Luke 1:26-38

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, “Greetings, 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.” 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.

When Mark and I talked about this Advent sermon series and he asked me to preach, he said, by the way, you get Mary.

You see, all sorts of theological conundrum surround Mary: the virgin birth; the catholic doctrines of her perpetual sinlessness and her bodily assumption into heaven. Myths have sprung up about her which Martin Luther said cannot be validated by scripture. But so, it is and has been.

We will focus on what she said and what she did in the high calling that God, through the angel Gabriel, laid on her. There are but a very few references to Mary and what she said in each of the Gospels.

Who in the Christian church and beyond, has not heard of Mary? I discovered that she is also mentioned in the Quran. Mary is central to the life of Jesus and to our remembrance of her in the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Lent. She even has a place in our Lutheran worship book on page 57 -- a commemoration prayer for Mary, mother of our Lord.

What did this young Mary say about being chosen to be the mother of the Messiah and what did she say during his life that can shed light on her faithfulness, courage, and discipleship—and how can that inform our own faithfulness, courage, and discipleship?

To put it into the vernacular of today, I am guessing that after Gabriel told her she was favored, would conceive, and have a son and that she would name him Jesus, I think Mary said, “WAIT, WHAT?!!”

After all, she was a teenager living in the small, no count village of Nazareth. What and why was an angel of the almighty God appearing to her there with such startling news? According to St. Luke she did ask, how can this be since I am a virgin? Gabriel simply begged off saying that the Holy Spirit will take care of it and that the power of the Most High God will handle it. Could you, as a woman, have lived with that? Looking at Joseph’s response to stay with Mary, could I have lived with that?

Amazingly Mary simply said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Wow.

And the angel departed leaving Mary and Joseph with their shock, their questions, their amazement…and their decision to follow God’s plan going forward.

We learned last week that Mary traveled to have a conversation with Aunt Elizabeth about all of this and received good counsel and comfort. And then unexpectedly comes Mary’s beautiful song that we know as the Magnificat. It is such a soaring poetic proclamation recognizing the greatness of God who is strong in love and justice. This great song comes from the voice and heart of a teenager! We marvel at it still to this day.

We are told that Mary pondered all these things and kept them in her heart. That is a good place to keep the things we ponder regarding the mysteries of God.

So finally, the time came for Jesus to be born, and to fulfill the ancient prophecy of the birth to happen in the city of David, Joseph and Mary made the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem – ninety-three miles so that Jesus could be born in the city of David. A long ride on a donkey. Mary was tough and Joseph was faithful and loyal.

In Bethlehem they found only a stable for the birth. (There is a Facebook meme showing up that has Mary saying, “Joe, I told you to make a reservation!”) I am not sure if that’s what Mary said or not.

But the birth took place with animals looking on…shepherds showing up and eventually Wise Men bringing gifts. I assume Mary greeted them with awe and maybe with suspicion, but her words are lost to antiquity.

But another dream came to the couple and told them that they had to make another difficult trip—this time to Egypt to protect the young Jesus from the wrath of Herod. Surely Mary was worried, but we don’t know what she said about it. Maybe only saying, “Joe, we must do it, we have to go.”

The trip to Egypt was again around ninety miles—walking and carrying a young boy...and perhaps sharing time on a donkey. Feeding him, changing him, protecting him—Mary did it all, again exhibiting great trust and faithfulness. We don’t know what Mary and Joseph talked about, but I’m sure she was pondering and keeping all these things in her heart. It seems that she had made up her mind to protect Jesus to witness to the tumultuous future of her son.

We that Jesus grew up in a family with siblings and parents who, even knowing that he was different, treated him like the others with care and love.

We do have some words that Mary spoke within the context of raising Jesus. When he was twelve years old and he took off on his own while in Jerusalem, Mary expressed her care and displeasure saying, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look your father and I have been looking for you in great anxiety.” What parent today has not parroted that rebuke while raising our children? But Jesus simply said he was about God’s business and so Mary went home and again treasured all those things in her heart. She trusted God’s plan. Perhaps a lesson for us?

We hear what Mary said again at a wedding in Cana. The wine ran out, and exhibiting motherly sternness, she asked him to do something about it, but he pushed back just a bit asking her what that had to do with him, and she said with a flip of her head (my imagination) to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” We know the rest of the story and it was Jesus’ first miracle.

Later in the narrative, we get this scene from John’s Gospel: Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is our son.” I imagine that Mary’s heart was too broken for her to blubber a word. She would only have been about 43 years old. Can we imagine?

So, we are left with only a few things that Mary said, and yet we get a vivid example of a simple, profoundly faithful, strongly courageous young woman who trusted God and who therefore is worthy of our emulation and remembrance as the mother of our Lord who is on the way. Amen, Come Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Matthew 11:2-11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women, no one else has arisen greater than John the Baptist; and yet, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

I came across this picture on Lisa Fox’s Facebook feed this week. It turned out to be pretty good fodder and inspiration about what we see and hear – and have often heard about – today’s Gospel story and John the Baptist. The girls are six or seven years older now, than they were in this picture, but they’re still not big enough kick my butt. And I got grandma’s permission to show you all, so I’ll send the girls her way if they get mad.

And, just to spread the wealth, I dug up one of my own. These two are big enough to kick my butt, these days, but I decided to take my chances with forgiveness rather than permission in their case.

What’s true for so many kids – as it was for me a million years ago – is that strangers in red suits are scary. And, these pictures along with a couple of conversations I had this week, had me thinking differently about what’s going on with John the Baptist and Jesus in this morning’s Gospel. [Sreen]

Most of us have heard of “Doubting Thomas,” right? …the disciple who, after the resurrection, wouldn’t believe – couldn’t believe – Jesus had been raised from the dead until he could see for himself the holes in his hands and touch the scars on his sides?

Well, today, we hear about a different kind of doubter in John the Baptist. John the Baptist, the one who came before Jesus to pave the way… John the Baptist, the one who last week baptized with water and promised that one was coming, in Jesus, who would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit… John the Baptist, the one who sits in prison in this morning’s gospel because he’s been so outspoken and so faithful about his calling to prepare the world for Jesus…

This week, we hear even John the Baptist had some doubts – or at least some questions – or at least wondered a bit – about who this Jesus really was, and if he was all he seemed cracked up to be.

But, John’s doubts and questions aren’t that much of a surprise when you consider all that he’d been expecting. He’d been associating Jesus’ coming with a terrible day of judgment. John had been preaching and promising things like “Holy Spirits”,” “winnowing forks,” “threshing floors” and “unquenchable fires,” remember.

John seems to have envisioned a Messiah of wrath who would make sinners pay, and pay dearly, for their sins. And the picture John the Baptist paints, is a coming reign of God that seems filled with a sense of terror and fear and judgement and doom.

And there’s a lot of that still around us in the world.

I had a conversation with some pastors, just the other day, who were bemoaning some children’s sermons they’d heard that taught kids to behave, or else; to be good, or else; to have faith, or else. Basically, sermons that sounded like they were more about Santa Claus than about Jesus.

And I was talking with a new friend this week, too, about his different experiences in different churches. And we were lamenting how so many – too many Christian communities of faith – seem to stake their identity and find their purpose based on who they keep out. Of course, there’s the LGBTQ+ factor. And there are still as many churches as not who refuse to allow women in the pulpit or outsiders at the communion table. And, I don’t remember all of the details, but my new friend told me about a woman he knew who wasn’t welcome in her family’s church because she’d been divorced a couple of times and had too many children with too many different dads. (I know, in my head that places like this exist, but it still surprises and saddens me to hear real-life examples of it.)

Anyway, this kind of doom, gloom, shame and separation … this sort of judgment and wrath and UN-grace … still rules so much of what the world hears about expects when they consider God’s coming in Jesus – just like it did for John the Baptist.

So, it’s no wonder more people – in our families, in our neighborhoods and in our world – will search for more meaning, comfort and hope in these days of Christmas in the trees and the trimmings and in the presents and the parties of the season. It’s no wonder that there are more people who will spend Christmas Eve waiting for Santa, than there will be people preparing Jesus. It’s no wonder there are more of God’s children wringing their hands over what may or may not show up under the Christmas tree, instead of celebrating what has already come – and will come again – in Jesus Christ.

And I’m frustrated and dismayed and sad about that, but I don't blame any one of them any more than I blame the children who are scared of meeting Santa at the mall.

We tell little kids that Santa is always watching … that they better not pout or cry … that they better be good for goodness’ sake … or else the strange, hairy man who lives up north … is going to hold it against them. And then we sit them on his lap – or on the lap of an imposter – and try to convince them that he’s jolly and good, sweet, nice and safe.

It all seems very much – too much – like what too many do – and maybe even what John the Baptist was doing with Jesus back in the day. Be good, or else. Behave, or else. Repent, or else. Remember all of those “winnowing forks,” “threshing floors” and “unquenchable fires” as part of his invitation to baptism? I would have run the other way, myself, I’m sure of it.

And I think, even though Jesus loves John the Baptist and holds him in very high regard, it’s why his command for John and his followers this morning is something altogether different. And I believe it’s our command, too. Jesus says, simply, “go and tell what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”

In other words, “look at the good, lovely, gracious things I’ve been up to. Look at the forgiveness I’ve offered. Look at the healing I’ve accomplished. Look at the sinners I’ve loved. Look at the outsiders I’ve welcomed. Look at the hope I’ve delivered.”

If people could really see more and actually hear more of the good news of God’s activity among us – and if we, in the Church, would work more at embodying that story – they might know more of what God has done and means to do for them, just the same.

It makes me wonder if the way I live makes people really want to come and hear the story from me. I like to keep asking myself how our preaching and teaching at Cross of Grace can open doors so that people will want to come in and find out what’s so “good” about the news we share. I want to live like my Messiah – our Messiah – is one of good news for the poor, one who heals sick people, one who accepts and forgives those who we – or the world – would rather reject. I want to live and love the world in a way that will make people want to accept, rather than run away screaming from, the face of Jesus.

And I think if people can see it through me, and through you, too, then they'll be a lot more likely to want to come up close and meet this Jesus and sit on the lap of God’s grace and be part of the worship and learning and service we celebrate and share here week after week.

And that’s where our call comes in these waning days of Advent. The rest of the world, like John the Baptist, needs to know and to see and to feel more of what it is we wait for and hope in when it comes to Jesus Christ.

People need to see, by our actions, that we’re waiting for the one who calls people to give away their time and their hard work and their money – because we get to, not because we have to – to grow churches, to give gifts to kids that otherwise wouldn’t have any, and to provide food and clothes to people who otherwise would have none of it.

People need to know that our eyes have been opened to the truth about ourselves and about our God – that by the power of faith in God’s grace, prejudice and bigotry and discrimination of any kind have no place in our midst.

People need to hear, from our lips, how God’s promise of forgiveness and eternal life brings us out from under the crippling burdens of this world to walk with faith and to face each new day with hope, no matter what it holds.

People need to meet, in us, a Jesus who speaks of peace to a world at war, who offers food for those who are hungry, comfort for the hurting, homecoming for the lost, love for the lonely, and a wide welcome with no strings attached.

John seems to have expected something entirely different than what God delivered in Jesus Christ – or at least his words and ways weren’t as gracious as the hope he proclaimed. I believe too many in our world expect something entirely different, too, too much of the time – if they expect anything at all – in what God has offered in Jesus Christ. Our call is to take away the mystery and the misconception of that … to show and to tell our friends, families and neighbors what merciful, loving, life-giving things God has done, that God is doing, and that God will do, through the grace born for the sake of the world at Christmas.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

That's What She Said: Mary

John the Baptist and Scary Santa