Sermon – Luke 1:26-45, 56 Mary’s Son

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – Luke 1:26-45, 56  Mary’s Son

December 13, 2015

            This is the third Sunday in the season of Advent.  So far we have accompanied a priest named Zachariah into the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple.  There he saw the angel Gabriel who gave him extraordinary news.  The son he and his wife had prayed for for so many years would be born.  And he would be prophet who would proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sin and the coming of the messiah.  Zachariah was so overjoyed with this experience of an immanent God. he burst our into song celebrating God with us.

            Today we will hear about a second visit of the angel Gabriel, this time to a young unmarried woman named Mary.  Emmanuel, God with us, is about to do another extraordinary thing.  We will get to this, but first let's pray, the Angelus, borrowed from our Roman Catholic friends.

            “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

            Imagine that you are in the checkout line of a grocery store.  There, next to the register are the supermarket tabloids.  Their headlines are a mixture of sex, politics and religion.  You might see something like this, “Catholic Nun has President's Love Child”.  This may or may not grab your attention.  But what if you read, “Pregnant Teenager Claims to Still Be a Virgin.  God is the Father.  Child is the King of the World.  Read All About It!”  Would that grab your attention?  If so, listen up.

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

            Pretend for a moment that you are a 13 year-old girl living in a small village.  Your future is secure because your family has already found a husband who will take care of you.  All you have to do is produce sons and you will have a wonderful life all of your days.  But then one night a angel comes with an amazing offer.  You will bear God's son and he will be the messiah who will restore the Davidic kingdom.  How would you react if that was God's plan for your life?  Let's see how young Mary responded.

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

            Good question!  Mary is obviously a good girl.  She obeys all the rules.  She knows what is expected of her.  She wants to do the right thing.  And at this point she is probably scared to death.  This might be the time to scream for her mother.  But Mary keeps under control and wants to know how all this is going to happen.  Let's hear Gabriel's reply.

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

            So there is nothing that Mary needs to do.  All that is required is for her to remain faithful and open to whatever God has planned.  This is what election is all about.  God created each of you for a specific purpose.  All you have to do is remain faithful and willing to follow God wherever he might take you.

            When I was Mary's age I loved going to church, and I loved public speaking.  I was on my school's debate team and went to church every Sunday with my family.   People saw me and said that one day I would be a pastor.    But I enjoy mathematics and science.  I went to college and majored in physics.  But while at Dickinson College I ran into a Philosophy professor named Frederick Ferre.  He encouraged me to study both physics and philosophy.  I ended up with a double major in both.

            But what I really wanted was to run my own business.  So I took over my father's Baskin Robbins franchise and started work on a Master of Business Administration at George Mason University.  I would eventually start a chain of wicker furniture stores and sold computer systems to retail stores.  I was good at business, but I realized that I wasn't satisfied with this kind of work.

            What did satisfy me was teaching Bible studies at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington DC.  While I did this I kept having a nagging feeling that maybe I should be a pastor.  And so in 2004 I went to Fuller Seminary.  Finally, I was on the path that God had created for me to walk.

            Mary didn't wait three decades to begin following God's plan for her life.  Even as a young teenager she knew what to do when God called.  Let's listen.

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

And so Mary obediently accepted God's plan for her life.  But her parents are about to read some headlines in the supermarket tabloid.   “Pregnant Teenager Claims to Still Be a Virgin.  God is the Father.  Child is the King of the World.”  Before her parents get the news, Mary figures that it is time to visit an older cousin, Elizabeth, to receive some words of wisdom. 

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 

            Elizabeth knows what it is like to receive some good news from God.  God had finally blessed her with a pregnancy after so many years of prayer.  She recognizes that Mary has received some really good news.   Elizabeth is overjoyed and wants to celebrate.

            And that's when Mary can ask the question on her mind, Why me?  This is often the question we ask when we realize God's purpose in our lives.  We spend our time trying to achieve our purposes for our lives.  We get education and experience to do what we want to do.  And we don't want to give all that up.  But sometimes to do what God wants you to do you have to give up what you want to do.

            That's what happened to me.  I resisted God's call on my life for decades.  I prayed over and over that God would bless what I wanted.  I prayed that my business would be more successful.  Those prayer were granted to an extent.  But what I know now is that God had something else in mind for me.  God wanted me to surrender to his will.  Which I finally did at age 47.

            I doesn't matter when you start to follow God's plan for you life.   You can start as a teenager like Mary.  You can start in middle age like me.  I even have a friend who started seminary in his 70s.  You are never too old to begin following what God is calling you to do.  And you are never too young.  John the Baptist wasn't even born yet when he started proclaiming the coming of the messiah.

43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

            And then Mary, filled with God's blessings and following God's plan for her life stayed with Elizabeth until John was born.  Then she returned to her family and her fiance with the following news, “Pregnant Teenager Claims to Still Be a Virgin.  God is the Father.  Child is the King of the World.”  The Bible leaves the the conversation between Mary and her parents and Joseph to our imaginations.  How would react if your young daughter would come to you with news like this?  Hopefully we would see it for what it is.  God has a plan for Mary's life, and this is it.  She is to bear God's son the Messiah.

            Each of us was born with a purpose given to us by God.  As an act of faith we are to discern God's plan on our lives and do what God wants done.  Do this and you will live with the satisfaction of being a part of God's plan for creation.  Let's pray.

            Emmanuel, God with us, we thank you for choosing us to be part of your plan.  We thank you for giving our lives a purpose.  We pray for your Spirit to help us surrender to your will so we may follow you all the days of our lives.  In your son's name we pray.  Amen.