November 30, 2008 – Advent 1 – "A Baptism at Advent"
Baptism Service - Luke 1:26-38; Isaiah 9:6-7
There’s a story of a minister who like most ministers, conducted a lot of baptisms using the phrase, as we do, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”. One weekend his family went to a friend’s home in the country.
Their four children went outside to play with the others. After a short while, they heard only silence and wondered what the children were up to. They were found behind a barn quietly playing "church."
Their 4-year-old daughter Susan was conducting the baptismal service. She held a cat over a barrel of water. Trying to be as solemn as her father, she repeated the phrase she had heard many times: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and in the hole he goes!"
Today is a very special day and, I think, a great way to begin the Advent season. Today, as you know, we are going to baptize
#__ people. Baptism is a public act where the person baptized affirms their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and where they make a public commitment to follow Jesus Christ. This is very, very important, and it signifies something that has already taken place in the life of the believer.
An answer has been given by the baptismal candidates to the gift of God’s grace, the gift of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. The gift of a life lived in service to our Saviour.
That answer is “Yes!”, and so in a little while we will celebrate that “Yes!” with those who will be baptized today.
Our advent passage today let’s us in on another “Yes!”, that was given to God in answer to an invitation into the life of God. It tells us of the first good-news promise, the first gospel-promise spoken and how a young girl responded to that gospel-promise. That gospel-call.
And that gospel-call, we discover, captivated a young girl’s, a girl named Mary’s, imagination; this gospel call captivated Mary’s heart. It was a story to be told in her flesh…and then to be lived out in infancy in her arms.
I’m going to ask __________ to read:
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Mary’s response to this message is fascinating. Remember, Mary was a young girl… perhaps fourteen years of age. She was told by the angel that she would, while still a virgin, give birth to a son who she was to name Jesus. And this son was to be no ordinary son.
He would be called the Son of the Most High. He would possess the throne of king David forever, and the Kingdom He ruled would last forever. She was, at this tender age, to give birth to the Son of God. She was being invited into a vital role within God’s purposes.
She was being invited in a very real sense into the gospel, the good news of God’s redemptive love that was to be expressed in Jesus.
It is into this same gospel that those being baptized today have been called. Having received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, each one will make a very public declaration in their baptism, this important external sign of a great inner life-commitment to Christ.
Mary was called into the gospel, and how did Mary respond? She was captivated by all that she heard the angel say. She responded by saying: “"I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."
What was it about this call into the gospel that got Mary’s attention, that captivated Mary, that captured Mary’s heart?
First, it was its mystery…This was early in time, nothing of the story of Jesus was known, even though the beginning and the end of Jesus’ life in particular were foretold in the Old Testament.
The story of Jesus was just now for Mary, as she heard the words from the angel, beginning to unfold. This was early on.
It would be months yet before Jesus would be presented in the temple at 8-days of age.
It would be months before the old man Simeon would say, upon seeing and holding the infant Jesus: “Luke 2:29-32 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."
Yes, months before her newborn son would be declared by Simeon to be the salvation of God.
And months before that same prophet, Simeon would utter words that 33 years later would come back to sting Mary: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."
So there was mystery to this gospel that captured Mary’s heart. Barely unfolding. Not fully grasping. The power of the Most High overwhelming; yet the gospel grabbed her heart and hope was born.
What else was it about this call into the gospel that grabbed Mary’s attention? Well, the second thing was its weight. Its depth, its seriousness…She was to bear a child who would be called the Son of God.
This would have resonated powerfully with even a young Jewish girl like Mary who would have heard the words of Isaiah 9:6-7 read in synagogue.
Let’s hear those words right now. I’m going to ask ____________ to read.
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This One to be born, this Son of God would be the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. You gotta appreciate…this is huge to Mary. Completely defying the limits of her current understanding; opening doors to what was humanly impossible in every imaginable way.
The angel, of course, knew this. So in response to her wondering, her doubt, her skepticism, her amazement, the angel simply says: “Nothing is impossible with God”
So to Mary there was a weight and a sense of something profound in the journey she was invited into. There were unanswered questions, yes, but the gospel grabbed her heart and hope was born.
What else caught Mary’s imagination? I think the third thing was its personal call…this profound mystery, this buoyant hope was imposing itself on Mary in a sense. But she had a decision to make. She could have said “No!”
She could have delayed her response, put off indefinitely this mystery pressing in on her. She could have attributed the visitation of the angel to some undigested bread in her stomach in a manner like Scrooge.
She could have argued the theology of the situation, the propriety or properness of what was being suggested by the angel.
All manners of escape were available to her, and yet Mary, it seems, even before the visitation of the angel, had known something about herself. She knew, as she said to the angel, that she was the Lord’s servant.
Something in Mary had already yielded to God.
At some point the songs of the synagogue and the reading of the ancient texts and the frequent conversations about God and the people He had called to Himself…at some point that went from out here, to in here, and travelled all the way to here [the heart]. The greatest distance of all.
Something in Mary had already yielded to God.
“I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said”. And with those words Mary opened up her life to the mystery presented to her by the angel, the promise that she would bear the Christ child.
Mary chose to enter that mystery. She chose to enter into that gospel hope: that profound and intensely personal hope that would lead to her life being transformed.
Mary didn’t know all the answers but she lived in that part of the self where the question is born.…she lived with an attitude of listening, of awareness of presence, of an openness to mystery. She considered the impossible, and she learned that with God all things are possible
Aren’t you glad that with God, all things are possible? When we give our lives to God in great sincerity, when we commit our lives to following Him, His promise is not for an easy life.
That would be way too boring for God. His promise is to ‘do life’ with us, to lovingly equip us with more and more faith, more and more strength, more and more joy and more and more love to do His will…His promise is to work in us for good.
Romans 8:28 says: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
This Christmas, this Advent, is where hope begins. May we each choose to live in that gospel hope, that hope that began when a simple Jewish girl responded to God’s love and God’s mystery.
May we each come to echo Mary’s heartfelt commitment, and in response to the hope that God wants to give to us…in response to the joy He longs for us to share in…in response to the generous gift of salvation that God offers each of us here today, may we each, in our own heart and in our own way, say to God, "May it be to me as you have said."
Those being baptized today have chosen to yield their lives to God, to enter into the gospel through faith in the Son of God. They did that when they received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
What they will do now as they are baptized is to make a very personal and yet very public affirmation of their desire to follow Jesus Christ, their commitment to live life His way, under His Lordship and authority, and in the blessing of His loving care and providence.
Let’s pray. Holy God, in your perfect love you chose to dwell in human flesh. This Advent and this Christmas season as we think about the Christ Child who would be born to Mary and who would grow up to become the Saviour of the world, would you enter our hearts and minds in a new way.
Give us a fresh understanding of Your self-giving love. And give us hearts that say “Yes!” to you and that turn to you in faith. In His name we pray. Amen
