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We have gathered together this evening to celebrate - to celebrate the brith of Jesus. But before the birth of Jesus could even take place, the angel Gabrielle kept showing up in the story of Jesus’s family. Gabrielle came to Jesus’s Uncle Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, and told him that while his wife had been without child for many years, she would bear the one who was to prepare the way for the Lord. Then Gabrielle showed up again, this time to Mary, a virgin, and said that she would conceive and give birth to a son, who would reign over the house of David. Then on the night we celebrate in this moment, Gabrielle showed up again, this time with a chorus of angels, telling the shepherds to not be afraid.
But the thing about Gabrielle, is that every time he shows up and tells folks to not be afraid, that is the most natural reaction for them to have! Gabrielle is an angel, who yes, is coming to bring good news, but is also an interruption to life as they know it who asks them to take a risk for the sake of God. Zechariah was to risk believing that God could do the impossible. Mary was to risk the ridicule that she knew that she would face from her community, becoming pregnant, even with the son of God, outside of wedlock. The shepherds were to risk tending their flocks in order to respond to a great invitation, directly from God.
And here we are tonight, where some of us may have been before, hearing a story we may be very familiar with. But we are being asked to let God interrupt our lives as well. Interrupt perhaps our familiarity with this scripture and hear it anew, and ask with Mary, how can this be?
For Mary didn’t just accept that she was to be the mother of the son of God. She had questions - asking how can this be, since I am a virgin? Mary knew where babies came from and she was wondering how God could offer such an invitation to her, one who never knew a man. Mary was probably thirteen years old when a messenger of the Lord named Gabrielle came to her to announce that she was pregnant. Mary’s life up to this point had been one of waiting – waiting to become a mother and a wife. Preparing herself to bring honor to her family in these roles by practicing household duties for many years. Because this was quite an educational undertaking in and of itself, she probably never had any education outside of the home.
Mary was now actively preparing for marriage. As was Jewish custom she would be engaged to her soon to be husband, Joseph, for a year. This would give him time to make the proper arrangements as well; carving out another room in his family’s dwelling for them to live in. It needed to be big enough to accommodate them, and the one child they expected to create each year of their marriage together. Mary was preparing herself not only to be a good wife to Joseph, providing for his needs, but a good mother to as many children as she could bear successful. Mary hoped and prayer that she would be able to provide Joseph with a male offspring and survive the multiple births.
Mary was preparing for the day, gathering water at the local citrine, probably not her first trip of the day, when this messenger appeared to her. Mary was going about her ordinary tasks of preparing when she was interrupted and told that another period, a new period, of waiting would begin. This one would last nine month – the time it would take to give birth to a baby boy. Mary knew how babies came to be and questioned the angel how she – one who had never known a man – would give birth. But the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would bear a son, to be named Jesus, who would be the Son of God. For nothing is impossible with God.
But the angel accepted Mary’s question and responded with an invitation for her as well, an invitation to be part of the mystery. For what the angel had to say was unlike anything Mary had heard before - the Holy Spirit was to wash over her. But in case Mary had any doubts of the power of God, the angel also told her that her elderly cousin, Elizabeth, whom all believed to be barren, was going to bear a child as well. For the word will not fail.
Mary had to be thinking, why me? Why a common girl from a town so small and insignificant that it wasn’t even counted as being part of Galilee by her neighbors. Why not someone older? Or someone from Seppohris, the next town over, with so many thousands of people to choose from? Why someone from Nazareth – where everyone knew everyone and the total population could not be more then 400? Why her? Why here? Why now?
But despite all of Mary’s questions and her fear, she responded, yes, here I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be for me as you have described. Mary knew the consequences. She knew that if she was discovered to be pregnant while being engaged, but not married, to Joseph that the law said she was to be stoned to death. She knew that if she could not wrap her mind around being a pregnant virgin, then her family, Joseph, the town, would not understand it either. But something that this angel had said had caught her attention. The child she was carrying would be the son of God. Not a son of God, the son of God. Wasn’t this what her people had been waiting for? Isn’t this what her very town had been named for. Netzer – a branch or shoot. A new tree would grown from the stump of where another tree had died. Isn’t this what the prophets had predicted? That a shoot shall come up from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of its roots? She would be carrying the promise of hope within her womb, and that hope was greater then any of the consequences.
And thus began one of the greatest stories ever told - the story of our faith. The story of our savior. The story of God choosing to come to us in the flesh. Jesus wasn’t born in a hospital, or even the home where many children were born during that time period. He was born in a stable, a cave often located underneath the home where the animals lived. Often this is referred to as humble circumstances - those not befitting him as King and Lord. This humility serves as a reminder to us, even today, that Christ is not compelled to be who we want him to be or to show up the ways that we want him to show up. He comes in his own time and in his own way.
Friends, we all need Christ to come into our lives. We need the Word made Flesh. We may not fully understand the mystery of what happened this night so long ago, but we need to be reminded of the gift that we have received in the birth of Jesus Christ. And to remember the gift we received in his sacrificial death on the cross and his Resurrection. For the humble beginnings of his life foretold so much. Jesus, being born in Bethlehem, “The city of Bread” and being placed in a manger, the troughs that animals came to be fed at. We are people who cannot live by bread alone, so we come to Christ to meet our needs that are vital to our very being. When we hunger for hope, faith, and joy - Christ feeds us. When we are starving for love and something to fill our deepest longings, Christ provides. When we ache for forgiveness and reconciliation, Christ invites us to the table. For Christ is the bread of Life that gives us more then we can ever ask for.
Friends, who are the people in your life simply waiting to hear about the Christ child so they can be in relationship with him? Who are the people in your life who are in need of meeting the bread of life? Invite them to come. For the manger is for everyone. Let us live into the mystery of the greatest gift that has ever been given. Amen.
