Sunday, December 21, 2008
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38
In this Advent/Christmas season weGrace Church, Chicopee remember the story of how God sent Jesus to this planet with a mission to bring hope and salvation to all people. I wonder, at this season, are you aware that God has sent you to this planet and given you a mission to fulfill?
Many of us think our lives are very ordinary and unimportant to God. Probably Mary felt very ordinary and unimportant. But Mary’s whole attitude toward life changed when she recognized the mission God sent her to earth to fulfill. The way you and I think about our lives every day would be very different if we knew that God put us on this earth to fulfill a particular mission assignment…in our attitudes, words and actions.
In today’s Gospel, God sent his angel Gabriel to tell Mary what her life mission would be. Let's revisit this familiar story and ask how Mary’s experience with God might help us discover how God wants to work in each of our lives.
First, note that God took the initiative in this story. Mary didn’t ask God to make her pregnant with a baby who would be God's Messiah. This idea never crossed her mind. This was God's idea, not Mary's. You see, God is not passive and distant, watching what we will do with our lives. God keeps coming to each of us. God takes initiative. God speaks, sends messages, and gives us surprise assignments. When you get up every morning, do you expect that God will take initiative and give guidance to your life in the coming day?
Notice, Mary was open and willing to listen to the message from God's angel. The Bible does not say what Mary was doing when the angel visited her. Through the centuries, many artists have pictured Mary sitting in a garden praying, listening to God when the angel showed up.
There is an important insight here. If you and I are too busy, we may miss the angels and the messages God sends us. We have to take time to stop and listen to God every day. Otherwise, we may miss the messages God sends us. (It’s like checking e-mail or voice-mail every day…because we want to know the messages that have been sent to us.)
Do you take time every day to listen to the God-mail, the God-messages and assignments God sends you: through prayer…through reading the bible…through other people and situations and surprises…through nature?
The angel said that God favored Mary and was with her. The old translation was, “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you.” We need to hear God’s angel call us by name and say to us every morning, “God loves you and is with you.” It’s important that we begin every day, knowing in a fresh and deep way that God really loves us and really is with us.
What does it mean to be favored or loved by God and to have God with us? Sometimes we think that if God loves us and favors us, then everything ought to go smoothly and easily, without any problems. But that is not what the Bible says. Look at Mary's story.
Mary experienced many struggles throughout her life. Her family and friends, including Joseph, must have laughed at her story that an angel told her she was going to give birth to God’s child, God’s Son. In her last weeks of pregnancy she had to take a long trip on a donkey. Her baby was born a long way from home, away from supportive family and friends, in an animal shelter in Bethlehem. Soon after the baby was born, Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt, as poor homeless refugees, because the political ruler tried to kill her baby. When her son became an adult, she watched him be crucified and die before her eyes. And yet the angel said, “God favors you and is with you.”
Mary's story reminds us that, when we pass through painful and difficult times of struggle, it does not mean that God does not love us or that God has abandoned us. Our mission from God may include having to walk with God through difficult experiences. We need to remember… God is with us and God loves us even in the middle of the pain and struggle.
Luke tells us that Mary was troubled or perplexed at the angel's visit and mission assignment. She couldn’t understand what he was saying. Mary was probably around 14 years old…very young to be given such an important mission by God. In her confusion and fear Mary questioned her mission assignment. "How can I bear God's child since I am not yet married?" Good question, Mary!!
There may be times when you and I also question the mission assignments God gives us. How can I do this, Lord? It’s not the right time. I'm not the right type of person for this job. I’m too young, I’m too old. I’m too busy. I'm afraid. I'm confused. Help me understand, Lord.
Notice, the angel was not upset with Mary’s confusion and questions. God was patient with Mary's questions…as God is patient with our questions. Knowing that Mary could not fully understand her mission, God gave her a concrete sign to encourage her trust. The angel said, "Your relative Elizabeth who is old and couldn’t have children, has conceived and is now 6 months pregnant with a son. When you see her pregnant, you will know that God can also do things which seem impossible in your life. Elizabeth is a sign for you. With God nothing will be impossible."
Many times you and I also need tangible signs of encouragement. We need to see that God has helped someone else live gracefully though what seems like a humanly impossible mission assignment. God may send us another person to talk with, as God sent Elizabeth to talk with Mary. Part of our assignment in life is to be an encourager to other people, like Elizabeth must have been for Mary.
Who are the people God has sent to encourage you as you live your God-given assignments? Who are the people whom God is calling you to encourage?
Mary, like all of us, had to respond to her God given mission assignment. She could have said, “No, I don’t want to give birth to God’s child.” Are you aware that you and I can refuse God? We can and often do resist our assignment in life…and then we are left with a sense of emptiness…because we know we are not fulfilling the purpose or mission for which God created us and sent us into this world, at this time. We all must choose how we will respond to the life-mission assignments God gives us.
After being honest about her fear, her questions, her confusion, Mary responded with one of the most profound prayers in the Bible: "Here I am, the servant of the Lord; Let it be to me according to your word." Another translation reads: “I belong to the Lord. Let it be as you say”.
Mary's response is very similar to Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he was struggling with his mission assignment to be crucified the next day. After his fear, questioning and struggle, Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but thine be done." "I belong to you, Lord. Let it be as you say." This is the response God wants from us: trusting surrender and obedience, a Yes to God and to the life mission God has given us.
We also need to know that there is a risk, a danger in this response. It is possible for us to surrender to assignments and voices that are not from God. We can act out of guilt or fear, instead of following God’s guidance. We can allow our lives to be controlled by our desires to look like a hero and be “liked” by people around us. We can foolishly surrender control of our lives to our work or boss or social expectations. We can surrender control to another person or group or addiction in our lives. So we need to be careful. To whom are we surrendering the control of our lives…to the True God or to a false, life-draining, substitute for God?
This morning some very special members of this parish will take another step in their spiritual journey of following Christ and living their God-given mission through Confirmation and Reception. The angel of God comes to them…and to each of us here this morning…saying again, “God loves you and is with you…and God has a mission assignment for you.” Christ wants to come again into the lives of people in this world through each of us...every day.
Are you aware of the mission assignment God has given you at this time in your life?
Are you aware of the mission assignment God has given you this coming week?
How will you respond to the mission God has given you?
Let’s close our eyes…and in the silence of our hearts, talk with God about our responses to these questions.
O God…you have given us life…sent each of us to this planet at this time…and given us a mission to fulfill. Help us this week…and all our days…to recognize your loving presence with us always…and to rely on you… to help us fulfill the life mission you have given us…through the power of your Spirit at work within us. Amen.