Helene Russell, Marti Steussy and Charles Allen are all struck by the mixed messages of 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, especially when read in conjunction with the whole of Psalm 89 (not just the lectionary excerpt). Nathan the prophet presumably speaks for God, says Marti, nonetheless his first reaction to David’s plan to build a temple (do all that you have in mind, for God is with you) is quite different from God’s later opinion about David’s plan! God tells Nathan to tell David that God cannot be bound to a specific house. And yet, Helene comments, God decides to be bound up with David’s house. “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever" (verse 16).

Still, Charles objects, this final promise did not come true. David’s throne was not established forever. Taken in this light it is all the more ironic that a portion of Psalm 89 which appears in today’s readings is festive and upbeat, celebrating God’s promise to David. But this is a setup for the psalmist later to accuse God of breaking that very promise" (verses 38-45). Almost every reassuring statement in the portion read today is contrasted with what actually happens later. Talk about mixed messages!

In many ways, however, we can easily identify with the psalmist. We too have grown up with mixed messages: God loves all of us as we are/God does not love some of us as we are. We are refusing to accept that message of rejection. Likewise, the psalmist refuses to accept God’s apparent rejection, calling God to remember the original promise (verses 49-52). Again, this part of Psalm 89 is not in the lectionary reading, but it is crucial to understanding that psalm in its context, and even more crucial in light of the first lesson.

	What are the mixed messages that have shaped your life? How will you choose which ones to heed? Will you find the psalmist’s courage to insist that God remember you?

Paul hints, in Romans 16:25-27, that these mixed messages may be resolved in the gospel of Jesus Christ: “the mystery that was kept secret for long ages … is now disclosed" (verses 25b-26a). In one way, Charles remarks, that is undoubtedly true for any Christian. On the other hand, what is now disclosed is still a mystery. It is certainly not a promise that our “houses” will never fail, not in light of the crucifixion, says Holly. And Marti points out that Paul too hoped for a final resolution that never quite arrived. Paul has a wonderful vision of a church in which Jew and Gentile (the huge ethnic division in his own worldview) can be “in one mind” with one another in Christ Jesus. But Marti can never read Paul’s words without knowing that his vision did not come to fruition. Divisiveness won in the churches he was speaking to, because “us/them” is a terribly powerful dynamic in human society and in the individual psyche. In a way that’s comforting: our struggles aren’t new. The church has been flawed and broken its whole life long, but it’s still with us. It is flawed and broken now, but the vision it offers is still strong enough to keep us trying, and at moments the love of God breaks through and finds embodiment in ways so powerful that we just can’t give up!

	How does the Gospel, the Good News, help you face the mysteries and perplexities in your life? Does the Good News have to make sense, or can it be a mystery too?

Luke 1:26-38 is the story of Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary. Taken with the Magnificat (see last week’s commentary), this is a story of Mary consenting to enter into a disreputable condition, trusting that, despite all appearances, she is entering into holiness. Charles is intrigued by what Luke does not say here. He says that Mary was a virgin when Gabriel showed up. Mary also says that she is a virgin when she asks how this birth is supposed to happen. But Gabriel’s answer seems to skirt the issue. All he says is that, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Most High, the child to be born will be holy, contrary to all expectations. There is nothing about the mechanics of conception here. Luke is passing on a tradition he has heard about Jesus’ “virginal” conception. But his reticence causes Charles to wonder if Luke did not have his own questions about the “how” of her condition. It was a disreputable condition overshadowed by God and thus made holy. But it does not say anything about what DNA testing might reveal. Helene remarks that this could be an important issue to raise, not only because the claim of a virgin birth sometimes creates a stumbling block for thinking Christians whose belief in science inhibits their acceptance of the gospel, but also because it uplifts women struggling in a similar situation – unwed mothers who are shunned by society. The passage is a reminder that God uses people in all sorts of conditions and situations – even those whose conditions smack of what reputable persons, especially Christians, might call sin. God not only uses unwed mothers, but chooses them and sanctifies them. Perhaps these conditions are not really sin, or at least, not in all circumstances, or perhaps God does not use the criteria of sin versus not sin in choosing God’s most valuable players.

	Have you ever found holiness where others cried shame? What healing are you bringing to birth in and through your relationships?

Marti sees a marked contrast between the Annunciation and Greco-Roman traditions of divine rape (see for example W. B. Yeats’s poem, “Leda and the Swan”). Instead, in the Annunciation we are shown the vision of a young girl courageous enough to give her consent to a highly irregular divine plan. In answer to Yeats poem, one could quote the exchange between Mary and Gabriel in W. H. Auden’s “For the Time Being” [Collected Poems (New York: Random House, 1991) 359-360]. Gabriel says, “Hear, child, what I am sent to tell: Love wills your dream to happen, so Love’s will on earth may be, through you, No longer a pretend but true … What I am willed to ask, your own Will has to answer; child, it lies Within your power of choosing to Conceive the Child who chooses you.” Mary answers, “My flesh in terror and fire Rejoices that the Word Who utters the world out of nothing, As a pledge of His word to love her Against her will, and turn Her desperate longing to love, Should ask to wear me, From now to their wedding day, For an engagement ring.”

What Gabriel asks of Mary is what God asks of each of us in a different way, says Charles. It lies within our power of choosing to conceive the God who chooses us. We all stand with Mary, summoned to an adventure filled with peril and misunderstanding and mystery and unspeakable grief and joy.

	What lies within our power of choosing? We may not choose our loves, but how will the loves that choose us bring us into a new world?