Dear friends: Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
What a brave and faithful young woman is this one chosen by God to be the mother of our Lord.
Given the typical age of engagement in the ancient world, she is only a girl in her mid-teens — a child having a baby. But notice how she reacts to the presence of an angel in her life. The words cause her to be perplexed. She finds it necessary to think about what she has heard, to ponder why, she — of all the people in the world — might be God’s “favored one.”
The words of the angel are confusing for the young Mary. How shall she conceive and bear a son before her marriage to the man who is to become her husband? What is the biology of this conception? Maybe more importantly, how can she explain God’s will for her in a way that will sound believable to the man who will become her husband, to her parents, to her community?
But Gabriel gives no such words to this young girl: no biology, nothing to save face. The only words of explanation: “nothing is impossible with God.”
Great words from the angel: “nothing is impossible with God.” They are made even greater, I think, because so much is impossible for us. Life in family and community seems impossible sometimes. The Word of God seems impossible to believe sometimes — think of how many people find the virgin birth to be a stumbling block to their faith. Yes, even faithfulness — like that of the young girl, Mary — seems impossible sometimes.
Would family life now be impossible for Mary? In Matthew we are told that Joseph intended to quietly walk away from her. Maybe he loved her too much to disgrace her publicly. Maybe he was too hurt by her apparent infidelity to do anything but attempt to salvage his own pride. Mary’s story alone couldn’t keep their marriage plans alive. It took another angelic intervention to keep Mary from being a single mother. It is a good thing that “nothing is impossible with God” because so much is impossible for us.
Had Joseph not displayed his own great faithfulness, it is very likely that Mary’s church and her community would have come crashing down on her with their own vengeance. They would have done so, of course, in the name of justice.
The penalty for a woman who violated the laws of Church and community for a pregnancy outside the sanctity of marriage was death by stoning. The community didn’t care to have such a person live among them any longer. The Church couldn’t abide such an egregious violation of its laws. Even life itself might have been impossible for the one chosen from heaven to bear the Son of God. Yes, it is a good thing that “nothing is impossible with God” because so much is impossible for us.
There are many among us who will struggle during these next days with difficulties in their families, their communities, and even in their churches. Whether your difficulty is with idle talk among church members or with Uncle Henry’s habitual drunkenness at the Christmas party; whether your difficulty is with an unreasonable neighbor or with family expectations that cannot be met; whether your difficulty is in the memory of a Christmas that can never happen in quite the same way again or in meeting the needs of all the people in your blended family; remember today the brave and faithful young woman who accepted the impossible role of mother of the Lord.
The gospel writer doesn’t tell us what she pondered that day. There is not much evidence that she made a list of pros and cons, the costs and benefits of what lay ahead for her. Instead, she is just obedient. “Here am I,” she says “let it be with me according to your word.”
It won’t seem so simple for many of us. It should be — maybe it even is — but it won’t seem so. But if we can keep our focus — if we can hear the voice of the angel — then maybe we can transcend everything that makes this such an impossible time for us.
And even if we can’t — if the impossible remains — remember that it is because of the impossible that Jesus came into the world. Christmas means that God now knows everything that makes human life possible. He has saved us from all of that: Mary didn’t lose her family, she wasn’t ostracized from her church and community, she didn’t lose her life.
Because “nothing is impossible with God” even when it seems impossible for us. There is a child who is about to be born. There is a miracle which is about to happen. Amen.
Copyright © 2011 The Rev. Gary L. Froseth. All rights reserved.
