December 21, 2008
(Fourth Sunday of Advent)

I Am Yours Lord

By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16  •  Canticle 3 or Canticle 15 or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26  •  Romans 16: 25-27  •  Luke 1:26-38
(From The Lectionary Page)

In a sermon for today, the Rev. Amy Richter writes:

Of today’s gospel lesson, Frederick Buechner, in his book Peculiar Treaures, wrote:

“She struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child, but he’d been entrusted with a message to give her and he gave it. He told her what the child was to be named, and who he was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her. ‘You mustn’t be afraid, Mary,’ he said. And as he said it, he only hoped she wouldn’t notice that beneath the great, golden wings, he himself was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a girl.”

The whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a girl. Imagine all the angels gathered around, looking down, holding their collective breath. “What will she say? Will she do it? C’mon, Mary, say yes!” Because they all know the way God works is only by allowing people freely to answer "yes."

Freedom of choice, the exercise of free will, has always been at the top of God’s priority list when it comes to interaction with human beings. God never forces a “yes” from anyone, never tricks anyone into a response of love, never makes obedience the only choice.

That’s the way God has been from the beginning. God respects our freedom and has since those days way back in Eden’s garden. Through the prophets God sought His people again and again. And the pattern continued: invitation, rejection, repentance, acceptance, and then rebellion again. But in the fullness of time as the Scriptures say, a time came when it all changed.

It is in this moment of Annunciation, when an angel stands before a girl, answering her questions, his knees knocking together, trying to keep the quiver out of his voice, as he and all the angelic host and even God wait. Will she do it? Will she say, “Yes”?

We know the answer Mary gave: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” (Sermons That Work, December 21, 2008)

These are words that change everything. More precisely, the faith that leads to these words changes everything. Mary’s unique vocation to give flesh to God’s Son is not a vocation we can share. But in principle, we are asked the same question this morning: Will you make room for God? Will you agree to make room in your life for Jesus?

Isaac Watts' beloved carol "Joy to the World" implores: "Let every heart prepare him room."

These last few weeks the prophet Isaiah has repeatedly called us to prepare the way of the Lord, so has John the Baptist. Today, an archangel says the day of decision has come not only to Mary, but to all humanity. Is there room in you for God’s Son? Can the Church make more room for living truly as servants?

In order for our love of God to grow, there is always something in my heart, and in the heart of the Church, that can and must go. Can we change in order to provide enough room? How we will put flesh on our faith?

Like Mary, we, are servants of the Lord. Using the grace of Baptism, the grace of this Eucharist, and the grace of being in friendship and fellowship with God and one another, we can make more room for Christ.

We can refuse to ignore those in need and help bear the burdens of our neighbor near and far.

We can lift up the lowly and give them dignity.

We have the resources to fill the hungry, both bellies and souls.

We can find more room for incarnating humility and compassion, and make such room by riding our lives of indifference, pride and conceit.

Then we too will know what it means to be filled with the Power of the Most High, God will use our flesh to make himself present.

The blessed Mother of our Lord is an example of servanthood for us all. As a beloved Anglican hymn says, she is higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim, because she was obedient to God. Since the fifth century Christians have called her Theotokos. Godbearer. Her vocation began by saying, “I am yours Lord.”

As does ours. We, too, our Godbearers, when we love our neighbor as ourselves, speak for the voiceless, and make peace.

No matter what anxieties we are coping with now, no matter the realities that threaten to overwhelm us with fear, Mary presents us with the only response we should ever utter. I am your servant, Lord. I will do what you ask.