A Scandalous Love Affair: when life and faith doesn't make sense
Luke 1:26-38
Dick Hillis tells the story of a mission trip to Africa. “She was lying on the ground. In her arms she held her tiny baby girl. As I put a cooked sweet potato into the mother’s outstretched hand, I wondered if she would live until morning. Her strength was almost gone, but her tired eyes acknowledged my gift. The sweet potato could help so little — but it was all I had. Taking a bite she chewed it carefully. Then, placing her mouth over her baby’s mouth, she forced the soft, warm food into the tiny throat. Although the mother was starving, she used the entire potato to keep her baby alive. Exhausted from her effort, she dropped her head on the ground and closed her eyes. In a few minutes the baby was asleep. I later learned that during the night the mother’s heart stopped, but her little girl lived.” And then he writes, “Love is a costly thing.”
Being a mother can be a costly thing. But following the call of God to be a mother of the Savior can be a costly thing as well. As Christians, sometimes, we tend to sanitize the Christmas story. We think of it as a heartwarming story of a young mother giving birth to her first child who is in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. But from the very beginning, this call of God on Mary’s life was fraught with risk and danger. Mary was an unwed teenager who had been engaged to Joseph and now finds herself pregnant. All of us here and all of the people back then know how a 13 or 14 year-old girl gets pregnant. And Jewish law was very clear about adultery. The penalty was divorce at best which meant Mary would become a social outcast in Nazareth, having to deal with the whispers, the talk, the looks and the inevitable condemnation. She also would have to deal with bringing shame to her family. But the law also gave the option of the death penalty by being stoned to death. So this news from the angel is anything but good for Mary.
She discovers that following God’s will for your life can indeed be very costly. But how can this be when you’re following God and doing his will? When we’re faithful and doing God’s will, shouldn’t life be safe and easy. Shouldn’t things go our way? If we’re really honest: we believe following Jesus isn't supposed to get messy. But it does. A life of faith and doing the will of God is anything but safe and predictable. It is fraught with danger, risk and even opposition. Suddenly, life in God doesn’t make much sense. And yet despite all of this, Mary says yes to God.
There are several things we learn from Mary’s encounter with the angel and the call of God. First, when life doesn’t make sense, God is with you. "The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.'" When God calls, God never leaves you alone or hanging. When you follow God and say yes to Him, the promise we can hold onto is that He is with you. This is why Jesus is called, ‘Emmanuel, God with us.’ But that doesn’t mean that things won’t get difficult. Now comes the messy part. The angel says, "You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus." Remember Mary was just a kid of 12 or 13, she was engaged and was told she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. She had been faithful in her belief and faithful to her fiancée for we are told she a virgin. She had worked hard to do everything right. She had done everything to be good - and bad shows up. Sometimes participating in God’s plan of salvation creates all kinds of pain and difficulties in life. And Mary knows the law well and the punishment for adultery. And then there’s having to face her fiancé Joseph. Matthew tells us he isn't buying it. Who could blame him? Can you imagine your fiancée coming to you and saying she got pregnant by God? I might be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I’m not that stupid.
The call to faith and obedience to God does not mean that life will get easier. I think a lot of us think that if we believe in Jesus, if we lead a good life and if we’re faithful, life will get easier and less difficult. When in fact the Biblical record shows that the more faithful and obedient you are to God’s will, the more problems arise and the more difficulties come our way. Why? Because the world always opposes God’s will because they’d rather pursue their own selfish desires. We also believe that the call of God and the journey of faith will be neat and predictable. I wish it was. I wish the life of faith would follow this predictable cause and effect pattern but it doesn't. Nowhere does the Bible promise that a life of faith will always make sense or follow a predictable path? Think about Jesus' birth. God sent his Son as Savior of the world and as a direct consequence of his birth, Herod murdered 100’s of babies under the age of two. Or think of the apostles. They commit their life and give everything up to follow Jesus and each of them dies a martyr, tortured, killed, and crucified. How can this be?
Second, when life and faith doesn’t make sense, choose trust rather than fear. Even with the great risk of becoming pregnant and all of the fear welling up in her, Mary still said ‘Yes!’ to God. And we are challenged to do the same, even when life doesn’t make sense. Ella Ruth Rettig tells the story of having gone through unsuccessful cancer surgery and following up with chemo in Houston which meant 500 mile roundtrips from their home in central Texas. The trips were exhausting enough but the chemo made her feel sick to death. She lost her appetite, her hair and her will. Wallowing in fear and self-pity, she heard God say, “Plan a Christmas pageant that would bring the story to life for her grandchildren.” She said yes despite her fears that her children would think it was corny. She decided first on the barn as the scene of the pageant. She got to work taking the plot for the script right out of the Gospel of Luke. She assigned the roles to her family members, unbeknownst to them. She began making the costumes As she worked, she felt new life come to her. She enlisted her husband to make the star in the East and the shepherd’s crooks in his workshop. Finally the holiday arrived and after Christmas Eve dinner when everything was cleaned up and the leftovers were put away, they set the scene, handed out the costumes and the printed instructions. When everyone was ready, she began to read the story from the announcement of the angel to Mary to the arrival of the wisemen. And as they laid their gifts at the foot of the manger, they sang “Silent Night”, ‘Away in a Manger” and then “Joy to the World.” And as the last notes hung in the air, no one could move for they all felt God’s warm presence in that cold, dark barn. And then she writes, “And in that closeness…I’d left my fear behind. My soul was light, a newborn light that God had been leading me to for 6 months. It was the radiance of the manger, a radiance I helped God create. So you see, if you’re stricken by illness or misfortune, (in other words, if life doesn’t make sense) find something worthwhile to do (for God) and then do it….Don’t be afraid. Go!”
Third, when life doesn’t make sense, have proactive faith. Why did God choose Mary? She had a proactive faith. A person with a proactive faith doesn't live in the paralysis of fear in the moment. A person with proactive faith is constantly and actively pursuing God's redemptive purpose and presence in the midst of any situation that doesn't make sense. It’s trusting God that no matter what may happen, he will overcome. You can do this because of the promise in Luke 1:35. "The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.'" The Holy Spirit is the presence of God which is always with us. This is what Jesus promised: "…when I go away I will send the Holy Spirit, the advocate to be your helper." The Holy Spirit is present with you right now to be your helper through any situation, including when life doesn't make sense and that means you have to focus on what will happen in God’s power, not what is happening and not making sense in life.
Fourth, look for the evidence and hope of God. When life doesn’t make sense, we need God’s presence and power. Moses did all kinds of things to serve God and God asked Moses, “Is there anything I can do for you?” And Moses said, “God, I just want to see your face.” And God said to Moses: you can't see my face but what I am going to do is take you over here and hide you in the cleft of this rock and I am going to pass by. Now most translations do this no justice. They say, so Moses saw the back end of God. But what the Hebrew really says is that Moses saw the evidence of where God had been.
What's Mary's evidence of where God has just been? It’s her cousin Elizabeth. Look at verse 36. "Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month." Not only was Elizabeth past child-bearing age but she had been unable to have any children. So, Mary, what you're experiencing right now, Elizabeth experienced six months before you: the miracle of God and the invitation to be a part of God’s plan of salvation. Please hear me: Elizabeth's experience was the seed of hope for Mary's miracle. Your experience of saying yes to God and your pain and difficulty can be the seed of hope for God's miracle in someone else's life. Isn't that amazing how God works? God knew that this 12 or 13 year-old who had no theological understanding was only a child emotionally and needed not only hope but companionship for this journey. And because of this even in the midst of a life that didn't make sense, Mary said yes to God. "'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered.' May it be to me according to your word.' Then the angel left." It was the pregnancy of Elizabeth and being able to spend time with her while Mary was pregnant which sustained Mary through her pregnancy. And it was the presence of the angel which carried Mary through the birth of Jesus, his upbringing and even to the cross.
Dr. Ralph Harlow tells the story getting away with his wife Marion for a few days to visit family and of walking with his wife through the woods of Ballarvale, MA as Spring was breaking forth. The path that he and Marion were on was spongy as they walked along a beautiful creek. Then from behind them, they heard muted voices and could tell that they would soon be overtaken by them. But then the sounds were not only behind them but above them. As they looked up, about ten feet over their heads, they saw 6 incredible creatures that glowed with spiritual beauty in flowing white garments and engaged in earnest conversation with one another. Their faces were perfectly clear as they were talking with one another. Ralph and Marion stopped and stared as they passed overhead. They seemed to float past them and as they did, their voices slowly faded into the distance. Both Marion and Ralph looked at each other and then described what each saw, as if to confirm the miracle of angelic beings they had just witnessed.
That experience had a profound affect on Ralph and his wife. Once they had been skeptical about the absolute details of the birth of Christ, of the angels who had appeared to Mary and the shepherds, thinking that they were mere symbols injected into a fantasy or legend. But after this experience they were no longer skeptical but rather believe Luke records the experience told in wonder by those who had been visited by the angels.
And then he writes, “All of us, I think, hear the angels for a little while at Christmas time. We let the heavenly host come close once a year. But we reject the very possibility that what (Mary and) the shepherds saw 2000 years ago was part of the reality that presses very close every day of our lives. And yet there is no reason for us to shrink from this knowledge. Since Marion and I began to be aware of the host of heaven all about us, our lives have been filled with a wonderful hope. ‘This is what you are to hold fast to yourself- the sympathy and companionship of unseen worlds….’ The experience at Ballardvale added to the convictions of my faith (and) gives me not only a feeling of assurance about the future but a sense of adventure toward it too.” Especially in times when life doesn’t make sense. Amen and Amen.
