Day 27: Annunciation - Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Despite being a virgin, Mary would miraculously conceive a child who would be called the Son of God. The angel Gabriel told Mary to name her son Jesus, meaning "YHWH delivers". Most of Christianity observes this event with the Feast of the Annunciation on 25 March, nine full months before Christmas. According to the Luke 1:26, the Annunciation occurred in "the sixth month" of Elizabeth's pregnancy with the child who would later become known as John the Baptist. . In our worship life Mary’s song of faith, the Magnificat, is sung in the evening service Vespers.

Of interest, the Feast of the Annunciation is one of the four "Quarter Days" in the Church. These are days, which fall around the equinoxes or solstices, and mark the beginnings of the natural seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. These Quarter Days were Christian feast days used in medieval times to mark "quarters" for legal purposes. The other days Quarter Days are the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24), Michaelmas –the Feast Day of Michael the Archangel, (September 29), and Christmas (December 25).

Mary's response to the angel, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word," is a statement of humble faith, and a model for how we are to respond when God calls us to do what seems impossible.

O Lord, as we have known the incarnation of Your Son Jesus Christ, by the message of His Cross and Passion bring us to the glory of His Resurrection through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen

Sources:
Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcuts © WELS used by permission for private and congregational use
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
Collect for the Annunciation of Our Lord - Lutheran Service Book © 2008 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis