“Gabriel’s Voice”

Luke 1:26-45

A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

December 14, 2003

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            Who here has talked with an angel lately? 

I know that’s a loaded question, maybe even a trick question. 

Let’s try this one again, who has watched a baseball team named Angels?  Who has seen a film or television show with a depiction of an angel in it?   The angels can the gamut from the syrupy of “touched by and angel”, or sarcastic and crude as in “Dogma”, or pathetic, as in “It’s A Wonderful Life”, or even seductive as in “The Preacher’s Wife” (at least in the Denzel Washington version).  Who has watched the show, “Joan of Arcadia”?

            Our culture is used to talking about angels.  Yesterday’s Star Tribune said that this is a culture that is not a highly churched culture, but a culture that is incredibly spiritually attuned.  Maybe we need to pay attention to angels around us.

            Have you ever been around an angel?  Last year on Christmas eve, we got here early, like we often do.  As Amanda and Rebecca and I got off our coats, we heard Liz Timm warming up for her Christmas eve solo.  Amanda and Rebecca turned to me and said, “listen Daddy, it’s an angel.”  I want us to pay attention to angels today.

            In today’s scripture, we have the angel Gabriel returning to the scene.  Earlier in the chapter, he had appeared to Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth.  When he appeared to Zechariah, it was in the temple.  He told Zechariah that his geriatric wife Elizabeth would give birth to John the Baptist.

            Six months later it came to pass that the angel Gabriel came from God to deliver a message to Mary.  Now, Mary lived in Galilee, a town in Nazareth.  This is farm country, the boondocks, the sticks.  Not the kind of place to which many would think God would send a message.  Years later, people would muse, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

            Jewish believers thought that the temple in Jerusalem was much more important than the little country churches.  Jerusalem was where the “real” church was located.  But while the people were looking for God in the old accepted, respectable, jam-packed places, God showed up in Galilee.  I think Dr. Luke used these two visits by Gabriel, one in the temple and one in the sticks to illustrate that God can come to us anywhere.  And in fact, the messiah of God will not come from a respectable place.  The messiah of God will come from the sticks, the nobodies who are now God’s somebodies. 

            Those of us who have visited Nicaragua can tell you that angels can come from far away.  These angels help us to see things clearly.  They help us to reprioritize our lives, they remind us of who we are and who God is.  When the members of Second Baptist Church pooled all of their money together as a church and then used it to feed a few hundred people living in the Leon town dump, I felt like I was in the presence of angels.  Angels came to the dump, showing all along this comparatively wealthy pastor from el norte what God and the church are all about.

 

            Gabriel’s voice said, “Hail, oh favored one, God is with you.”  The scripture does not record Mary’s response, it only says that she was greatly troubled by the saying.  I would be too.  I think she might have said something like, “who, me?  I’m just a child, a girl, I live way out here in the middle of nowhere.  I don’t even have a husband.  Why are you coming to me?  What did I do?”

            Gabriel responded that she had found favor with God and that she would bear a son and name him Jesus.  “He will be great, and will be called the son of the Most High and God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”  This is a lot for a teenager to handle, let alone anyone else.  Gabriel tells young, engaged Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah.  Gabriel told her that he would be the savior of the world and that his life will be a living hell.  If you know your child’s life will be difficult, it can be downright unbearable for a parent.  Gabriel doesn’t necessarily bring good news to Mary.  His news shakes things up.  It offends, it shocks and it terrifies. 

            I’m not sure I want to hear from Gabriel, thank you very much.  Let me live my life in peace, please.  We have enough mess to address without Gabriel’s interference.  Stay away, will you please?

            Some of us pray from time to time, “Sometimes I wish my eyes hadn’t been opened”.  It would be so much easier.  Why can’t we just live in oblivion like so many people.  Why can’t we focus simply on buying things this Christmas season.  Why do we have to focus on the prince of peace and all that that implies?  It can really mess up the Christmas spirit.  It can mess it up or it can make it even more real.

            Years ago, I used to visit a homeless shelter run by the non-profit associated with the church I used to pastor.  In this shelter, there were people from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.  Some of them were in the states to flee persecution.  Others were there so they could send money back to their families.  Being among them, trying to communicate through my broken Spanish, I saw people grateful for life.  I saw the people who most mirrored the holy family on that first Christmas.  And I saw how important it was for them to be supports to each other as they struggled to make the most of their broken lives.  I was always humbled to be in their presence.

            Sometimes God can do things in our lives which we don’t understand.  When that happens, it is often loving family and friends who are there to help us through the struggles.  God knows of our need for other people who are going through the same struggles.  That is why the power of God is felt so strongly at 12-step groups where people are brought together in their brokenness and in their searching for a way out of the quagmire of self doubt and unhealthy behavior patterns.

            “Mary, don’t be afraid.  Behold your cousin Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, six months ago.  And she was barren.  Why don’t you go and spend some time with Elizabeth.  She’ll understand what you are going through.  For remember Mary, with God, nothing will be impossible.”

            Mary and Elizabeth together shared in the journey of pregnancy and in the responsibility of bearing the children who would set the world on its end.  For three months they stayed together—talking, laughing, crying, and conspiring the nights away.  They created sacred space, even when they were not considered clean or even acceptable, especially when they were looked on with suspicion by others.  They had both found favor with God and that was all that mattered.

            I have seen groups of women like this. I have seen people like this.  They hang on each other for support.  This is what the church is for and I have seen it here, too.  When one of us is hurting, you surround them with your love and support.  This loving, supportive, even challenging presence is what the angel Gabriel promises to Mary and to all of us.

The angel Gabriel says three things to Mary.  First he says, you’ll bear a son.  Next he says, you’re son’s going to be different.  And finally he says, you don’t have to go through this alone.  That’s what Gabriel’s voice says to Mary.  It’s something we need to hear, too.           

We will give birth to something, even though we don’t expect to, even though we don’t feel worthy, even though it scares the heaven out of us. 

When we give birth to this new thing, it will grow to be ultimately out of our control.  It will bring good news to the world, because that is what we are here for—to bring good news.

Finally, we never have to go through this alone.

So, do you hear angels voices?  I bet you do.  I know I do.  Seldom do we have time to stay silent long enough to listen for the angels speaking to us. 

            On one of the last days in Leon this summer, Heather and Anna took us to a peace house outside of the city.  We were met by a Maryknoll sister by the name of Joan.  We knew we were in the right place when we saw at the entrance a peace pole just like the one in front of our church.  Sister Joan took us to a huge labyrinth on the grounds.  We were invited to walk the circuitous route of the Labyrinth.  Since there is only one way in and one way out, we were encouraged to purge ourselves of the thoughts, conceptions and misconceptions we might have about our life and our place in the world.  When we arrived in the center, we were encouraged to listen to the angels, listen to whatever God had for us.  Listen to what the angels might want us to have gestating inside of us.  When we walked back out the same way we went in, we reconnected with the world, now suddenly aware of the presence of God in a new and powerful way.  I appreciated the opportunity to slow down.  To not make my mind race.  To not rush so dang much.  I think about this as we approach Christmas with all of its busyness.  Sometimes, we need to slow down and pay attention to what the angels might be telling us.

            Sisters and brothers, I believe angels do speak to us, if we are willing to listen.  If we are like Mary—and I know many of us are, at least in the sense that we don’t think anything special can happen to us—if we are like Mary, then the angel might tell us that we are destined for something greater that we can’t even conceive of right now; that it will be scary at times, but that we never have to go through it alone.

Do you have angels in your life?

Are there people who speak to you and give you clarity about your life?

Are there times when you realize that you are not alone?

Do I believe in angels?  You bet I do.  I see them from time to time.  I hear them from time to time.  But mostly, I see what they inspire in us.  As I look at the angels that are on our tree and in our home, I’m going to offer a little prayer for each of them.  Some will be prayers of thanksgiving for the presence of angels in my life, others will be prayers of longing for God’s presence and God’s direction for me and for our world.  I hope you notice the angels this Christmas season.  When you see them, pay attention.  You never know what Gabriel’s voice may be saying to you.