God Spoke Again 上帝再次说话

Title: God Spoke Again
Date: 29 November 2020
Preacher: Enoch Keong

Introduction
Today is the first day of the season of Advent. The Christian year begins with Advent, so today is also New Year’s Day on the Christian calendar. But I will not be asking us to wish each other Happy New Year. Because, unlike New Year’s Day on 1st January or the 1st day of the Lunar New Year, where there will be countdowns and celebrations, the Christian New Year carries a very different focus. Churches observe this New Year’s Day without fanfares and joyous music, unlike the way we celebrate Christmas and Easter, but in quiet reflections. The way it is designed corresponds with the way in which God works. Advent is the season of waiting, a time to cultivate our awareness of God’s actions—past, present, and future. [1]

Christians, in other words, starts a year not by throwing out old stuff, clicking and buying new ones, and hoping for a new and better future. Nothing wrong at all in doing all these by the way. But as Christians, we are called to begin the New Year with a posture of waiting on God, heightening our awareness of what God had been, is and will be doing.

Christians believe that God is at work and we expect it to be so. We gather from the bible and life stories that the way God works is that he does it quietly, behind the scene, but at times surprisingly, miraculously, doing things that surpasses our understanding. If this is truly the case, then a posture of waiting and awareness is essential. Because more often than not, when God does something in our midst, he comes, prepared. We, usually unprepared. The closest we can get therefore is a posture of waiting, or should we say spiritually and emotionally ready.

One of the greatest acts of God was announced this way. The setting was a quiet village house, God was well prepared, the human person was unprepared but spiritually and emotionally ready, to the point that she could respond to the visiting angel with these words, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

I.
These are words spoken by Mary, a biblical character that Protestant Christianity usually doesn’t pay much attention to. But this morning we want spend some time to at least find out”Who is this Mary who had been chosen to carry Jesus to term?” Let’s begin.

Luke tells us that at a place about 100 kilometers far up north from Jerusalem, in the region of Galilee, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. Luke mentions Galilee for a good reason. Nazareth was in fact a small remote village tucked away in one corner of an unimportant province in the Roman Empire. If Luke had only mentioned Nazareth, his readers would probably be wondering where this place he’s talking about.

In this village unknown to many, the angel Gabriel came to Mary. Mary would otherwise just be unknown village girl If not for the visit made by the archangel, and Luke wants us to know that such was the case. Luke is in the habit of introducing important characters by mentioning their ancestral lineage and family clan. In our passage, Joseph who has hardly any role in the gospel receives some introduction, and more than Mary. As for Mary, we are told nothing apart from her name, no mention of her father or mother or the clan she belongs to. In other words, Luke has introduced us to Mary the nobody.

This nobody from an unknown village is also an unlikely candidate for the task she has been chosen to do.

Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. In those days, girls were engaged to be married as young as 12 years old, and it was a common practice for them to be engaged once reaching marriageable age for 2 reasons. Firstly, it was easier for their parent to prove their virginity since they have just entered into puberty. Second, the husband’s family can have her for the longest possible period of time to serve in their household. Back then, the engagement period was usually 12 months. That means Mary would become Mrs Joseph sometime in the next 12 months, but she was still Miss Mary for now. If we use Jubilee’s categorization, Mary could have been a senior youth or youth or junior youth or even in her final year in the Children Sunday School, yet to be married. Isn’t this unknown village girl a most unlikely candidate to be chosen for the task?

The story of the virgin birth is a very familiar one to both Christians and non-believers, so much so that we have probably accepted it as part of the heartwarming Christmas story and stopped asking questions on how scary it had been for Mary to be facing Gabriel and how unappealing the proposal could have been to her.

One thing for sure, Gabriel’s announcement of an impending pregnancy was not one of Mary’s answered prayers. The bible tells of people who had to live with bitter disappointment and the shame of infertility, matured adults such as Hannah and Rachel, or older adults such as Sarah and Elizabeth. Gabriel’s announcement would be the very solution to their life-long problem. For Mary, Gabriel’s words can only create for her a big problem. To give birth to a child out of wedlock in her society would likely jeopardize her life altogether. It’s simply not the right time to have a baby!

But there’s something I personally find puzzling. How did Mary come to understand that Gabriel is talking about an impending pregnancy? She is betrothed to Joseph. The wedding will take place sometime in the coming months. Gabriel’s words, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son” points to something that will be happening in the future. In all likelihood, Gabriel’s words could have referred to the child that she will soon have with Joseph in their marriage to be the promised messiah. The answer to my puzzlement is found in the tenses the Luke uses, suggests one commentator. The 3 phrases, “O favored one…”(v.28), “ …the Lord is with you!” (v.28) and “you have found favor with God” (v.30) all affirm that Mary is already shown grace. It isn’t that the favor of God will be with her sometime later, but is already with her. And Mary got the point.

But getting the point doesn’t mean anything until she says, “let it be to me according to your word.” It would be unimaginable for God to have forced the plan on Mary. She would have to agree to it. Yet the stake is so high for her to do it.

What would we do if we are put in Mary’s situation? As in when there’s a call to a good cause, related to the Christian belief or otherwise, but involves risks, and especially when it’s no small risk? Such a challenge will likely get us talking to people, to get their opinion, to muster some courage, or maybe to collect objections so that we can leave the matter behind.

For Mary, the process was simplified. And I think it has to do with her theology. Her theology might go something like this: The partnership of human and divine is essential to the accomplishing of God’s mission. If I am called, then I am in.

Within that short meet up with the angel, I really don’t know how a young lady or maybe a young girl could come up with the respond that she gave, if something like this has not always been on her mind and in her heart.

If this is Mary’s theology, what’s our version? The one on our minds and in our hearts? If we have yet to construct one, then this Christian New Year’s Day and the advent season is a very appropriate time to start doing so.

III.
The statement on the PowerPoint, whether is it anywhere closed to what Mary was thinking, does give us the point of the story, which isn’t Mary. The story is after all not about Mary. Mary is the heroine in the story, but as we have seen, it wasn’t anything about Mary the nobody and unlikely candidate that had led to her being chosen. People in her village wouldn’t have imagined expected it, not to mention the religious folks in Jerusalem. The story also makes it clear that it is not about Mary’s plans, timing, hopes and aspiration. As we can see, all of this was being jettisoned and replaced by god’s plan, timing and what he will do to benefit many. The point of the story is simply God’s grace and power, demonstrated through one who would say, “let it be to me according to your word”, and, others are blessed.

Depending on what we are looking for in coming to church, all that has been said this morning may not sound uplifting; it may even be off putting. To be favored by God did not bring about anything for Mary what we would normally associate with a good life, things like health, wealth, safety, achievements and respect. In fact, to be favored in her case means “having a child out of wedlock who would later be executed as a criminal." [2]

Where then is our comfort and encouragement? Let’s turn our attention to the PowerPoint slide once again. What might be a simple and clear summary for the 2 lines up there? Isn’t it “Life is about God”? And what would be an inverse yet equally true theological statement? I believe it should be, “God’s life is about us and Him glorified.” Would it be fair to say that for us to sit here and think about this is an already enough demonstration that what is said on the slide is true? May it be enough as comfort and encouragement for us.

Nothing has of course changed when we are reminded of all these. There will still be good cause that involves risks. We will still feel like a nobody and the unlikely candidate at times when we are called upon. But what we have is not only an unverifiable story that took place in a quiet village house. “For nothing will be impossible with God.” (v.37) are not words spoken by 1 angel to 1 human without other human witnesses.

Everything in fact began and hinged on nothing being impossible with God. The first human person who hears something like this heard it directly from God, when The LORD said to Abraham, “…Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Gen 18:13-4) These words of promise came to pass, and from Abraham came Isaac, then the 12 tribes, and then the nation Israel, its history and the people. God spoke and it’s a piece of world history.

Words similar to the assurance given to Mary by Gabriel are also found on the lips of Jesus, spoken to us, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (18:27)

The Christian New Year’s day begin in quietness. May this quietness enable us to hear God who spoke to Abraham, who spoke again to Mary through Gabriel, and who is speaking still to us through our Lord Jesus. And in hearing, may we be more willing to let God to lay claim to our lives, to be what is calling us to be, and to do what he is calling us to do.

[1] Adapted from “The Worship Sourcebook”, 2004. p.421.
[2] Culpepper R. Alan, The New interpreter's Bible: vol. 9: the gospel of Luke, the gospel of John, Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995. p. 52.

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