For nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 1:37 (NRSV)
This verse is the benediction, the blessing, the last word from the angel Gabriel on the state of things in both heaven and earth. God is all powerful, it tells us. He will bring to pass the plans he sets in motion. Mary could trust that in this moment of surprise.
We might struggle to fully believe the idea that God really is on our side, or that he is powerful enough and big enough to accomplish what looks to us to be impossible. Rejecting the truth of God’s power leaves us in a place of complete helplessness. When the day of surprising events arrives, we feel like we must rely on ourselves to solve our problems.
But Gabriel calls Mary, and he calls all of us, to a different way. We must wait on the Lord to come and to accomplish the plan he has already made. He will have the answers. He will have the strength. He will have the power to make the impossible happen.
This is called working miracles.
The statement, “For nothing will be impossible with God” comes right after the angel shared the news about Elizabeth’s pregnancy. She and her husband had lived for years with the impossibility of conceiving their own children. When Mary questions how she will conceive, the angel tells her that it will happen through the Holy Spirit, and by the same power that brought Elizabeth’s pregnancy about.
It is God’s power. It conquers the impossible. The Psalmist wrote about it when he said, “He is the God who breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron” (Psalm 107:16). The prophet Isaiah taught about this power when he said, “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. The glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people shall see it together” (Isaiah 40:4-5).
Think about Mary’s situation. A young, unmarried girl turns up pregnant. By law, the community could come out and stone her to death. She appears to have done something immoral. She would be shunned by her family. Joseph, her fiancé, would break off his engagement to her. She would have no income, no home, and no means to support herself and her child. She’d have no friends and no status. She’d live alone in poverty as an outcast. This pregnancy outside of marriage was a serious offense.
Mary knew that saying yes to God’s plan could cost her everything. And yet, the virgin birth was such an important part of Jesus’ uniqueness. His birth had to come about this way so that everyone would believe he was the Son of God.
Even though Mary understands how much God’s design will complicate her life, she says yes to it. The words she uses are, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” By calling herself a servant, Mary takes the status of a slave, giving up all of her rights and her freedoms in exchange for God’s preferences.
She goes on and says, ‘Let it be with me according to your word.” She is willing to accept anything God wants to send her before she knows how traumatic or awful or wonderful God’s plan will be.
Mary gives us an example of faith. We say yes to God because we love him and have a relationship with him. We say yes before we know what the future holds.
Scary.
Faithfulness takes courage. It takes a willingness to go against cultural norms and expectations. Faithfulness asks of us a patient endurance of suffering. People will misunderstand you. People will ridicule you, betray you, and mistreat you.
We have to decide that God and his plans for us are worth more than acceptance or popularity.
“Let it be with me according to your word.”
Can we stand with Mary and courageously welcome into our lives circumstances that might wreck our reputations, scare away our friends, or trade security for danger?
Mary did. Because she loved God.
If you go on and read the Christmas story, you will see that Joseph didn’t abandon her. Rather, prompted by an angel’s message, he entered with Mary into the challenges and hardships of raising Jesus as his son.
God didn’t leave Mary. He was with her and he continued to grant her favor.
We can find that too. If we act in faith to do what God is telling us, and if we believe his word to us, God provides comforts and protections along the way that strengthen us and help us do what he has planned for us.
In the words of the angel, “The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God . . . for nothing will be impossible with God.”
An Advent prayer from the Book of Common Prayer
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and fo ever. Amen.
