AN UNWANTED GIFT:
WHEN GOD MESSES UP YOUR PLANS
Christmas Realities – Part 4
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 18, 2005
Luke 1:26-38
INTRODUCTION:
As the Baby Boomers begin to move into retirement age starting next year we are no longer talking about a baby boom, but about a baby bust. In fact some have called the younger generation the Baby Busters because there are so few of them as compared with earlier generations. And this is not just an American trend. From Japan to Germany to the United States, we are seeing fertility rates dropping.
Now it is important for you to understand that when I talk about fertility rates I am not talking about the number of women who are fertile – who are physically capable of reproduction – but rather about the rate at which women actually are reproducing. In the United States back in 1920 the fertility rate was 3.2 children per woman. Today that rate has dropped to only 2.1 children per woman on average. In Europe things are even worse. In 1970 the fertility rate among European women was 2.8 but over the last 35 years it has dropped to only 1.5 children per woman. That rate of birth is not high enough to maintain the current level of population.
Why is that? Lots of reasons. More and more women are waiting until later in life to start having children in order to pursue careers of their own and if you get a later start odds are you aren’t going to have as many children.
The cost of having and raising children is causing many couples to have fewer children. According to the Department of Agriculture it will cost a middle-class American family over $200,000 to raise a child born this year through the age of 18. And that does not include the cost of college nor does it count forgone wages.
However three sociologists from the University of Minnesota have suggested a different theory to account for couples having fewer children. They think that part of the reason for the baby bust is the fact that today we enjoy having a strong government pension program. These programs have reduced the need for couples to have children who will grow up and in turn take care of them in their old age. These sociologists believe that there is a direct correspondence between rising retirement benefits and dropping fertility rates.
Whether people are choosing to have fewer children because children no longer factor into their retirement planning or because children would hinder their career planning the fact remains that more women are having fewer children than ever before (at least in Europe and North America and Japan).
And so the reality is that more and more women have found themselves with unplanned pregnancies – unwanted because it messed up their plans – it messed up their educational plans, vocational plans and financial plans. However, this predicament is nothing new as we find our text for today taking us back in time some 2,000 years as a young woman discovers she has an unplanned pregnancy that was about to mess up her plans.
Today’s scripture lesson comes from Luke 2:26-38.
26In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
30“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God…
38Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
We see several interesting things taking place during this exchange between Mary and the angel Gabriel. First, we see that…
1. GOD INTERUPTED MARY’S PLANS.
About nine months before the first Christmas God intervened in human affairs and radically altered Mary’s plans with an unwanted gift. She was planning on marrying Joseph, a descendant of King David, who made his living working in Nazareth as a carpenter. Matthew tells us that he “was a good man” (Matthew 1:19). He wasn’t rich, but would have made a comfortable living. She planned on getting married, having children and raising a family. It was a good plan. It was a comfortable plan.
But then God came along and messed the whole thing up. God comes along and says through his angel, “Mary, I know that you have your plans in place and everything is on schedule, but I have a different idea. Before you and Joseph get married you are going to become pregnant and guess what? Joseph is not going to be the Father. I am.” Talk about having a monkey wrench thrown in your plans!
Matthew tells us that, when Joseph found out that the good little girl he was planning on marrying was pregnant, “he decided to break the engagement quietly” (Matthew 1:19). We see here what a great guy Joseph was because he wanted to break off the engagement quietly so that Mary wouldn’t be disgraced publicly. How many guys do you know who would act in the best interests of the woman they believed had cheated on them? However an angel from heaven convinced him that Mary’s story was legit and that he should go through with the marriage.
But it wasn’t just Mary and Joseph’s plans that were messed up by the birth of Jesus. It pretty much messed up everybody’s plans. It messed up the plans of the shepherds who were planning on another peaceful night watching their sheep on the Judean hillside.
It messed up Herod’s plans for he was planning on being the King of the Jews. However, those plans were messed up when he heard that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. So he sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem that were 2 and under.
The families in Bethlehem had their plans messed up as they were planning on another quiet night at home with the kids. But then the soldiers stormed the village, broke down their doors and execution style took the lives of their youngest.
It also messed up the plans of the Jews who were planning on a political Messiah who would come to lead them into a state of independence from the Romans. Instead they got a Messiah who told them to “turn the other cheek” and to “go the extra mile” and to “love your enemies.”
God messed everybody’s plans up, but especially Mary’s. And not surprisingly she was in what I think could be described as a state of shock initially. Luke says:
29Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
I think that could fairly accurately be described as a state of shock. I recall seeing the images of the people who had their lives turned upside down by the tsunami last December and Hurricane Rita last July. The video images showed these people walking around looking confused and disturbed as they tried to figure out what had just happened to them.
You would be confused and disturbed too if your whole world had just been turned upside down and Mary was no different. And how do people often respond initially when they find themselves in such life altering circumstances? They question God and again we see that Mary was no different.
2. MARY QUESTIONED GOD’S PLANS.
34Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
When something comes along and drastically messes up our plans we are often left questioning God. Why did this happen? How could this happen? And we find Mary asking a similar question of God.
It is significant to note that the angel doesn’t condemn Mary for questioning God like this. God is not offended when we bring our honest questions before him. In fact, her child would grow up and one day say, “Ask and you will be given (an answer).” God invites us to bring our questions and concerns to him.
So the next time your world gets turned upside down don’t be afraid to go to God with your tough questions. God isn’t pleased when his children put on fake smiles and just pretend that everything is all right when really everything seems all wrong. He appreciates and respects your authenticity.
3. GOD EXPLAINED HIS PLANS.
When Mary came to God with her questions he provided an answer.
35The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Now I am not sure that answer completely provided everything that Mary wanted to know. Even theologians and scholars today are not completely sure what all those words mean or what exactly took place. But we do know that somehow God supernaturally caused Mary to become pregnant. We do know that when Mary asked God answered and we know that when we ask today God will still answer. The answers aren’t always what we want them to be. The answers don’t always come when we think they should come. But God will be faithful to let you know what he wants you to do – to let you know what he expects from you.
You say, “How is he going to do that? I don’t remember the last time an angel came to me with an answer from God.” True. I don’t either. And frankly, I’m not expecting one anytime soon. I’m not saying God could send one if he wanted to. I’m just not holding my breath. But God is always trying to get through to us. The problem is not on God’s end, but on ours. Maybe we’re not listening. Maybe were not tuned into God because we are too busy and too distracted with other things. A lot of us are living like that around the holidays.
So how does God speak? Through the Bible. Have you read it lately? Through sermons or bible studies. Do you attend them regularly? God also speaks directly to our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit, but we have to be careful about that because Satan tries to communicate with us in a similar way. Not every thought our impression you get is necessarily from God. Satan is constantly trying to put ideas in your head and we call that temptation. God is also trying to put ideas in your head and we call that inspiration. Satan’s job is to trick you into thinking that his temptation is really an inspiration from God. So be very careful to make sure your impressions jive with the Word of God.
4. MARY SUBMITTED TO GOD’S PLANS.
When God provided an answer to her questions…
38Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
At the end of the day God does not expect us to know it all or to understand it all. What God wants from us is our willingness to be faithful to him by submitting to his plans and his agenda for our lives. This is really tough for us to do because we like to be in charge and we like to be the ones calling the shots. But this is what it means to become a Christian. It means to accept God has the Lord of our lives and that means that we no longer live for ourselves, but for him because your heavenly Father really does know best.
How many of us know the right the thing to do, but don’t do it? For example, (and I shudder to mention this around the holidays) how many of us know how we should be eating in order to be healthy and maintain an appropriate weight? And yet how many of us eat that way consistently? How many of us know that we should be exercising several times each week? But how many of us are actually doing it?
So you can see the real key isn’t knowing what God wants from you because 99% of God’s will for your life is clearly spelled out for you in the Bible. Its not a guessing game or riddle you have to solve. The real key is simply being willing to submit your life to God and his plans. Are you willing to allow God to mess up your plans this holiday season?
CONCLUSION:
As we close this morning I want you to know that anytime God interrupts your plans it is only because he has a better idea. Mary was simply planning on settling down, marrying a carpenter and raising a family. But God said, “Mary, I don’t want you to just give birth to a kid. I want you to give birth to a king. I don’t want you to merely raise a son. I want you to raise the Savior. I want you to give up your good plan for my great plan.”
One of the realities that we need to be aware of this holiday season is that God’s plans often come through unwanted interruptions – through unwanted gifts. Will you allow yourself to be bothered by God’s interruptions this Christmas? Will you accept his unwanted gift? If so this might just be the most interesting, the most difficult and the most rewarding Christmas ever? Just think what loss our world would have suffered if Mary wouldn’t have accepted God’s unwanted gift.
In preparation for the very first Christmas Mary allowed the Lord Jesus to enter her womb. In preparation for this Christmas won’t you allow him to enter your heart?
Sources:
Homiletics, "Baby Boom", November-December 2005, vol. 17, num. 6.
Rick Warren, "When God Messes Up Your Plans".
