Advent 2025: Perplexity and Ponderment - Lydia Andres - Luke 1vv26-38, 46-56

Lydia Andres invites us to consider Mary's response to her unique circumstances within the Christmas story. 

Transcript

Reading The Annunciation

SPEAKER_00 0:00

It is good to be with you all this morning in a different capacity. Will you hear these words from the book that we love found in Luke, verses 1 through 30, chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. This virgin's name was Mary. And he came and said to her, Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words, and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now 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 to 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. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the childborn will be holy, he will be called the Son of God. And now your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for who for she who was said to be barren. For nothing is impossible with God. Then Mary said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. This is the word of the Lord. Today we continue on our series in Advent. As we dwell on themes of hope, love, peace, and joy. We spent the last two weeks looking at two different stories. The first looking at the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah and the joy of the new and unexpected way that God worked in their lives. And then last week, we looked at the story of Anna with the hope of joy that she had that she would one day get to see the Savior. And today I have the honor of expounding on the Annunciation of Mary. I find myself particularly amazed and in awe of her response. Perhaps some of my amazement comes from how I imagine my own human response to be. And so imagine with me for just a moment that you are a young 12 to 14-year-old girl, that you are now engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, and the bride price has already been paid, meaning that the only thing standing between living your lives together is that you are waiting for the day that you go to say your vows together. To turn back at this point in the relationship would mean to be divorced. And so you eagerly are awaiting this wedding day. And as you await this day, perhaps you're preparing yourself to be a good wife, learning the skills that would have been expected of a woman in this time. And then suddenly this angel appears who calls himself Gabriel. The same angel who, unbeknownst to you, appeared to your cousin Elizabeth's husband six months ago. He gives a strange greeting, calling you the favored one by God. And I think that at least my fight or flight would have kicked in, and I would have run from the room. I mean a random stranger standing in my kitchen. First off, how did you get my apartment keys? But Mary has a different response. She gives a slow response. And perhaps this is one of the reasons that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah. Mary's response is one that I am sure we all wish we could say was the response that we would give, but it takes a lot more practice. Mary shows a gift of wisdom. She shows us what it looks like to be someone who is quick to listen and slow to speak. Mary's response here is not just the image of a child saying yes to whatever an adult tells her to do, but one of holy contemplation, of understanding, and of faith. And Mary's response involves two keywords. She was perplexed and she pondered. First, we'll look at the word perplexed. The NRSV says that Mary was perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The NIV uses the word greatly troubled to describe her in this encounter. And the feeling here would be one of being thoroughly disturbed, agitated greatly, or deeply troubled. The word isn't meant to just be this gentle feeling or minor confusion or just slightly perplexed, but one of being troubled. This wouldn't be a moment that Mary would just move on from the next day, completely forgetting about this moment, but is a it's a kind of greeting and feeling that leaves one thinking about it as they go to bed, tossing and turning as they consider what it might mean, a feeling that follows into the next day as you brush your teeth or takes up time during the work day. That's the emotion that it would have evoked when it says that Mary was troubled. She's troubled though because it matters. She deeply cares about it. And I mean her credit, what kind of greeting is greetings, favored one? The Lord is with you. But what does it mean to be the favored one of God? And what does it mean when it says, God is with you? This would have been a most startling greeting, and so it's no surprise that Mary feels startled and is described as being greatly troubled and thoroughly confused. The words of this greeting echo the words of another cry of a mother's heart. In the book of 1 Samuel, Hannah cries, Let your servant find favor in your sight. And on our passage this morning, this greeting is given as a word of assurance. The words also parallel assurances of power and favor given to the judges of Israel. Matthew conveys this same sense of assurance that the birth of Jesus meant the promise of God's redeeming love by the means of the name Emmanuel. God is with us. And so here Mary's greeting is parallel to the reminders of God's faithfulness and goodness to those who came before her. Though this greeting may have come with an initial shock, the reminders of the phrases and the memories of how God has shown himself to be faithful with love for his people would have been present within this greeting. The memory of how God chose and used Hannah and her son Samuel would serve to show what it means to be God's favored. And leaving a space for Mary to process through this confusion toward hope. But this is not where Mary's response ends. For Mary could have just felt terror in seeing and hearing the angel Gabriel's greeting and fled. But she heard it and immediately began to ponder on what this meant. One could use the word wonder to describe what Mary began to do, but I like the idea of pondering better. It sets this idea of deliberating, of reckoning up reasons and reasoning through in one's mind. Pondering feels more deliberate and thoughtful than just merely wondering. And Mary really begins to grapple with what it is that Gabriel is telling her in his message. And in the message that follows, Gabriel, after his initial greeting, starts up again by repeating that Mary is favored by God. He says, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and we will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to 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. There's so much in this for Mary to ponder over in this response of Gabriel. First, she's well aware of how babies are made, and points out that this type of action has not taken place. So how can she be with child? But then there's also the fact that she is with child, and that this child will not only be great, but is the very son of God. And not only is he the son of God, but he will be given the throne of David and will reign over his descendants forever. There are so many big statements here, so many big promises, so many life-altering sentences. And Mary, who up until this point has just been preparing to marry her fiance, Joseph, is now being told that she is going to have a baby and that her baby boy will be the savior that her people have long been awaiting. These are statements worthy of being held on to and pondered over again and again and again, working to dig deeper into their meaning. Perhaps she wondered if she had just imagined this encounter with the angel, that this took place, and imagining what all of this would look like for these statements to later take place. There's so much to think about within these words, so many implications. I don't doubt that she probably thought about what she might tell Joseph or her parents. But she doesn't bring these potential fears into this conversation. Mary really digs into the act of pondering what these words mean, into pondering what they hold, and into pondering what God is doing. This act of pondering becomes a signature act of Mary's in the book of Luke. There are two other main spots where we see this posture of pondering. The first is right after Jesus is born, where there are angels that appear to shepherds who are keeping their sheep, and the angels bring the good news of the Savior. And Luke 2, verses 16 through 19 says, So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what they had been told to them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. What a surprise for a little family from Nazareth, that not only Mary would give birth while on their trip far from home, but that while they were there they would be visited by people who are strangers to them, proclaiming that the angels from the Lord came and declared to them the same message that Gabriel had given Mary, and that this baby boy is the long-awaited Messiah. Here we see too that Mary takes these words into her heart and ponders over them. She allows the words to hold their weight, but she is in no rush to act upon them. And so she treasures them and ponders over them and on what their future might hold. We see again Mary taking this action of pondering, but this time it's when Jesus is a young teenager. Over the Passover feast, they bring Jesus to the temple, and as they travel back, they realize that he's not with them. And so they double back to find him in the temple, where he's asking the priests questions. And when telling them, telling Jesus that they were worried because they couldn't find him, Jesus responds, Why were you searching for me? Did you not know I would be in my father's house? And they did not understand what he was saying. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. And his mother treasured all these things in her heart. What a wild ride of emotions for Mary and Joseph here. First they find that their son is not traveling home with them. And then when they do find him, he claims that the temple is his home and is his father's house. And so of course that's where he would be. Yet all these things do not fully make sense to them. But all the same, Mary treasures them to ponder over. But Mary's pondering is not a blind action of merely thinking about something or daydreaming over possibilities in life. Mary's pondering is an act of faith, an act of seeking, understanding, and seeking God. Mary, in our passage this morning, understands what the angel is asking of her and takes time to process through what that would mean for her and for her family and for her future. Sometimes the things that God asks of us can shake us and shake our lives in large ways, impacting us far further than we would have ever thought. But Mary takes the brave action of working towards understanding. Understanding what it is that God is telling her is in store for her. And Mary's response in this understanding is not one of fear, but of acceptance. One theologian puts it that rather than being compelled into a state of fear, Mary reflexively puts on with her own cognitive and effective state. The angel then declares her active role in God's plan of bringing rule through the person of Jesus. She's the one who conceives and bears and names the child. Mary is not a passive player in this conversation or in the action that is about to take place. This is an act of Mary. Mary's acceptance in verse 38 shows us that this is something that she chooses to step into. She tells God, Here I am, the servant, the Lord, let it be with me according to your word. And Mary is invited because of her favor with God, which is not a favor that she won on her own good works, but is because of God that she is favored. But like all good invitations, Mary gets a response. And Mary's response is to say yes to the things of God, to the working of God, even though she doesn't fully understand what that means. But before saying this yes, Mary first ponders what it is that is said. It's not an immediate acceptance. She thinks about what this means. She asks the angel, how can this be? This is an intellectual exchange between her and the angel Gabriel. And Mary understands that what is being requested is a big request. But she chooses to say yes to whatever it is that God has in store. And finally, we see where Mary's pondering has taken her. Mary's response at the end of the passage, saying, Here I am, Lord, let it be with me according to your word. Mary accepts what God is showing her, believing that even though she is a virgin, that there is nothing that is impossible with God. Her response is not cast as reluquent acquiescence, but rather is a robust and reflective pledging of her servitude to the divine will that is later expressed in joy through the Magnificat. The representation in this brief episode displays Mary as a person of potentially low status who nevertheless exercises reflexivity and agency even in the face of supernatural powers. Mary does not begrudgingly choose to serve God's will simply because God said this is the way that things are, but exercises her thoughtfulness and spirit-directed spirit as she ponders what all of this means. She chooses to be a part of the work that God is doing in the world, even though she knows that it will not be an easy path, and even though she knows that it will mean being uncomfortable physically and socially, but she still gives a faithful yes to the work of God. For we see God has been busy at work in Mary. It's important to look at the work of God through Mary's response. And I think it's valuable always to be asking the question in any story: where is God at work in this story? And if you were here last week, you would have heard Esther mention a time called the intertestamental period, which is the time between the book of Malachi and the time of Jesus. This time is significant as there was much cultural development happening for the Jewish people, and they really began to lean into the expectations of what the promised savior would look like. You see, God had promised them that he would send a Messiah to save them. And though the people had a very specific view of what this saving would look like, they were currently facing the subjugation of the Roman rule. The Jewish people had an idea of what their promised Messiah, who would one day save them, would come slinging the sword and writing immediate injustice by punishing the Romans and restoring to them their homeland. And here God begins the work that he promised by sending the Messiah. God says that he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and that the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. God remembers his promise to his people, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Adam, to Jacob, and to all the other people that he made promises to, both those named in the Bible and those that are not named. God knows that each, knows each and every one of them, knows their pains, knows their sorrows, knows their rejoicings. Knows their ponderings. And here, here, God brings Jesus into the world to save the worlds. And I'm sure that the Jewish people pondered over what the reality of the Savior's coming would be like. How would he come? When? And how would he save them? God is working through Mary to enact his promise to his people. God has not forgotten them. God has seen their pondering, heard their cries, and the desire for their good. As I wrap up, I would like to invite the worship team forward. And we see here that God reveals what he's doing in Mary. Mary, after she visits Elizabeth, sings the song of praise. Mary says, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For the mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in their thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their homes and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in the remembrance of his mercy, according to the promises he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever. God has and shows mercy to those who fear him. God is actively at work doing these things for his people. God has seen the brokenhearted, those who feel cast away and downtrodden. God has been with them as they felt perplexed and as they pondered over what their future might look like, calling out to God to answer them. And we see God at work in Mary. Mary moves from perplexed to pondering to this song of praise that we've just read. I think, I think this is one of the reasons that God chose her and calls her highly favored. Mary's response and the magnificat shows how deeply ingrained in Scripture she is. This song is a song of a theologian, a song that bubbles up out of a deep love and understanding that she has for the word and the fullness of the Holy Spirit within her. Mary rejoices that God calls and uses even the lowliest of people. God protects them, strengthens them. That God lifts them up, that he feeds the hungry and is there for his people. These phrases echo psalms and prayers and prophecies found in the Old Testament. Mary has treasured these passages up in her heart. The word has become like a lamp to her feet and a light to her path. And Mary sings of the promise of the work of God, yet to come as she remembers the work of God is in the here and now. And Mary declares the hope of the work that God is coming to do. And though she does not fully know or understand it, she continues to ponder on what this will mean. Mary declares the good, the mighty and powerful work of God at work. And so I wonder this morning what we might ponder over what God is doing in our lives. I wonder what God has for us to ponder over. In what ways is God trying to speak to you, to show you what He has in store for you? And I wonder in what ways it looks like to respond with a here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word. I wonder what God has for us to ponder over, even as we begin to declare with the faith and good and mightiness and powerfulness of God at work. And so in the next few minutes, I want to invite us to respond to this pondering, to the seeking of God at work. Perhaps you feel a bit lost and are wondering where is God in all of this? If that's you, we have a prayer team in the back who would love to pray for you and over you, and I want to invite you to ponder over where God is at work in your life. We're gonna sing all together, and then in just a few minutes, we'll come back to approach the table in the breaking in bread and the remembrance of the work of the Messiah. Come to earth. Amen.