Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Gospel lesson (Luke 1:26-38).

Preaching on this same text, Luther once proclaimed that there were 3 amazing miracles in this story. The first miracle was that God and man would be joined together in this little baby, what we today would call a fetus still in his mother's womb. The second miracle was that a virgin, a young woman who had never had sexual relations, would be a mother. Today, we could through scientific, medical procedures, cause that second miracle to happen again. But God did it then through super-natural processes. The third miracle Luther, which he thought was not the smallest of the three was this: That Mary should have such faith to believe what the angel told her. But miracles are what God is about. Nothing is impossible with God.

These seemingly "impossible" wonders were not a last second decision by the Lord. As our Epistle text read: "the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, (is) now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God".

This was a mystery, hidden from angels, demons and humans, until the proper time. The Lord had made promises for thousands of years to send a Savior, to bless all people. King David wanted to do something wondrous for God, to build Him a house, a temple in which to be worshipped. But the Lord, ever one to throw in a twist, declares to David through the words of the prophet "the LORD himself will establish a house for you:� Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever." King David's earthly throne line stopped 400 years later, but his house and his kingdom does continue forever through the Virgin Mary in Jesus Christ, both David's Son and David's Lord (Mark 12).

One week a Sunday school teacher had just finished telling her class the Christmas story, how Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem and how Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger. After telling the story the teacher asked, "Who do you think the most important woman in the Bible is?" Of course, the teacher was expecting one of the kids to say, "Mary." But instead, a little boy raised his hand and said, "Eve." So the teacher asked him why he thought Eve was the most important woman in the Bible. And the little boy replied, "Well, they named two days of the year after Eve. You know, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve." (from Sermonillustrations.com)

With misguided logic, the little boy actually was probably on to something. A good argument could be made that the two most important women of the Bible were Eve and Mary. Through Eve and Adam came the first temptation and the first fall into sin. They were the first not to take God at His Word. The serpent came to them and asked "Did God really say?" and they fell into unbelief. Ever since then we and our ancestors have been asking "Did God really say?" and not trusting his guidance and love. "Did God really say" I'm suppose to honor and obey my parents and other authorities all the time? (4th commandment) "Did God really say" I'm suppose to lead a sexually pure and decent life, during adolescence? During young adulthood, before I'm married? During later adulthood, after I'm married? (6th commandment) "Did God really say" that I'm to be willing and prepared to gently share my faith in Jesus Christ with others when opportunities arise? (1 Peter 3: 15). "Did God really say" that He loves even me and sent His Son FOR ME? Mary didn't ask such questions. She wasn't perfect; no she was a sinner just like you and me. She needed Jesus, by then growing insider her, as her Savior just as much as you and I do. But here she doesn't respond to Gabriel with the questions "Did God really say that?" Granted she was greatly troubled and wondered and asked "How will this be?" But when she heard the words "Nothing is impossible with God," she responded with "I am the Lord's servant, May it be to me as you have said." Gabriel doesn't give her a lot of details about how all of this will occur. Nothing is said here about what she is to tell Joseph or her family or the town leaders that may come to her questioning her about the baby's paternity. He just says "Do not be afraid� The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." I must admit, and perhaps you do to, that if I were in Mary's shoes I'd have asked some more detailed but doubt-provoked questions.

But we can give thanks for her faith, the faith that the Holy Spirit worked in her. We can give thanks for our own faith. The Holy Spirit has come upon us as well and washed us clean at Baptism. He continues to use the gifts of simple things like Word and Sacrament to build faith in us. When we ask "Did God really say?" we can turn to His Word and be confident in it. In that Word we can hear the call to repentance, that calls us to turn from our own ways and turn in faith to Him for forgiveness. When we ask "Does God really know me and love me?" we can turn to his Word and hear that Jesus has come for us and continues to be present for us in the waters of Baptism and the Bread and Wine of the Lord's Supper, just as He was for Mary. We can be confident because God says so, just as He spoke to Mary through Gabriel. With God nothing is impossible.

Fred thought that certain things were impossible for God. Now Fred was not a "Scrooge". He was, by earthly standards, a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous and loving to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that 'incarnation' stuff which the Church proclaims at Christmas time. It just didn't make sense and he was just too honest to pretend otherwise.

He just couldn't swallow the "Jesus story"� about God coming to earth as a man. Fred admitted to himself that there probably was a God in heaven, and even that Jesus was an important religious teacher. But the Biblical claims of Jesus deity seemed implausible. He told his wife "I'm really sorry to distress you, but I'm not going to church with you this Christmas Eve." He told her he would feel like a hypocrite being there, saying or singing anything. They talked about it. She shared with him again, as she had gently for years, words like John 1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

She again told him that Christ came because of his love for lost mankind. He smiled, but remained unconvinced. His wife and kids went on to church, and she was praying for her husband on the drive and at the beginning of the late night service. Shortly after the family drove away, snow began to fall. Fred went to the window to watch the flurries, getting heavier and heavier, and then went to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another. And then another. Sort of a thump or thud. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window, but when he got to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and in a desperate search for shelter had tried to fly through his large landscape window.

Fred was a good guy. He couldn't just let the poor creatures lie there and freeze. So he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That will provide a warm shelter� if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat and snow boots. He tramped through the snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light� but the birds did not come in. Then he realized that they were afraid of him. "To them, I'm a strange, huge and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me, that I'm not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how?" Any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led, or shooed, because they feared him.

"If only I could be a bird" he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language then I could tell them not to be afraid, I could show them the way to the safe, warm barn� to the safe, warm barn� but I would have to become one of them so they could see and hear and understand."

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. He stood there and listened to the sound of the bells� "O Come All Ye Faithful"� listening to the bells peeling the glad tidings of Christ's birth. He remembered his wife's words "and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

And he sank to his knees in the snow. (Origins of this story are unknown. This version is modified from the website of Emmaus Lutheran Church, Indianapolis, IN, who borrowed it from Paul Harvey's Christmas Program.)

Jesus Christ did come for you. Jesus Christ is coming again for you. Amen. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 7)