Previously, the Annunciation of Mary was celebrated on March 25 – exactly nine months before Christmas Day. But since this day often did not fall on a Sunday, Annunciation Day was more or less forgotten. Because of this the celebration was moved to the Sunday before Palm Sunday – and that is today.
Still, in the church year, Annunciation Day may not take up much space – it is mostly Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, All Saints’ Day and Fastelavn that people are aware of. At least in a Danish context. But in an emotional way I personally have always liked Annunciation Day.
Placed between the serious and inward-looking of Lent, and the celebration, sadness and joy of Easter, the day becomes a quiet but strong point of light. A point of light that heralds spring. A point of light that heralds love. A point of light that gives occasion to praising God for becoming one of us.
In the Gospel, we hear that Mary – after being told she is to give birth to the Son of God – goes to her relative, Elisabeth, who is also expecting a child. A child that is to become the person known as John the Baptist.
While Mary and Elisabeth were sitting together, the two boys jumped at the same time. And probably still half in shock, half feeling blessed, Mary spontaneously starts giving praise to God with the words that I read for you just before I started my sermon:
“My soul magnifies the Lord…”
In her praise, Mary describes her joy. A joy that seems to be twofold:
It is of course a joy that she will give birth to a son: “my spirit rejoices… God… has looked at his lowly servant”, she says.
This joy seems to be like the joy that any parent has been lucky to experience when they experienced the red line on a pregnancy test. Half shocked, half feeling blessed.
I remember I was in Berlin when it happened to me. Camilla and I were on holiday for the weekend. A holiday we will never forget. Suddenly everything seemed to be irrelevant and small compared to the wonder that had just proclaimed itself. To us, not through the words of an archangel, but still the effect seemed similarly powerful.
Also, I remember how one test was not enough. Camilla insisted that I go down to the pharmacy and buy another. And without noticing it in the moment, the pharmacist probably was the first one to congratulate me.
At least she knew what was going on when I obviously effected half an hour after buying the first test asked for another in my not all to good German.
Before any Gospel reading, we sing just as Mary did when she was together with Elisabeth: “We give You praise, God, for your glad and joyful message”, we sing.
The word ‘gospel’ means glad and joyful message. Today, the word is solely used in relation to the Gospels telling us about Christ, but back in the time of Jesus, the word was also used in secular situations.
For instance, it was used if an emperor received a son. Then a ‘gospel’ went out to all the people of his empire, that an heir to the throne was born.
I would not go about and say that I received a ‘gospel’ that day in Berlin where Camilla and I learned that we were about to step into parenthood. By today’s use of the word that would be weird. But the joy surely is alike:
It is a joy that provokes praise, it is a joy that leaves you shocked and blessed at the same time, it is the joy of life.
Now beside this joy, I argued that the praise of Mary that we heard as the Gospel Reading for today also was about another joy – the joy seems twofold.
The other joy that Mary’s song of praise expresses is probably a joy that seems a little more distant to us than the joy that I have just described.
Not because it is not relevant – it most certainly is – but it simply seems harder to grasp and comprehend. The second joy is the fact that God is about to become human.
The fact that God became human meant that God was no longer a God who was not defined by the framework of the created world. Now, God was defined by the framework of the created world.
God became flesh and blood like you and me, God succumbed to time, God became one among us. God intervened with what bothers us the most: our mortality.
And by becoming one of us he was able to proclaim his Gospel to us in a completely new way. He made himself a lot easier to understand.
At least for a while.
Now, almost every year where I have students for confirmation I am asked if it was not about time for God to be incarnated – as it is called – again.
After all, 2.000 years is a lot of years. And even though we have based our calendar upon his birth. Even though the Gospel of Christmas that has been heard from the first time in Mary’s praise to God in today’s Gospel reading and until today. It could seem that the Gospel is not as strong as it was back then.
The students for confirmation often have good points even though they often ask in a way where they probably not fully understand the depths of their question. Anyway, to the question about a second coming – and not the last coming – I often give three answers:
First, I don’t think it’s just us who have a hard time believing. In the Gospels we hear about how the Jews constantly wanted signs that Jesus was the Son of God, because they did not fully believe in him either.
Even the most profound disciples of the gospels, the first pope to be, Saint Peter does not fully comprehend who Jesus is until half way through the Gospel.
Faith is difficult to understand. Not just to us, but to all who experience it be it through the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, I would say that one must keep in mind what Jesus does while he is on earth. In Mary’s song of praise, it is expressed how Jesus exalted the lowly and preached love. But the most important thing that he did, he did in the days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Jesus came to earth. Not solely to give lessons in loving your neighbour. But foremost he came to earth to overcome death. An act that cannot be repeated. Because it is an act that is still in effect. It was an irreversible act. A point of no return.
Third, I ask my students for Confirmation if they are baptized. And then I take them to church to share holy communion. And I tell them that Jesus did not leave us alone. He left us with two sacraments. Sacraments in which he promised that he – every time we repeated these acts – would be present among us.
Some of the students might not feel it, but some do, I do, and I suppose many of you do as well. And when we feel it, it surprisingly fills us with the joy that filled Mary oh so long ago. The two joys that I have been talking about throughout the service.
And the only thing we can do – the thing I said this entire service would be all about – is to give praise.
And because of this – on this Annunciation Day – let us give praise once again for the wonder of incarnation that proclaimed itself for the first time oh so long ago to virgin Mary – a fellow human being:
Praised be you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. ‘God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.’
Amen.