Luke 1:26-38 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Fourth Sunday in Advent Sunday, December 20, 2020 “The Promise: Jesus”
Over the past three weeks in our worship services, we have considered words from the prophecy of Isaiah. We have heard and focused on promises that waited for centuries to be kept and fulfilled. On Wednesdays in Advent, we have heard about children born according to special promises and in unique circumstances, each playing a role in bringing God’s great promise to others. We have heard about and discussed how that great promise was first revealed and shared thousands of years before it was kept. Today’s lesson, our Gospel from Luke chapter one, carries us into a new era and a new place. It transports us to a small town, Nazareth, in the northernmost portion of what was once Israel’s territory, Galilee. By that time, all of Palestine was under Roman rule. Galilee itself was a mix of Jews and Greeks. It sat to the north of Samaria, a region populated with people of mixed descent whose religion somewhat resembled that of the Jews, but were considered by none to be a truly Jewish people. Even farther south was Judea, home to familiar cities like Jerusalem and Jericho and the small town that was made famous by its hometown hero, King David. That town was Bethlehem. The very mention of the towns of Jerusalem and Bethlehem bring to mind the rich history of God’s interactions with his chosen people. The Temple was built in Jerusalem according to God’s direction and instruction. The prophet of God anointed King David in Bethlehem. And many other prophets served God by sharing his Word and his promise all throughout the region of Judah and Israel. But by the time of our Gospel, the situation had changed. We know of no prophet that spoke God’s Word to God’s people for about 400 years before that time. To be sure, there had been a rich history of prophetic words, revealing various details about the promise and about the center and focus of the promise, the Messiah. But for centuries the repetition of the promises and the unfolding of the details had gone quiet. That was until an angel appeared. God used his created spirit-messenger to bring once again the special word of the unfolding of his plan and his promise. The fulfillment was nearer that day than ever before. God had already used an angel to announce the coming of the Messiah’s forerunner. He had already revealed the name of John who would later be called the Baptist. John’s mother was already six months into her miraculous pregnancy when the angel came to a young woman named Mary. And the promise was shared one more time with a new imminence and immediacy. And the promise was given a name. The promise was Jesus. And as wonderful and as amazing as the promise was, as wondrous as the announcement by a holy angel messenger was, the promise was impossible. Mary was a young woman. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph. The wedding tradition of the day was a bit different than ours now, and this engagement pledge meant something more than what many think of engagement today, but this couple was also more chaste than many who approach marriage today. They honored God’s institution of marriage and they were waiting for the time when they would come together and share a bed and share a home and live together as husband and wife. There was no reason for Mary to expect that she would be the mother of a child any time soon. It was impossible. But that’s what the angel said: “Listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus.” Mary didn’t need an angel to tell her that after her marriage and her wedding night that she might conceive, that she might have a child. That was the natural course. That was expected and anticipated. That was wellknown and well-understood by those who were of marrying age and who were entering that blessed union. But the angel came because this news was unusual. This news was impossible. I will conceive a baby? How can this be? I am not married. I have not done anything that would result in this. I am a virgin. This was an impossible promise shared with a virgin girl. But God is the God of the impossible. Just as God had seen to it that Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, who was well past the expected age of childbearing and who had been barren all her life had conceived a child, God would be responsible for accomplishing the impossible for Mary. The angel explained in response to Mary’s confusion, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of