Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

"A Slave to Christ"

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Luke 1:26–38

>²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" ²⁹But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³²He 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 father David, ³³and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." ³⁴And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" ³⁵And the angel answered 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 called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God." ³⁸And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

The bible writes about many slaves. We know Joseph became a slave when his brothers sold him to the Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. We read about the Israelites being slaves in Egypt. We read about slavery in our time as well.

Slavery, the dictionary defines it as "a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant." During our bible class on Exodus we discovered several ways a person would become a slave. Military conquest, born of a slave, sold into slavery by a parent, selling yourself into slavery because of financial difficulties. In modern days the slave trade is an illegal trade that robs families of their loved ones when they are captured and sold into slavery. None of these sound like something you do willingly or with your whole heart.

Last week the Gospel lesson was about John the Baptist and how he was a servant of the Lord by preparing the way for the coming of Jesus Christ. When asked who he was "²³He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said."… ²⁵They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" ²⁶John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, ²⁷even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." John clearly put himself in the role of a servant, "the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." But would you go as far as to say he was Jesus’ slave? No, I would not go that far even with all his dedication to Jesus; I would still call him a servant and come short of calling him a slave of Christ.

Mary, on the other hand is another story. She reacts to the angel Gabriel with an amazing response. Our translation says, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord." Another translation has; "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord." We are getting closer to the full meaning. Another translation gets really close; "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord." The force of the Greek word used for Mary’s response is truly that she gave herself to be the slave of Jesus Christ. That presents some problems. Mary was to be Jesus’ mother. She would have to be a parent to Jesus; how could she be His slave at the same time? She gave herself to be Jesus’ domestic slave at the word of an angel. As great as John the Baptist was which he was called "The greatest of those born of a woman." He is not worthy to be what she has become, "the slave of the coming one."

She did it willingly and without hesitation. She gave herself to be; "a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant." Mary, this young girl, would become the "most blessed of all those who bear sons" yet she was a slave to that son

Let’s back up a bit so we can get some perspective. An angel appears to Mary. Think about that, I said an angel appears to Mary. Imagine her fear, imagine if you were at Wal-Mart and an angel appeared to you and the angel said "fear not"; yea right, I’m sure we would hear over the speaker "clean up on isle 10." Now imagine you were told that you would be the mother of God as a virgin. Even in this day that would be a problem. She asks the angel how it could happen and the angel explains that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and her child would be holy. If you think our time presents difficulties with this kind of pregnancy. According to Jewish law, she was married to Joseph but they would not consummate the marriage until after the ceremony. She could be put to death for being pregnant before the consummation. Even with all the difficulties, Mary trusts the word of God through the angel and commits herself wholly as a slave to the word and to the Son she would bear.

Zachariah had a similar experience with the angel Gabriel. He did not react as Mary did. He said "How shall I know?" His statement demands proof where as Mary just wanted to know how it would happen. Mary showed faith where Zachariah did not and he suffered for it by being made mute until John was born. This young maiden displayed more faith in her response than the priest selected to be the priest before God in the temple of the Lord.

Martin Luther speaks of three miracles that take place here. The first is the incarnation, God coming to earth in the flesh. A greater miracle is the virgin birth, and the greatest miracle in Luther’s mind is that this maiden believed the word of this angel. If she had not believed, Luther declares, she could not have conceived. Luther adds it is hard for us to believe that He could be God and Man; it is also hard to believe that He could be born of a virgin, but the hardest for us to believe is that this Son of God is ours.

Mary is accepting the most complete servitude by bearing another’s child. She is bearing God’s Son. She is completely submitting herself to the Lord. God demands our service as well and our service is as important as Mary’s. He calls us to submit to His Word and willingly enslave ourselves to Him as servants to this world. Advent calls us to be His presence, His light, His body once again in this world; a world rushing aimlessly through the darkness toward the last unending night. We are slaves to this Lord, a Lord that was born of the flesh and in that flesh died and rose to forgive all sin in the world the same world that is aimlessly rushing through the darkness toward the last unending night. We believe that He died on that cross to forgive our sins so that being "justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." A Lord is a king, an earthly king is made by the kingdom, without the kingdom there is no king. The heavenly king makes the kingdom. Without the king there is no kingdom. Christ, the Lord is King and we are slaves and heirs in His kingdom through submission to the faith in His coming to earth in the flesh, dying, and rising to forgive our sins. We are slaves and heirs to our Lord and King through submission to the Word.

We are slaves to the world for our Lord and King. Christ is manifest in us and we are to take it to the world for our Lord. In the mindset of servitude we are to be Christ to the world, He has come again into this world through us.

Mary prepared for the coming of her son but she prepared for so much more. I know things are a bit hectic right now being the week before Christmas with all the buying, wrapping, baking, traveling, and extra church services. Prepare for so much more like Mary did. She knew her life had changed forever. She knew that after the child was born it wouldn’t be "back to life as usual" as so many of our lives are after the holidays. Has this Advent renewed your awareness of your responsibilities, your sacred privileges, the holy purpose of your life and calling? Prepare your selves to be slaves of the Lord, be His servant in this world by filling minds and hearts, mouths and ears, church and world with the wondrous gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen