Year B Advent 4 December 21, 2014 The Conduit of Grace

Year B-Advent 4
Decernber 2L,2AL4
All Saints Episcopal Church
The Rev. Laura C. Truby
The Conduit of Grace
The fourth Sunday of Advent always brings us to the Annunciation to a Virgin. The angel
greeted a young woman, who was perplexed by and pondered his words-"The Lord is with
you...you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive and bear a son, and you will
name him Jesus." How astonishing! And Maq/s reply equally astonishing! lt is impossible to
overestimate what hung on the answer of this young woman. When Mary said to the angel
Gabriet, "let it be with me according to your word," the indeterminate waiting of humanity
ended and the precise, personal waiting of the Virgin began.
Maqy's willingness to say, "Here I am, the servant of the Lord," was the opening that would
change all human life, for God's humble non-violence, the Prince of Peace entered the world.
The true character of God would be "the mystery that was kept for long ages but was now
disclosed." God asks Mary if she wishes to do this; God will never impose or do violence to
another. Mar1y's "yes" was a trustful handing over of her future without conditions. Through
her willingness, God crossed the impossible barrier between divinity and humanity. lt happened
very quietly, in a small house, in a smalltown, in a smal! country. With her "fiat" (her let it be)
the incarnation began.....a mystery beyond all understanding that was about to be disclosed.
No one saw the Annunciation, yet no event has been painted by so many artists.
There is a very large and ancient icon (c.1120) of the Annunciation that was taken from the
cathedra! in Novgorod which now hangs in an art gallery. lt has lost none of its sacred aura, and
draws us into the holy silence of this wonderful encounter. It portrays the archangel Gabriel as
a
figure of calm solemnity. He raises one arm gently, but emphatically in blessing. Mary is not
seated, as if to signify her continual state of attention to the messages of God. She does not
look at the angel. Her head is bowed as she listens intently.
ln a L5th century painting of the Annunciation, El Greco wanted to show that this worldy
insignificance and quietness existed only on one level. On the high heavenly level, the
annunciation aroused the most intense of jubilations. The skies were alive with music when
Jesus was born,
conceived
I
but
El Greco depicts
the Nazareth skies being just as lyrical when Jesus was
The angels cannot fully understand the incarnation, but they know absolutely that
this is a triumph of God's goodness and grace. Heaven is in a state of jubilation.
Jesus is grace made
visible. Mary, the conduit of grace, is immersed in the radiant light spilling
down from the outspread wings of the Holy Spirit. Gabriel folds his hands; his part is done.
Mary opens hers; her part is beginning.
As Sister Wendy Beckett,
the art nun says, "There is a connection, surely, between the silence
of Mary and the overwhelming jubilation of heaven. When we are quiet, steadying our mind,
looking at the things that matter, the Lord can give himself to us. Advent urges us to be still
and let heaven rejoice." Whenever we look toward God, toward that mystery of his Son, we
discover God's startling grace is just as eager to invade our lives.
Since the third century A.D.there have been monastics praising God at the foot of Mount Sinai.
The Monastery of 5t. Catherine is the oldest inhabited place of Christian prayer in the world. lt
was here that Moses Iooked at the mystery of the burning bush that was not consumed. ln their
meditations, the monks came to see the burning bush as an image of the Virgin Mother. There
is an icon
that conveys that confluence of ideas. The bush burned but was never consumed,
and this too seemed almost a prophery of Mary's virgin motherhood, two contradictions
resolved in one.
Mary's unimaginable closeness to her son fills us with wonder. Yet she was a simple human
being, just as we are. God could do great things in her because she gave God absolute
freedom. The Church has constantly been drawn to praise Our Lady in poetic terms. Perhaps
we come close to the poetry if we just dwell silently in our hearts on the thought of the desert
and the bush alight with flames, and yet still green and fruitful.
When the monks at St. Catherine Monastery at Mt. Sinaidepicted Mary as the burning bush,
they painted a bright circle at her heart, in which stood Jesus. This simple and sober icon of The
Virgin of the Sign, as it is called, from the mid-16th century is not meant realistically. Mary is
not holding her child. This is the mystical image of Christ Emmanuel. This
is
the Word who
existed from the beginning and who came into our time through his Holy Mother, a living sign
given that "God is with us."
ln this beautiful icon, Our Lady's face is impassive. She seems eager only that we should look at
Jesus-Emmanuel. Her very essence is prayer, is intercession,
is
surrender of all that she is to
the grace of God. We tend to think that none of us can expect to reach this ideal of complete
trust.
Yet when we were baptized, the Trinity itself took up residence in our spirit; and the
Word of God is always present, to be spoken through our lives, as he was so perfectly through
Mar/s.
It is not because we are holy that the Lord gives himself to us, but simply because he loves us.
He wants
to draw us into the happiness and freedom that his mother knew. We see her here
motionless, holding up her arms in intercession, the palms of her hands turned towards
heaven. This figure was called an Orante: it represented prayer, hope and faith that could
sustain one through any adversity. Mary became identified with this figure of prayer that began
with her fiat, "Let it be to me according to your Word." ln what aspect of your life might God
be calling you to do the same? To trust him completely? To surrender your
purposes? This is how you become a conduit of 6od's grace.
willto
his
"Our Lady of the Sign" is a sign of the constant presence of God with us, and the gift that has
been given to us, to live within the brightness of that sign, Jesus. We notice how Our Lady in
this icon does not look at her son. She looks obliquely out at the world. She does not ask to
see. She accepts that her hands are empty. lt is because they are empty that she can receive
so much. Her body and her heart are
Amen.
full. This is our noble mother, Mary.