Fourth Advent
Luke 1:26-38; 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Romans 16:25-27
How are you feeling about your plans for Christmas? Busy? Time is sometimes measured in seconds, minutes and hours. But much of the time our world is defined more by the feeling. Feelings like relaxed or busy. This time of year the most common feeling is busy. Maybe also a bit stressed. But we assure ourselves that there is still time. How are you feeling about your plans for Christmas? It is pretty safe to assume that for most of us, living Christmas by the numbers is the natural order of the day. The younger members of the congregation have already celebrated the passage of the first major timeline event of the season. School is out for most of them until next year. Of course that means that some parents have already begun the count down until school resumes.
There are a number of time tables that order our days. Only six more shopping days but that means only two more days before most packages absolutely positively have to be mailed and then it will have to be at least priority mail. The web sites are still offering Christmas delivery but in most cases now only if you pay the extra shipping costs. There is definitely a growing eschatological edge to our lives, a focusing toward an end point that looms on the calendared horizon. Details are falling into place. The meal plans for Christmas Eve are being firmed up. The guest lists are subject to only minor revisions and the time table is now the increasing focus of attention. Which worship service will be attended, when will presents be opened. Who will we wait for and who will we start without because they will be making other stops before they arrive.
Busy preparations and growing anticipation for many of the younger members govern our days. Details, plans, preparations. The challenge is not to lose our focus. Of course, most of us are not too sure what our focus was, is, or should be. A problem that the advertisers and media, culture and society all are eager to remedy for us if we but listen to their priorities for our lives. I try to keep some control of the rush of activity although most of the time that means I control very little. About the only thing I can handle with any kind of leisure are my Christmas cards. I always feel that I have more time for Christmas cards since I make a point of mentioning in my Christmas greeting that there are actually twelve days to be celebrated in Christmas, December 25 to January 6 and the Epiphany so I feel perfectly fine about sending Christmas cards for two weeks after December 25. Of course that often means I feel greater pressure about getting my thank you notes out.
We live busy lives. In many respects we determine our importance and value in terms of how busy we are. It has almost become essential that we and our children are fully scheduled at all times. As part of our confirmation program here at Holy Spirit we try to schedule at lest one or two retreats each year for the 7 th and 8 th graders of the congregation. There are always a number of young people who cannot attend because they have at least one or two other activities that take priority. And there are usually one or two who simply don't want to attend because they are unsure about being away in an unfamiliar environment where they do not control the schedule. What to do with unscheduled time in an unfamiliar setting? That, of course, is one definition of a retreat. It used to be that the church would offer a retreat weekend for young people or adults as a time away with unscheduled time. In recent years I have been told a number of times by parents that we need to schedule our activities more carefully for the young people. That if we weren't doing anything important on the retreat it would be hard to justify sending a child to have unscheduled time. I'll agree. I become very uncomfortable with unscheduled time unless I've planned on it. And yet, when I think back on the Christmas breaks of my child hood the thing that I remember most is that there were no plans except for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My father worked until noon on Christmas Eve and returned to work the day after Christmas. There were no trips or sports activities. The schools closed for two weeks. The school buildings closed. There was nothing we had to do which I am sure drove our parents a bit crazy. We played in the snow, skated at the outdoor rinks, slid down the hills, visited each others homes playing with new games and toys. And on a fairly regular basis, as I remember it, we had moments with nothing to do. I also remember those moments as a time when it felt good to be alive. Years later I came to suspect those were moments when I was coming to know God a little better, although I didn't realize it at the time.
Now days I am busy. I have my calendar on the computer to keep track of the things that need to be coordinated. And I always have a number of items on my to do list that never seem to be completed. There comes a moment each day when I simply say I am done for the day and the items that remain will lead the list for tomorrow. I can't imagine what it would be like to go to bed some night with nothing on my to do list or could do list for tomorrow.
The first thing that strikes me about the Gospel lesson for today, a story that most would consider the beginning of the Christmas story since it announces the pending birth of Jesus, is how relaxed and laid back the story feels. Our lesson assumes that we already know that Mary's relative, Elizabeth, is pregnant with the baby who will become John the Baptist. We know that because our reading begins rather casually with the words, "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God..." It almost sounds like a routine occurrence, like after three months we took the car in for an oil change, as if God is just routinely sending angels to visit humanity. That is perhaps the most striking difference between preparations for the first Christmas and Christmas 2005. That an angel could speak to a young girl and be heard. There is no scientific explanation for the events of our text. There is hardly a rational explanation. But the thing that strikes me again and again about the voice of God coming to humanity through angel voice is that those who hear the voice are most often not too busy to listen. It is not always easy to listen. To get away from the busy-ness of life--to pause. The Gospel writer of Matthew chooses the easy way out. In Matthew the angel voices come to people in dreams. It is in a dream that Joseph is informed of the truth about the child that Mary will bear. It is a dream that ultimately informs the wisemen to avoid further contact with King Herod. But there are also those who are open to a divine message in the waking world. The shepherds learn of the birth of the Christ child in the blurry lateness of half sleep and mind numbing routine of watching watched their flocks in the darkness of night. It is almost as if the voice of God can only be heard when the busy-ness of the world has been somehow shifted aside. So we are not surprised any more that an angel comes to a peasant teenager. A young girl in her early teens, named Mary, maybe distracted a bit by the pending preparations for her betrothal to Joseph. But in most of our imaginations someone not overly busy with worldly concerns. Mary does not seem as surprised by the angel's visit as by the words. Maybe there was a time when angels were more a part of daily life but nothing was routine about the angel message.
As the story was retold decades later by Luke, the angelic message started simply enough as a birth announcement but then quickly took on a certain cosmic grandeur as the angel Gabriel declared that the child Mary would conceive would be great, the Son of the Most High God taking the throne established by his ancestor King David. But unlike the Davidic kingly reign which lasted some 400 years, the reign of Jesus would be eternal without end. We also know that Mary heard only about the first five words. We know that because of the question that she immediately asks. The angel announces something great and wonderful for the whole world. We might expect the next question to be something about how any kingship could last for all eternity or what it would mean to be the Son of God. But Mary is still back on the first five words she heard. The words that most directly affected her and her peaceful life. Conceive. Pregnant. How could this be for a virgin unwed girl. Her response was simply, "Impossible." She knew the whole thing to be impossible and yet. The angel continues to speak now moving Mary to a fuller understanding that the events about to begin were not her plans but God's. Mary's life was about to change. From our historic vantage point we know that her son would change the world but first her life would change. Anyone who has ever had a baby knows the truth of this observation. Babies have a way of changing everything. It begins with your sleep patterns but rapidly expands to every facet of life. The reordering of priorities and values as well as redefining emotions. With the birth of a child the world looks different. With the birth of this child the world is different. Not everyone can bear God's coming. We are busy people. We are distracted people. Time to listen for God's angelic voice is not always readily available. Many cultures and societies have long believed that visions of the divine come only to those who wait. In our busy-ness we crowd God out. Most societies have put God in the places they like best or fear most. The beauty of nature or the terror of some natural force like a storm or earthquake have been declared by poet and prophet as God's dwelling. But what about God in human form?
Last Sunday our 2 nd through 6 th graders presented a Christmas program between services that had a very unique voice speaking through it. The music of the baby boomer generation provided the foundation for words that retold once more the events of the first Christmas. To hear the familiar music with new words. To hear the familiar story of Mary and Joseph set to new rhythms and rhymes allows us to hear again for the first time that which we have become unable to hear. I believe God still speaks to us. The problem is that the world is often too busy to listen. So God has to use whatever moments give us pause and open us to the divine voice. Maybe it is the beauty of a new snow fall or a sunset on some warm southern beach. Maybe it is the smile of a thank you or the pain of a disappointment. Angel voices are all around. Calling the world to be recreated. The clash of our busy culture with the peace filled fullness of God is not a battle to preserve Christmas or our faith.
Our faith is not based on Christmas nor does it begin in a manger. Like Mary, our faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High which comes upon us and overshadows all that would keep us from God. It begins in the waters of baptism and the community of Christ's body the church. Our baptism is a gift from God. A gift bestowed on the infant brought by Spirit led parents.
The angel voice of God comes again this morning not just to the historic Mary. This story is preserved by the church as a witness to the voice of God that comes to each of us. That same Spirit that came upon Mary is also bestowed on each of us in our baptism that we might give birth to Christ in our lives. We are the witnesses to Christ's enduring power to enter our world and change lives. The mystery of the incarnation is not a past historic moment but the real promise of each encounter we have with God's Holy Spirit.
In the midst of the busy-ness of this Christmas season the word comes to us once more that things are about to change. The birth of a child changes things. The birth of this child will change our lives. We may not understand it. It may, in fact, seem to be an impossible religious curiosity. But then the angel voice reminds us, nothing will be impossible with God."
Amen