Sermons
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A sermon preached by Revd Richard Newton on 11 December 2011 Luke 1.26-38 1. Life Stories In our culture, hearing about people’s “life stories” is very popular.
Sometimes a person’s life takes a particular course because they’re really gifted at something – sometimes their story is of drifting from one thing to another – or maybe it’s a story that’s been determined largely by circumstances or accident. Occasionally, we hear of someone’s life-story being driven by a tremendous desire to do something or achieve something, or by a vision or by a dream. And then the whole of that person’s life is devoted to fulfilling that dream or vision. An overriding feeling of what their life is meant to be about gives a strong sense of purpose and direction and staying power. And, if it’s achieved, there’s a sense of completion and coherence about everything. I watched a programme, recently, in the BBC “Imagine” series, about Vidal Sassoon. He knew, from the age of about 6, that he wanted to cut people’s hair, and he was gripped by contemporary architecture, and knew he had to put the two together. As he pursued that vision, he changed the face of hair styling and fashion from the 60s onwards. 2. Living the dream Having a dream or a vision, living life with an overall sense of purpose, is (of course) something that’s not strange to us as Christians. Visions and dreams run right through our Christian tradition. In today’s Gospel reading Luke tells us about the vision Mary had, which changed and gave shape to her entire life as the mother of Jesus. Even if you and I aren’t the sort of people who have a life’s dream, or a compulsive sense of what our lives are meant to be for, there are parts of Mary’s experience which can still ring true. 3. Mary’s dream Mary’s vision was to completely change her life. The angel Gabriel presented her with a vision of what her life could be for, and the part she could play in God’s purpose of salvation, by being the mother of the Son of God. Her future, her life’s work (in a sense), was presented to her in a flash. An understanding of what her purpose in life could be, a picture which would give shape to the rest of her life, suddenly became clear to her in her encounter with Gabriel. Mary’s first reaction to Gabriel’s message was, quite understandably, one of great surprise. It all seemed rather unbelievable. She couldn’t work out quite how it could be that she had been favoured in such a way by God. Apart from the practical questions of how it was going to come about, there must have been something of the feeling of “why me?”. How was it that God has chosen her for this particular part of his work? One can imagine that she didn’t feel the slightest bit worthy for what God was calling her to do. All of that, though, serves to remind us that it’s by God’s grace that every single one of us is called to do God’s work. We can’t achieve acceptability or suitability ourselves. God chooses us, calls us to his service, and asks us to respond, always by his favour and by grace. Feeling surprised, feeling “why me?”, thinking that it all sounds rather too far fetched to be true, is a natural (and actually quite appropriate) response to being asked. Despite how she felt, unknown to Mary, quite a lot depended on her. Looking back now at events as they enfolded, we can see that all sorts of strands came together following Mary’s vision. Events, lives, and journeys, all merged in this one particular moment of time. Much depended on how Mary responded for the way that God’s future salvation was to be worked out. Mary, of course, couldn’t see that herself from where she was standing – to her it seemed all rather unbelievable. 4. Saying “yes” The choice which Mary made was, fortunately, to put her trust in God, rather that to rely on how things looked from where she was standing. From her position, the future looked fairly awesome. To have a child in Israel before marriage was something that she could have been stoned to death for. What’s more, to be a parent of any child is quite a terrifying responsibility, but what about the prospect of being the person to bear and bring up God’s Son? And yet, with all that fear of the unknown, with all the feelings that must have been going through her mind, she said “yes” – “let it be to me according to your word”. Against the background of the unknown, the unbelievable, and the terrifying, she put her trust in God. She accepted humbly and faithfully the special task that Gabriel presented to her. The story of Mary accepting that vision reminds us that God seeks our cooperation in furthering the work of the kingdom. He works through you and me. The familiar prayer “Christ has no body now on earth but yours” expresses that sentiment. The choices we make, the ways in which we make our response, are not things that are insignificant. We may not be individually responsible for the success or failure of the kingdom, but we can either aid or hinder God’s saving work by the choices and responses we make. There are times when, like Mary, God calls us to lay aside our own plans and hopes, to step outside our own neat and tidy lives, to accept the unbelievable and that which makes us wonder “how can it be?”. Like Mary, from where we stand we seldom see the whole picture. Her ready response and trust is an example of how we may perhaps say “yes” to God in humility and trust. It’s an example of how we might say “yes” to those opportunities to serve God which take us utterly by surprise, which seem slightly absurd or completely daunting. It may be that in those opportunities there are threads of God’s saving purpose coming together which we ourselves are unable to see. 5. Conclusion There’s much that we can learn from Mary’s vision. As a story it is, of course, something that’s peculiar to her. And yet, like Mary we’re called to respond to God’s calling in ways that we can’t always quite comprehend – and to say “yes” to God in trust and humility. As with Mary, it’s through us that God works out his saving purposes. As we get ready for the coming of Christ this Christmas, let’s put our trust in God’s capacity for bringing about the seemingly impossible, and prepare to say “yes” to the future to which God calls us.
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