St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
The Fourth Sunday of Advent/Year B ▪ December 20, 2020
Luke 1:26-38
Twenty-twenty has been the year of the four-letter word. You know, one of the many four-letter words that make a southern belle clutch her pearls. The kind of four-letter word that whips a parent’s head around toward their child should such a word pour forth from their child’s mouth. The act of even referring to a word as a “four-letter” word already designates it as offensive in some way, to some people who have generally agreed that certain four-letter words are “no-no’s” in some circles. Nevertheless, we can agree that words—whether or not they have four letters—do convey meaning and do have the power to influence the thoughts and actions of individuals.
With all of this year’s trauma, marked by the many losses and inconsolable grief caused by the sickness and death of the Coronavirus; with all of this year’s uncovered terror exploding in civil unrest; with all of the lives destroyed by unprecedented natural disasters, you might be hard pressed to find anyone who has not used at least of those four-letter words to describe a year, that many might feel, is deserving of each one. With the advent of two vaccines approved for emergency use to combat the virus, perhaps you have heard a four-letter word that is rarely heard in secular circles, let alone in news stories. It is the kind of four-letter word that like those other four-letter words conveys meaning, and has the power to influence the thoughts and actions of individuals. That four-letter word is HOPE.
At the end of a very dark year, HOPE is emerging. Now, this thing called hope may come as a welcomed surprise for those who live without the knowledge of Jesus Christ or who choose to reject Christ. But, for those who live in Christ, hope is not surprising; it is ever-present. Hope, like suffering, is a part of the human experience. But, hope, unlike suffering, liberates the soul, and does not oppress.
Many years ago in my hospital chaplain residency, I witnessed a lot of suffering and the hope in Christ that faithful people leaned on, and sometimes wielded like swords, as they moved through their healing journeys and through their journeys toward death. Witnessing these patients’ personal hope in God’s plan for their life’s journey influenced my thoughts and my actions, and indeed helped to shape my own sense of hope and to recognize that hope as Christ. I recall one of my colleagues sharing with our group that he loved to give his patients hope. Our supervisor promptly corrected him, and said, “You can’t give people hope. Hope comes from God; you can only bear hope for them.” The bearing of hope is what our scripture passage in Luke is about today.
We are privy to the angel Gabriel’s visitation to a betrothed virgin and the announcement of God’s favor manifesting from the conception to the birth of the holy child, the Son of God. Nothing in the text tells us that Mary did anything to receive God’s favor, only that she indeed had it. Mary asked only one question, and the question was more for clarification, not a reflection of her willingness to be used by God for God’s intended purposes. She simply asked how it could be that a virgin could conceive and bear a child. After Gabriel explained the action of the Holy Spirit, what Mary was to do and who the son, born from her womb, was to be, Mary, a servant of the Lord, submitted to God’s will.
We must remember that Mary’s obedient acceptance was dangerous. Mary was not yet married to Joseph, so the scandal of being with child, meant that there was a possibility that she, along with her unborn child, could lawfully be killed. Trusting in God, and undoubtedly knowing the risks to her safety, Mary said, “Yes.” Not only did she say, “Yes,” to God’s will for her life, her song of praise, which we know as the Magnificat (our canticle for today) strikes me as a beacon of hope which we, as bearers of hope, can use to nurture our own witness of God’s favor; his movement on our behalf; his enduring mercy; his strength and his faithfulness.
The first verse of Mary’s song of praise, is “My soul magnifies the Lord” (Lk 1:46). Mary’s very soul served as a means by which God’s presence was magnified in this world for anyone with whom she engaged, even those who would look upon her as disgraceful. Might we witness to Mary’s rejoicing, even in the midst of her society which would not share such rejoicing, in order to strengthen our own faith in times when it may be hard to remain faithful?
As it was with Mary, so it is with us, that four-letter word—hope comes from God. Mary’s womb, as the God-bearer, bore the hope of the world, Jesus Christ—Emmanuel, God with us. We who are baptized into Christ, bear the hope that IS Christ already in this world and the hope that is yet to be fully-realized when he returns.
Mary bore that hope, the Son of God, once for all, but we are called to use our lives to magnify the Lord, to bear that same hope in word and deed, without ceasing, so that all who witness our steadfast faith—even when the world around us appears to be crumbling—can begin to develop and nurture their own sense of hope grounded in Christ. When we bear witness to our faith in God, in times of rejoicing and in times of trial, we are rejecting the behavior of ascribing to an “on demand” faith—a faith that is tapped into only when a person is brought low and in the time of trial. The steadfast faith of God’s servants reflects the steadfast faithfulness of God, and it communicates to others the necessity to hold on and wait for God because things as they are will not always be—that’s hope.
As we await the season of Christmas, let us commit to rejecting the false hope of the secular world which will always fall short. Instead, let us commit to bearing, into this broken world, the hope that is Christ Jesus—a hope that promises to restore that which is broken to wholeness with God. Might we, who claim to be Christians, boldly bear our commitment to that four-letter word, hope, which points us all to the ultimate four-letter word—a four-letter word that is all-powerful to influence the thoughts and actions of individuals—the four-letter word that is God himself—L-O-V-E. Amen.
