12-1-24

Luke 1:26-38

Heart of the Rockies Christian Church  (Disciples of Christ)

David A. Shirey

Have you ever noticed how the angels in the Christmas story scare the living daylights out of the people they greet?  The angel says to Mary, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28) and the Favored One nearly faints.  Says Luke, "Mary was greatly troubled at the saying, and wondered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be." (Luke 1:29).  And she wasn't alone in her angel-induced anxiety.  Zechariah was in the Temple when an angel appeared to announce John's birth.  His reaction?  "Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him" (Luke 1:12).  And how about those shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night?  The angel appeared to them, the glory of the Lord shone 'round about them, and "they were filled with fear" (Luke 2:9). 

I've come to the conclusion that Mary and company's anxiety is perfectly understandable.  After all, it's the case throughout the Bible that whenever God draws near to greet someone it's never just to chit-chat.  It's usually to make a request of that person-- and a humdinger at that! 

• Abraham and Sarah were happily retired when God beat a path to their tent, greeted them, and said,  "Pack your bags. I've chosen you to leave this place and follow me on a trip, destination to be announced" (Genesis 12:1-8). Nothing like the promise of a blind date with destiny to bring you up short. 

• Or, how about the time God greeted the man minding his own business tending his father-in-law's sheep?  "Greetings Moses!  I've chosen you to lead slaves to freedom first thing in the morning.  You'll be wandering around in the desert for forty years. The people you'll be trying to lead will moan and groan and call you names behind your back the whole time. When all is said and done you won't even get there." (Ex 3:1-10). 

It never fails.  Whenever the Sovereign of Heaven greets citizens of Earth it’s never just to exchange pleasantries.  When God comes calling it means that God has big plans and the recipient of the greeting is part of them. Witness Mary: after the greeting came the request:  "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:31-32).  No wonder Mary was thrown into such a tizzy when the angel came calling. 

Which brings me to you and me.  If we say we believe the story of that first Season's Greeting, then we have to consider it would be just like God to send another Season’s Greeting – this time to us. And the purpose of that greeting would be to inform us we've been chosen to fulfill a special role in the unfolding of God's purposes for our day just as Mary was chosen to be an instrument of God's purposes for her day.

The story of the annunciation begins with the phrase, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary” (Lk 1:26-27).  Notice how that line is filled with specifics as opposed to generalities. Specific dates:  “The sixth month”  Specific names: the angel Gabriel.  A man named Joseph. The virgin’s name was Mary. Specific places:  Nazareth, a town in Galilee. I mention this so you might believe God still comes to specific people and invites each of them – each of us – to play a specific role in God’s eternal purposes in our specific time and place. The Christian faith isn’t about vague generalities: a Divine Being (so to speak) who invites people (generally speaking) to join in God’s redeeming work (speaking broadly). Our faith gets specific. It’s about the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah who deals personally with a virgin named Mary pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. God still calls ordinary Marys and Joes. God wants to conceive in us, too – wants our lives to be fertile ground for specific work God yearns to do in our day and time through your particular life and mine. 

Mary received the angel’s greeting and bore the Christ child. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Mary is called by the Greek name Theotokos (thee·uh·tow·kows) which means God-bearer. Likewise, we’re each called to be Theotokos: people who are willing and ready to bear God’s purposes into our world just as Mary bore God’s Son into hers. 

And here’s the thing: if you assent to the angel’s greeting and become a Theotokos – a God-bearer – you’ll be stretched beyond your comfort zone.  I think the metaphor works: to bear and birth a child stretches a body (so I hear). You want to bear the Christ Child into this world? Can you say stretch marks? Jesus was all about stretching people. He stretched those first disciples beyond their comfort zones did he not?  In the three years they followed Jesus, the first disciples went places, met people, and were challenged by new perspectives they never would have had they spent the duration of their lives as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.

Can you identify? If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, I bet you can name some ways you’ve been stretched as a result of following Jesus. It’s one of the laws of spiritual physics. In order for our souls to grow, we have to get out of our comfort zones. And I think that in order to grow us and use us to do specific things in this world as Theotokos – God-bearers – the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us and stretches us.

Mary, being a virgin and hearing an angel tell her to expect to be expecting, asks the commonsense question of “How can this be?” Whereupon Gabriel tells her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...  With God nothing will be impossible"  (Luke 1:35,37).  The word is trust.  Trust that God will be able to use you to further God’s purposes. Yes, you! One of the wonders of the Christmas story is that Mary wasn't the right person for the job "as is," but God chose her nonetheless, and God promised her that by the Spirit's presence in her life she would become the right person. It is a Scriptural truth I’ve heard expressed as follows: God does not always call the qualified, but God always qualified the called. You and I, like Mary, aren't the right people to bear the Body of Christ – a church – into the world "as we are." But God has chosen us nonetheless. And like Mary before us, we’re promised that God's Spirit will overshadow us and God will in time make us into the right people to bear the Body of Christ into our world.  "With God nothing will be impossible." 

Trusting God’s promise to fit her for her role, Mary said, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The late Eugene Peterson said that’s the most profound prayer any disciple can pray. Upon reading a scripture passage: “Let it be to me according to your word.” Upon hearing a promise of God: “Let it be so.” Upon reading God’s vision for this world – “Let it happen! And let it happen with and through me.” Don’t miss the power of Mary’s “Yes” to God. God entrusts her with divine work to do in this world and she in turn trusts God to equip her to do it. May her prayer be our prayer: “Let it be to us according to your word.” God we want what you want for this world. Conceive your plans through us. Stretch us, mold us, fill us, use us.”

Be forewarned. If I were you this month, I'd keep my door locked. Open it only for people you recognize – the UPS, FedEx, or amazon delivery people, carollers, out-of-town relatives, people you've invited over for a party-- it's okay to let them in.  But otherwise, keep the door shut and bolted because Advent has begun and angels are on the prowl. God is looking for an inroad into your life and if you leave the door open even a crack, God will slip in and transform your life for God’s purposes. Before you know it, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And you’ll be doing something new and unexpected in 2025 that will stretch you – and make you a blessing to others, an instrument of God’s redeeming work in this world!

I came home on a late-December day years ago when we had answering machines and ours was flashing. I played the message and a peppy voice said, “You’ve got a surprise coming. Somebody thinks you’re special.  So special they’re sending you a package you can expect on Wednesday, December 23rd.  Please be watching for your special delivery.  When it arrives bring it inside, unwrap the package, take out your holiday gift-wrapped Omaha Steaks and refrigerate them until you can enjoy them.” It was my mother’s annual Christmas present. I pressed delete, then scribbled on the dry erase board on our refrigerator: Dec 23 – steak. 

What would you do if you got a voicemail this week that said, “Hail, O favored one. The Lord is with you. You’re going to bear God’s hope, peace, joy and love into this world. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and overshadow you. Nothing is impossible with God.”

Would you delete the message?  Or would you etch into your innermost being the words: Dec. 25 – Jesus Christ – and whisper, “Lord, let it be to me according to your word?”

Let all God’s people say: AMEN