointing to Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, who, though well beyond her childbearing years, was in the sixth month of her pregnancy. “Nothing will be impossible with God,” Gabriel proclaimed.
Mary didn’t know everything, but she knew enough. As William Hendriksen wrote in his commentary on this passage: “Neither God nor Gabriel demands of Mary that she must understand everything. What is required of her is only this, that she believes and willingly submits.”
And that is what she did: “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
The next time I find myself longing for that cozy feeling I’ve been missing during this COVID Christmas season, yearning for the familiar songs so beautifully sung by our choir, especially that song, “Mary did You Know?” I’ll ponder Mary’s dilemma a little deeper, for it wasn’t likely a homespun, “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” moment for her; no, the cosmic event that would turn the world upside down was about to unfold within her body. For Mary, it was, “game on.” And so, she stepped out into the darkness so the world would know the Light of Lights.
“Mary, did you know?”
Yes, she knew enough to respond in faith.
The question is, do we?