The Annunciation of Our Lord

March 25, 2026

St. Luke 1.26-38

“Pastor, do you want the veil taken down for the Annunciation?”

“No,” I replied, thinking it’s too much work. Some of the guys put it up last Wednesday after Vespers. I can’t look. It’s not easy to get the veil up there, and I’m always worried the crucifix will break.

But it presents quite the contrast. White paraments, we sing the Gloria, yet the cross is veiled in mourning. It’s like a marching band interrupting a burial at the cemetery.

Lent begins with meditation on mortality. “Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.”

Annunciation interrupts the scheduled proceedings with an out-of-the-blue Joy to the World! It pops up every March 25, nine months before Christmas, as a little reminder that God is at work in hidden ways. He has a plan, a subversive plan to overturn all that has gone wrong.

One woman listened to a rebellious angel, and she likewise rebelled.

Another woman listened to an obedient angel, and she said, “Amen.”

One man fell, and brought the world to ruin.

Another Man came down from heaven to raise up the fallen world.

One tree infected mankind with bitterness.

Another tree appeared bitter but restored sweetness to our race.

We need this interruption of an angel with good news.

Lent has revealed our weaknesses. We succumb to hunger. We struggle to listen to God’s Word, or read our Bibles. We get upset with others. We upset them with our foolishness and pride.

We demand respect. Yet we don’t show it to others.

We demand compassion and understanding. Yet we immediately assume the worst in our neighbor.

Amid our chaos and mortality, our disobedience and frustration, an angel interrupts a young woman at prayer. He declares what has been planned before the foundation of the world: Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you!

His message is altogether unreasonable. It cannot be fathomed. A child conceived without the aid of a man? Impossible!

Impossible for man. But not for God.

This is how He said it would be in the beginning. After sin entered the world, immediately God preached consolation to the disobedient children. The seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, overcoming the devil and the power of death. The seed of the woman He said will do this. It is very odd, since throughout Holy Scripture the seed, the offspring, the lineage is traced through the man.

But man’s generation is corrupt. All of us are born in sin, conceived in iniquity. We inherited contagion, inherited a proclivity to self-deception, inherited perversion. We’re filled with lust, pride, despair; swift to anger, slow to listen, slow to show compassion.

Man’s generation is corrupt. But this Child, conceived in Mary’s womb, is conceived without a man, by the Holy Spirit alone. True man, Mary’s Child enters the world to breathe our poisoned air. Yet at the same time true God, begotten of the Father from eternity.

If we look at the condition of the world, it appears that if there is a god, he must hate us. Dr. Luther said of his society in 1537 something that could have been written this morning: “Present conditions are so shameful all around us in the world, as God allows murderous mobs and rabble, so much violence and so much misfortune to prevail, so that we might think God is only Lord and God of the angels and that he has forgotten about mankind.”

But in Gabriel’s message to Mary, Luther continues, “We see that he befriends us humans like no other creatures, in the very closest relationship, and, in turn, we humans have a closer relationship with God than with any creature.”

God is altogether unlike us. But there, in Mary’s womb, He has drawn near. He condescends to us, taking on our own flesh and blood. Our ruler and King enters creation and submits to rulers and kings, that He might be our King not by power and coercion, but by love and grace and kindness and holy absolution.

That flesh and blood of yours, He took on. He sanctifies it, and turns and gives it to you in the Eucharist. The Son of God takes what is corrupt, mortal, and dying. He snatches it from the open jaws of death and hell, cleans it, rebirths it.

So much does God love you, that He became one of you, entered your time, your life, your hell, your death, and gives you His eternity, His life, His heaven, His resurrection. Merry Christmas, Blessed Easter - it’s all wrapped up in one in this glorious day the angel Gabriel came to visit Mary. +INJ+