Welcome to the beginning of the church year. For two
thousand years, this has been recognized as the beginning of the calendar... we begin the season of Advent with a season of waiting or anticipation of a great thing which is to come. Remember the Heinz Ketchup commercial with the Carly Simon Song in the Background... Anticipation... is making me wait. Kids always seem to be waiting as well for Christmas to arrive. I remember as a child, my mom would sit down with me and a pile of christmas stickers and make my own little advent calendar counting down the days to Christmas. But, like most children, I was waiting for
Christmas to arrive not so much to anticipate the arrival of the Savior, but more for the arrival of Santa Claus and the gifts he would bring.
For the Next four weeks we will journey together through the Advent season towards a manger in Bethlehem where God became flesh and began to dwell among us. It is my firmest hope and desire that each of us will be challenged and encouraged to continue to let our hearts be opened today and in the coming weeks to the gift of God in our hearts and minds so that we will each be able to keep Christmas forever in our hearts giving us all that we need to live the life of faith that we are called to live.
In our Scripture lesson for today Mary was preparing for the very first advent and the lesson is clear as to what exactly she did in response to the angel’s rather absurd remarks upon coming to her to tell her that she would give birth to God incarnate.
Think about it... Mary, a very young girl by our standards was busily making plans for her wedding to Joseph, a Nazarene Carpenter and now she is told that she will give birth to a child by being overcome by the Holy Spirit. This is not logical folks... And Mary’s mind is probably racing a mile a minute as the angel is talking to her. She is thinking about all of the complicating factors that this pregnancy would cause her. Not to mention the public scorn and ridicule that would come upon her as a result of her being the chosen one of God to carry out his plan to come into the world as a child to bring salvation to all people.
I am certain that there is a lot that was said in this exchange between Mary and the angel that is not recorded for us in this scripture passage. I am further certain that even though Mary ended this exchange with submitting to the will of God there were still plenty of doubts in her mind as to the intelligence of making such a decision.
There are a couple of items that I would like for us to
consider together for a few moments this morning as we try to understand what God is trying to say to us this morning from this passage.
Think for a moment about what Mary’s first thoughts and
feelings were as the angel Gabriel came to her on this day. Think first though about our modern situation. Today it is more common for a young woman Mary’s age to give in to the pressures of Boys and our culture and to end up getting pregnant. Think though for a moment how you would respond if you were speaking to a pregnant 16 year old and she told you that the child she was expecting was a result of a divine conception and the child that she was carrying was going to bring salvation to the entire world. Sound a bit illogical? Of course it does! Yet this is exactly what Mary was told would happen by the angel and I am sure she realized that the world around her would not believe her story. Her very own Husband-to-be the person that she cared the most about in the entire world would probably put her out of his life and out of his heart and the ridicule of the entire world as she knew it would be upon her for the next nine months and for the rest of her life.
The very people who had been waiting for the Messiah would not believe that this common girl of meager means would be the mother of the one that would set all of Israel free. And yet we know that it was true because the entire world has been turned upside down because of Mary’s eventual willingness to submit herself to the will of God.
Mary said at the end of our lesson for today, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." then the scripture says that the angel departed from her. And this is where we leave Mary for today. And the scripture doesn’t really expand on her situation a whole lot except to speak of her journey to visit her relative Elizabeth. But what actually happened in Mary’s life that made her so willing to endure the scorn and ridicule of the people that I sure that she had to deal with during the months of her pregnancy?
What happened to Mary after the Angel departed from her? And more importantly, what can we learn from her example today as we get ready for the birth of our Savior?
What the scripture does not say explicitly is that the promise of the Angel came true immediately, but it must have been so. After the Angel departed from her, the Spirit of the Most High descended upon her and not only made her conceive the Christ Child, but also gave her everything that she needed to endure the difficult times ahead. It was under the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit that Mary was able to say those words that she uttered submitting herself fully to the power of God and to the Word that was spoken to her by
the angel Gabriel.
It was this presence of the Lord that enabled Mary to carry on. A frail and weary young woman Mary depended upon the Power of God within her to hold her together in the midst of a world that would surely try to tear her apart. She certainly realized that she could not bear the load alone and she was willing to allow God to carry the load for her and to intervene on her behalf with the people around her as we will see in the weeks to come. I am certain that Mary was frightened by the things that she was called to do, and yet she faced the world bravely and relied upon the gifts of God to help her overcome her fears. I am sure that Mary did a couple of things that we should also do in our lives as we prepare for the birth of our savior too.
I am absolutely certain that Mary spent some significant time in prayer as the weeks turned into months and the harshness of life wore upon her. I am also certain that we should do this as well. Prayer should become our central activity as we enter into this advent season, but it should also stay with us
throughout the year. Mary probably felt the need for constant and unceasing prayer. This is what I believe that we are all called to do each and every day of our lives. The problem for many of us though is that we don’t have the time to pray as we know we should. Particularly in this very busy season of the year when we ar busy decorating the house, buying and wrapping presents, entertaining guests, and all of the other
things that go along with this time of year. But, God wants prayer to be the single most central activity of our lives, drawing us ever closer to God and to the reality of his presence in our midst in the person of Jesus Christ.
Constant and unceasing prayer is what has made many
saints down through the ages able to endure things that were seemingly impossible... things that would have indeed been impossible if they relied only on their own power. Rather, it is in adopting a lifestyle of prayer that places our total dependance upon God that we are able to “let it be” according to the will of God. If we are utterly dependent upon Him, then we can set aside our own agendas and anxieties and allow him to have his way and can truly know freedom. Oh, the pressures of life will not disappear completely, but we will be more relaxed as we deal with them. The demands of other people will not stop being pressed upon us, but we will recognize who it is that we are truly accountable to in the end.
It is through prayer that we are enabled to draw closer to God and to draw the strength for the struggles of life. This is because we are enabled through prayer to draw near to God and to hand our burdens and struggles over to his capable arms and thus the burden is carried by the one who is capable
and we end up losing a very heavy load and are enabled to more fully experience all that life has to offer. Prayer can be a lifestyle and does not necessarily refer only to that time when we consciously sit down and clear our heads of all other thoughts and enter into intentional dialogue with God.
It is when we take each and every step of each and every day with the awareness that God is with us and God is calling us to do things that we are not capable of on our own power. A lifestyle of prayer is when we are able to finally pray the prayer of Mary in our scripture lesson for today. Take each step and make each statement and live each moment saying all the way, "Let it be with me according to your word."
