Be Ye Not Afraid
Luke 1.26-38
21 December 2008
Dr. Matthew M. Fry

As we continue to experience The Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Give us, we pray, O God, thoughts higher than our own thoughts, prayers better than our own prayers, powers beyond our biological possibilities, that we may spend and be spent in the preaching and hearing of Thy Word. Amen.

Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in the Gospel of Luke. Listen. Luke 1.26-38.

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

The Grass Withers, The Flower Falls, but The Word of The Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

There seems to be one constant with the traditional Advent passages. Fear. “Do not be afraid, Mary,” the angel says in verse 30. Maybe the angels had several meetings where this phenomenon was discussed. “Make sure to tell them not to be afraid, first thing. Otherwise, they completely panic. Had one run out in just a loincloth on me, screaming like a lost little child. If it didn’t freak me out so much, I’d have died laughing. Those humans are so jittery.”

Fear is present when the angel speaks to Zechariah in verse 13, to Joseph in Matthew 1, and to the shepherds in chapter 2 of Luke. Fear is common throughout the lectionary at this time of year, as we read about it every year leading up to Christmas.

Everyone in the Bible is afraid at the presence of angels, and Mary is no exception.

Why is there so much fear in the Bible, especially around Christmas? Herod was so afraid of being overthrown that he does something horrific. Joseph and Mary are afraid enough of the tax to travel all the way to Bethlehem when Mary is “heavy with child.” That just seems so recklessly dangerous.

Fear is a natural part of the human condition. It is ingrained into our lives. There is something to fear everywhere you turn. And because the Bible is well written and able to connect with us on a deep level, the acknowledgement of fear is there. Even at this pivotal time in history.

We would never admit it, not even to ourselves, but there is always a good deal of fear at Christmas. What are we afraid of at Christmas? Are we going to make all of the family happy? Will the house be clean enough? Will dinner be good enough? Will our relatives be able to get along for even a few short hours? Will the kids be happy enough with their presents? Will this Christmas live up to the memories of all my previous Christmases, when life was simpler? Will I have to spend Christmas alone again?

What if our latent fear is that God will break through all of our planning and our busyness and our shopping and our cooking and our cleaning and our worrying and our preparing, and then we will stand face to face with an angel or some other presence of God, and be called to bring God’s love into the world. What if we had to set aside all of our actions, and just listen above the chattering of our teeth and the knocking of our knees, to the sometimes quiet, sometimes not so quiet, sounds of a vulnerable baby God, of a young 12 year old who amazes people in the temple with his questions and answers, of a teacher, healer and friend, of someone who overturns the money changers in the temple, of a beaten and defeated man on a cross, of a risen Lord appearing in a room where the disciples are hiding? You know how scary that is? You know how scary that is. That is why you join along with me and the countless throng making our preparations, going to party after party, fighting for parking spots and that last toy that must be bought to make it a happy Christmas, cleaning and cooking, doing anything to keep busy so that we can hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on our hearts.

What if God were to call us, unworthy as we are, and to ask us to be agents of love? The thought is too much to bear. God ought to be calling people much more qualified, like Mary. Good old Saint Mary. She ponders things in her heart. She sings, magnificent songs even. She has the courage, even in her fear to respond to the angel, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.”

Compared to Mary, we have done nothing. Our ability to come into contact with divine love is nothing compared to hers. “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.”

Because Mary had done so much to prove herself worthy. When we look into Scripture we find that before this angelic visit she was… well, nothing. Which is interesting. I think, and this is just my presumption, that if she had done noteworthy stuff, either something good, like David who slay the giant Philistine with only a slingshot and some smooth stones, or something bad, like Moses who had murdered a man and was living life on the run, if she was like either of those and had done anything noteworthy, that someone would have kept some notes on it. Yet, we have nothing about her. The closest thing we know from Luke is about her cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s family. Up to this point in the Gospel of Luke, and Luke isn’t the only one like this, Mary is completely non noteworthy. The only thing that makes Mary noteworthy is that, through her fear, she still has faith. She is able to set her fear aside and say, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Here’s what I wish for you, and for me, and for everyone this Christmas. Less fear. Less busyness. Less overcrowding life in order to hide from God. And the ability to go beyond fear that we are inadequate, not worthy enough, or not gifted enough to say, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.”