Pastor Scott Jonas
I am Waiting
12/24/17 Morning
This morning our text is Luke 1:26-38, The birth of Jesus
foretold. I have to warn you. I’m going to talk a lot about being
pregnant. And what I know about being
pregnant can fit in a thimble. But I’m
fascinated with the analogy between the Christian Life and birth. There are so many similarities and the Bible
uses this image often. Just last week in
John 3 Jesus used it. “You must be born
again.”
So our story
centers on Mary. Six months ago, an
Angel approached her relative Zechariah and announced that he and his wife Elizabeth
were going to have a child. Now the same
Angel, Gabriel came to her. She was
engaged to Joseph. She had known no
man. The angel appears and says,
“Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
I love that Luke gives us insight into what Mary was thinking. He must have interviewed her years
later. He tells us that she was greatly
troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might
be.
Mary is a
thinker. She weighs things
carefully. She doesn’t just react. She doesn’t blurt out. She is contemplative. What if an Angel approached you and said,
“Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you! “ What would your response be?
Mary waits
to give a response. She tries to read
the situation. She probably asks
internal questions. What kind of
greeting is this? Is he commanding me to
rejoice? What if I don’t obey
Angel? That’s bad. Maybe I should “rejoice” just in case. “I’m here with an Angel and we never
met. And he wants me to sing him a song. And um I love the Lord.. But you know that cause you’re an angel. So
I’m here now rejoicing. Heavenly Father,
I love you . I love you. I love you!
She ponders
all that and disregards. She knows that
she is hearing the words of God. She
wants to interpret them correctly. So
she listens and waits to speak. Imagine
her with a furrowed brow focusing on every word from the mouth of God’s
messenger.
And the
Angel said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold you will conceive in your womb and
bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most high. And the Lord will give to him the throne of
his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom there will be no end.”
Imagine trying to follow those words let alone
absorb them. I can see her repeating
them, just so she can wrap her mind around them. Favor with God. Bear a son.
Jesus. Son of the Most High.
Reign forever. She waits organizes it in
her mind. The Lord loves her. He is going to give her a son, Jesus who will
lead Israel to the end.
Then very
slowly she comes to a pivotal question, “How will this be, since I’m a
virgin?” Remember, in the Old Testament,
when God miraculously grants a child it is because the woman is infertile, not
because she is a virgin. Sarah had a
husband Abraham. Rebekkah had
Isaac. Hannah had a husband. Mary knew the stories. When God told them they were going to have a
baby, they went home and you know. The
mechanics were the same as any married couple.
The miracle was that God fixed a broken reproductive system. But contemplative Mary figures out that she
isn’t married and can’t follow through the way the other women called by the
Lord. Is the Angel telling her to Mary
Joseph right away? She waits for an
answer.
The Angel
answers her saying, “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[e] will be called
holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has
also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called
barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold,
I am the servant[f] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And
the angel departed from her. And Mary
waited.
Pregnancy is
nine months of waiting. Everything a
mother does is with the end in mind. The
birth. She waits for the appointment
with the doctor. She waits for the test
results. She waits to tell the father
just at the right time. Mom and Dad wait
to tell people she’s pregnant. They wait
to reveal the sex of the baby. They wait
to share the name. Then they wait for
the big day to arrive. The big day
changes everything. Mary waits for the
big day.
Have you
ever thought that you are like Mary?
When you were baptized the power of the Most high overshadowed you. You had found favor with God. The Spirit planted Jesus inside of you. The Holy, Son of God dwells in your innermost
being. When you sing songs he hears
you. When you rejoice, Jesus
rejoices. When you read a story from the
Bible, Jesus listens. When you put
something into your body which is unhealthy, he notices. At the end of time, the big day will
come. Jesus will appear in the flesh. That day will change everything. Mary had the great honor of bearing Jesus and
so do you.
Mary did not
stay still while she was waiting. She
visited Elizabeth, walking miles and miles to another village. She supported her relative at a crucial time
in her life. She used her waiting time
to bless others. When they saw each
other, their babies leapt. They danced. That’s good use of waiting time. Mary also sang a hymn. She pondered the words of the Angel. She traveled to Bethlehem to finish some
census business. Mary was an active
waiter.
As you await
the coming of our Lord, be an active waiter.
God has you here for a reason.
Rejoice in the Lord. Dance with
God’s people. Laugh at yourself. Sing songs to Jesus. Not just here, but in your heart all the
time. Take care of your business. Don’t just wait.
You know who
has more waiting and pondering to do than a pregnant mother? The baby.
In some ways we are more like a waiting baby than a waiting mother. Jesus said we must be born again. We must be born of water and spirit. You have been part of two out of tree great
births. One, you were born of your
mother. Born of Water. Two, you were reborn in your baptism. Born of Spirit. You have one more to go. When you die, you will be born into a new
world. Born of God.
I think we
can learn a lot from our first birth.
Imagine if you could clearly communicate to a baby in the womb. Imagine trying to tell them what awaits them
on this side of birth. You could
describe to the baby the world you see.
People have two arms and two legs.
She might be able to understand that.
Then you describe your family.
You describe your house. You talk
about your church and your weird pastor.
You talk about st. louis, the cardinals, your favorite book, politics and everything else that is
important to you. But even though you
can talk to this baby inside it’s mother’s womb. The baby has no idea what you are talking
about.
The world
you are describing is beyond it’s comprehension. It’s not that the baby doesn’t have the brain
power, it’s that the world the baby inhabits is completely different from
yours. The baby’s world is this
big. The one you are describing is infinitely
bigger. The baby’s world doesn’t have
much color to it and yours has all the colors of the rainbow. Baby’s can’t conceive of rainbows
either. The baby’s world has vague
impressions that correspond to ours. She
knows her mother’s voice and stress levels and love. She can hear feel her father’s touch. She recognizes music and sounds. Vague impressions. That is all she gets while she waits to be
born into the next world.
While you
wait to be born into the next world you are in a similar situation. Just as you tried to tell the baby about this
world, God has tried to tell you about the next one. It is infinitely bigger. It has things you cannot conceive. Jesus’s kingdom is there but it’s not like
any earthly kingdom. The whole people of
God are there. Abraham and Sarah. Zechariah and Elizabeth. Mary and Joseph. But they aren’t like they were in this
world. They’re perfected. I know it’s impossible for you to understand
because you’ve never seen something perfect.
Everything there is perfect.
Jesus is at the center of it all preparing it for you. But like Mary, you are just going to have to
wait.