Advent 4                                          Luke 1:26-38                                    12/18/05
                                                        “God-bearer”
 
It was an ordinary day – a day like any other.  There was nothing to suggest that in a matter of moments my life would be changed forever.
 
I had finished my morning chores.  I had brought water from the town well, washed the dishes, swept and put our bedding away.  My mother had gone to visit a sick neighbor and I had the house to myself for a while.
 
I decided to rest for a moment by the window.  From it I could see Joseph’s carpenter shop.  He made all kinds of boxes, furniture and other things there.  Joseph was so big and strong, and yet, his hands were unbelievably gentle as he caressed a piece of wood.  Mother would have laughed at my romantic dreams, but I’ll admit to you that my thoughts were all on my approaching wedding and what life would be like married to dear Joseph.
 
I was lost in my dreams and that may be why it took me a moment to realize that the room had become brighter – much brighter.  I turned to look for the source of this dazzling light...and, oh my...standing there, right in the room with me was an angel. 
 
Now, of course, I’d never seen an angel before, but believe me, when you see one, you know what it is.  I was stunned and more than a little frightened.  Why would God send such a divine presence here?  What could it want with me?
 
Ours was just a small undistinguished town, and I was just a nobody – a woman, in fact, only a teenaged girl.  As I was pondering this, the angel spoke.  His voice was not what I would have imagined – thundering and booming, but soft and gentle.
 
“Greetings, favored one.  The Lord is with you,” he said. 
 
If seeing an angel weren’t disturbing enough, surely, such a greeting would be.  These were the words spoken to Gideon of old when God called him to lead His people into battle.
 
As though sensing my growing confusion and anxiety, the angel then called me by name and told me to not be afraid.  There was such caring and assurance in the way the angel said it, that I became calm immediately.  And that was when I heard the words that would change my life – change many lives - forever.
 
The angel said that I would become pregnant with the one for whom our people had been waiting for so many centuries – the Messiah.  God would, through this child I was to bare, restore the throne of King David.
 
We have been in bondage to so many foreign rulers for so many years that many have given up hope of a Messiah.  But, I had been taught from little up to believe that what God has promised will happen.
 
 But...but, that it would happen through me?  Why, I hadn’t even been with a man yet.  And the angel said it as though it would happen now, not months from now when I was married to Joseph. 
 
Now, I was really confused...and I said as much to the angel – how could this be, since I am a virgin?”
 
The answer was...that the Holy Spirit would cause me to conceive and that the child would be called the Son of the Most High, the Son of God.  The angel even told me what I was to call my child.  You know His name as “Jesus”.  That is the Greek form of the name of one of our great leaders, “Joshua” which means “God saves”. 
 
What a wonder!  I was to have a child who would be made a king, the Son of God and a leader through whom God would save His people.
 
I might have thought I had dreamed all this later, but the angel told me that my elderly relative, Elizabeth, was also going to have a son by the power and grace of God.  Since she was six months along, this would be a very evident proof of what I had heard.  Knowing how she had suffered as a childless woman, I could hardly wait to see for myself and to tell her the Good News I bore.
 
With faith in God, I accepted this gift of being the “God bearer” that the angel declared I was to be.  And having heard my acceptance the angel left as suddenly as he had come, leaving a bit of the glow now in my heart.
 
Can you imagine the wonder, the awe, the joy I felt?  The Messiah promised for so long was to come in my lifetime.  But not just an earthly human Messiah, like David, but God Himself would be born a human – would take on human flesh. 
 
And most awesome for me, God would come as a baby from my body.  I would hold Him in my arms, teach Him to walk and talk, guide Him as He grew to manhood.  God who is so mighty that we Jews don’t even say His name was to be my Son.
 
In the years since that day, I’ve had reason to understand how those first words of the angel, “Greetings, favored one.  The Lord is with you,” spoken first to warrior Gideon would apply to me as well.
 
I’ve had to do battle with anxiety, fear and grief.  I had my son in a stable surrounded by cattle rather than midwives.  I had to take my Son and flee with Joseph to Egypt when King Herod saw Him as a threat to his own rule.  I had to adjust my understanding and expectations of what His kingly leadership would mean.  I worried as I heard more and more rumors that the religious leaders were out to get Him when Jesus’ preaching and healing drew greater and greater crowds.  And I watched that child die on a cross – rejected, humiliated and tormented. 
 
But, I never lost that holy glow inside me – not just the glow of an angel telling me that I would be the God-bearer, but more important the glow of God’s promise renewed.  I saw that glow again on the day you call Easter when God’s Son, my Son, rose from the dead.
 
But, you know, I’m not the only God-bearer.  Each of you is a God-bearer too.  Because of what my Son, Jesus did in His death and resurrection, each of you in your baptisms received God inside you too.  God came to you in His Spirit, entered you and seeks to grow in you.
 
Of course, to feel the glow, to have awareness of His life in you, to experience yourself as a God-bearer, you need to be as open to God as I was.  You also need to say, “Let it be with me according to your word.”  This may mean putting aside your own dreams and humbly accepting God’s will.  It may mean taking some risks with your life.  It may mean having faith in God promises and trusting in Him.
 
I can’t promise a life free from anxiety, fear or pain as a result – it wasn’t so for me anyway – but I can promise you joy you’ll find no other way.  I can promise that you’ll feel the glow of angels within and about you.  I can promise you’ll never regret being a God-bearer.
 
In just a few days, you will be celebrating my Son’s birthday.  You will praise God in song like the angels did and wish each other a blessed Christ-mas.  You will look in the manger and see that baby I bore, and you will see dear Joseph and me smiling as His parents.
 
Open your hearts freely to His birth in you.  Feel the true joy of Christmas.  Let God’s Son be born anew in your life.  (Turn and then go back)
 
Oh, and by the way, you might also share the Good News of Jesus with a relative of yours, as I did.  Invite them to see my Son and hear the angels sing.  Amen.