Christmas Eve - What's the Catch?

December 24, 2019 Mark 1:18-25

Deborah Laforet Luke 1:26-38

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“What’s the Catch?”

At our 4:30 service, I was interrupted by our Children’s Minister to ask some questions around Christmas symbols and what they mean.  This creation, our Christmas tree, is what came out of that conversation.  Although I encourage questions and conversation, especially around the bible and our faith, I ask that you come see me anytime, but maybe not interrupt my well-planned sermons.  Just kidding by the way; it was a planned interruption.  

Let us pray.  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O God, my rock and my redeemer and may your the message and meaning of the Christmas stories, bring us to a deeper understanding of our faith.  Amen.  (Psalm 19:14)

“Greetings, favoured ones!”  Isn’t that a marvelous greeting?   I wonder whether we shouldn’t incorporate it into our Sunday morning passing of the peace, turning to others, shaking their hands, and saying, “Greetings, favoured one.”  In the Latin, this is where we get ‘Ave, Maria.’ or also, ‘Hail, Mary.’  It’s a joyous and enthusiastic greeting, but what if it’s being delivered by an angel?  Are we like, “Hey, greetings to you too!  What’s up?”  Or are we scared speechless.  The people here who might best relate to how Mary responded to this angel are the young women who are here tonight, our teenagers.  I can guess that they might be a little more open to this apparition than us adults, less quick to dismiss it or to doubt, maybe still a little more open-minded to the unusual and unexpected.  There are a few of these angel encounters in our bible but they don’t happen often, relative to the great amount of time, thousands of years, that our bibles cover, but in our rational, scientific age, greetings by angels are unheard of or highly suspect.  

An annunciation is a word I grew up with in the Catholic Church and it always referred to the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, announcing that she would have a child.  Annunciation is a word that means announcement or proclamation and there are actually quite a few of these in the bible, some of them by angels.  

The very first visit by an angel of the Lord in our bibles is to a foreigner and a woman.  This woman, a servant, had been sent out into the desert by her mistress, a woman, unable to have children, who was envious of her servant’s pregnancy.  Hear the words the angel spoke to Hagar in the 16th chapter of Genesis: “Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael…” (Genesis 16:11) If those words sound familiar, it might be because you’ve just heard the angel Gabriel’s words to Joseph in our Christmas story, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”  (Mark 1:23)

Some people tend to see angels as cherubic little children or beautiful beings, usually white, with large white wings, white gowns, and with a bright white light surrounding them.  To be angelic is to be good and kind, gentle and peaceful.  Angels in the bible though defy this image.  Angels led the armies of God.  They were God’s armoured soldiers, doing God’s bidding.  There are stories of angels being sent to bring destruction upon people or whole cities.  It was angels that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that killed the Egyptian first borns in the story of Moses and the Exodus, that touched people and created skin diseases, that killed a camp full of thousands of soldiers, all at God’s bidding.  These were terrifying creatures.  If you were visited by an angel, you felt fear and worried what was coming next.  

Other angelic visits include one within a burning bush, one sitting under an oak tree, and, believe it or not, one about an angel and a talking donkey.  (Numbers, chapter 22). Many of these angelic visits though tend to revolve around children.  Three strangers, later defined as angels, announced to a very elderly Abraham and Sarah that they would finally have a son.  Remember Samson, of the Samson and Delilah stories?  His birth was announced by an angel to his parents.  In another story, an angel saves a child from being killed by his father, and in another, a mother is promised that her son will live and be the ancestor of a great nation. As I said before, these angelic visits were few and far between, but suddenly, as we read our gospels, these visits become abundant.

In the gospel of Matthew, Joseph is visited by an angel, not once, not twice, but three times!  The first time was to advise him not to divorce Mary and that her child is of the Holy Spirit; the second was to advise him to take his family and flee as Herod, protecting his own power, was seeking to kill this “new born king.”  Thirdly, the angel visited Joseph to let him know when it was safe to return to Israel.  I’d have to do more research, but this may be the most visits to one person by an angel.  An angel also warned the magi to go home by a different route and not to tell Herod where they found the child prophesied to be king of the Jews.

In the gospel of Luke, we again have multiple visits by angels but to a number of people.  An angel visits Zechariah, to tell him his elderly and barren wife, Elizabeth, will finally have a baby, a very common theme in our bible.  The same angel then visits Mary, a teenage woman who has not yet been with a man, but will have a baby, conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Then, on the night Mary has this child, a whole host of angels visit a group of shepherds watching their sheep in a field.  Each announcement, or annunciation, brings great news of a special child, one who will change the world, bringing peace on earth and to all people.

When angels visit, lives will be changed, the world will change.  The angels in our Christmas stories bring good news and glad tidings and I think we usually treat these heavenly events with joy and celebration, which is, of course, most appropriate, but as with most joyful songs, there are sad notes.  As with any story filled with hope, there is despair and grief to over come.  The angels in the gospels were visiting a people whose nation was occupied by a foreign empire, an empire that brought peace through militaristic means.  They were a people who had very little power, a people crying out for justice and mercy.  The angels were bringing good news to a people greatly in need of it.

Amy-Jill Levine, a Jewish woman and professor of Christian scriptures, writes, “Gabriel’s…comment [to Mary], ‘The Lord is with you,’ is both comforting and ominous.  When an angel comes to an individual to make an announcement, there’s both the assurance of divine protection and, usually, a catch.  An angelic visit - whether to announce a baby or a commission or to interpret a vision - typically requires a response.  God told Abraham to leave his home and family and go to Canaan; God told Moses to demand that Pharaoh set the Israelite slaves free; and God told Jonah to prophesy, and [Jonah] attempted to run away.  God asks a lot.  God also gives us the strength to respond.”

The birth of these children in our gospels, John to Zechariah and Elizabeth, and Jesus, to Mary and Joseph, is a blessing, good news, gifts to their families and to the world, but we also know that, although their ministries will bring the promise of justice and mercy, they will also bring pain and suffering, and ultimately, execution by the state.  In the gospel of Luke, when Joseph and Mary bring their newborn baby to be presented at the temple, Simeon, a righteous and devout man, on whom the Holy Spirit rested, prophesied about the baby and then told Mary that a sword would pierce her soul.  Many of us are parents and I think we all know what this sword feels like.  For Mary, this would include the horrific death of her son on a cross.  

There is a reason angels usually begin their visits with, “Be not afraid.”  When an angel has come to call, there is reason to be afraid.  Angels come to protect and bring glad tidings, but that protection usually comes with a price; the glad tidings come with a catch.  

This is life, angels or no.  Life is laughter through the tears and sometimes tears amidst the laughter.  There was a movie back in 1997 by director Roberto Benigni called “Life is Beautiful,” about a Jewish family in the midst of the Holocaust.  Although it was a tragic story, it was also beautiful, comical, and heart-warming.  It’s the good and the bad that make life beautiful.  Maybe that’s why we see such beauty in angels, maybe they represent the beauty in life, the beauty in grief and suffering, the beauty of endurance, resilience, and courage, the beauty of supportive communities and the warm hugs and listening ears of friends.

Angels come proclaiming news about life, challenging us, comforting us, reminding us that God needs us, that God is with us, and that life is beautiful, in its ups and downs, in its joys and sorrow, in its celebrations and worries.

As Amy-Jill Levine wrote, “God asks a lot.  God also gives us the strength to respond.”  May these angels of the Lord continue to challenge and comfort us.  May this new born king shine in the midst of our shadows and inspire us to shine for others in need of justice and mercy.  May we travel with this babe, with the shepherds and the Magi, with Mary and Joseph and the angels, step by step, finding beauty in the world around us and in each life that touches us.  Amen.

Deborah Laforet