Does it ever feel like God really isn't there?
Do you ever feel like you're waiting for a spiritual experience that just isn't coming?
Do you ever feel like saying "yes" to God is just too difficult?
Hey everybody this is Steve and God is can be present in His hiddenness.
In this week's Gospel, we hear how Mary accepted her role as the Mother of God.
And in this week's Epistle, we hear how the incarnation has made us one flesh with Jesus
Christ.
Links, as always, are down in the doobley-doo.
And remember to check out the intro videos we made for both Luke's Gospel account and
Paul's epistle, to help you better understand the readings.
This is it, the last Sunday of Great Lent, as our journey to the Cross continues.
It's a day that's normally dedicated to St Mary of Egypt; the great saint who spent years
living a life of repentance in the desert.
But you'll notice something different about the readings that are scheduled for Sunday,
because of a crossover in our calendar.
This year, the last Sunday of Great Lent also happens to be March 25th, the Feast of the
Annunciation.
That's when we celebrate the Archangel Gabriel announcing to the Theotokos that she would
be with child, and bear a son, the Son of God Himself.
So this week's readings aren't connected with St Mary of Egypt, but rather with the Virgin
Mary.
And despite these not exactly being Lenten readings, there's still some important benefit
for us on our Journey to Pascha.
This week's Gospel reading tells the story of the Annunciation itself.
We normally think of the Annunciation as the moment when the Theotokos said "yes" to God,
when she completely submitted herself to God's will.
Which is true.
Yet, twice before that "yes," the Theotokos said something closer to "maybe."
There are three interactions in this story, and it's worth looking at them each, one at
a time.
It starts with the Archangel Gabriel visiting Mary in Nazareth where, by this time, she's
been betrothed to Joseph.
So the Archangel greets Mary and, at least at first, she's not sure what to make of this.
"And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!
Blessed are you among women!"
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting
this might be."
(Luke 1:28-29)
The Archangel Gabriel begins by complimenting Mary, saying "hail" and calling her "blessed."
But rather than get swept up into this, Mary is immediately troubled.
She starts wondering who exactly is speaking to her, and what exactly he's trying to say.
One of my professors at seminary, Dr Tim Patitsas, wrote a great essay on this interaction between
Mary and Gabriel.
And I think it'll help to share some of that with you.
So in the Church, we sometimes call Mary the new Eve.
Someone who was faithful to God rather than turn her back on Him.
And we see some of this humble faithfulness in Mary's initial confusion, even reluctance,
to believe what the Archangel was saying.
Because when Eve had a complementary angel visit her, someone who flattered her and said
he had big plans for her, this angel turned out to be a demon in disguise.
And Mary wasn't about to make that mistake.
Gabriel sees her reluctance, and tries to reassure her:
"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name
Jesus.
He 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, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
and of his kingdom there will be no end."
(Luke 1:30-33)
These are wonderful, and great, and lofty things.
But again, Mary doesn't bite.
Instead, she responds with a question: "How shall this be, since I have no husband?"
Instead of getting sucked up into this amazing news (of imagining that she, a poor and humble
girl, will be mother to a king who will sit on the throne of David), Mary keeps herself
grounded in the persons that she knows, in the relationships that make up her life.
She is a virgin who has dedicated her life to God.
She has no husband, though Joseph has agreed to care for her and protect her, so she can
continue to give her life to God.
Mary doubts these abstract stories of glory by turning to those whom she knows, those
whom she trusts, the people in her life.
So Gabriel speaks a third time, and this time he appeals to Mary on a personal level.
And the angel said to 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.
And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this
is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
For with God nothing will be impossible."
(Luke 1:35-37)
It would have been easy for Gabriel to start his conversation with that last line, that
with God nothing is impossible.
Which is true, of course.
Yet, by itself, that's kind of vague and abstract.
We can even turn that truth into a sort of cliche if we're not careful.
But Gabriel *ends* with that line.
He uses that statement not to generalize but to summarize God's specific action in Mary's
life.
That the God whom Mary knows will visit her, overshadow her, and fill her with His life.
That she will do the impossible (because all things are possible with God).
That she will bear the very Son of God.
That she will do the impossible, just as Elizabeth has done the impossible:
Despite her age, she too has conceived, and will bear a son; John the Forerunner and Baptist.
Mary was initially suspicious of Gabriel's message when he framed it in terms of some
grand plan.
So she, in a sense, tested him.
Questioned him.
Until Gabriel confessed what was truly important:
That God so loves us that He is at work in our lives.
And that this relationship with Him is the very core of our salvation.
A relationship so intimate, so personal, that it will culminate in the Son of God literally
becoming one of us.
It tooks Mary's wise questions, grounded in her faith and trust in God, to really uncover
the beauty of what Gabriel was *actually* announcing.
As Dr Tim puts it in his essay: "Mary the Theotokos is announcing the Gospel to the
Archangel more than *he* is announcing it to her."
And in this week's Epistle reading, Paul pushes even further with what the Annunciation means,
and how this changes our relationship with God.
Right from the first sentence, Paul stresses our unity with Jesus; the way that He is not
simply our Lord, but our brother.
"He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin.
That is why He is not ashamed to call them brethren."
(Hebrews 2:11)
Paul quotes from three Old Testament verses: one from the Psalms, and two verses from Isaiah.
He first quotes from Psalm 22 (or Psalm 21 in the Septuagint numbering used in the Church),
a beautiful description of God's salvation:
"I will proclaim thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise
thee."
(Psalm 21(22):22)
He continues with two passages from Isaiah that speak about trusting the Lord, and about
how we are children of God the Father.
"I will put my trust in him."
And, "Here am I, and the children God has given me."
(Isaiah 8:17-18)
Paul wants us to know that salvation is real, that it's centered on the incredible fact
that we have been made brothers and sisters with Jesus Christ, the very Son of God.
And of course, this happens because of the incarnation.
This happens because the Son of God takes on flesh, and is born of the Theotokos.
Because the Son of God the Father now has a human mother as well.
Because Jesus took on our nature, our flesh and blood, to deliver us from sin and death.
As Paul writes, it's because "the children share in flesh and blood, [and] He Himself
likewise partook of the same nature, that through death He might destroy him who has
the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death
were subject to lifelong bondage."
(Hebrews 2:14-15)
Yet as hopeful as all of this is, there's something else to which Paul is alluding in
this passage.
Psalm 22 and Isaiah 8 both show our closeness with God, that we are actually brothers and
sisters of Jesus.
But these passages are *also* about how God can sometimes seem far away.
Psalm 22 is what Jesus refers to from the cross, when He quotes the opening line: "My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
And in the full passage from Isaiah (which Paul quotes partially in Hebrews), we see
that there is not only a sense of hope but also a sense of longing for a God who is hidden,
who has somehow abandoned us:
"I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope
in him."
(Isaiah 8:17)
So why, on the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Theotokos became pregnant with the
Son of God; when Jesus came into our midst and took on flesh and became our brother;
Why on this day is Paul alluding to these readings about how God has abandoned us, how
God is hiding His face from us?
It's because, in a mystical sense, that's exactly what the incarnation is.
When the Son of God took on flesh; when God became man; the incredible power and majesty
of His divinity was hidden away.
So for the first time, the Son of God had a face.
Yet this face was hidden away in the Virgin's womb.
Jesus was present, He was among us.
Yet it was in a humble, and hidden manner.
Not at all obvious to those who were looking for the wrong thing.
He was hidden within the Theotokos.
Hidden, in a sense, even behind His humanity.
Because most of the people who looked upon Him when He walked the earth did not see the
face of the Lord.
They did not realize that they were in the presence of the Son of God Himself.
They thought Jesus was a humble carpenter from Nazareth.
A nobody; not the creator of everything.
And when the Theotokos was pregnant with Jesus, when she couldn't even get a room at the inn,
people didn't look upon her and see the mother of God.
All they could see was an unmarried, poor, teenage mother.
But as Jesus developed in His mother's womb, in the womb of a great saint who trusted her
entire life to God, He was hidden within the first human sanctuary.
"Sanctify the Lord Himself, and He shall be your fear.
So if you trust in Him, He shall be as a sanctuary for you, and you shall not come against Him
as a stumbling stone nor as a rock of disaster."
(Isaiah 8:13-14)
The Theotokos trusted in the Lord.
She magnified the Lord, gave Him glory, loved Him and dedicated her life to Him.
And when Gabriel came with the incredible news of the Annunciation, with this first
proclamation of the Gospel (the Good News of our salvation), she trusted in the Lord.
That He really could do the impossible and make her, a virgin, a mother.
And not just any mother.
The very mother of God.
When the Theotokos finally says yes to Gabriel, and accepts the Gospel, she accepts Jesus.
She accepts the Son of God and becomes His sanctuary, the very Temple of God.
And we become His brothers and sisters.
As the greatest of saints, the Theotokos is a reminder of what we are called to be.
That we are all called to carry Christ within in.
That we are all called, as Christians, to be made new.
So that it is *Christ* who lives in us.
We are invited, every Divine Liturgy.
To receive Christ.
To carry the Lord within us, to be perfected in our sonship as children of God the Father.
And there, in the midst of the congregation, the very Son of God looks upon us; and calls
us His brothers and sisters.
Because, though we may not be able to see Him, He is here, where two or three are gathered
in His name.
He is here.
Not abandoning us, but embracing us.
As His family.
He stands by us as we take our final steps to the Cross.
We've covered a lot of ground today.
And to help work through what this all means for each us, we'll end as we always do on
Live the Word: with 3 questions.
First, how do you build discernment?
Like Mary wisely testing the angel, what are you doing to make sure you are saying yes
to God and not to some demonic trick or your own selfish desires?
Do you have someone you can share your experiences with?
What grounds you in the sure knowledge of who God is?
Second, how do you treat others as your brothers and sisters in Christ?
It can be easy to forget that Christ came for everyone, that He took on the common humanity
we all share.
What are you doing to see Christ in every person, every day?
Especially in situations when it isn't easy?
Third, in times when God seems to be hiding His face from you, what do you do?
How do you remind yourself that God is both truly hidden within you and revealing Himself
through you?
How do you remind yourself of God's presence in His hiddenness?
Is it an opportunity to cry out to God, a challenge to grow in trust and holiness; or
to sink into defeat?
We'll be back with a new episode on Monday.
And my buddy Christian will have a short response video up on Thursday as he wrestles with these
questions.
I hope you'll read the Gospels and Epistle passages we covered today.
And, whether it's with family or friends or a Bible Study group, I hope you'll talk about
what we've covered and wrestle with what God has for you, in your life.
Most importantly, I hope you'll celebrate with us this Sunday and every Sunday, to hear
the beautiful Scripture readings proclaimed during the Divine Liturgy and to learn how
you can Live the Word.
Thanks for watching.
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