Three Good Reasons To Say 'no" To God

I love the quote that you’ll see printed on the front of your bulletin. Martin Luther was the one who said it about the Christmas story.

"There are three wonders here: one, that God should become a man; another, that a virgin should bear a child; and third, that Mary believed. And the greatest of these is that Mary believed."

I’m sure that if I could ask him, Luther would be quick to say he knew that God becoming a man was really the greatest miracle. But on that day he was pointing us to Mary and making an important point. Mary was an amazing person in what she took on.

We Protestants easily overlook Mary. Mostly we picture her just sitting there, holding the baby in the manger. It really is sweet, isn’t it? Pictures of mothers holding babies will get you a lot of ‘likes’ on Facebook.

But there is so much more to Mary than that one scene in Bethlehem.

Let’s listen again to the story of the amazing moment when Mary said “yes” to God. And as we listen, think about what it took for her to do that. She had some pretty strong reasons to say “no” to God, reasons we can all recognize. But Mary said “yes”. And what a difference it made. Now hear the word of God from Luke’s gospel, chapter 1, verses 26-28.

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, `Greeting, favored one! The Lord is with you.' But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, `Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.' Mary said to the angel, `How can this be, since I am a virgin?' The angel said to her, `The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.' (pause) Then Mary said, `Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.' Then the angel departed from her."

If you think about it, Mary had some awful good reasons to say no” to God here. Has anyone here ever had an angel appear to them? How would you feel if some angel appeared to you and started talking about really strange things? You might go running to a doctor or a pastor to ask, “Am I going crazy here?”

God was out of line here, at least by the standards of 1st century culture. A message to a young woman should have come to her through her father or her fiancé, not directly to a young woman. The culture said God should speak to her through a man, but God saw Mary differently. And Mary had the spunk to answer for herself.

We’re not used to this kind of thing, a message from an angel. And even though angelic visits are rare, I believe that God speaks to all of us and if we aren’t hearing, it’s because we aren’t listening.

We all know how to communicate by just speaking face to face in good conversation. When it comes to talking with friends, some of us are really good at it. We’re all used to talking on the phone. Some of us are good letter writers, even if that’s becoming a lost art. Many of us send many texts or emails every day. We’re used to those things.

But I’ve never gotten a text from God. I’ve never actually heard his voice with my ears. Probably lots of people say “no” to God because God doesn’t speak to us in the ways we are used to. He doesn’t make appointments. He doesn’t put his propositions in writing. He calls us to start out on an adventure, usually without telling us much of where we are going or how we are going to get there, and expects us to trust him to take care of it.