Everything Changed
Advent 4
December 24, 2023
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
My grandfather on my mother’s side was born in 1885 in England. He was older than my great-grandparents on my dad’s side. He was too old to fight in WWI. He lived to a ripe old age of 91, dying in 1976. He’d be 138 if he were alive today.
He saw the world change a lot in his lifetime. When he was born, there were no light bulbs or electric appliances in people’s homes; no telephones or radios or televisions. Only the very wealthy had electricity at all. There were no cars; Karl Benz successfully drove the first automobile about a year and a half after he was born. Among his earliest memories, as a small boy, was watching the first electric street lights being installed in London. He was 18 when the Wright Brothers made their first flight.
There were of course other major changes and events, but this isn’t a history lesson. Each of these changes had a long series of developments that led up to them, preparation and discoveries, circumstances that built toward a brink, a moment when the next step changes the world. The Wright Brothers’ wheels left the ground and soon air travel becomes routine. And he lived to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
What was true about those big events is true in our lives. Each of us has come to moments where everything changes. Usually there’s a long, often difficult build. Then that critical moment arrives, the event happens and our world is different. It could be something as small as the first day of school, as weighty as going off to boot camp or starting a new job. It may be as big as saying “I do”.
One thing we all did, all of us. Each of us was a child coming into the world. Preparations were made, for better or worse. There may have been struggles. Whatever the circumstances, you changed the world for the people around you when you arrived. I often ask new parents how much their child has changed their world. Know that you did, too.
With that in mind, let’s look at sweet Mary, very young and vulnerable. She meets an angel. What was that like? Would she have known that Gabriel was the very angel who had spoken to Daniel about the Day of Judgment? She likely did not know anything about Gabriel’s appearance to her cousin Elizabeth six months before – until he told her.
And while Gabriel gives her a very accurate, if brief, description of the magnitude of this moment and the child that is to come, how much of that could she have possibly absorbed and fully understood? Could she have known the unexpected path Jesus would walk, the amazing teaching he would share and miracles he would perform? Could she have known that in the midst of all his excellent work, the corrupted powers of this world and even among their own religious leaders would plot to kill him – and succeed? Could she have made the connection that the same angel who alerted Daniel to the Day of Judgment would usher in the Prince of Peace who would sacrifice himself to atone for the sin of the whole world? Could she know that he would rise from the dead and ascend into heaven?
And could she have known that all of history from the creation of the universe to God creating humanity in his image, to our corruption to the Covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, the Promised Land, the exile, the prophets – everything that had ever happened – built to that very moment?
Mary had her toes on the very precipice of the ultimate answer to every problem every person has ever had or will have. Let that sink in for a moment. Mary had her toes on the very precipice of the answer to every problem every person has ever had or will have.
Jesus has changed the world. It has far to go, but look for example at the calendar, which is set by his birth. Look at the international conception of human rights. That is clearly and squarely rooted in, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which also undergirds our understanding of the self. “Who am I?” is a fundamental question of being.
Compare that to electric lights, to war, even to putting a man on the moon. Even that greatest technological achievements pale in comparison to the cosmic change that came with the birth of Jesus.
And there Mary was. The very next scene in Luke’s Gospel, Mary is pregnant and visiting her cousin Elizabeth.
And here we stand today. We are not on that precipice. The work Jesus did to save us was completed centuries ago. We are not a people fixated on past events. We are fixed on to the future to which he calls us.
We do not often know how the twists and turns, the decisions and accidents of life, may be bringing us to a moment of radical change that will deeply affect our lives.
In 1976, just before he died, could my grandfather have possibly imagined my grandchildren using their phones to FaceTime call their grandparents, play video games and watch cartoons? Could he have imagined that phone serving as a gateway to more knowledge than existed in the British Library, among the greatest libraries in the world? A smart phone that is a gateway to every public library including that one, as well as great museums and so much more?
Of course not.
But that is the point. We can’t know the future and we don’t need to know. Whatever has happened to us and whatever may happen up the road, Jesus coming into our world changed everything forever. We live our lives struggling in so many ways, yet this most important comfort remains true.
And so, we are here this morning on the precipice with Mary. Tonight, tomorrow and for the next 12 days, we celebrate his birth…but not just yet. First, we spend time wondering at that precipice; Wondering at Mary; Wondering at God’s call to her; Wondering at God’s love for us.
Take some time to remember this story. Take some time to remember your part in it. Her story is your story too – join Mary in her response to the angel Gabriel:
Let it be with me according to your word.
AMEN