Today's Reading: St. Luke 1:26-38
Daily Lectionary: Exodus 2:23-3:22; Mark 14:53-72
“For nothing is impossible with God.” (St. Luke 1:37)
Merry Lent! In the name of Jesus. Amen. Yes, you heard it right, “Merry Lent!” It’s Christmas in Lent!
The Lord is giving gifts today. Salvation is being wrapped up in a present, delivered by the angel Gabriel into Mary’s womb. Mary will conceive and bear a Son. His name will be Jesus, for He will save us from our sins.
“How can this be since I’m a virgin?” Everyone knows virgins don’t get pregnant. There’s a certain thing that you need to do to have a baby and Mary hadn’t done that, yet.
Don’t let the History Channel or modern theologians tell you otherwise: Mary says specifically that she didn’t “know” a man. That’s “know” in the biblical sense—she’d never done that thing which couples do to make a baby.
You see, it’s easy to deny the impossible: Virgins don’t get pregnant, someone must be lying. But the miraculous, promised in the Old Testament and fulfilled with the angel’s words is that the impossible is just what God does—The Virgin Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
God is born in Bethlehem. He flees to Egypt and returns to Nazareth. He grows up, is baptized, teaches, preaches, and heals the sick. God was betrayed into the hands of sinners, beaten, mocked, tossed between Herod and Pilate, and rejected by the very people He was born to save. God then had nails driven into His hands and feet and He was lifted up from the earth to hang until He died.
But God can’t die! That’s impossible! That’s against the very definition of being God! For us, God does the impossible. When God becomes flesh in Jesus, He breaks all the impossible definitions! He is born of a Virgin to die for us on a Cross.
That’s when the really impossible thing happens: We are saved in Christ. He takes our sins and gives us His righteousness. He takes our filth and gives to us His holiness. He endured our hell and gives us His heaven.
Nine months before Christmas, we hear the announcement of His birth into the ears of the Virgin Mary. A Blessed Annunciation and merry Lent to you! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
“O Lord, as we have known the incarnation of Your Son Jesus Christ by the message of the angel to the Virgin Mary, so by the message of His cross and passion bring us to the glory of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”
(Collect for the Annunciation of Our Lord)