Luke 1:26-38
December 15
David A. Davis
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Perplexed and pondered. Mary was perplexed by and she pondered the angelic greeting. “Greetings, favored one!” is how the angel started. “Mary was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.” She was perplexed by and pondered the angel’s words. Perplexed by what the angel said. No mention by Luke of Mary’s reaction to the angel’s presence or the angel’s appearance. Just Mary’s response to what the angel said. “Greetings, favored one!” Perplexed and pondered.
Like a well-rehearsed pageant cast member, the angel Gabriel stuck to the script. “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” The angel went with what angels are supposed to say. What angels always say. “Do not be afraid.” Perhaps an angelic version of “mansplaining”. “Mary, when an angel shows up you are supposed to be afraid.” When Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, he was “terrified and fear overwhelmed him.” When the angel of the Lord stood before the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shone all around them, they were so afraid it hurt. You remember in the King James, they were “sore afraid.” On the first Easter morning when the women go to the tomb in Luke and see the two figures in dazzling clothes, “they were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.” In Matthew, at the empty tomb the angel appeared and the guards shook with fear and became like “dead men.” In each of these cases, the response to the understandable and expected fear is the same. “Do not be afraid.”
So maybe Gabriel gets a pass in misreading Mary’s reaction, for assuming, for projecting, for injecting Mary’s fear. When such strong language is used throughout the gospels to describe the fear of angels, one ought to be struck by no mention of fear here in Luke. Pondered. Perplexed. No fear. It is interesting to note that many versions of the bible translate Mary’s reaction to the angel’s words as “greatly troubled”. “She was greatly troubled and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be”. (New American Standard) But the dictionary definition of the Greek adjective is “confused, perplexed, or greatly perplexed”. “Greatly troubled” seems to lean toward distress and fear. It is as if the tradition, like the angel Gabriel, presumes Mary’s fear; even great fear.
With fear not mentioned in the most notable of annunciations, it might be better to portray Mary as “inquisitive”. She wants to know more from this angel who appears before her and calls her “favored one.” Mary listens as Gabriel explains her favored status a bit more. “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Perplexed and pondering probably doesn’t do Mary’s reaction justice after all of that the angel has to say. But it is not the “Son of the Most High” talk, not the “throne of his ancestor David” or “kingdom with no end” talk that still perplexes Mary and leads to her only question. What still confuses her is the biology. “How can this be?”
Mary listens some more as the angel continues and offers more explanation, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the six month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then, here in Luke, without missing a beat, without taking a breath, Mary says “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” It is way too easy to miss Mary’s fearlessness. The lack of any fear is mentioned here in Luke. Mary’s fearlessness is remarkable. Mary’s fearless courage is breathtaking. Mary’s fearless lack of hesitation reveals her now divinely inspired grasp of the very promise of God. Mary’s fearless faithfulness regarding the reign of God. Mary and her incomparable “Here am I”.
On Wednesday morning in the weekly bible study that I share with some Presbyterian colleagues, my friend Lisa Day the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Hightstown, shared her screen so the rest of us could see one of her favorite artistic renderings of the Annunciation. It is from a children’s book by an Australian illustrator named Julia Vivas. The book is called “The Nativity”. The website describes the children’s book as a down-to-earth portrayal of the human side of the story. The page that depicts the Annunciation to Mary includes the verse from Luke: Take a look at this rendering of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary. Notice the very ordinary and a bit disheveled angel Gabriel wearing a robe-like thing with some holes in it. The only angelic characteristic is that huge pair wings that rise off his back. There is no radiant glow. Young Mary looks to be wearing something like a housecoat with an apron tied on. Her slippers are my favorite part. Sitting there at the kitchen table each holding a large mug. The work lacks two aspects associated with the art of the Annunciation through the centuries: there is no heavenly glow and there is absolutely no fear. Gabriel and Mary look like two friends sharing a leisurely Saturday morning conversation over a cup of tea.
Mary and her fearless “Hear am I”. Mary wrapping her head, heart, and soul around God’s favor. For in favoring Mary, God reveals God’s favor of the poor and the oppressed and the outcast, and the shunned. For God called one of the least of these to bear God’s only Son, the Savior of the world. Mary wrapped her head, heart, and soul around the promise and the reign of God. When Mary starts to sing “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of God’s servant”, her spirit-filled ability to see the world God intends is revealed as well. Mary sings of God scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts and bringing the powerful down from their thrones and lifting the lowly, filling the hungry with good things, and sending the rich away empty. Singing about a future full of emptying, lowering, lifting, filling, and sending without fear. A fearless Mary now peering into the vast span of the heart and the heartbreak of God. A divinely inspired vision of God’s future. So one wonders if even now Mary can see all the way to Golgotha. God can. Maybe Mary can. We certainly can. And still, Mary is fearless.
History has a way of softening Mary. Yes, she was a young, vulnerable woman. But her response to the Angel Gabriel comes from a place of strength. Strong faith. Strong courage. Strong vision. Strong answer. In a season where so many are living with fear, long-standing fear or fears now fresh, at a time where fear of violence and war fill so many parts of the world, this Advent season of 2024, it is the strong faith Mary that inspires me. It is the strong courage Mary that lifts me. It is the strong vision Mary that leads me. It is the light of Mary’s fearlessness that encourages me. For it takes faith to believe that in Jesus Christ, God is still at work to do a new thing. That in the power of the Holy Spirit, God on high still comes afresh to bring light to the world’s darkness and peace to the world’s turmoil. It takes courage to believe that God still favors the poor and the oppressed and the outcast, and the shunned. It takes even more courage to embrace, share, and act on that favor of God in the world today. It takes strength to help broken hearts find joy again, to insure that love wins, and to stand in solidarity with those whose fears are real and breathtaking. It takes vision to claim that the promise of Jesus Christ still breaks forth like a radiant light as the followers of Jesus witness to, live by, act on, respond to, and deliver the endless mercy and abundant grace of God in the ordinariness of life. Advent 2024. Being the church of Jesus Christ and drawing faith, courage, strength, and vision from Mary and her unhesitant, faith-filled, fearless “Here Am I”.
I read this week about Grace Thomas in a book entitled Testimony written by Tom Long, one of my seminary professors. Grace Thomas was an African American woman who ran for governor of Georgia in 1954. 1954 was also the year of the Supreme Court’s Brown vs the Board of Education. After years of part-time education, Grace Thomas graduated from law school and told her family she was entering the election. There were nine candidates. 8 men who vehemently and angrily denounced the court decision…and Grace Thomas. Her campaign slogan was “Say Grace at the Polls”. Few people did. According to Long, she finished dead last.
In 1962, Grace Thomas ran again. She campaigned on racial tolerance, unity, and goodwill. Along the way, Grace Thomas endured hateful hecklers and death threats. Dr. Long tells of a campaign stop in the little town of Louisville, Georgia. The center of town in Louisville was an old slave market where human beings were treated like animals and worse. As she stood there in front of a hostile crowd, Grace Thomas said “The old has passed away and the new has come. This place represents all about our past over which we must repent. A new day is here, a day when Georgians white and black can join hands to work together.” Grace Thomas’ speech didn’t go over well. Someone shouted at her and accused her of being a communist. She said no she wasn’t a communist. “Well then, where did you get those blankety-blank ideas.” Grace Thomas thought for a moment and looked over a church building on a nearby corner. She pointed to church and Grace Thomas said, “Well, I got them over there in Sunday School.”
“Say Grace at the Polls”. Tom Long’s writing about Grace Thomas has a startling relevance. Both her fearless witness to the gospel and the anger and threat from the crowd. You know the populations of people who are scared today. I don’t need to list them for you. The fear is real. But so is God’s call to the church of Jesus Christ to be a light of fearlessness. Congregation by congregation, disciple by disciple, inspired by Mary’s unhesitant, faith-filled, fearless “Here Am I”, walking in her steps and his with faith, courage, strength, and vision. As Nassau Church’s own vision statement concludes,
By God’s grace in our lives, we engage with the world,
yearn to do what is just and fair
encourage what is kind and helpful
and seek to walk humbly before God and alongside our neighbors.
Mary had her “Here Am I”.
And so do we.