Rejoice, O Highly Favored One!

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we are gathered to confess and adore a sacred mystery. We are gathered to bow our knees and lift up our hearts at the Name of the Lord who did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but took up residence in the flesh of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We bow the knee in humble confession that our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God before all worlds, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. God is made man. The King of the Universe inhabits the womb of a virgin.

Rejoice and sing, o you faithful people! God has deigned to dwell with His creation. He has descended to earth and taken up human flesh and blood in the womb of a virgin, just as He foretold by the prophets of old. Rejoice and sing for joy that the Lord who is and who was and who is to come, the Living One, has received life from the flesh of Mary. Blessed is she who is found worthy to be called the Mother of God! And more blessed is the fruit of Her womb, Jesus!

Blessed is the Mother of our Lord, because she has been found worthy to bear in her flesh the mystery which the patriarchs and prophets, and the whole people of God so eagerly awaited, and for which all creation desperately yearned. Blessed be the flesh of Mary, who has been counted worthy, not for her sake, but for the sake of all mankind to give life and flesh and birth to the Son of God, our Savior. Pour forth speech and let praises resound in the heavens, o you faithful beloved brethren! God is become Man!

And why should this virgin be counted worthy for such a great honor? Was Mary extraordinary among women, that God should visit this great favor upon her? Not that she was worthy in herself to be exalted, but God desired, in His wisdom and grace, to elevate her above all women and grant her the honor and title of Mother of God.

But how can this be? This virgin has not known a man. “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.” The Holy Spirit, who carries the Word of God from the mouth of the Lord and does with it according to His will, enters into the ears of the Blessed Virgin, and thereby in her is conceived the holy Christ Child, according to the same Word. By His speaking, the Word is incarnate in the womb.

For this is the great mystery writ large. How does life come to a man? How do you come to be? You had your beginning in the will of man, in the way of the flesh, but you could not have been, and could not yet live today without the Spirit of the Lord upon you. Can these bones live? When the breath of life enters them and the Spirit of God animates them, life is here.

What is this thing wrought in the womb of a mother? Is it merely a lump of unformed, raw substance? Is it an undifferentiated mass of tissue? Is it only a potential life, waiting until the day when it will be counted worthy to be called a person?

By no means! For by His entrance into the womb of His blessed mother, our Lord Christ confirmed and sanctified the blessing of life that He gives in the womb of every mother in every time and place. Our Lord did not count it beneath His dignity to be conceived in the womb of a woman. Neither does God consider it a mere trifle to conceive and create new life in the womb of a woman yet today. By the way of the flesh, He unites man and woman – husband and wife – in a blessed union of flesh and blood and shows forth the great blessing He gives, that life should come from such lowly beginnings.

Our Lord Christ did not disdain the virgin bed of Mary's womb, but took up His earthly throne there, received His flesh and blood, and was given birth by a human mother. Likewise, our Lord grants that each man and woman should receive life and being and birth in the womb of a mother, and be brought to birth again from the womb into the font.

For this child which was conceived in the womb of Mary was to be called Jesus, the Son of God who would save His people from their sins. He was the one foretold by the prophets and sung by the psalmists. He was the Lamb foreshadowed by the sacrifice of Abraham and the blood sprinkled on the people by Moses. He is truly Yeshua – the One who saves.

This child conceived in the womb of the virgin will take up the throne of His father David and reign there forever. But His route to the throne is not the triumphal march to the palace. There is no dancing naked before the Ark for this David's greater son. His path to the throne will march Him to the hill outside the city, where He has been lifted up high upon the cross, for all to see. The flesh conceived in the virgin's womb has been tortured, beaten, flogged, and twisted beyond recognition. And yet in His flesh do we see God.

You see the God who loves you enough that He does the miraculous and mysterious. He takes up residence in the flesh of a virgin. He is born according to the way of man. He is sacrificed upon the cross, and he dies according to the way of man. But He is not dead! He is risen! Just as He was placed into the depths of Mary's womb, and stepped forth from there into life, so also was He placed into the heart of the earth for His three day rest, and then stepped forth from the grave to eternal glory, leading the captives free and proclaiming the forgiveness of sins to all who believe. For this reason our Lord Christ was incarnate in Mary's womb.

Rejoice, give thanks, and sing! Tell abroad the glorious news that the Son of God was conceived in the flesh of a woman and brought to birth by a virgin mother.

So also ought you to consider the life of every child that is conceived in the womb of a mother. Just as Christ our Lord by His rest in the tomb hallowed the graves of all the saints, so also by His blessed incarnation He hallowed the wombs of all mothers, that they might be the blessed seed-bed from which springs forth new life, that God might claim for Himself new sons and daughters, making for Himself a never-ending kingdom, an ever-increasing royal priesthood.

Each child that takes up flesh and blood in the womb of his mother is a blessed mystery and a great gift from God the Father. Although each person on this earth is conceived by the will of man, it is the Spirit of God who overshadows each mother and creates life where and when He wills. He blesses the whole human race by the creation of each new life, and He strengthens and enlarges His Church through each new soul created to be called His Son.

How can this be, that such a blessed thing should happen to one so lowly and unworthy? Not because of any merit or worthiness in you, or any mother, or even in the Mother of God. Rather, this mystery of life happens because our Lord God and Father deigns to dwell with His people, to give life and breath to those who were not, to raise up sons for Himself and unite them to Himself by placing His Name upon you.

Give thanks to the God of Israel! Sing praises to the Most High! For He has not turned His face from us, but has taken up flesh and blood from a virgin mother, and has taken up all humanity into the Godhead. Because of the Holy Spirit's overshadowing of Mary, a man – complete with all the parts and facets and members you have – sits on the throne of God and rules over the kingdom of David forever. Blessed be God forever!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!