Today is the Feast of the
Annunciation which we read about in the Gospel according to Luke:
In the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of
David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored
one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and
pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘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 for ever, and of
his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be,
since I am a virgin?’ 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 holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative
Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month
for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then
Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to
your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
(Lk. 1:26-38).
Gnosticism, the heresy which
posited that “the material world was an inferior and dark place, evil in its
very existence, but that within this world could be found certain people who
were meant for something else” (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope at 90-91 (2008), is alive and well today. There are many in our day, including many
Christians, who have the sense that this world is a nasty place and they can’t
wait to get out of it. Today’s feast,
and the reading which accompanies it, tells us exactly the opposite: the
created order is indeed good; it matters, and God himself takes on flesh in the
person of Jesus Christ to restore all of creation, and that includes you and
me. Mary, a young woman, says “yes” to
God’s view of the world, a world which God created and when he finished
creating it, God said that it was good.
Yes, good. The life stirring in
Mary’s womb is God’s way of entering into his creation in a radical way, a way
that puts God’s good housekeeping seal of approval on the created order. Salvation
comes through the Incarnation, God made man, Jesus Christ, who was born of a
woman.
Let us pray: Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord; that
we who have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced by an
angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion be brought unto the
glory of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
CALENDAR REMINDERS
Nick @ Night on
Wednesday, 26 March at Trinity at 6 PM.
The Rev. Canon Glenice Robinson-Como from Christ Church Cathedral will
be our speaker. She is a native
Virginian and received her B.S. from Virginia Commonwealth University, her
M.Div. from Perkins School of Theology at SMU and a Diploma of Theological
Studies from the Seminary of the Southwest. She has worked as a Staff Ombudsman
with the Houston-Galveston Area Agency on Aging for ten years, and in Contract
Administration with the Department of Defense and with the Metropolitan Transit
Authority in Southern California. She serves as Chaplain for the John Epps
Chapter of United Black Episcopalians (UBE), is a member of the Commission on
Black Ministry and a mentor for Kids Hope USA. Glenice is the author of a
meditation in the book Yes!, Jesus Loves
Me—31 Love Stories, by Kathy H. Culmer, and a prayer entitled, “The Least
of These” in the book Lifting Women’s
Voices, Prayers to Change the World, which addresses the themes of the
United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. Glenice is married to Paul L.
Como and they have two children, Paulie and Dominique.
Please remember
everyone on our Prayer List, especially, Pat, Karen, Patricia and Evelyn.
Your servant in Christ,
Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo
Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550
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