Accompanying lectionary: http://www.ecsssj.org/member/show_lit.php?myid=19

But we're not quite there yet, are we.  We're still in Advent, and Advent is the season with an identity crisis.  We're never really sure what we think about Advent.  It's the season that some folks think is purple and some folks think is blue; the season that's sometimes penitential and sometimes hopeful; the season when we look forward to Christ's coming, and to his coming again.  Advent is a season of ambiguity.

We say something's ambiguous if it has more than one meaning.  And today's gospel is ambiguous.  Let me set the scene a little for you.  Imagine that you're a Jewish girl about 14 years old.  (This may be harder for some of us to imagine than others.)  You're engaged to be married to a nice Jewish carpenter named Joseph.  You're thinking your life with him, maybe planning the wedding, when suddenly a giant guy with wings on his back plops down in front of you and says, “Greetings, favored one.  The Lord is with thee!”  I imagine we might have found that pretty strange.  Like Mary, we might have been “perplexed,” to use the word we find in the gospel.  Mary was perplexed – she was confused by this scene. 

So the Angel, realizing he might have blown his lines, tries again:
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him 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 ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Hmmmm.   That's a lot of information.  I wonder if Mary was any less perplexed when she heard this news.

“You have found favor with God.”  Now that is an ambiguous statement, and depending on your personal views of God, you will interpret it in different ways.  The first problem is, who is the subject and who is the object of that sentence.  If I said, “Mary has found her car keys,” you could safely assume that Mary had lost her keys, went looking for them, and found them.  Mary would be the actor in that case.  On the other hand, if we said, “God has found favor in Mary,” we get the idea that God is the actor, and that he went looking and preferred Mary over all the other girls.  So our first question might be who is doing the finding here: God or Mary?

Then there is the question of “favor” – exactly what kind of favor Gabriel was talking about?  Did he mean that God has taken a special interest in Mary – you know, like he sort of “fancied” her?  Did he mean that had a preferential love for Mary that God doesn't have for the rest of us?  Or was Gabriel talking about the specifics of Mary's condition, by suggesting that God was doing Mary a favor by selecting her to have a baby out of wedlock?  If so, what did Mary think?  Did she consider this as a favor God was doing for her, or a favor she was doing for God?

There are times in our lives when we are faced with ambiguous situations that call for our response.  There are times in our lives when we are confronted with strange and wonderful opportunities for God to enter our lives.  Take for example losing a job.  I can tell you from personal experience that losing a job is not a fun thing; you can't help but feel angry and afraid.  You certainly feel rejected and your ego is badly shaken.  And you worry about your family – how will I take care of them, Lord?  But it is also a time that calls for some self-reflection and personal evaluation, and I have seen time and time again when people have found a new sense of who they are, a new sense of purpose and direction.  Many people find a better job.  Others go into a completely different field.  For me, it was a time when I finally stopped long enough to do some serious discernment on what God was really calling me to do, that ultimately led me here.  Now when someone tells me they've lost their job I say, “Congratulations.  Welcome to gainful unemployment.” 

Or consider the birth of a child.  With it comes great joy, but also great responsibility.  And even if you planning it, it is an ambiguous blessing.  How will we afford it?  Where will we live?  How long will I work before it's born?  And if the baby is unexpected, there are even more questions like, will we stay together or will the strain be too much on our relationship?

We live in very busy and confusing times.  We live with lots of noise and interruptions, with computers and cell phones and jet airplanes.  We rush around from place to place, as if we're afraid to have a few minutes of quiet.  And we are faced with confusing or perplexing problems.  These are the times when we need to stop and listen; these are the times in our lives when God is tapping us on the shoulder, and saying, “Greetings favored one.  The Lord is with thee!”  There are times when we are presented with perplexing opportunities of grace.  It's OK to be perplexed and confused.  It's OK to slow down and ponder what sort of greeting this might be.

I believe that when the angel says that Mary had found favor, it meant that she had discovered something that she had all along.  She discovered that she was blessed by God, just as each and every one of us is. This blessing, this grace, is something that had been within her since the day she was born.  Confronted with an ambiguous and perplexing situation, Mary discovered God's blessing that she had within her all along.

There are perplexing gifts from God.  They are opportunities to find God's blessing within us, the grace that is within each and everyone of us all along.  And it is through God's grace that we discover the strength and creativity to turn an ambiguous gift into an unconditional blessing.  Mary’s response to God’s perplexing gift was, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Thanks be to God!

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