For nothing will be impossible with God. _NRSV

What is it about Mary that makes her an appropriate bearer of the promises of God? I have spent my share of time looking at art in galleries and churches over the years. If you look at religiously themed art, especially from the Renaissance, you begin to notice that many of the thousands of paintings of famous religious stories have a lot in common. For instance, our scripture today gives us an account of the moment in time when Jesus’ mother, Mary, received an angelic visitor, in order that she might receive word that God had chosen her to bear the Messiah.

From the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance period in Europe, certain elements showed up in virtually every artist’s rendering of this scene. Through the centuries when most people still could not read, the church had discovered that complex theological ideas could be presented by easily understood visual elements:

• A winged angelic figure representing the angel Gabriel, who carried God’s message;


• Mary’s image was always clothed in some blue material, blue being a costly color to produce, signified royalty;


• Mary is depicted, often at a reading desk, holding a book, meant to suggest that she is reading the prophecy about Christ from Isaiah;


• Some image of the Holy Spirit floats in the room, a dove, or even a tiny human form signifying a baby


• Lilies are present, symbol of her purity and of the resurrection;

The Annunciation was such a popular theme for painting, especially in Florence, that virtually every artist of any standing was called upon to paint the subject, and often more than once. The challenge was to paint in such a way — using all the standard elements — so as not to make it seem as though all these paintings of the one theme were simply variations on a theme. The great artists did this beautifully, each bringing their own unique style to the subject.

My favorite modern depiction of the scene was painted by John Collier. You can see it on the internet if you care to look for it.¹ It depicts the sunlit door of a suburban house. In Collier’s modern painting a 14 or 15 year-old schoolgirl, who looks to be from the 1950s, stands at the door in a white blouse under a calf-length blue jumper, white bobby socks and saddle oxfords on her feet, holding a small red book. Next to her a lily plant grows from a pot. She is peering sheepishly over the book at a man with short-cropped brown hair, who is making a slight bow, his hands folded in front of him as if in prayer. His flowing robe and large wings on his back make him an unusual sight in this otherwise suburban American neighborhood. How out of place would the angel’s annunciation to Mary be in our own time? Or is it always in season?

Madeleine L’Engle once wrote a prayer in contemplation of Mary’s response:²

“March 25th, the Annunciation”
To the impossible: Yes
Enter and penetrate,
O Spirit, Come and bless
This hour. The star is late.
Only the absurdity of love,
Can break the bonds of hate.

Around twenty years ago, the Beatles sang a song about the words of Mary. At the time, the Viet Nam war was raging, the politics of the world seemed to be in hopeless chaos, college campuses were in an uproar, thousands sought a word from the Lord by going to the mountaintop, seeking out the gurus, meditating transcendentally, entering therapy; amid all the confusion, coming over the airwaves were words of scripture from the unlikeliest of sources: “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom: ‘Let it be.’”

The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and laid it all out before her. God planned to continue to build David’s house, but not with spears and shields and harsh words from the professionally religious and religiously professional. He planned to do it as he had been doing it from the beginning: by choosing not an army, but an individual — one who, like David, had a heart that God loved — the unlikely one that people might overlook, but that God would certainly find and use in his own special way. God found Mary, the most unlikely of the unlikely: an unmarried peasant girl. And Gabriel went to her and told her what God had planned.

God never forces his plans on anyone, and he didn’t do so the day that Gabriel found Mary dozing on the sofa. Frederick Buechner wrote that the angel spoke all these words to Mary, hoping she wouldn’t notice that beneath his great, golden angel’s wings he was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a mere girl.

God has a way of knowing the hearts of people that others have overlooked, and that was the case on that day. Mary responded: “Let it be to me according to your word.”

There are those who might think that this was a response of resignation... that Mary saw the writing on the wall and thought to herself “Who am I to resist God?” But God never insists himself on anyone. Mary responded in obedience and faith.

Obedience is an active resolve to see something through as another has directed. Mary heard God’s plans for her and she resolved to be one with his purpose so far as she was able. She knew from her religious training that God had acted on behalf of her people in the past. She had faith that he would be good to his word in the present time.

It’s the sort of trust in God’s perplexing promise that we would do well to emulate in our own lives, in our own time.

Copyright © 2006 Robert J. Elder, all rights reserved.
Sermons are made available in print and on the web for readers only.
Any further publication or use of sermons must be with written permission of the author.

Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

___________________________________________
NOTES

¹ - http://www.hillstream.com/annunciation.html.
² - The Irrational Season, p. 154.