© 2023, John Tamilio III

Because of the way the calendar unfolds this year, today is one of those dual days.  We get them occasionally.  Today is Christmas Eve, but it is also the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Love.  When we open the Gospel lesson, we will see why it is one of those dual days.

Let me preface this a little bit.

As I’ve said over the past four weeks — and as I say every year at this time — Advent isn’t about preparing for the birth of Jesus.  It is about his return at the end of time.  That is why all the readings during this season focus on the Second Coming of Christ.  Today, however, there is a bit of a change.  Today, Luke presents us with the Annunciation.  The angel Gabriel comes to Nazareth to tell a young, Jewish virgin that she will become pregnant.  “Greetings, favored one!” begins the angel.  “The Lord is with you.”  The Lord was certainly with Mary, bringing the message that she would bear God’s light, that she would give birth to the Savior of the world.  The text tells us that Mary was “perplexed.”  Perplexed?  I bet she was.  I bet she was terrified.  Mary was probably around fourteen or fifteen years old because that was the age of betrothal at that time.  Being pregnant was a big no-no for a young, unmarried girl.  She could have been stoned to death for being “with child” out of wedlock.

At first, she wonders how this is even possible, as would any rational person.  You cannot be pregnant if you are a virgin.  That’s fairly obvious.  However, Gabriel explains to her how this is the case: Mary has been impregnated by the Holy Spirit — one of the greatest miracles in all of history.  As she stands amazed, Gabriel declares, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

I want to reflect on that.  Nothing is or will be impossible for God.

One of the biggest problems nonbelievers have with the Christian story is that it is filled with miracles.  Many people reject the possibility of miracles occurring.  I’ve mentioned before how Thomas Jefferson edited a version of the New Testament in which he removed all miracle stories from it.  Jefferson’s Gospels end with Jesus dead in a tomb.  He didn’t rise from the dead because that would be a miracle.  Miracles do not happen.  The eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher David Hume agreed.  He rejected miracles, too.  He claimed that they were “a violation of natural laws.”  They are.  That’s the point.  That’s the very definition of what a miracle is!  Miracles occur when God enters the human drama and changes what should naturally happen.  You can scour the internet for examples of miracles that everyday people have experienced.  Here is just one — a story told by Jessica Cox:

Vesna Vulovic was just another flight attendant who boarded a plane bound from Stockholm to Belgrade. Everything seemed normal until the plane suddenly exploded at 33,000 feet: the result of a terrorist attack.  Everyone on the plane perished except for Vesna: and after it was all over, she held the world record for the longest fall survived without a parachute.  Although she had very serious injuries, she survived and is regarded as a national hero in the former Yugoslavia.  Even more incredible is the fact that she wasn’t even supposed to be on that plane; the airline had gotten her confused with another Vesna![1]

Such stories make us say either, “You see!  Miracles do happen!”  Others will either write the story off as a lie or an urban legend or they will say that there is something else going on here that is missing — something that would explain away the miracle.

Mary stands in utter bewilderment at the Annunciation.  How can this be?  She wonders the same way any rational person would.  But the angel assures her: “No word from God will ever fail.”  That is the version of Scripture in our pews: the New International Version.  The New Revised Standard Version reads, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”  Miracles happen.  They abound.  Jesus Christ, God incarnate, is the greatest miracle of all.  His coming into the world as God incarnate is not just the greatest gift that the world has ever been given; it is the greatest miracle of all.

Nothing is impossible for God.  Nothing.

God created the universe out of nothing.  There was nothing but an eternal, dark void, and from that void, God spun the planets into motion and made the sun, the moon, and the stars to shine.

God created all that moves and is still: from every rock and plant to every animal and person.  As I’ve said before, this is not something God had to do.  It wasn’t because of some divine lack.  God chose, out of love, to create us so that we can coexist with him and one another in a relationship saturated with love.

What’s more, God has acted throughout history to lead his people into the depths of that covenantal relationship.  Israel was led from slavery to freedom.  God, through Moses, parted the waters of the Red Sea and fed his people with manna from Heaven.  Centuries later, the Hebrew people, after being liberated from the exile they suffered at the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, found themselves under Roman oppression.

But God intervened yet again.  The people who walked in darkness saw a great light (Isa. 9:2).  The star the Magi followed was emblematic of God’s radiant love.  It led them to a stable bed in Bethlehem where, with the shepherds, they were the first to gaze upon the face of God-made flesh.

And God acts in our lives still, making possible that which we think is impossible.  It isn’t just water-into-wine and walking-on-water miracles.  There are everyday miracles of which we are the beneficiaries.  We have this very church where we are nurtured and cared for by the people of God.  We have our families and friends who accompany us on this journey, however long or short it is.  We have each day filled with possibilities all its own.  We have opportunities to minister to others.  We have love.  We have love!  Sacred love.  God’s Love.  Reconciling love.  Love that binds broken relationships and broken hearts.  Love that conquers adversity.  Love that overcomes addictions.  Love that comforts the afflicted.  Love that heals, nourishes, and purifies, making us aware that it (“it” meaning “life”) is not just about us, but, rather, it is about us together.

May this Christmas season make you aware of the infinite possibilities that God’s love provides.  There is no equal to it.  There was never nor will there ever be anything that compares to the love of God made manifest in the Christ child.

Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Magi were all standing on holy ground when they stood before the manger.  We do as well.  As Brennan Manning so beautifully said, “We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”  We are on such holy ground whenever we love.  May that holy ground hold your feet firm not just today, not just tomorrow, but throughout all your days to come.  Merry Christmas!  Amen.

[1] Jessica Cox, “Miracles Really Happen: Three Amazing Real-Life Stories,” from jessicacox.com, March 22, 2016.