 Hello, it's good to be with you as we prepare for the fourth Sunday of Advent. Today I want to speak about or just reflect on the annunciation where the angel of the Lord comes to marry a commoner to announce that she will bear the Son of God. But as I read that scripture I want you to look at a piece of art that we're going to share with you as I read it and that piece of art is known as the Annunciation. There are many ways in which this has been depicted through the centuries. I find this one very interesting. This was painted by an African-American man who was living in Paris at the time. It's painted in 1898. His name is Henry Asawa Tanner. The interesting thing about him, his father was a pastor. His father was an African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor. It's one of the denominations that spun off from the Methodist Episcopal Church because of there seeming to be no room for African-Americans in the church. But this is an interesting piece and so I want you to look at it as I read the scripture beginning with the 26th verse. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary and he came to her and said, Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus. And he will be great and he will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be since I am a virgin? And the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the most high will overshadow you. And therefore the child to be born will be holy. And he will be called the son of God. And now your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month for her who is said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And then Mary said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word. And then the angel departed from her. What I like about this painting is the other simplicity of it. We don't have an angel before us. We don't have an angel with wings. We don't have a human form. What we have is a it's really a shaft of light that dazzles this young peasant girl Mary. She is not dressed like other depictions of the Annunciation have her dressed. She is dressed in very common clothes of a peasant woman of that day. You can tell that she is somewhat shaken by all of this and she looks at it. But I want to think about two or three things on this the last Sunday of Advent. There's a new dimension here. And the light is seen as a way in which God discloses what is going to happen. Light becomes important in this story. It also becomes even more important in the Gospel of John. But we have to remember that later there'll be this heavenly host. There'll be the light of angels appearing to the shepherds. But it is the way in which God seeks to bring what God is truly like and sort of enlighten the people to whom God is addressing and maybe even to the world. And there's something interesting else about this and that is that not only is Mary representing a group of people perhaps who no one ever thought about or considered. But there's also mention in this that that this will child will be born to her and to Joseph who comes from the house of David. So in this very Annunciation we get a clue that Jesus is not only comes from kingly stock in some respects but more importantly he also comes from a very lowly group of people. Hebrews but lowly. Nobody ever thought about them. In fact in one of the Gospels it said when you think about Jesus coming from Nazareth what good could come out of Nazareth. But most of us have an expectation and is the way in which God appears to us. It's a glorious things or something magnificent or something very very decisive and it really may be as simple as something around this in our everyday lives. Or we may be touched by something that we thought we would never be touched by. I just want to ask you a couple of questions. During these last several weeks and leading up to Christmas which will be a very different celebration for most of us this year than in years past I want you to think where have you really seen the moving of the Spirit of God. I doubt that it's in a Christmas tree. I would imagine it's being moved by something significant that has happened either in your own life or which you have become aware. Lastly this what do you think it means to be favored or blessed? What does it mean to be blessed? Often I hear about I'm really blessed but that is always an affirmation of that which one has accumulated or something glorious that's happened to them or all the things they may have. I want to contend this day for you that what it means to be blessed is to find favor with God and to do what it is that God would intend for you to do while you have a blessed Christmas season.