2017 Advent Sermon 4: Ordinary People

Isaiah 9:6-7

6 For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

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Luke 1:47-55

1:47 "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

1:48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

1:49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

1:50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

1:51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

1:52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

1:53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

1:55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

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Luke 1:26-38

1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

1:28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."

1:29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

1:30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

1:31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.

1:32 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.

1:33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

1:34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?"

1:35 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.

1:36 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.

1:37 For nothing will be impossible with God."

1:38 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.

 All passages quoted from the New Revised Standard Version

Ordinary People/Courageous Joy
Fourth Sunday in Advent

Introduction: Ordinary people, and ordinary happenings are transformed into the Sacred

If scripture does not speak to ordinary people, then the gospel message is not of much use.  If God’s salvation is not for me and my loved ones, ordinary people that we are, then it isn’t much good news to me; but God’s salvation is good news to all of us, because it is for ordinary people.

This passage not only tells us that God’s salvation is always coming to ordinary people, and through ordinary people.  Oh yes, this passage speaks of the coming of the Savior in the birth of Jesus Christ, I know that.  But you have to admit that Jesus needed to come as a part of a whole history of faithfulness.  Today’s scripture shows that so powerfully.  Mary, Elizabeth and Isaiah are essential for the birth of Jesus to happen.  God brings salvation in Jesus Christ, but God works out that salvation in history, and calls us, ordinary people that we are, to live faithfully, because our faithful living makes a difference.

Indeed, God has won our salvation in Jesus Christ.  Even so, God is continually working out that salvation for each person in each day of their lives—and God works through ordinary people.  Catch what I said, God is continually—every day and in every way—working out the story line (I guess) of God’s salvation in each person’s real lives, and throughout real human history.  Hear what this means: God is always working out that salvation through you and through me.  Indeed, if there is one thing that I get from today’s Bible readings, it is that God works the most momentous, extraordinary events in history through ordinary people doing ordinary things—when they have the courage to say “yes” to God.

So what happened in today’s scriptures, angel visitations?  Well, let’s look at it once from the perspective of the friends and family—you know, the people who did not see any angels.  What happened?

·      A couple of women got pregnant.  That’s pretty ordinary; it happens a million times a day.  Yeah, I know, every family feels like their pregnancy, and their children are miracles; ME TOO!  But there are over 7 billion people in this world.  I tell you, pregnancy is pretty darned ordinary.

·      And who were these women?  Were they from powerful families, maybe politically powerful, or economically powerful?  No, these were really ordinary people.  One was the wife of a priest.  The other was a peasant girl.  Pretty common people…really.

One of the main themes here, though is that anything is possible with God. Did you see that in today’s reading?  When Mary asks, “How can this be,” the response includes this sentence:  “For anything is possible with God.”

I want to challenge you to hear that for yourself.  The ordinary stuff that you and I can do…the ordinary stuff that merely ordinary people can do…can be empowered by God to become transformative for you and for all you touch in this world.  But it does mean that you have to be willing to let the ordinary possibilities within your grasp to stand out.

Elizabeth is too old to have a baby.  She is going to get noticed.

Mary is not too young—but she is not fully married, yet, and she is living in a day where out-of-wedlock pregnancies can truly ruin a woman’s life—even to the point of getting her killed.  She is already promised to Joseph, but he is going to know that he is not the father.  This birth is going to make her family relationships really messy—not to mention her social life in the community.   If someone asks you, “should you say yes to God if God asks you to do something,” it sounds almost like a dumb question.  Of course, you should say yes, right?  God won’t ask you to do what you cannot do.  But participating in God’s work of salvation takes thoughtfulness, discipline, and courage.

Luckily, God gives both Elizabeth and Mary a few things to hold onto in order to bolster their courage.

Elizabeth gets three signs

a.     She receives a visitation from an angel;

b.     She becomes pregnant when too old—this is an old theme from Israel’s past and a sure sign that God is at work

c.     Zechariah, her husband suddenly becomes mute when he goes to speak to God.  Now from Elizabeth’s perspective, that must be a sign of something…right?  (For Zechariah’s perspective go back and check out this whole passage of scripture).

Mary gets two signs

a.     Mary also gets a visitation from an angel…but how can she talk about an angel visit without people thinking she’s crazy?  This has to leave her pretty isolated with as momentous of a faith move as a person is called on to make.

b.     So, she is told to go to her relative, Elizabeth who, at her age, simply cannot be pregnant except through a miracle of god.  The angel does not leave Mary isolated.  Indeed, the angel doesn’t leave either of these women isolated.

But Mary is the one, who really gets the full weight of it.  The arrival of this child—who is the Messiah, after all—will be momentous.

God really does bless ordinary people with real ministry that matters.  Mary realizes she is not a priest; she is not a professional religious person.  Even so, her life is to be a ministry, because her life is to make a difference in the world for God.  By the way, your life and my life are to be that way, too, aren’t they?  You have people you talk to; you have a unique personality and unique gifts to share.  You and I, my friends, we absolutely must take time to reflect and think about how we are using our lives to serve the Lord.

Mary also recognizes that God’s mercy is from generation to generation
Indeed, the faithful living of the Hebrew people for hundreds of years pays off.  Remember our reading from Isaiah?  Isaiah was reminding people that God had promised to give them a king from the line of King David, who would rule forever.  For centuries They never gave up on God’s promise to bring a Savior.  Mary is rejoicing!  Faithfulness for generations pays off!

But the arrival of Jesus now, and the work of God in you and me throughout in each generation and in our generation, works to turn the world upside down.  What does Mary say?

The arrival of Jesus will scatter the proud, his might will bring down those on thrones—what will the Romans make of that?  In our generation, I wonder how that message will be heard by our political leaders.

Jesus’ arrival will turn the economy upside down, in order to fulfill God’s will.  The rich will be sent away.  The hungry will be filled with good things

Jesus arrival begins by choosing common, ordinary people.  Mary says, God has lifted up the lowly.  I wonder who the lowly are that God would have us lift up today.

In every generation, and in our generation, God calls us to take the ordinary things that you and I can do, and use them to further the kingdom of God.

Actually, we pray for that to happen every Sunday.  We pray it in the Lord’s prayer: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  We can’t pray that prayer with integrity if we do not also live in a way that allows us to be part of God’s answer to that prayer.  God’s power transforms ordinary things into the extraordinary power of transforming love, and we, like Elizabeth and Mary, are called to be part of it.

And we are more like Elizabeth and Mary than we might think.  What, you might ask?  I don’t hear God choosing me to give birth to Jesus!  YET, I tell you that God also uses us to help people receive Jesus.  Let me share a story from Christian writer, Conrad Hoover.

Illustration:
A friend of mine went to the bedside of a stranger with AIDS.  This stranger was the sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous of the pastor’s friend. The friend was now in another hospital and could not visit, so the pastor went in her place.
At first he was hostile and apprehensive. No one else had come to visit him, and he questioned my friend's presence. The nurse asked the pastor to light a cigarette for the patient. Well, she had to ask how, since she herself did not smoke. When she later questioned what she could do for him, someone suggested that perhaps might just go and light his cigarettes. She did so, faithfully.
One day she took him a flower from her garden. He also loved flowers, and from then on each time she went she shared her flowers as well as her presence. Gradually a bond of trust and love grew which transformed both his heart and hers. They had become companions in love through life and death. Hope was born anew, for with God nothing is impossible.

Pretty ordinary stuff, I suppose.  People get sick every day.  Visiting the hospital when asked is hard—strangers don’t always respond well to that, but it doesn’t sound so extraordinary.  Lighting someone’s cigarettes seems too simple to be important.  Yet, how monumentally important.  No one else had visited.  No one else took the time to show the care that lighting the cigarettes indicated.  No one else shared themselves personally, even sharing the flowers.  No one else embodied the loving presence of God.

Conclusion

Tonight is Christmas Eve, and I hope you will be coming to the Candlelight worship service here at the church.  Tonight, we will be celebrating the arrival of God’s Savior, and the transformation that is possible for the world, and for each one of us, because of the Savior.  The Advent scriptures always point to Christmas.  This is the last Sunday morning in Advent, so today’s scriptures also point to Christmas.

·      They tell that the Messiah is coming, indeed. 

·      They tell us that God is at work in history, even if we are unsure whether we can God at work in it or not. 

·      They tell us that choosing not to give-in to fear gives us the kind of peace that we need for these times.  God is at work in the world and we, who are part of this world, should not be afraid, for God is at work in us and through us.

·      They therefore tell us that being faithful in the ordinary things we can do…things like raising families really matter.

·      Quite honestly, I think there are things that should be quite ordinary that people forget, like standing up for God’s justice and calling our society to become more just—these really matter, too. 

·      They tell us that when we say yes to God, the most common things in our lives will be used by God to share good news with the world.

How might your life…the very ordinary things in your life…how might they matter?