December 22, 2002
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Fourth Sunday of Advent One of the songs of this Advent Christmas season is one that Mary and Joseph sing. They sing of their wonder and amazement at the coming of Jesus into their lives. Joseph sings the chorus: “Why me, I’m just an simple man of trade;Why him, with all the rulers in the world; Why here, inside this stable filled with hay, Why her, she’s just an ordinary girl. Now I’m not one to second guess, what angels have to say, but this is such a strange way to save the world”. (“A Strange Way To Save The World” by Dave Clark, Mark Harris, Don Koch. 1997. Paragon Music Corp.) It may seem strange that the world would need saving, but it did. The world needed saving because its people were in trouble. Spiritually, the people of Israel, who had followed the law and listened to the prophets, were, we are told, stuck in a kind of bleak spiritual twilight walking in darkness and waiting for the light. They were expecting a Messiah, a Christ, one anointed and appointed by God to bring light into the world. They were looking for one to save them from their broken relationships and separation from God. Politically, the people were living in economic distress under Roman occupation. The people were looking for a leader, one steeped in David’s bloodline, who would be God’s own son. They were expecting someone both human and divine, an earthly warrior king and a shepherd servant of God’s flock. The world was waiting for God to come to us in skin and bones, muscles and organs, and all that will make God human. The world was waiting for one to come who would make things all right. “Now God, do it now. Send us a savior now, God”. And what does God do? God decides to send a savior to the world. The salvation of the world began at creation as God called people into existence. It continued as others sent by God emerged to lead the people to remember their dependence on God. The story continues through David, the first shepherd servant king who learns an early lesson about what it means to serve God. Today’s first lesson tells us that David’s inclination, as he enjoys a time of peace and prosperity, is to secure his political future and, at the same time, perform an act of faith. He plans to build a house of worship, a temple for God. His offering is sincere, but it is not what God wants. Instead, God says to David, “the time for me to have a house has not yet come. I have lived in tents and tabernacles so that I could move with the people. I am a God who must be “free, mobile, dynamic and who sojourns, bivouacs, and comes and goes, but never settles and becomes confined in one place”. (Text for Preaching – Year B Louisville, Westminster/John Knox Press, p.32). It is good that people worship me in buildings, but don’t get stuck there. I am free to move and I want my beloved people to be free to hear me and serve me too, so that they can go in the ways that I will show them. So instead of building me a house, let me make you a house”. That is God’s way of saying that David would be the patriarch of a dynasty, his name and influence would last forever. This is the one God chose to take on to lead the nation. God has kept him successful and safe and now promises to make his name and heritage live forever. We believe that David’s name will live forever through the Messiah who comes to us as the fulfillment of God’s incredible promise of salvation for the world. One writer says, “in Advent, Christians dare to claim that this remembered and coming Jesus carries the promise of David for newness and well-being. No wonder John’s followers asked of him, ‘are you to come?’ (Luke 7.19-20). Advent is for hoping; Christmas is for receiving God’s unambiguous, confident Yes”! (Texts for Preaching, p.34) We thank god that the day is almost here – it certainly is not far off. As we will hear Tuesday night at the Christmas Eve service, the prophets foretold his coming, his mother Mary, and her espoused husband Joseph heard the news in visions and dreams, the story has come to us, and for all of its glory and majesty we have to admit that we could also sing, “it’s a strange way to save the world”. Maybe it is strange to our point of view, odd to our way of thinking, but God is about to do a new thing, and the world will not be the same again. God is about to act in Mary’s life as God has acted in David’s. First, God sends an angel, a messenger Gabriel, to a young engaged women named Mary. As was the custom of the day, she was in all likelihood betrothed to Joseph since she was a young girl, and while they are engaged, they are not yet married. So there Mary is, beginning to make wedding plans. Gabriel began with a good word. “Greetings Mary. What’s up Mary. God sent me to tell you something. The angel, speaking for God helps us to see the strange boldness of surrounding the birth of Christ. I have been sent by God to let you know that God has taken notice of you, and that you are blessed. God is with you even now. Remember Mary is a young woman in Nazareth making wedding plans. We would likely be flattered to have the angel of God tell us the we have found favor with God. Such news would leave us feeling pretty good about our relationship with God. But Gabriel is not done. The gracious greeting is followed by a strange announcement. “Mary, you are so blessed that God will entrust you with the responsibility to bear a son, whom you will name Jesus. He will be God’s own son, and the savior of the world. That is more blessing than some of us even want to handle. But there is more. He goes on, “not only will you bear this son, but here is what he will do and who he will be. He will be great, he will be called the son of the most high God. He will inherit the throne of his ancestor David, whose house will live forever”. Mary has a question. “My wedding is a few months away, and I have had no intimate relations with Joseph. What are you talking about? How is this even possible”? “Here is how it will happen. The Holy Spirit will come over you. You will indeed conceive a son. The power of God will overshadow you. This son you will bear will be called the Son of God. And by the way your kinswoman Elizabeth, who everybody thought was infertile, is having a special son too. “Mary, you look puzzled, maybe even a little afraid. But don’t be confused or afraid. Remember God is with you, and that nothing is impossible with God. I don’t know about you, but I understand and would react like Mary did. My first response would be, “did I hear you correctly? You want me to do what? The Holy Spirit is going to do want and the result will be that I am going to be the mother of the savior of the world? What would you do if this word of annunciation came to you? I always wonder, every time I hear it, what Mary did. Do you think she laughed as Sarah did? This is just as fantastic as the announcement to a woman in her nineties that she would have a son. Did she cover her ears in fear and horror? This is a terrifying announcement. Did she just stand there with her mouth open trying to understand what was happening? Mary listened and pondered, prayed and looked and came to understand herself in a new way and was led to her own bold statement. “I am God’s servant. Let it be to me according to your word. We should not be surprised that Mary finally says, “let it be”. “Throughout the early chapters of Luke, Mary is portrayed as favored of God, thoughtful, obedient, believing, worshipful and devoted to her Jewish law and piety” (Interpretation series. Luke. Fred Craddock. Louisville, John Knox Press, p. 27-28). Can we take on these same qualities of Mary, and participate in God’s work of saving the world? What if we receive the blessings of God and become more thoughtful in our relationships with each other, and obedient to God. What would the world be like if each one of us lived as if we really do believe that nothing is impossible with God, and because we believe that, we will be ever worshipful and devoted to the One who has called us and named us. Because we believe that nothing is impossible with God, we will claim our ministry, let the Holy Spirit overshadow us, and in our own way carry to birth the good news that the Messiah of the world has come. Mary trusted this God who made strange statements, who has chosen her and who will do this strange and amazing thing through her. Because she trusted God, she was able to find confidence in herself and do what God called her to do. The same confidence is available to us as we too put our trust in God. We too can act boldly and confidently because as God did with Mary, God will come to us in strange and wonderful ways when there is particular work for us to do. The truth is that God does have particular work for us to do. But we do not simply bear the Messiah, we share the Messiah and the good news he will bring to the world. We share the great good news of his birth. We are called to share that Jesus came not as a fully grown man, chosen in his youth as David was chosen, but as a helpless, totally dependent on others infant. We will tell the story of how the one who will be called the King of Kings was not born in a prince’s palace, or even in a house, but in a borrowed stable behind an overbooked hotel to a young mother and a bewildered father. God has not only promised to do this seemingly impossible thing through Mary, but the miracles continue. The child waiting to be born will come. He will grow up and when he does, he will heal the sick, feed the hungry, comfort the grieving, give strength to the powerless. He will challenge the greedy, and offer his unconditional love to every one. He calls his people to do the same. He will gather disciples, live and die and be raised from death by God who does the miraculous and impossible all the time. It may be a strange way to save the world, but it is the way God chose. That is how God offers salvation to the world. It is indeed a strange way to save the world, yet that is precisely what God does. And it strikes me that while it may seem strange to us, God sometimes acts in ways we don’t quite get to save the world. We enter into the act when we declare simply that we are servants of the Lord, that God can use us as God will and that we believe nothing is impossible with God. Praise God that we can remember that as servants of God, followers of Christ, people overshadowed by the Holy Spirit we bear the Messiah and carry in us the good news of Jesus Christ. Day by day, we give birth to the good news that is in us. The news is that Christ is alive in our hearts and in this place. Our news is that we are here and that we will be here being and living the good news of Jesus Christ. Why Jesus, why a stable, why Mary? Why you, why me, why this church, why this means of naming Jesus as Christ and Lord? Because it is the way God works. It may be a strange way to save the world, but thanks be to God, God’s way lead to our salvation. To God be the glory. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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