Dear Calvary-St. George’s,

Yesterday was an important holiday in the Christian year, The Feast of the Annunciation. This day marks our commemoration of the Archangel Gabriel, visiting the Virgin Mary and announcing that she would be the mother of Jesus, the Savior of the World and Mary’s faithfulness to be the “handmaiden of the Lord.” From the earliest days of the church, this was an important feast. We learn that Christ was begotten at the same time as his death, which was during the Jewish month of Nissan, which always overlaps March and April in the Gregorian calendar. So count nine months out from March 25th and you get Christmas on December 25th. Until the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, for many Christians, March 25th was New Year’s Day. In fact, it was England’s official New Year’s Day until 1752. 

I want to share with you three things we learn about God from the Annunciation that speak to us in the midst of a quarantine, when we are sequestered away and life is anything but normal.  

Credit: Matt Veligdan

First, we learn that God never forgets his promises.

It was over 400 years since God had last spoken to his people and while, from our standards, that is a really long time, it does not change the fact that he had not forgotten his promises.

Second, we learn that God always works in ways that go unnoticed by the rest of the world.

Nobody in the Roman World knew that the Archangel Gabriel had visited a Jewish teenage peasant girl. Nobody noticed that the Savior of the World entered it through the womb, in a backwater town in the backwater part of the Empire.

When God works, he always does big things, in small and insignificant ways.

One of the things that I am trying to stay focused on during this time is where I see God at work right now. I will be honest. It is not in the big things; it is in the little things, such as:

• a woman buying a homeless man who hadn’t eaten since Monday a sandwich today at the bodega,

• unnoticed stories about how people have exercised extraordinary acts of kindness and care in hospitals across the world,

• all of you who have been gathering online to pray and encourage one another with the presence of the church and the hope of the Gospel.

Third, we learn that God is not afraid to get messy and gets in our messes.

Someone told a colleague of mine, “I am so angry at God right now because everything in my life is falling apart.” If you are angry with God right now that is fine; he can handle it. However, never forget:

Jesus did not enter into our world to make our lives necessarily better. He entered into our world to make it brand new.

The Annunciation reminds us that Jesus has even stepped into this mess, and while we may have no idea what the future holds, you can trust that, in Jesus, while it may not be better, it will most certainly be brand new.

During this time, you can tune into our livestream events via calvarystgeorges.org. I also encourage everyone to join us on our Zoom conference calls from Monday to Friday at 6 p.m. If you need pastoral care, please call the church office on 646-723-4178 or email us at info@calstg.org.

Pax,

The Reverend Jacob A. Smith