In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel
Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph,
a descendant of King David. Gabriel
appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think
what the angel could mean. “Don’t be
afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son,
and you will name him Jesus. He 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. And he will reign over
Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” Mary asked the angel, “But how can this
happen? I am a virgin.” The 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. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has
become pregnant in her old age! People
used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth
month. For the word of God will never
fail.” Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s
servant. May everything you have said
about me come true.” And then the angel
left her. Luke 1:26-38(NLT)
We have been journeying through Advent looking at Good
Medicine for our souls.
· In week 1 we saw how Adoration, praising our Heavenly
Father releases all the praise stored in our hearts. It’s like personally offering the Great
Thanksgiving we always pray before sharing the Eucharist, the Lord’s
Supper. We praise Him and it is good
medicine for our souls.
· In week 2 we learned that Hope brings us close to God
and helps us hold-fast to the faith once-delivered
to the saints, and the impact that makes on the world makes a difference in
the world. Making a difference is good
medicine for our souls.
· Last week we explored Thanksgiving, the right
response to being cleansed of our sins, and how that opens the pathway for
genuine worship. All good medicine for
the soul!
Today, on Christmas Eve, we will complete this series as we
consider the good medicine of Supplication – a fancy word
for asking
for stuff. Now, that’s very
connected to what we hope will be under the tree tomorrow morning.
At this stage of December little children have written volumes of
letters to Santa, asking for toys, baby dolls, puppies and ponies. Older children have asked for new bicycles,
Playstations™ and new IPhones™. Women
have dropped hints (some subtle, and others not-so-subtle) about what kind of
jewelry they prefer (as well as where such baubles can be purchased), and men
have wondered why they haven’t gotten a new Mercedes or fishing boat on
previous Christmas mornings. We all
understand the concept of supplication!
But this season is not without its stressors. And stress shows up in many unexpected ways
(and all of them unwelcome); just ask the man who was engaged to Mary –
Joseph. As a local carpenter from a good
family Joseph thought he had everything he wanted for that first
Christmas. His life was in order. He was engaged, betrothed to the love of his
life. Mary was beautiful and his career
as a carpenter was on track. This
changed everything. It was big
time stress! Betrothal was more than engagement; in those days it
was legally marriage, except for the couple living together. That’s so different from today where many
couples live together and have children before marriage.
Well, Joseph had it all going in the right direction...until the
news hit him that Mary was pregnant.
Joseph knew he wasn’t the father, so this shattered his dreams and hopes
for a normal, respectable life. It had
to have crushed his heart. Christmas
stress indeed! Joseph came to the first
Christmas without tinsel, twinkling lights or fruitcake.
Scripture tells us Joseph didn’t want to see Mary hurt or
embarrassed. So he hatched a plan to
divorce Mary privately. He didn’t want
her to go through the public humiliation he knew was coming. It was more than just the snide remarks and
social snubbing to which they’d be subjected.
While it may be hard for many in our 21st century culture to
imagine why they would be judged for having a baby before marriage, in those
days it was downright against the law!
That was the pressure society would bear on remaining a virgin until
marriage.
Elizabeth and I know something of that pressure. We married in 1967. I had been inducted into the Army five months
prior. We made the decision to get
married if I got orders for overseas, but we didn’t share that with anyone but
our parents. When the orders came I
called and told Elizabeth I had nine days leave. We met with the minister, bought all the
stuff and had a wedding three days later.
We are certain some of our friends (and a few snooty relatives) were doing
math for the next nine months!
(Jennifer came along a little more than four years later; so there!)
These days that kind of thinking is seen as prudish; something out
of the Victorian-era. In the eyes of the
new millennium person, marriage is either seen with a romantic’s eye, that
everything must be perfect because everyone is happy, stays happy, and lives
happily ever after. Or marriage is
viewed as a throwback to oppressive male domination and is to be avoided at all
costs. Either way, Biblical marriage of one
man and one woman for one lifetime has become the rare exception,
rather than the norm.
Now the reason Joseph scurried around to find a plan to do
something about this development privately is that sticking
with Mary would bring danger into Joseph’s equation. Mary had a few serious liabilities:
· Legal liability – as a convicted
adulteress she could have been stoned under Jewish law.
· Religious liability – Mary claimed to be
pregnant by God; the Pharisees would’ve had a field day with that one. They hung Jesus on a cross for that kind of
claim. Mary could have gotten the death
penalty for blasphemy
The first Christmas was extremely stressful for Joseph. His stress came from financial, emotional and
spiritual drains. He was picturing a
wife, kids, dog, and white picket fence kind of life. What he got was over-taxed, shamed, confused
and run out of town. Is this first
Christmas not the most stressful you’ve ever heard about?
Turning back to our friend Luke’s story about Mary we find there
was family stress in her first Christmas as well…in two different cities. Of course Mary faced all of what Joseph was
feeling – with the added factor that she was the one the community
would stone if things went badly.
But there was also Mary’s Aunt Elizabeth to consider. Everyone in her family knew Elizabeth was
unable to conceive, and she was well-past child-bearing age. But the angel visiting Mary told her old Aunt
Elizabeth was already six-months along.
So, really, there are two miracles in this
story. Mary is pregnant even though she
is too-young and still a virgin, and so is Elizabeth, the too-old barren
one. These two are connected at opposite
ends of the spectrum.
What’s really surprising here is that Mary went to her Aunt for
comfort and enlightenment; but Elizabeth was the one who got both. From this we learn that humble hearts are
connected and never overlooked by God when it comes to blessing. Mary was young, Elizabeth old; God blessed
both of them. We also must learn to not
judge the young Marys or the old Elizabeths in our lives. Unexpected beginnings are not endings!
Granny Parker was a church member in a small church I served in
Florida. By virtually all human
standards she was not influential or revered as a leader. Granny had a learning disability and couldn’t
participate in a traditional education process.
But that was only her beginning.
As a young woman in the depression, Granny’s parents died and she
inherited the 100 acre farm she lived on all her life. When the opportunity came to start a mission
church she gave two acres to begin the work.
Later she graciously parted with 10 more acres as the church grew and
needed more space. Today, where humble
Granny Parker began life on a small farm in 1911 there is a 600-seat sanctuary
and several other buildings to serve that community for Christ.
Granny died shortly before reaching 100 years in her journey. This under-educated, unsophisticated, rough
farm girl could barely write her own name, but her relationship with God was so
strong, when you heard her pray, it was clear every angel in heaven had stopped
what they were doing and were paying attention as Jesus and Granny caught up on
the day’s events.
The Mary in our story is something like that. When the angel told Mary what the future was
going to look like she asked a question…how can this be…I’m a virgin…never even
been with a man. When the angel told her to trust God, she
bowed in worship, and with a simple statement Mary teaches us what genuine supplication
looks like:
I am the Lord’s servant.
May everything you have said about me come true.
Mary made her petition, supplication – tell me about this
impossibility. She got what she
requested, and it wasn’t anything like she could have possibly dreamed. But it was good medicine for her soul,
because she embraced it as a gift from the hand of God.
Beloved you wrestle this
week with embracing what Mary faced, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, Amen!
