Advent4 It’s All About God December 23, 2007 Luke 1:39-56
Rev. Milton Rudnick
It’s not easy for us to identify with Mary. She and her situation are so different. We have more than a few young women in our congregation and some of them may be pregnant. But even their similarity with her is very limited. None of them is miraculously pregnant with the Son of God and as a result facing rejection by her fiance and the community and even the possibility of death . For the rest of us the differences are so many and so great that her experiences and words just don’t seem apply to us. Further complicating the matter is that many sincere Christians piously but wrongly elevate her to superhuman, almost divine status, and how can we identify with some one like that.
However, something that we have in common with her is actually even more striking than these differences. Like Mary, we receive astonishing, challenging, even frightening promises from God. They are promises that call for a clear and decisive response, often immediate response. Our response, like Mary’s, is enormously important to God, to others and to ourselves. Mary demonstrates what that response ought to be.
The report of the Angel delivering the promise is found in the section right before our text. Through the Angel God said: “Mary, I am going to do you a big favor. You’re going be the mother of my Son. He will rescue you and everyone else from the terrible consequences of sin. O yes, by the way, no man will needed for this.” The time had come for our God and Savior to join the human race to do what had to be done to meet our most urgent need, and His entry would be through her body. From what both Elizabeth and Mary say it’s clear that although her role was an incredible honor, the really big deal was that the unborn Child was their Lord and Savior. A careful, thoughtful reading of these verses reveals that this event was not very much about Mary; It’s all about God.
It was a promise that demanded a response, a promise that she could have refused or misinterpreted. She could have responded, I’m sorry, it’s a great favor, but the cost and danger are too great. I’m not up to it. You’ll have to get someone else. Or she could have discounted the whole experience as a delusion. Or, she could have accepted it arrrogantly, thinking: What do you know?: I’ve tried to be good, but I didn’t think I was that good. I’ll have to give myself more credit.
How different her response was from anything like this. In the text she refers to herself as God’s humble servant. By “humble” she means lowly, insignificant, unworthy, sinful, repentant. What was her response to that astonishing and challenging promise when she first heard the Angel’s message? Whatever you say, Lord. I’m your servant. Whatever you want of me is what I will do. What she sings about here so joyfully and enthusiastically is not anything that she is or will do, but what God has promised to do through and also for her. She celebrates His goodness in keeping His promise given first to Adam and Eve, and then repeated to Abraham and generations of believers down through the centuries. She responds trusting that God would keep His promises as He always had in the past. Mary responds to her part in the fulfillment of this promise with humble and obedient faith, making it very clear that what is going to happen is not about her. It’s All About God!
What are God’s promises to us? There are many, but I’m going to focus on just one that is very high on His priority list. That promise is closely connected to His promise to Mary and surprisingly similar. He actually promises to bring the Savior into this world through us. Mary was to give physical birth to Him. We are to make others aware of Him, to help them realize how much they mean to Him and He to them, how good and great and loving He is. We are to invite and encourage them to accept Him and all that He has done for them. The miracle of Christman benefits only those who know about it, who realize how much they need it, who want and accept it. God’s astonishing and challenging promise to us is that He we can help make such faith happen. What Mary did in a very quiet, private and personal way on that first Christmas, what an army of angels announced with great power and elegance, we are to do. In our own words and way, in the context of our every day life He promises that we, too, can bring the Savior in to the world. So it is a promise that implies a command. It’s something that He wants us not only to believe but to act upon, to do.
How can we do this? Like Mary, we have to believe that we can do this, because He promises to make it possible. We can begin every day by reconnecting in prayer with our God and Savior and by keeping Him on the line, and by keeping the conversation going all day long. This way no matter how many other things we might have to get involved in we can stay aware of Him, keep talking to Him and listening to Him. “Lord, I’m counting on you to help me make others aware of you today. I want to help someone get to know you or come closer to you. I want to treat others in away that will remind them of you and draw them to you. I want to say or do whatever it takes to help someone toward faith and salvation.”
There are some very specific, practical, even comfortable ways to begin. If you live in Albertville, St. Michael or Hanover, every resident, you and all your neighbors, have received one of these invitations to our Christmas services. Take yours to someone who doesn’t seem to have a church and invite and encourage them to attend. Tell them how much Jesus and Christmas worship mean to you. Even if they received it in the mail, theymay not have looked at it. This could be a step toward bringing them to their Savior. Or, check out or purchase “the Nativity” DVD and loan it to someone with the recommendation that they view it over the holidays. There are other possibilities. Be creative. Do it prayerfully and joyfully. Do it with the confidence that, like Mary, you can bring the Savior to them.
Messages like this can stir up bad attitudes and reactions: It’s hard for me to believe that this can happen. I get so distracted from God and wrapped up in myself. I can hardly even leave a good impression about myself, much less about God. I feel uneasy trying to talk to someone about the Lord. Where do attitudes and reactions like this come from? Not from God, but from the enemy. They are wrong, sinful. But we can do something about them We can confess them to Him and count on Him to forgive us and to help me improve. He has promised that we can do this. If we can count on His promise of forgviveness and salvation, I guess we can also count on His promise to help us to bring His love and salvation to others, despite our limitations and unworthiness. After all, He is God and He loves us. He cared enough for us and everyone else to become a tiny, helpless newborn who would grow up to be rejected, reviled, abused, and even tortured to death to save us and everyone else. That kind of love motivates like nothing else. It makes us want to say, like Mary: “I’m your humble servant, Lord. I’ll do whatecver you say. Yes, I will bring you into this world, and I will do it this Christmas.” Amen. |
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