The Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 21, 2008

Year B

Luke 1: 26-38

St. Francis, Norris

The Holy Spirit will come upon you!

In our reading from second Samuel we hear about a house for the Lord to live in and a house for David to live in, that will be made by the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant had been being carried about the desert and the Lord was living in a tent because of this. He had no permanent dwelling place. Israel is to be planted in a permanent place in the City of David which we also know as Jerusalem.

This makes me think that God, at this point, is just floating around and wandering; looking for a place to put down some roots. I know some people that are metaphorically doing that same thing; wandering around looking for a place to put down some roots. Been there myself…more than once. I know that housing for God is an important thing to God. There is great detail in the Old Testament of the Tabernacle to be built for God and exacting specifications are laid out. It is a place for God to be… inside.

Coupled with this reading is the Gospel of Luke and what is known as the Annunciation. The Annunciation is also a Holy Day celebrated in the Episcopal Church every year on March 25…exactly nine months prior to Christmas day. The point of the story is the same point as in Second Samuel. God is once again, looking for a place to be inside. Only this time it is not some building. It is a person…a human.

The messenger angel, Gabriel, appears to Mary to let her know that she is about to become the theotokos. In case you are wondering, theotokos is the Greek word meaning bearer of God. Just thought I would show off my seminary education a little bit. I remember memorizing the word theotokos for a test and thinking; “like I’ll ever use that word in a sermon”. Theotokos.

Mary is about to become overshadowed by the power of the Most High (God). The Holy Spirit will be with her in a way that has never been before. Mary will become pregnant with a child who will be known as Jesus. The very essence or being of God is beginning to become wholly human. This is important stuff.

One of the hardest things in seminary to wrap my brain around was the argument surrounding who is this “person” of Christ? The arguments as to the divinity and humanity of Christ can be confusing at best. Was he half human and half divine or all human or all divine? Some very intelligent people have argued these points for many years. The consensus comes out to be that Christ is totally divine…AND… totally human. It’s a both and rather than an either or.

Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Conceived in divinity and born in humanity. Totally divine and totally human. But how could a person be other than 100% human, if born to human? How could they possibly be divine also?

Kahlil Gibran was a poet and author of the book the Prophet. While I don’t think he had Mary and Jesus in mind when he wrote this particular piece, I have always found it to be profound and now, supremely applicable in this circumstance of virgin and divine birth. Hear it with your own children in mind as well as the Christmas birth.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

I really like what this poem says about my relationships with all of my children. For the first time, though, it says more to me.

Jesus is not Mary’s child. He came through her but not from her. He came from God’s Holy Spirit. Mary gave Jesus her love but not her thoughts. How often do we love Jesus as we try to project our own thoughts upon him? We do this whenever we are certain of things such as; he meant this…when he said that. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. Too often we strive to convince others and ourselves that Christ is like us rather than the other way around. Perhaps when you feel like your way is the ONLY way you are asking that others be like you rather than like Christ. Perhaps you are even saying what would Jesus do WWJD really means DAID. Do as I do.

It is the perfection of the Holy Spirit, being born into a flawed human body that is the Christmas miracle. Virgin birth is a miracle, but no more so than perfection in a human soul. It has only happened this one time. God created the perfect house in which to dwell. The Spirit of God in Jesus… God with us… Emmanuel.

Whenever we do a baptism we do so in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are normally in the church when we do this. The church is the bride of Christ. I think it reasonable to compare the visitation to Mary by Gabriel to a baptism. Gabriel tells Mary, The Holy Spirit will come upon you! Baptism is certainly the asking of that very same Holy Spirit to come upon the persons being baptized. Baptism is rebirth. The birth of Christ is rebirth also in that it is the new creation of Man. Not a creation from the earth this time. A creation from humanity itself…along with the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, joined with humanity. A new creation. Baptism. A new creation.

Of course we are not the same as Jesus Christ just because we receive the sacrament of baptism. We will be unable to resist all those temptations in humanity. We will stumble into sin many times even after we are baptized. We are like Jesus in that we are 100% human. We are unlike Jesus in that we are nowhere near 100% divine.

That is one reason for God Parents and for parents and for the entire congregation to be a part of a baptism. We are incapable of making our way. We must rely on the support of our neighbors to help us along.

God found a permanent dwelling place in the divinity of a human being. Even so God is still putting down roots through this person of Christ. Jesus is coming to us through the humanity of Mary and is indeed a new beginning, a new creation. A new child is born on Christmas and that child is Holy because that child is God’s own house. And through the Holy sacrament of baptism we invite God into our own, imperfect house. Into our humanity we ask that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit will join with us. And in asking...we receive.

God made the choice to live in Jesus. We make the choice for Jesus to live in us, through our baptism. In doing so we provide a dwelling place in which God can live where God has always wished to live… In the creation that came through the love of God. In other words in us…you and me. This has always been and always will be God’s dream house.