Year B (Advent 7 – A 7-Week Advent)
 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
 Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
 Romans 16:25-27
 Luke 1:26-38

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

It may take only a little bit of preparation to do most things…  but when it comes to some other things…  it may take a lot of preparation…  it took some preparation to get things ready for this morning…  it began early in the week when I read this morning’s readings…  and several commentaries about them…  it continued on Wednesday…  when I met with nine clergy of other denominations to discuss them…  and over the next few days as I saw some underlying connections between them…  it continued as I returned to my desk over and again to type out some thoughts…  it continued last evening when I made sure my alarm was set…  and then today…  after I woke up a few hours ago…  to wash the sleep out of my eyes…  on the outside with water…  and on the inside with coffee…  I ironed my shirt and lay out my clothes…  checked my email…  then I made some final edits to this sermon…  and made sure each page printed…  so that I don’t go from p. 2 to p. 4…  and wonder where p. 3 is… 

It took some preparation…  for the parts and pieces of this morning’s bulletin to come together…  for Jill and Kathy to select the music…  and for Mary Ann to play it through a few times…  for Bobbie and Shelley to set the Table and check the candles and thaw out some communion bread…  and for John to make sure the Mevo camera software was up-to-date and working…  it took some getting ready for Kevin and Bobbie to review their readings…  and for Polly to bake and prepare for the coffee hour we’ll share…  it took some getting ready…  just as it did for many of you from Holy Trinity to prepare for tonight’s Christmas Eve service…  It may take only a little bit of preparation to do most things…  but when it comes to fewer other things…  it may take a lot of preparation…

In our reading from 2 Samuel…  David decides that its not right that he lives in a house made of cedar…  while the Ark of God resides in a tent…  maybe he’s feeling guilty…  and so he makes up his mind that he’s going to build a house for God…  but God challenges David…  saying that in the vast sweep of Israel’s history from the Exodus until now…  God has never complained about not having a house…  so why build one now…  and further…  God makes clear…  that while David will not build a house for God…  God will make David into God’s house…  and through him…  his kingdom will be made sure forever…  ]  and you may remember that David’s son Solomon built the first Temple…  built it over about seven years… with its inner Holy of Holies…  where the Ark of the Covenant finally rested…  ]  it may take only a little bit of time…  a little bit of preparation…  to do most things…  it may take a lot of time to get ready for other things…  but it may take more time than we’d like…  to do really singular things…

In this morning’s Gospel…  known as The Annunciation…  the angel Gabriel comes to Mary…  ] the text says that God sent Gabriel to tell Mary that she would conceive and bear a son…  now we know that it’s Gabriel…  but he never introduces himself to her…  he never names himself the way he does to Zechariah just a few verses earlier…  when Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and told him that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son…  who he would name John…  and because Zechariah questioned the angel…  saying…  How will I know that this is so…  for I am an old man…  and my wife is getting on in years…  because he questioned God’s messenger…  he lost his voice until the prophecy came true…  but let’s notice…  that Mary doesn’t ask…  Why is going to happen…  why have I been chosen…  she questions what is said…  the way Zechariah questioned…  she asks…  but how can this be…  since I am a virgin…

Katie Kirk…  at St. George’s College in Jerusalem writes…  that in Nazareth today…  two separate holy sites commemorate The Annunciation…  and in the Holy Land…  when there are two sites associated with the same event…  they’re almost always competing sites…  two different communities which claim their stretch of land has the only place where a given story really happened…  but not quite so with The Annunciation…  one site is near an ancient well…  and the other is just down the hill in the traditional location of Mary’s house…  and that’s because one tradition tells the story this way…

The first time Gabriel appears to Mary is when she is gathering water at the well…  ] when he starts his announcement…  Mary is so startled that she runs all the way home…  and some versions add that Gabriel pursues her to her house…  eventually making it all the way through his announcement…  at which time Mary says…  Let it be with me…  according to your will…

Now in Latin… Mary’s…  Let it be…  is fiat…  it’s a word that appears in the Angelus…  a Roman Catholic devotion commemorating Jesus’ incarnation and which includes the Hail Mary…  but in this traditional story…  there is a power differential between God…  present in this angel…  and a newly engaged…  small-town…  young woman…  who is scared…  and we know that in English at least…  the word fiat almost always means…  a decree…  an order…  an edict…  it refers to something done under some degree of coercion…  but in Genesis 1 the same word is used in…  Dixitque Deus fiat lux…  when God said…  Let there be light… an expression of God’s gentle moment of bringing…  of being light into creation…  and not one of coercion…  and in her moment of cooperation…  in her own moment of being…  Mary is co-creating with God to create light within her…

Children often cannot wait for Christmas day…  Why is it taking so long…  I want my presents now…  but we understand that God plays the long game…  and is patient beyond our ability to measure…  now take a big step even further back…  consider the eons that have passed before the coming of Christ… for over thirteen billion years God was able to wait for that coming…  ] notice that God…  imagine what that moment of Christ’s coming was like for God…  God eternal and outside of time…  God within and patient over time…  and even in our Eucharist prayers…  we affirm that it was…  in the fullness of time…  that God came to us as Jesus… 

Author Madeleine L’Engle writes:

This is the irrational season

when love blooms bright and wild.

Had Mary been filled with reason

there’d have been no room for the child.

It may take only a little bit of preparation to do most things…  but it may take more time than we’d like…  to do really singular things…  and all we have to do is look at what’s going on today in Bethlehem… to be reminded of just how much we need a Savior… so what are we preparing for…  and how long are we willing to wait for it…  let’s remember…  it’s not we who make a dwelling place for God…  but God who makes us into God’s dwelling place…  all we have to say…  is…  fiat…  Let it be with me… according to you Word…  our waiting is almost over…