4th Sunday in Advent
12/21/14
Luke 1:26-38
For Nothing will be impossible with God – this is where we get
that saying that is so often employed on t-shirts, bumper stickers,
and inspirational posters. This saying has also been cut and
mangled to give us the theologically incorrect, scripturally
unsound, and incredibly pithy saying – God doesn’t give us more
than we can handle – which isn’t scripturally sound nor is it true.
The theologically sound saying that is actually based in Scripture
is – nothing is impossible with God.
This saying comes from the angel Gabriel. This isn’t the first
instance of Gabriel showing up in Scripture. The first time we
hear about him is in the book of Daniel in the 8th Chapter, when
Gabriel is told to explain the vision to the prophet. He is also the
angel that visits Zechariah to tell him that his wife Elizabeth will
give birth to a son. Gabriel is one of the only 2 angels explicitly
mentioned in the protestant Bible.
So the angel Gabriel visits Daniel, Zechariah and he visits Mary.
And in all 3 instances Gabriel talks about making something
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impossible happen. Daniel – a poor, illiterate slave becomes a
prophet. Zechariah – an old man, married to an equally old
woman are to give birth after years of infertility to a prophet. And
our main character this week – Mary – as we heard last week – a
poor, pregnant peasant girl transforms into a prophet in 3 short
verses1.
The overall form of Gabriel’s conversation with Mary is the same
form found in the Old Testament when God or an Angel would
call a prophet. All of the prophet call narratives have the same
basic outline. They start with a visit from a divine presence –
whether it is an angel, a burning bush, or a giant batch of fog. We
then have a very confused and/or scared recipient of this message.
We then move to a divine speech when the divine angel or thing
that is there tries to calm down the new prophet and then tries to
explain what they are asking of the new prophet. The new prophet
then balks at the idea and claims incompetence or an inability to
do whatever is being asked. Then there is further explanation
from the divine presence during which they tend to lay out the
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https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1148
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fine print of the new prophets contract. And finally the prophet
agrees to do whatever thing the divine presence has asked.
Mary’s story follows this logic – Gabriel shows up, Mary is much
perplexed, Gabriel tries to explain himself, Mary is more
confused and claims an inability to do the job, Gabriel then
explains himself a little bit more, and then Mary accepts.
The angel Gabriel’s job description then sounds impossible – his
job is to go to the most unlikely person, in the most unlikely place
and tell them they are going to change the world – because
apparently- nothing is impossible with God.
Now I know you have heard that before, it’s an often used
Christmas season sermon - that the Christmas story is about an
unlikely savior being born to an unlikely person in an unlikely
place and because of all that we are to see God in the unlikely
places and people in our lives. Am I right? Have you heard that
Christmas sermon before? I’m sure I’ve given it and now I’m
going to have to change my sermon for Wednesday night.
But the Angel Gabriel’s job description is to do the impossible,
and I don’t know if he was given a choice to do it or not, but once
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again he accepts his job description and stands in all of his angel
glory in front of this pheasant girl asking her to do something
amazing, asking her to do something impossible – for nothing will
be impossible with God.
And I can see why Gabriel says this to Mary – for nothing will be
impossible with God. Gabriel wants and needs her to understand
how important that reality is to her situation. Now that’s
important and I hope you heard my emphasis – for nothing will
be impossible – WITH GOD.
Because no matter how many times we have heard it, it’s trueGabriel was asking Mary to do something impossible. Gabriel
also asked Zechariah and Daniel to do something impossible. But
Gabriel wasn’t asking any of them to do it alone. Gabriel was
saying – you are going to have help, there will be people along
the way to save you and God is with you – you are doing this
impossible thing with God.
Just looking at Mary’s story she had help along the way, she
didn’t do this alone, God was there with her all along – we talked
about her interaction with Elizabeth last week, Elizabeth says she
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was filled with the Holy Spirit – that right there was God showing
up through Elizabeth and saying – I am with you. Joseph shows
up and agrees to marry her and that right there is God showing up
and saying – I am with you.
Now I know I say this a lot in sermons and I honestly say it a lot
in my my daily life, but seeing and understanding that nothing
will be impossible with God, seeing and knowing that God is with
us, that is hard. Seeing that there will be help along the way can
also be hard. Waiting and listening for that still small voice to help
us understand where God is calling us and then being awake
enough to see the sign posts or markers along the way that tell us
we are going in the right direction is hard. It all can be so hard.
And yet I still stand here and quote the angel Gabriel – for nothing
will be impossible with God.
And I can’t tell you the number of times that I have not believed
those words. The numbers of times I have stood and felt that there
is no way this thing I am about to do or that I am trying to do is
possible. We can start with me being ordained in the first place. I
never thought the ordination process would end, I actually never
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thought it would even begin. All along the way I reached out in
desperation and asked for help, from everyone, from anyone that
would listen. It took a long time to get here, and I still don’t think
I have all that much figured out, but I stand here and I still say –
for nothing will be impossible with God.
Because to be with God – it does require us to show up, it requires
us to live in and be a part of a community – because God lives in
community, God does not do this work alone, God does not want
us to do this work alone – all of us are in this together. And so
every Sunday we come here and ask for help to do the things in
our lives that seem impossible. And every day we can ask for help
to do the things that seem impossible.
But be warned – asking God to show up and help isn’t for the faint
of heart. We often have these beau colic visions of happy, fluffy,
and friendly angels coming to play us a harp and speak to us
sweetly. But the angel Gabriel was anything but fluffy and sweet
– every single scripture reference to his presence says that he is
terrifying. When we ask God to show up we better be ready for it,
it might not look like what we want it to look like – the help
doesn’t always look like what we want it to look like and it can
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come from the most unlikely places. And that’s what God does –
God shows up in strange and new ways and shakes us up and
helps us do the impossible. For nothing will be impossible with
God.
Let us open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts so that we can see
where God is showing up and where God is leading us and so that
we can know what seemingly impossible task we are being asked
to do. This will be hard work, together we can do it. Help us to
ask for help and to acknowledge it and use it when that help shows
up – Help us to do the impossible - for nothing is impossible with
God.
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