Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis Luke 1:26-38

Fourth Sunday of Advent December 21, 2008

“Christ Bearers”

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Narr: In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Gabriel: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

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

Gabriel: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 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. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

G: “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. 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. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Mary: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Narr: Then the angel departed from her.

Sermon:

We can listen to this story with different parts of our selves. Our rational, analytic self says, “Wait a minute. Biologically, this is impossible. For an embryo to be created, you need the chromosomes from both an egg and a sperm. Otherwise the cells don’t start dividing. This story can’t be true.”

On the other hand, our simple believing self might say, “But it’s in the Bible, and with God, anything is possible. If we start questioning all the mysteries and miracles in the Bible, we’ll end up with no faith and nothing to believe in.”

Do those two parts of yourself ever fight with each other when you hear stories like the one of the virgin birth?

Fortunately, there’s another part of ourselves, which a 17-year-old youth was in touch with when he heard a heated argument between these two perspectives following a lecture by biblical scholar Marcus Borg that analyzed the story of Jesus’ virgin birth. The youth said afterwards, “I don’t know what all the fuss is about. The story is too beautiful not to be about something true.”

Ah, yes. That’s the kind of truth this story is about–a deep truth we can’t make sense of with our head, but one that makes sense of our soul.

This story is about a humble young woman being so filled with God that her body and her life became an instrument for God’s redeeming, healing, transforming Spirit to come into the world through the son that she bore and raised. In the story, would it have been easy for a teenage girl living in that culture to carry God’s child before she was married? What would her parents say? What would her neighbors think? What would her fiancé Joseph do? Would she be shamed, rejected, or stoned? She had no way of knowing, and no way of controlling the outcome, even though all her hopes and dreams for her future were now on the line. But this was her simple response: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Did this conversation with Gabriel actually happen? Who can say for sure? But conversations very much like this must have happened between Mary and God–when her 12-year-old Jesus preferred discussing God’s law in the temple to being with his family when they went to Jerusalem. Conversations like that must have happened when Jesus left his home, not to pursue carpentry, get married, and give Mary grandchildren, but to travel around preaching without a home or employment. Conversations like that must have happened when Mary heard Jesus persist in challenging the religious leaders of his day, who had a direct line to the Roman authorities. Maybe conversations like that even happened when Mary watched with horror as the Roman soldiers pounded the nails into Jesus’ hands and feet, and she watched the life-blood slowly drain out of her first son, whom she had risked her reputation and life to give birth to. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Not my will, but your will be done.”

Is this story true? It is to compellingly beautiful not to be about something profoundly true.

The truth of this story that speaks to me right now is that when we say Yes to God with all we have and all we are–when we loosen the hold on our own agendas and desires and preoccupations and anxieties--we make room for God’s wisdom, truth, compassion, and transforming power to enter into our being and our living. Even we can become bearers of Christ into the world.

The Christmas season is actually a time when we need to do that the most. When are we more caught up in our own agendas and desires and preoccupations and anxieties than the week before Christmas? Can the spirit of Christ find room to be born in our hearts and in our lives during this very week when Christ somehow gets lost in all the hoopla over Christmas?

One year ago today, the Democrat and Chronicle had an article by Marketta Gregory entitled “Amid Seaon’s Bustle, Christians Seek the Spiritual.” It quoted Wendy Sullivan of Rochester, who likes to sit alone in a room lit only by the lights of the Christmas tree and a small decorative village. Wendy said, “This daily period of quiet reflection helps me keep my spirit focused on the meaning of Christmas–Jesus as the guiding light in the midst of darkness.”

Rev. George Huffsmith of Fairport says his family always has a stocking for Jesus. Before any Christmas presents are opened on Christmas morning, his family members write on a slip of paper what they are giving Jesus that year.

Ralph Fleming of Greece has a family tradition that includes everyone saying what they’re thankful for and what Christmas has meant to them throughout the year. He says, “Christmas is not just about giving, but about serving the Lord.”¹

St. Augustine said, “What difference does it make that Christ was born so long ago in Bethlehem if he is not born in me?” These people have all found ways to make room for Christ to be born in them, so they can then bear his spirit into the world.

As Mary found, saying yes to God and sharing Christ with the world wasn’t just a one-shot deal. As Jesus grew and engaged in a ministry that rocked the status quo, Mary had to deepen and grow in her ability to “let go and let God.” That’s how it is with us as well. Being a Christ-bearer is a life-long process. But God can use us no matter who we are.

In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass tells of a man she met named Bernard, who had been born into a nominally Roman Catholic family that had stopped going to church when Bernard was in elementary school. He had lost any spiritual bearings, lived a self-indulgent life, and found a lucrative career in what Bass discreetly calls “a distasteful profession that has only negative impacts on the world.” Despite his financial success, he was ashamed of his work and felt trapped.

When he and his girlfriend Catherine had a baby, their son’s birth inspired Bernard to seek a “meaningful positive life.” Bernard and Catherine began looking for a church that might help them become better people. They found their way to a Presbyterian church down the street from their house.

Diana Butler Bass writes, “It is hard to imagine what most churches would make of this family, an unmarried couple with a baby, who benefitted financially from an unsavory occupation. But the congregation was schooled in the deep practice of Christian hospitality, and welcomed them into its midst.” The church’s pastor came to their home, and instead of judging their lifestyle, he warmly encouraged them to learn about Jesus and what it might mean to follow him in their lives.

The church baptized their baby, and Bernard and Catherine began attending the church’s extensive membership preparation and Christian formation classes, which included Bible study, prayer, discernment, and reflection. They felt ashamed of their ignorance and their lifestyle, but they were also spiritually hungry for what was being taught, so they committed themselves to this new journey of faith.

They found other people in the church whose lives had been changed through their faith. They began to experience the love and forgiveness of God through the genuine caring of the congregation, they began to forgive themselves, they learned how to pray, they began listening to God speaking to them through the Bible, they sang new songs of faith, and they developed the ability to “bring religion out of Sunday morning and into everyday life.”

Bernard felt something new growing in him that made him feel whole and at peace. Bernard and Catherine had a Christian wedding. Bernard wanted somehow to follow Christ’s call to serve others and minister to people in need in some way. Catherine suggested that maybe he was called to comfort people in distress. She sensed that God was calling her husband to be an undertaker. Bernard knew she was right. Like the early followers of Jesus, who left their nets by the shore when called by God, Bernard and his family moved to another city that had a school for funeral directors. They lived on half his former salary in an undesirable part of town, until he eventually got established in his new profession.

Bernard finds serving people in his new profession very meaningful. He told about being called in the middle of the night to embalm two bodies at a local hospital. He said, “As I spent the whole night carefully preparing these people, I certainly wished I was home in my warm bed. But I did my best, as I always do. They are treated with all the respect and care that I would want my loved ones given....I am in a position to serve others, and this service enriches me and fills me with great peace.”²

Through several years of learning, trusting, opening, and deepening faithfulness, Bernard became a bearer of Christ into the world.

Last Sunday’s “USA Weekend” magazine section of the newspaper had an article about film superstar Will Smith. The article was called “Good Will.” I hadn’t realized that Will Smith started his career as a rapper who didn’t use profanity.

Several months before turning 40, he wrote a constitution for himself and his family, inspired by the nation’s Founding Fathers. Article 1 reads, “Make everyone we meet a better person.” He explains, “That goes back to my grandmother. She’d take me to our Baptist church when I was growing up, and I realized that she was always smiling. I asked her why. She said, ‘It’s because I know why I’m here. I have to make everything better for everyone.’ Then she touched my hand, and it moved me. She said, ‘See? Everything seems better now, doesn’t it?’ I never forgot that.”³

That’s a story of one Christ bearer awakening that potential in another.

As I look around this sanctuary, I see a room full of people who are becoming Christ bearers in their homes, in this church, in their work, and in our community. In such a variety of ways, you have said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” “Let your will be done through in me.”

But as with Mary, it’s not a one-shot deal. We have to keep saying that over and over again.

“What difference does it make that Christ was born so long ago in Bethlehem if he is not born in us?” Can we make room in our lives, right here and right now, for Christ to be born in us–by just receiving that gift of God’s love for us? Can we let the light, the love, the hope, the peace, and the joy of God’s spirit so infuse our own spirits that we ourselves bear Christ into the world, wherever we are, whatever we do, whomever we meet?

Prayer:

“O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.”

Touch us, fill us, renew us, and make us new. And use our lives to bring your Spirit of healing love, renewing hope, uniting peace, and redeeming truth into the world.