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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can God create a rock so big that even He cannot lift it? Think about that question for a moment: Can God create a rock so big that even He cannot lift it? That question is typical of an old philosophical argument atheists use against the existence of the God that the Bible describes as “all-mighty”—we might say “omnipotent” or “all-powerful”. If God is all-powerful, they say, then He must be able to do whatever He sets out to do, such as create a rock so big that even He cannot lift it. But, if He cannot lift a really big rock, then He is not all-powerful, so, some atheists conclude, the existence of the God of the Bible itself is impossible. We who hear the God of the Bible speak through the Gospel Reading this morning realize something quite different about “The Impossibility of God”. We hear, realize, and believe that no Word from God is impossible.
What we hear from the Gospel Reading today is unique to St. Luke’s “orderly account”, written, at least formally, in order for a man by the name of Theophilus to have certainty concerning the things he had been taught. We take note of the details St. Luke provides Theophilus, such as the specific names of the people and places involved. I had the privilege one week ago of watching two Texas Shakespeare Festival actors bring this particular scene to life, as part of a show titled “The Book of Luke”. As they portrayed it, the male actor stood on a bench as the angel Gabriel, and the female actress cowered on the floor as the Virgin Mary. The sight of the angel probably was startling enough, but St. Luke tells us that what Gabriel said greatly troubled Mary. As the English Standard Version puts it, Gabriel said: “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
Thoroughly confused and perplexed, Mary tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. She reasoned, debated in herself, considered, and reckoned up different reasons for the greeting. What did Gabriel say that greatly troubled Mary? Was it his initial, “Greetings”? His calling her “favored one”? His telling her that the Lord was with her? The initial greeting and His calling her “favored one” are related, as is his later telling her that she has found favor (or grace) before God. Maybe humble Mary could not come up with a single reason why she should rejoice, or why she had the Lord’s favor, or why the Lord’s special presence was with her. Whatever troubled her, she had an unusually doubtful attitude of the mind at the beginning of the visit. Of course, by the visit’s end, she had a believing heart and submissive will—after Gabriel had given her the reason, beyond her imagination, no doubt, that the child she was bearing was also the Son of God, and after Gabriel had said that no Word from God was impossible. (The Lord had made a similar statement about things being not difficult for Him to Abraham regarding Sarah’s bearing Isaac, and Mary, usually thought to be a good student of the Old Testament, may well have recognized the connection.)
How do we react to favor or grace? Can we make sense of the positive thoughts, words, and deeds of strangers, of friends, of family members, or even of God? Are we, like Mary may have been, wondering why we should rejoice, or why we have the Lord’s favor, or why we have the Lord’s special presence with us, or maybe wondering if that is the case at all? Or, do we reason that there is something in us that merits favor or grace, that in some sense we deserve kindness and happiness? (Never mind that any kind of merit we might imagine is by definition excluded from grace, which is defined as undeserved mercy or love.) Human reason is, as we confess in the Small Catechism, a gift of God, but, as we also confess in the Small Catechism, we cannot by our own fallen reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him. Salvation from our sins and sinful condition is impossible for us but not for God. No Word from God is impossible.
You may know the account of the book of Job, how God permitted Satan to test or tempt Job, how Job got bad philosophical counsel from his friends, how Job eventually questioned God, and how God finally responded to Job. In the book of Job, similar to what Gabriel told Mary, Job twice declared that nothing was impossible with God. The second time, Job also admitted his own speaking out of turn and his own inability to understand some things related to God, and Job repented in dust and ashes. We do not have to use dust and ashes, but we should also so repent. We should repent of our sins of thinking that we in some way deserve any sort of grace, mercy, or love. We should repent of our sins of missing the mercy, grace, and love that God shows us. We should repent of all of our sins, and we should repent of our sinful nature itself. When we so turn from our sin in sorrow and trust God to forgive our sin, God truly forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be, and He even forgives our sinful nature, too.
No Word from God is impossible. For Mary, “no word from God being impossible” meant that she would, in fact, conceive in her womb and bear a Son whom she would call Jesus. More importantly, for us, “no word from God being impossible” means that that same Jesus—Mary’s and God’s Son, the God-man Himself—saves us from our sins and from our sinful condition. Gabriel “chastely veils” the miracle of Mary’s pregnancy: the Holy Spirit came upon her; the power of the Most High overshadowed her. In the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters, and now the Holy Spirit of the Most High produces in Mary a holy offspring, the Son of the Most High God in human flesh, a new, second Adam of a sort, to undo and to remedy the damage done by the old, first Adam. When Jesus later identified Himself as the Son of God, the Jewish leaders called it blasphemy and conspired to kill him. In the garden, before that death, Jesus confessed that all things were possible for His Father and, like His mother Mary, submitted Himself to His Father’s will. For Jesus, submitting to His Father’s loving will meant suffering, dying, and rising again for us. As angels were involved in the birth of Jesus, so angels were involved in His resurrection and ascension, also for us. The Virgin’s Son is Immanuel, God present with us, to grace us with His favor, to give us the forgiveness of sins. When we have faith like a grain of mustard seed in Him, nothing—such as our salvation—is impossible for us.
In the Old Testament Reading today, King David wanted to build a “house” for God, but God turned it around and said He would establish a “house” for David, an everlasting throne. As our Gospel Reading indicates, Jesus according to His human nature receives from God that throne of His father David and reigns over the house of Jacob forever. The “house” King David wanted to build was in one sense built later by his more-immediate son Solomon, but in the Gospel Reading God builds Himself a “house” made of human flesh in Mary’s womb. As God’s Name, presence, and forgiveness once were connected to Solomon’s Temple, so God’s Name, presence, and forgiveness now are connected to God’s and Mary’s Son, Jesus. And, we find Jesus here, in this place. Here we gather in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Here He is present in water, words, and bread and wine. Here He gives forgiveness through those same ordinary elements. Rejoice, favored ones, the Lord is graciously present with you in Christ in these miraculous ways! Seem impossible? No Word of God is impossible. As the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in the Virgin Mary, so the Holy Spirit conceives faith in you and me as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you, me, and the whole Christian Church on earth.
So sanctified, the whole Christian Church on earth says with Mary, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” That statement always reminds me of the Beatles’ 1970 song “Let it be”. Paul McCartney’s lyrics make apparent references not to the Virgin Mary but to his own mother Mary, who had died from cancer when he was a teenager and who, according to McCartney, came to him in a dream during some tense days with the rock group and said, “It will be alright, just let it be.” In the song, the phrase “let it be” first means “leave the current situation alone” but then shifts to mean “let some new thing happen”. Like the Virgin Mary, we make the statement “let it be” more in that sense of “let some new thing happen.” We want God to use us in our vocations—our vocations as parent, child, teacher, coach, sales representative, administrative assistant, oil field worker, domestic engineer, or whatever our vocations might be. Even when we fail to let God use us, as we will fail, He does not fail but continues to forgive us. Seem impossible? No word from God is impossible!
Can God create a rock so big that even He cannot lift it? Impossible! He is all-powerful by nature; He cannot act against His nature, and so He cannot, at the same time, be both all-powerful and its opposite, not all-powerful, incapable of lifting a really big rock He created. That answer may not satisfy you or me right now; we may need to be like Job and admit our inability to understand some things related to God. Gabriel says what we need to know: No word from God is impossible. God promised to take on flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary—may seem impossible to fallen human reason but done. God promised, by that divine and human Son, to redeem you and me—may seem impossible to human reason but done. God promises to give you and me forgiveness in bread that is His body and wine that is His blood—may seem impossible but done. “The impossibility of God”? There is not any impossibility of God. No Word from God is impossible. Place human reason and wisdom under God’s Word. As St. Paul ended his letter to the Romans and thus also our Epistle Reading, “To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!”
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +