Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 20, 2020 – 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14A, 16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38

When we hear the story of the Annunciation, our minds are trained to go immediately toward the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. This is where, in scripture, the roots are found of that doctrine. But that’s not the way it was at the beginning.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was a legitimate progression from something else. What was the something else? It was the doctrine of original sin. The words “original sin” do not appear anyplace in the entire scripture, from beginning to end. Saint Paul, in his letters, frequently talks about the sin of the first Adam and the salvation brought by the second Adam. That’s as close as we get. But the question arises then, for Christians, “saved from what?”

In order to deal with those questions, the church needed to be free of the fear of persecution. So a doctrine begins to develop in the third and fourth centuries, especially after the Edict of Milan that frees the church and makes it a legitimate religion in the Roman Empire. It’s at that point that the phrase “original sin” emerges from among the scholars and, because of that, they can begin to talk about what it was that made Mary “highly favored daughter” or “full of grace,” and eventually you get another phrase called “the Immaculate Conception.” But we, today, need to look at what St. Luke intended to tell his readers in order to appreciate why this story is here on the fourth Sunday of Advent.

If you were to take your Bible and tear out all the pages of chapters one and two of St. Luke, and Xerox them so you could have all the pages on one side, lay them out on the table, what you’d see is what they call a triptych - three stories that match. The whole thing begins in the Jerusalem temple, with Zachariah and the angel Gabriel. It ends in the Jerusalem temple with Simeon and Anna, Mary and Joseph, and the baby Jesus. And it’s structured like this: Annunciation to Zachariah, Annunciation to Mary, Meeting of the wife of Zachariah and Mary, Birth of John the Baptist, Birth of Jesus, Presentation in the temple. It’s beautifully structured, but that tells us that St. Luke mapped out this story very carefully before he wrote it. And in that story there are four hymns.

When Mary and Elizabeth meet, Mary sings a hymn. When John the Baptist is born, Zachariah sings a hymn. When Jesus is born, the angels sing a hymn. And when Jesus is presented in the temple, Simeon sings a hymn. Those hymns existed in the Christian community before the book of Luke was written, and Luke may have chosen them, and built his story around those four hymns. So what is the story? Did you listen for the questions?

The first question is told to us by St. Luke. He says, “Mary wondered what, what this greeting meant. What this greeting meant.” The second question is never asked, but it’s answered. The question is, “Why? Why am I God’s highly favored daughter? Why am I called full of Grace?” The third question is the one that Mary, herself, asks, “How? How can this be?” What? Why? How?

The answer to the first question – What? - is, “You are full of Grace. You are chosen.” The answer to the question Why? Is, “You must conceive and bear a son.” The answer to the question How? Is, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.” That’s what Luke wanted his readers to hear. That they, like Mary, the mother of faith, are also to ask themselves three questions - What? Why? How?

What? I am also a chosen one. At the moment of my baptism, whether as a real tiny baby or as a convert, I was chosen by God. I am now one of his highly favored daughters or sons. That doesn’t mean that God does not love the rest of the human race at all times and all places, but out of that whole mass of humanity that God has created and loved, he has chosen you and me to be his highly favored sons and daughters. So, obviously the question is, “Why me?” How come I was lucky enough to be born into this, instead of into something else? Why me? You must conceive and bear God’s Son. We carry Christ in our hearts. We’re supposed to show Christ from our hearts, in our words and deeds. What is it that we sing in one of the hymns people in this parish like? Christ has no body now, but yours.

Jesus, in his lifetime, went about doing good, healing the sick, comforting the dying, forgiving the broken in spirit. All those things for which we admire and love Jesus, we are called to do. But how can we do those things? You and I also had the Holy Spirit come upon us. First at our Baptism, to claim us for Christ. And then at our Confirmation, if we were confirmed, to direct us in our lives.

Look at all the problems that we have in our world today. Generations before us had other problems that challenged them. You and I can’t do much about the huge problems. But we can do something about our immediate environment, the people with whom we live and work, and whom we love and care for. We are chosen by God to bring Christ to them through the power of the Holy Spirit. The final question of Advent, the one that actually leads us to celebrate the joy of Christmas, is what, why, and how?