The Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year B)
2 Samuel 7: 1-5; 8b-12, 14a; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1: 26-38
One simple, three letter, one syllable word – “YES.” And despite it being a simple, three letter, one syllable word, “YES” is one of the most powerful words in our vocabulary. “YES” can make things happen. “YES” can change lives.
A man and woman say "YES" to their marriage vows and the two become one. A man and woman say "YES" to life and they become a father and mother and their lives are never the same. Elected officials vote "YES" and war is declared or peace is established. A man says "YES" on the day of his ordination, and then, by his words, simple bread and wine are able to be transformed into the true presence of Christ. "YES” – simple, three letters, one syllable, but oh so powerful!
Across the heavens an angel races to Nazareth. “Do not be afraid . . . All things are possible with God,” he announces to a virgin. And sweeter than the song of an angel is her response: “YES . . . Let it be.” And this “YES,” uttered by a girl no older than fourteen years of age, living in a nondescript village in Galilee, was one of the most powerful words ever spoken in all of history. Her “YES” brought forth something truly marvelous. So marvelous, in fact, that we have been celebrating what happened because of her "YES" for more than 2,000 years. Her “YES”- more than a word that was powerful . . . her “YES” – more than just a word that caused something marvelous . . . her “YES” – so powerful . . . so marvelous . . . that it brought about a miracle! Mary of Nazareth changed the world forever when she offered her simple “YES” to the angel Gabriel and agreed to give birth to the Son of God. Because of her “YES,” God entered our world, died for our sins, and opened wide the gates of heaven.
Mary said “YES” at such a tender age. She said “YES” to having God’s son, not knowing the heartache that could occur. She said “YES, trusting in the Lord’s love and yet having no idea what that could look like. How could she know that saying “YES to God included a pierced heart and unspeakable sorrow, and at the same time, saying “YES” meant such tender love for a child so dear?
Today, God asks for our assent to many things. He asks us to be people of faith and people of conviction who live out the truth of what we believe. He asks us to take up our cross daily and follow him. He asks us to love one another as He has loved us. And he asks us to forgive one another seventy times seven times. But God asks something even greater of us. He asks for our “YES” to do the same thing he asked of Mary: to give birth to Jesus to our world today.
For we are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it if this eternal birth of the divine Son of God took place two thousand years ago, but does not take place within ourselves? And, what good is it for Mary to give birth to the Son of God if we do not also give birth to him in our time and our culture? Incarnation is an ongoing and steady process, not just an historic event. But, like Mary, we are given the gift of choice. We can say yes to a creative, generative, transformative calling or we can shrink in self-doubt, discouragement or fear.
How can this miracle take place in us? It can only when we follow Mary’s example:
First, we need to be silent . . . We need to wait . . . We need to be attentive . . . We need to listen. We need to be persons of prayer who are aware that prayer is not a one-way monologue (ours), but that we need to carve out a time and a place in our daily lives to break away from the din of our noisy world and our all too busy lives - to listen . . . to hear the messages of angels that reveal God’s Word and Will.
Second, we need faith. We need to trust that God’s in charge . . . that he knows what He’s doing . . . that His will for goodness WILL be done. We need to believe that our lives have purpose and that, despite our lowliness, God sees something good in each one of us and that He can use us to make His Son alive in our world through our testimony and through our example that proclaim that His kingdom is at hand . . . right here . . . right now
Third, we need humility. We need to acknowledge that it’s not just about us . . . our wants . . . our plans . . . our success. There’s something greater, and sometimes we need to abandon our plans, our dreams, our desires to put God and His purposes first. We need, like Mary, to acknowledge that we are mere handmaids of the Lord.
And fourth, we need to strive to be blameless. We can’t be sinLESS, as Mary was, but we can all strive to be less sinFULL. Purity of mind, heart and soul become the fitting womb for Jesus to grow and be nurtured in. They become the manger where others - shepherds, kings and all who travel long and winding roads to Bethlehem can find our new-born Savior.
We are called to incarnate Christ in our lives, to clothe our lives with him, so that people can see him in us, touch him in us, recognize him in us. We can and do become bearers of the Son of God when we are:
- Bearers of Love - when it’s so much easier to put a wall of indifference around ourselves to protect us from being hurt.
- Bearers of Mercy - when it’s so much easier to harbor grudges.
- Bearers of Peace - when revenge is oh so satisfying.
- Bearers of the Light of Truth – when we’re counter-cultural and live the values of the Gospel, when it’s so much easier just to go with the flow.
- Bearers of Compassion – when we feed the hungry and thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, and look after the needs of the ill, when it is so much easier to look out for our own self-interests.
Saying “YES”, consenting for the Son of God to be born in us and through us to an often self-center world that seeks pleasure in things, believes that might makes right and is content with “truth” that is relative, may be hard, uncomfortable and risky. But it was to an adolescent virgin two thousand years ago too.
BUT if we say “YES” to what God asks of us, then good things happen. God’s kingdom grows a little bit more visible in our world. God’s compassion and love touch the hurting. Jesus Christ takes on flesh in us and continues to walk this earth.
Our “YES” to God in things both big and small makes good things happen. Our “YES” to God, makes Christmas happen today. It allows us to share Mary’s vocation in bringing to birth Emmanuel, “God with us.” Our “YES” allows Jesus to be born into our world anew, not for one moment in history, but every day and for all time.
O Holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend on us we pray.
Cast out our sin, and enter in.
Be born in us today.
