It’s the 4th Sunday of Advent, and almost Christmas! Meeting at church this week on Sunday 11 am for a Worship Service (with Food Pantry volunteer meeting following the service), on Tuesday 5:30-7 pm for Food Pantry, and Thursday 6 pm for a special Christmas Eve candlelight service. Here is a recording for the Sunday message. We will try to live stream the Christmas Eve service on the church’s Facebook page.
20 Dec. 20 Sunday Message, Fourth Sunday of Advent: “Ready & Looking for Him”
Call to Worship: Luke 1:26-38
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.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
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 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.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Call to Worship, Prayer Concerns, and Invitation: Father in Heaven, knowing that you are not confined to any place, we ask you to enter into our world beginning with our Hearts that are open for you to reside in. For we know that no word from you will ever fail. Please teach us to serve you by serving others in our Faithwalks to further your Kingdom.
Amen!
Message Readings: Luke 1:46-55, and John 3:16-17
Mary’s Song (The Magnificat)
46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm:
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Message: “Ready & Looking for Him”
Our title addresses a hope and a question: are you ready and looking for our Lord this Advent? (I hope we are!) This fourth Sunday of Advent is a culmination of looking at our world, looking at ourselves, cleaning and more refining the state of things, beginning with ourselves and then looking outward. Today we want to address how we remain ready and how to keep looking for our Lord, both during and beyond Advent.
I guess from the get-go I’m reminded of the term and the song, looking for love in all the wrong places. And it reminds me of what looking for the Lord can be like, because it is just like looking for love. Like looking for relationships, when I am all consumed with looking for things on my terms, my wants, my preconceived ideas about, God, happiness, and the world at large, I am immediately filtering our all the possibilities God is providing me.
You remember the joke about the guy stranded on a roof during a flood, and a guy in a canoe paddles by and says get in. No, I’m waiting for God to save me. (You can imagine the guy paddling off muttering under his breath unmentionable stuff) Then a person in a life jacket holding a spare, floats by. No thanks I’m waiting on God. Then a helicopter, same result. After the man drowned and met the Lord, he asked why anyone didn’t help him. And you already know what God said…No Ginsu knives for you!
How many times has God wanted to help me but I out thought Him and the predicament I was in to my own disappointment?So many times, we say we are looking for a sign or an answer to prayer from God, and we get so caught up in our own thoughts that we are not really paying attention to what God is actually saying.
If we had a fraction of those opportunities back, just think what we could do with them! Well, we do, and it’s called lessons learned in life. In other words, learning from our missteps by doing better the next time. This is not aimed at a character flaw on any one of us in particular, but an accurate description of humanity at large. Which is a more telling description of our challenges as people.
Our struggling to listen to God. And it happens to the best of us, if not all of us. Take Mary for instance, in today’s call to worship in Luke 1:26-38, where:
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.
Ok, this is where most of us would be losing it and wondering if it was the end of our time here in this life. But the Angelic visitor says the most important thing a person can hear in this life:
30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary: you have found favor with God.
There is absolutely nothing more important to me than to know that my God is happy with me. A little confirmation and reinforcement celestially is always a good thing. If you think about where many of us have been or started from, you would start to understand the how exciting this would be for most people. And Marry I would think is no exception, she must be as excited as can be at this point. But now the rest of the story.
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.”
This is where many of us would be like the guy in the flood turning down the help (blessings) because the gift does not fit our preconceived ideas of what gifts, blessing, and good relationships are. We’re still waiting for God, and the Lord is already on the move. Just think, Mary, like all of her family and all of the people of Israel have been waiting for the Messiah century after century.
Some believe that the Messiah would be a warrior King and get rid of the Romans, others expected a warrior Priest who would clean up the sloppy worship services in the Temple, Synagogues, and get rid of the heretics. And I’m kind-a certain Mary wasn’t expecting the Messiah would be born from her. Hence Mary’s next comment:
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
This is key: We must always remember that when we are asking God for clarification to something that we are not using the question as an excuse to opt out, another way of saying no or no thanks. You know a more refined way of saying yea-but. Sort of a passive way of arguing with God which is daunting, just ask Moses.
Mary’s heart is open to the promptings of the spirit and is really looking for clarification to be able to be a tool of God in the wider scheme of things. Our Angel clarifies for Mary:
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 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.”
Verse 37 pretty much caps the whole deal for me. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” If there was a verse I would like you to leave ringing in your mind today it would be 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” Hope in that sentiment is exactly who we are as a people of faith, and yet so often forget to remember. It’s so important God’s Angel reinforces Mary’s availability to God’s spirit by saying it.
Mary finishes the conversation with the Angel by basically saying God’s will be done, and goes to help Elizabeth where another unique birth is about to happen to someone well beyond their time for children, but God said it would happen. To show how God works differently among us and reaches us in the way that works for us, reflect on Zachariah’s interaction with the Angel’s message of the coming of John the Baptist to him and his elderly mom Elizabeth. God put Zachariah in time out (no talking) until John’s birth. Zachariah is then believing by the time it’s time to name his son, John.
Once Zachariah can speak again after John’s birth, he will sing praises to God, which you can read for yourselves in Luke 1:67-69. Much like Mary’s praise of God from today’s “Message Reading” in 1:46-55:
(The Magnificat)
46 And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm:
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
According to Google: The Magnificat or (Latin for “[My soul] magnifies [the Lord]”) is a canticle, which is a hymn or chant, typically with a biblical text, in this case Mary’s song. Forming a regular part of a church service with our Catholic Brothers and Sisters and similar to what is written in the Song of Songs.
I just know it’s beautiful, and reflects a Faithwalk that is vibrant, ready, and looking for the Lord in whatever way God chooses to reveal Himself. What is so moving for me is Mary understanding how future generations will call her blessed. My thought is that she is blessed because she was open to listening to God. Are we open to His spirit? In whatever way God chose to reach out to us today, tonight, in the middle of the ball game? My hope is that future people will call us blessed, based on what we were willing to accept from God.
But, I have to ask myself, has God been trying to reach out to me this Advent season and I just haven’t been available to hear His call? Honestly, God might have been calling in the past and I was too caught up in reruns of Mission Impossible, and worrying over how the house looked from the road. Am I so distracted by getting or giving the perfect gifts that I am neglecting the most important and valuable of gifts? Eternaty! Has He been calling you?
This is not an accusation as much as an admission on things I could do better. Are we ready and looking for the Lord? Not just this time of year, but in our lives in general. I guess what’s so special to me, is that here we have a maiden Mary, who was a real human being, with her own challenges with sin, her own doubts (as reflected in her discussion with the Angel), and yet God will do wondrous things through her for the benefit of future generations. (You and me!)
The fact that Mary was a real person is even more important because it shows how Mary with God’s help, was open to a whole new reality in her life, with the Lord’s help her Faithwalk became stronger and endured much.
I hope during this sacred time of year when our thoughts many times venture into sadness for cherished times, places, and loved ones who have passed on, that we can all hold on to a statement from the Gospel of John 3:16-17 to get us through the rough times:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God loves us so much He went to the ends of the Earth (a maiden in a stable, in a backwash town of Bethlehem) to save you. And God does it over and over when we accept his gift of a lifeboat to save us from drowning in our sin of life.
It is my hope and prayer for you this Advent / Christmas time of year that:
- If you are sad, find someone struggling more and nurture them
- If you are carrying anger, release with giving of yourself, and forgive them
- If you are all alone, there are others more alone, go love them!
- If you have been hurt, bless them. Those who have hurt you. Start privately within yourself and go from there.
Let the Lord save you this Advent season, by learning to love the people God places in your life. God has all kinds of job openings available, with most of them coming without a job title, but lasting an eternity!
Amen!
Benediction: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
For no word from God will ever fail!
Amen!