28 The angel Gabriel went to Mary and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
-St. Luke 1:28-33
I was talking to a friend about how God sent an angel to Mary… the young woman of Nazareth who would become the mother of Jesus. “Annunciation?” my friend asked. “Pastor, didn’t you mean… E-nunciation… as to speak clearly? Clearly… I needed a do-over. Sometimes we do need to speak things more than once for others to hear and understand. The Bible says that when God spoke…stuff happened! Perhaps then it’s both here… God’s enunciation through an angel and then an annunciation worth noting as the words came from God!
God works because God works and when God speaks—even when there is no one to hear… or just a few…God makes stuff happen! “Let there be light!” “Eat from the garden except from the tree in the center;” “You shall have no other gods;” “love the Lord your God with all your heart; strength and mind” are all one liners we can give God credit for expressing with such importance…
Perhaps… God’s best-known one-liner was when he spoke to young Mary in Nazareth and said, “you will have a son and you will call his name, “Jesus.” God used an angel to share that message but it seemed clear to Mary that it was a word from the Lord. In fact, it’s such a memorable occasion that some Christians many years ago built a chapel near the spot where those words were spoken… and it’s still known today as the Church of the Annunciation. Of all the things that God could say to us, he spoke words that told us that he would be one of us and live with us—-just like one of us and even if one doesn’t enunciate that truth all too well… it’s still a great word to cling to. The other one-liner I give thanks for are the words, “This is my beloved son, listen to him…” spoken to the disciples in a cloud on a mountain top. God at work again! And if that kind of scene didn’t have enough power on its own, Moses and Elijah showed up to provide the necessary two witnesses to a spoken truth of God.
It seems … annunciations change the world. They change our world. Those annunciations change us and they change those around us. “Love God; love your neighbor; love yourself.” And I like how Jesus provides a certain amount of imperativeness to those kind of proclamations… “Take, eat; take, drink; do this for the remembrance of me.” As if we have a choice!
In the end, God keeps working—-through us! The last annunciation of Jesus comes to us after the resurrection…” all power in heaven and on earth are mine—-go, preach teach and baptize!” Wow! God spoke in the beginning when there was no one to hear and now Jesus speaks so that everyone will hear!
As I drive around town… it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and it’s safe to say we are all bombarded with all kinds of announcements about how we should celebrate the days ahead. What we hear and what we say are vitally important… both our annunciations and our enunciation of them… faith matters… we all believe in something… so hear the angel’s words again… “be not afraid!” God is with us!
