Saying Yes (Fourth Sunday in Advent)

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At first, Gabriel’s message to Mary doesn’t seem like a question.  “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”  And then Gabriel goes on to tell Mary who this son will grow up to be.  He doesn’t specifically ask Mary, “So, is this OK with you?”

But Gabriel doesn’t leave after making this announcement.  He sticks around to answer questions.  And Mary seems to know implicitly that she can, in fact, say no.  She can decide this is too hard, too scary and frankly just too weird.  And who would blame her?

And so the story doesn’t end, and Gabriel doesn’t leave, until Mary decides whether she’s going to say yes to what God is asking her to do.  OK, says Mary, I’m in. “Let it be with me according to your word.”  And only then does Gabriel depart.

But what if Mary had said “No.”  Sorry, I don’t want to do this. I can’t do this.  What if she had said, in a riff on Isaiah, “Here am I. Please find somebody else”?

That would have been totally understandable.  And even maybe even expected.  But if Mary had said “no”, I’m certain that:

  • God would have still loved her – after all, Gabriel announces that Mary has found favor with God (that is, God loves Mary) before and apart from anything Mary has or hasn’t done; Mary would still be loved, even if she said “no”…
  • God would have been able to find someone else who was willing to say “yes”; after all, God is pretty persistent.  And even when the people of Israel say no by breaking the covenant, God finds a way to renew it with them and finds a way forward…
  • Mary would still have been included among the people for whom Jesus died and rose again; and she could even have been included among Jesus’ disciples.  After all, Jesus’ salvation is for everybody, and the gospels make a point that all of Jesus’ disciples at one point or another say “no” to or about Jesus…

So that raises the question:  Why does Mary say yes?  She didn’t have to.  And it certainly wasn’t because she thought saying “yes” in this situation would make her happy, wealthy or famous.  In fact, most of the rest of her life was probably more difficult because of her “yes”.

But apparently, saying “yes” was worth it to Mary.  And maybe saying “yes” was worth it because Mary understood that her “yes” meant that she would:

  • Be part of God’s plan in the world, not just a spectator.  God was offering her a chance to be part of something bigger than herself, and that was worth saying “yes” to…
  • Experience God’s presence in a unique way.  Of course, Mary’s way was REALLY unique, but apparently Mary understood what many who came before her knew, which is that God isn’t just an idea or an abstraction.  And that sometimes it’s only by saying “yes” that you can experience God as an actual event and a living reality in your life …
  • Be able to share the love and presence of God with others.  Literally, she could share Jesus by becoming his mother.  But Mary had to know that for God’s love to make a difference in people’s lives, it has to be more than words.  And often, it takes saying “yes” to make God’s love a tangible reality in the lives of other people…

Mary said “yes” even though she knew that God’s love wasn’t conditional upon her “yes.”  And that makes Mary a really important example for us.  And that’s because when somehow we know in our hearts that God is asking us to do something, we’re being asked to say “yes”.  But God isn’t asking for our “yes” because it will make God love us or accept us.  And we’re not being asked to say “yes” because it will make us rich, famous, or even just “better people.”

Instead, we’re being invited to say “yes” to God’s call in our lives so that, like Mary, we can also:

  • Be part of what God is doing in the world and not just spectators – in Confirmation when we study the Lord’s Prayer, Luther points out that we pray things like “your will be done” not because God won’t work his will one way or another.  We pray that petition asking that God’s will may be done by us and through us, so that we, like Mary, are part of something bigger than ourselves.  We’re part of God’s action to change and save the world…
  • Experience God’s presence as a living reality in our lives – often as I’ve spoken to people about experiencing God’s presence, I’ve found that people can know a lot about God in their heads; and they can even sort of feel God in their hearts; but they don’t actually experience God’s presence until they do something active, and know in that moment that God is there working through them.  Like Mary, saying yes to actually doing something made God a living experience and not just a concept…
  • Share the love and presence of God with others in ways that they can see and feel and touch – during this season of Advent and Christmas, many of us pay deeper attention to God’s call to help others.  And indeed, people do that for a variety of reasons.  But in saying “yes” to God’s call to make Jesus a “shareable” reality with others, we make God real for others – not just ourselves.  And like Mary, that’s why saying “yes” is important…

Today’s Gospel reading begins with Gabriel announcing to Mary that God has said “yes” to her.  And Gabriel invites Mary to say “yes” to God’s invitation to be part of what God is doing.

And that’s God’s Word for us, too, in this season and throughout the year.  God has said “yes” to us through Jesus, and God invites us to say “yes” to his call in our lives, not to earn God’s “yes”, but to make God’s “yes” a living reality in our lives and in the life of the world around us.

Amen.