"Are You Ready for a Miracle?"
Luke 1:26-38
December 21, 2008
St. Paul United Methodist Church
Rev. John A. Fleming
Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent and since it falls four days short of Christmas morning I think that is just might be about time for a Christmas miracle. Some of you may be in the mood for a miracle. Some of you may be thinking that if you are going to do all that needs doing between now and Christmas morning, it is going to take a miracle. That is not the kind of miracle I think it is time for. I think its time for God doing something so wonderful and so powerful and something so out of the ordinary that there is no way to explain it away.
Maybe the miracle would include an angel, and not just any ordinary angel, but an angel above all angels. I think Gabriel would do nicely. Gabriel is the one that you think of when you think of angels! In this miracle Gabriel would get his marching orders from God. The assignment would be to swoop down on an unsuspecting teen aged girl, just engaged, or betrothed to use the old word for that, to a nice young carpenter from Nazareth. The girl would have been in the middle of planning her wedding. Gabriel's assignment would be to deliver the news that if she is up to it, if she will agree to it, her name will always be remembered and revered.
That's the kind of miracle I am talking about today and that is the miracle that is our scripture lesson for this morning. Let's take a closer look at what happened the day Gabriel visited with Mary and let's see how these words might shape our lives.
Commentators who are much smarter than I am, call these verses the annunciation. I am from Tennessee with Arkansas roots and so I prefer the more simple term. This is Mary's call from God. Gabriel, you will remember, swooped down and greeted Mary with these words, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." Luke tells us that Mary was perplexed and pondered what kind of greeting this might be. In today's language that means that she was afraid and wondered what God was up to. It's not everyday that an angel swoops down to see you.
Gabriel gives Mary the news of God's plan, that she will have a baby, that he will be named Jesus, that his kingdom would be without end, and that he would save his people and that God would use Mary to make all this happen. You might say that this is Mary's call, in more ways than one.
The Bible, of course, is full of these sorts of call stories. In ours for today, Mary is minding her own business, planning her wedding, meeting with her pastor, securing a florist and a videographer, and sending out invitations when Gabriel showed up. He came out of nowhere and he said, "Do not be afraid!" Mary listens to Gabriel's words and when he is finished, she takes the chance to ask a question. It's a pretty important one. It is this one, "How can this be?"
Who could blame her for asking that or any question for that matter? She's not yet married to Joseph. She is only engaged and when an engagement happened there were strict rules. Joseph and Mary, for the year prior to their wedding, would not have been left alone. How will she tell him this? And then there are her parents. They won't understand. She will be the talk of the town, the topic of every conversation. She's right in asking, "How can this be?" Try being Mary. Try wrapping your mind around the how here. Anyone receiving a call from God has questions. We, too, ask, "How can this be?" Sometimes we ask, "Why, God, would you choose me?" Why God chose Mary is something we will never know.
Mary says yes against a mountain of circumstances and consequences. It helps, I think, that Gabriel tells her that he has also been to see her cousin, Elizabeth, and her husband, Zechariah. Mary knows that the two have been trying to have a child for years and years. Now they are past the age of childbearing and yet Gabriel tells Zechariah that a son is on his way. Gabriel puts an exclamation point on the story by saying, "For nothing will be impossible with God."
I don't know about you, but I've found that to be true. Mary hears all of that and says, "Here I am, let it be with me according to your will." That is her call from God.
When calls from God come, there are all kinds of reactions to them. Moses asked God to choose someone else. Isaiah is caught up in the heavenly drama and when he hears the heavenly hosts asking, "Whom shall we send and who will go for us?" Isaiah blurts out, "Here I am! Send me!" Later he asks God, "How long O God, how long?" Then there is Abraham and Sarah, also up in the years, unable to have a child on their own. An angel of the Lord came and told Abraham the good news. Sarah listens from a distance and laughs. You would too.
When things like that happen, things so improbable, things so impossible, things you dreamed would happen but haven't, you have to laugh. Sarah denies the snicker and the writer of Genesis gives us this line, "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" which is another way of saying that nothing is impossible with God.
As for Mary, this is no laughing matter! Luke tells us that she's perplexed. Luke tells us that she's pondering things. One of the things I hope you will take home with you today is that God then and now is in the calling business and there is a good chance that He will choose you.
Will Willimon is now one of our United Methodist Bishops, but for a time was the preacher at Duke Chapel in North Carolina. He also taught courses at the seminary. In one of the courses, new students were to write and tell their call stories. Bishop Willimon says that some of the stories were strange. Some were quite ordinary. Some told of an unfulfilled life until the said yes to the call.
One woman told that she had been married for fifteen years. Her husband is a pastor and one day he came home from a busy day. She was sitting on the couch, drinking a beer, smoking a cigarette, and reading a book that was not spiritually edifying. He saw that and said, "Now there's a picture of a pastor's wife!" It hit a button with her. She said, "I'm a wife. I'm not a pastor!" She told the class that she shouldn't have said that. God took that line, "I'm not a pastor" and planted a seed in her soul, one that grew until she said yes. She said, "And now I'm in a class telling all of you my call story which includes a trash novel, a cigarette, and a bottle of beer!"
Another told that he was as wild as he could be as a teenager. He made his parents' lives a living hell. He was always in trouble. When he went to college, he stayed for two years and partied the entire time. After two years he flunked out. He found a job and met a wonderful girl. Soon they married and decided that they needed to go to church. They visited a small church and soon got involved. He taught a Sunday School class and preached when the pastor was out of town one weekend. It suddenly dawned on him that God had big plans for his life. He went home one weekend to tell his parents about his call. His mother's eyes filled with tears when he shared the news. She said, "I haven't told you this, but I had trouble getting pregnant. I told God that if He'd let me have a baby, I'd dedicate him to God and name his Samuel. I'd just read that Hannah had done that." The young man looked at his mom. He was astonished. He asked, "Why didn't you ever tell me that? You could have saved me time and a lot of daddy's tuition money!" She said, "We're Methodists. Do we believe this sort of thing?" Friends, we do. We do.
What I want you to hear today is that if you think God using a peasant girl like Mary is all that shocking, look around in your Bible and you will see that God does that sort of thing all the time. What is strange, I think, is that God picks people like us. We're not perfect. We have baggage. We have limitations, but in our better moments we say yes to God's call.
Which leads me to something else I want to say to you today; this story of Mary's call reminds me that God's call is always a two-way street. Gabriel comes down. There is no doubt that the call is from God. It is as believable as it can be. The call tells of a young girl who is caught up in the purposes of God. There is confusion. There is fear. There is Mary saying, "I don't understand what all this means. I'm not sure what all will happen, but yes, use me to do your will!"
And now yes, I know. I know. Mary's call was unique. No one before or since then has had the kind of call she had. And I know, I know. Our sermon today is filled of stories both of biblical and pastor's call stories. I know. I know. You may not be called like these were, but I do think that you are called. You cannot think about Mary's call without considering your own. There are some similarities. There is confusion. There is fear. There is all this unknowing. There is the question, "Can I really do what God wants me to do? And what is it, exactly, that God wants me to do with my life?" You can say yes and in saying yes you can make a difference. Mary, you see, had the faith to see that what Gabriel was proposing was more than disturbing and frightening, it was also powerful.
I wish we had a lot more time today. I wish you would give me your whole day. You can't. There's too much shopping still to do. But if you could, I'd like to hear about God's call on your life. It might be like the conversation I heard two people having the other day. One said to the other, "You know, she could have been anything. She's smart. She could have made millions. She chose to be a nurse because she really wants to take care of people." Or the conversation could have gone like this, "I thought when he retired he'd spend all his time on the golf course. He's never there. He spends a lot of time at the soup kitchen dishing out soup but also love and compassion."
Beloved, will you say yes when God calls? Your life counts for something great. This is one of the great messages of Christmas. Be not afraid. The Lord is with us. Let us pray.
(Special thanks to Bishop Willimon for the idea and the call stories in this sermon).