Storming the Kingdom; Luke 16:16-17, Matthew 11:12-15

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God's Amazing Grace; Luke 15:1-2, 11-32

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A Life of Devotion; Luke 1:26-45, 2:22-51, John 19:23-27, Acts 1:12-14

 

On this day that we celebrate Jesus’s birth, we remember the woman who made it possible.  Orthodox Christians call her the “Theotokos,” the God-bearer.  She is the most celebrated of all the saints.  When she sang and prophesied, “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,” she indeed spoke the truth.  She is Mary, or Mariam her proper name, the mother of Jesus. 

            Unlike our characters in last Sunday’s readings, Mary is worthy of our emulation.  Her life was totally devoted to her God, her Son, her Lord.  But in celebrations about how blessed she was, we forget sometimes who she was.   We forget that Mary was young when the angel spoke to her.  She was just a teenager of 14 or 15.  Mary is engaged to a man who is at least 10 years older than she is.  She seems to come from lower income family, though priestly or Levitical.  How many teenage girls today would accept the responsibility to carry a child to term, to mother that child, even at the risk of their life.  Our society tells girls it’s impossible.  There’s no way you can be a mother.  Motherhood ruins your life.  Yet Mary accepts this great responsibility even though it meant embarrassment, shame, divorce and even possible death for her.  We have adults today who don’t want to accept responsibility for much lesser things.  Mary submits herself fully to the will of God.  Think of yourself at age 15 or your kids at that age.  Would you have responded to the angelic message the way Mary did?           

Thank God for Elizabeth.  These women bond through their uncommon experiences.  Though Elizabeth is just as inexperienced in regard to motherhood as Mary, the more mature woman still helps the younger.  And Elizabeth further confirms everything Mary has heard.    Mary and Elizabeth demonstrate that God works through the unable.  Mary and Elizabeth and we too are only able because God is able.  God is our Enabler.  He is our power and strength.  He makes the impossible possible. 

            Mary is thoughtful, and she is devoted to the Lord.  In the narratives of Jesus’ childhood, we see Mary pondering everything that is said to her.  She considers carefully what God says to her through angels, shepherds, wise men, prophets, and of course, through her own son, Jesus.  In the Christmas story last night, we read heard how Mary pondered what the shepherds said.  She ponders what Simeon says.  She ponders what Jesus says even as questions her at age 12.  He will rebuke her again at the wedding in Cana, though both times, Jesus does what Mary wishes.   Mary is obedient and faithful even when she doesn’t understand.  Mary doesn’t exalt herself.  She doesn’t go around bragging that she is blessed because she is the mother of the Son of God.  She is obedient even to a dying man.  She serves from a place of lowliness and suffering, and as she is humbled, she is exalted by the Lord.  She is worshipful and reverent, and she strives to faithfully observe Jewish law and custom. 

            In our John Scripture passage, Mary is no longer a teenager.  But she is probably not quite 50 years old either, and she sees her son hanging in agony on a cross.  Some of you know the pain of losing a child.  But here is the Savior of the world dying for seemingly no reason.  Does Mary recall Simeon’s prophetic words that a sword would pierce her own soul along with the body of Jesus?  Even at the cross, Mary shows her devotion to Jesus.  She doesn’t leave Him and continues to watch this horror unfold.  And she is obedient to Jesus, going to live with John. 

            In our last Scripture, we see Mary devoted again, gathered in worship in the upper room waiting in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit with the other followers of Jesus.  This is the last time Mary is mentioned in the Bible.  The disciples are gathered to pray.  Waiting for the Spirit in payer is more profitable than earnest striving to plow on ahead without clear direction from God.  Before the disciples attempted to be those witnesses to the ends of the earth that Jesus declared they would be, they prayed for the promised power of the Holy Spirit.  In this age of instant everything, we aren’t used to waiting.  But Mary and the disciples learned to wait as we must learn to wait. 

Mary’s devotion has changed to true worship of the Son of God, the risen and exalted Jesus.  Mary’s faith matures as she is maturing. She knows Jesus in a new way.  Still it must have been perplexing, just as it was for the others, to see Jesus ascend into heaven, alive and well and powerful, but no more physically present.  She is called to trust as she did in the very beginning, believing in the power and presence of God unseen.  Once again the Holy Spirit overshadows Mary as well as the other disciples like the Holy Spirit overshadowed her as a teenager and enabled her to divinely conceive.  This time the difference is that the Holy Spirit would not only come upon her but the rest of the disciples and apostles and all who place their trust in Jesus, enabling all of us to accomplish the will of God. 

            In your aging, is your faith maturing as well?  The fact that you are here this morning speaks to your devotion towards Jesus.  You could have chosen to sleep in or stay home.  You could have said, “I can celebrate Christmas on my own.”  But you chose instead to be here to worship Jesus, the real reason for our celebrations today.  You chose to worship Him with your brothers and sisters in Christ, your true family. 

            God works in mighty ways through ordinary people who are devoted to God.  Mary humbly offered herself in service to the Lord.  How devoted to Jesus are you beyond Christmas?  Beyond Sunday worship?  Do you allow God to speak into your life as Mary did?  Do you obey Jesus even when you do not understand? 

            Christmas is a great time to commit or recommit yourself to Jesus and to be devoted to Him.  Your devoted life is your best present to Jesus.  John 3:16 tells us that Jesus was God’s gift.  He is the Christmas present, to the world.  But that disciples of Jesus are God’s gift, Christmas present, to Himself, just Jesus said in John 17:6 and 9—Jesus prays, “I manifested Your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; Yours they were, and You gave them to me, and they have kept Your word…I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on those whom you have given to Me; for they are yours.”   Give yourself to Jesus.  Romans 12:1-2 exhorts us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, and that this is our greatest act of worship. 

            Next Sunday we will have a special service of prayer which will give us the opportunity to do what Mary did in her Magnificat—to magnify the Lord by remembering what God has done while we look forward to what God will do.  The second Sunday in January we will have the opportunity to show that we have indeed devoted ourselves to the Lord and are being those living sacrifices as we remember our baptismal vows as we install our elders. 

            And of course, devotion to God goes beyond what happens when we are gathered as the body of Christ to how we live as the scattered body of Christ.  How are we showing devotion to Jesus in our work and leisure, in our homes and relationships?  As you continue to celebrate Christmas, remember Mary, a woman of devotion and commit yourself anew to being a devoted follower of Jesus.