Prayer for Illumination:
Lord we bring ourselves to your word this morning,
And we ask that you would speak to us that we might hear your words.
Unstop our ears to listen,
Chase the thoughts of tasks unfinished and tasks yet to do from our minds,
Open our hearts to be responsive to your Spirit’s breathe.
To this end Lord,
May the meditations of our hearts
And the words of my mouth
Be pleasing to you
Oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
It’s in Christ’s name we pray. AMEN
Our Message this morning is entitled: Waiting! A Centering Exercise
Waiting!
Waiting is something that, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, most of us hate doing.
That being said, however, we do need to admit that there are times when we really don’t mind waiting. Waiting is a good thing when:
You wait for your favorite movie to be released- after all you can’t rush creative genius
Or the next volume in a series of books you’re reading
Or Waiting to be seated at a fancy restaurant
But, more often than not, waiting is something we don’t enjoy all that much and most of us hate waiting.
Consider this scenario:
It’s been an extremely long day. Yet, there is still way too much to do. You swing past the Village Market on your way home to grab a few ingredients for tonight’s supper. You grab your items and make your way to the register to check out only to find you’re stuck waiting in line behind the woman who has thirty items in her cart and is going through the express check out. Can you believe the nerve of some people! You begin to stew. Once you finally get to the young cashier, who is In Training according to a ribbon pinned precariously to her nametag, you are forced to wait even longer as she fumbles to try to replace a register tape that the woman with thirty items has forced to run out. With shaking hands and a hesitant smile she tells you it will be just a second, as she needs to wait on her manager for help. Now you’re stuck waiting on two more people! What was supposed to be a quick stop turns into a half hour of frustrated waiting.
Waiting, often times it’s exasperating and we simply do not like it. Yet, waiting as the scenario demonstrates is a part of everyday life. In a word, it’s unavoidable.
Whether we want to or not we wait at Drs. offices, gas stations, grocery stores, hospitals, restaurants, and the list of places where we are forced to wait could go on forever.
Not only do we wait at places, we wait for things. The results from recent medical tests, grades from school, the car from the mechanic shop, news from loved ones, again this list also could go on forever. Even in a technologically driven fast-paced society, we succumb to waiting.
But, have you ever stopped to consider that waiting is biblical?
• Consider, Noah in the Ark- Noah and his family along with all the animals waited for the flood to subside- for more than 7 months
• Or, what about Abraham and Sarah- Abraham was 100 years old before Isaac was born
• There’s Jonah- Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for 3 days before being spit out on the shores of Nineveh
• Or Saul, later to become Paul- Paul waited for three days for his sight to return after being divinely debilitated.
• Or, Zechariah- Zechariah waited for Elizabeth to carry to term the baby inside her once barren womb. Yet, after the baby was born, as the family rejoiced, Zechariah waited an additional eight days before he could open his mouth and speak.
• And finally, there’s Mary- the blessed mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This morning we are going to come to God’s word a bit differently. If you would like to follow along, the word this morning is found in Luke 1: 26-55: Listen to the Word of the Lord
YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8Vq3pSOofY
ME: This is the Word of the Lord Congregation: Thanks be to God
Then Mary said, “Let it be...” Luke 1:38
Three, Tiny, Seemingly insignificant words.
Yet with these three little words Mary enters her own season of waiting- her personal Advent season.
Nine months she would wait as the baby inside her, placed there by the power of the Holy Spirit, grew and developed. She would wait as her body changed, metamorphosing from non-pregnant average Nazarethian girl to pregnant- very pregnant mother of baby Jesus. She would wait as the village around her frenzied after hearing and witnessing the news first hand. Can you imagine- “Yeah right Mary- sure it was the Holy Spirit!” the accusing voices would jeer. “What are you gonna do Joseph?” The inquisitive questions would rise. “Should we stone her for unfaithfulness? Run her out into the wilderness and let the animals take care of her? What a problem child!” The villagers would surely condemn. And yet, Mary waited.
Mary’s voice echoes in our ears as we consider waiting from a biblical perspective this morning. You see, maybe just maybe waiting doesn’t need to be such a wasted experience. Maybe waiting, if placed in proper perspective, can really be beneficial; can serve as a time of preparation. When seen from this light waiting can become a centering exercise.
“Let it be...” Mary’s response to the angelic message exposes the heart of this humble servant. By looking at these three words, coupling Mary’s response with Mary’s song of praise, the Magnificant, recorded in Luke 1: 46-56, a pattern of centering our waiting on God emerges.
1) Mary has faith that the word of the Lord will indeed come to pass
Read Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Notice the word conviction- Faith is the conviction of things not seen.
Conviction= confidence. Mary had full confidence that what the angel said would come to pass. She never doubts, or stops to question angel words. No, Mary simply believes.
Read Luke 1:49
Mary immediately receives the word of the angel as fact. In itself this is rather miraculous since it wasn’t as if Mary immediately saw the result of the angel’s message. She didn’t immediately enter her second trimester with a visible belly that gave verifiable proof to her pregnancy. No, Mary leaves all the details to God.
In her book Faith Is Pamela Reeve says:
Faith is engaging in the deepest joy of heaven, knowing His unfathomable love for me as I walk through the thorny desolate now.
This is the faith Mary displays. She completely feels the unfathomable (immeasurable) love of God knowing all the while that it’s only because of this love that she can walk the thorny desolate now.
Mary no doubt knew the desolate thorny now this news would elicit. Growing up in a Jewish home Mary would be the first one to know what unwed pregnancy netted. Yet, Mary refrains from being concerned about the hows:
• How this news will potentially affect her marriage
• How this will taint her reputation
• Mary doesn’t even concern herself with how they will have room for this new baby
Rather Mary chooses to have faith that “God was able to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:21) and that God was using her for his purposes.
Mary’s has a faith that is firmly centered on God and his word.
2) Mary completely accepts the word of the Lord without hesitation.
Mary’s response is immediate. God has chosen her for
a specific purpose and Mary does not try to avoid God’s intention for her.
Mary does not stop to look around her at her lowly condition and wonder why?
Why me
Why here
Why now
Read Luke 1:48
The only questioning Mary does do is to the how. How will this happen, she wonders, since she is still pure in her virginity? When Gabriel delivers God’s word as to how, one can almost hear Mary pondering the words of Psalm 139 as she marvels of the miracle that is within her.
Read Psalm 139: 13-16
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
Instead of rejecting God’s message, running from the implications of it, unable to withstand its power, Mary chooses acceptance. Mary chooses to withhold the questions and nagging doubts of her ability to receive this message, of her ability to deliver God’s little miracle baby, of her own circumstances. Instead Mary chooses submission to God’s Word, centering herself on 100% acceptance of God’s word to her.
3) Finally, although humble in heart, Mary chooses an attitude of joy towards God’s message. She is to be God’s handmaid in giving birth to God’s marvelous covenantal plan.
Read Luke 1: 46-47
Mary knew that God was choosing, through her, to remember his covenant of old. The same covenant the prophets had foretold was beginning with her.
Read Luke 1: 54-55
Mary knew that what she was carrying and would give birth to was miraculous. So, despite the alarming message the angel delivered, despite the concern for her personal safety as well as the protection of her marriage, despite how this would appear....despite all these things Mary chooses joy.
Read Psalm 34:3
O magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
Read Psalm 103: 1-2
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and do not forget all his benefits.
Mary chooses joy. She chooses to see her startling pregnancy as a blessing rather than a curse.
Mary’s joy she finds its center in God, even as news of this unplanned pregnancy shatters her once stable life. Yet, despite the physical and emotional pain Mary no doubt knew she would endure, Mary chooses to give God all the praise for the holy pregnancy and birth she is blessed to endure. For Mary this is God’s gift to her.
Conclusion
Mary’s utterance, “Let it be.....” takes her from Nazarene poor girl to highly exalted mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. So she waits, and as she waits she prepares herself. She prepares herself for the birth of the Savior. She prepares herself for the journey that would ultimately lead her Heavenly Son, yet human baby, from a manger birth to a wooden cross. She prepares herself for the miracle of our Advent season.
Charge
I close today with the words from JD Smith, from his poem Still Waiting. I believe his words capture so eloquently the thought of today’s message.
Still Waiting—
Waiting! Yes, patiently waiting!
Till next steps made plain shall be;
To hear, with the inner hearing,
The Voice that will call for me.
Waiting! Yes, quietly waiting!
No need for an anxious dread;
Shall He not assuredly guide me,
Who giveth me daily bread?
Waiting! Yes, hopefully waiting!
With hope that needn’t grow dim;
The Master is pledged to guide me,
And my eyes are unto Him.
Waiting! Yes, expectantly waiting!
Perhaps it may be today
The Master will quickly open
The gate to my future way.
Waiting! Yes, trustfully waiting!
I know, though I’ve waited long,
That, while He withholds His purpose,
His waiting cannot be wrong.
Waiting! Yes, waiting, Still waiting!
The Master will not be late;
He knoweth that I am waiting
For Him to unlatch the gate.
On this Second Sunday of Advent, on this Sunday of Preparation, and in the year that lies ahead...
As you wait..... wherever that may be and on whatever that may be.....
May our waiting be a time of preparation but also a time of centering. May we echo the words of Mary, and may our waiting be centered on
Faith-
Acceptance-
and Joy- Found only in God and in God’s message to each of us.
“Let it be.....” AMEN
Let us Pray:
I wonder LORD if we can truly live into the word you have given us this morning.
Many of us live in such a fast-paced, impersonal society.
Yet, your word comes to us, cutting us to the quick, and tells us to wait....
To center ourselves on more of you, and less of ourselves.
LORD to this we must confess that all too often we have been more caught up in self, than in you.
Too often we are so busy that waiting only adds to an already heightened sense of anxiety.
Forgive us for making it about ourselves, and not about you,
Forgive us for those times when waiting has caused us to be anxious, irritable, and closed to what you had in store for us.
Give us eyes to see, especially while we wait, your movement.
Allow us to have faith, acceptance, and joy instead of angst, worry and despair.
Move us to be people who joyfully wait on you,
Not only in this Advent season but all the year through.
We pray this in your Son’s most precious name, by the power of the Holy Spirit, AMEN
Parting Blessing:
Will you please rise for God’s parting blessing:
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
“Let it Be”- Go in Peace
