Bearing God

December 21, 2014 Luke 1:26-38 Bearing God Year B This is the Sunday before Christmas. This is the time when scripture comes to earth, the prophecy becomes real. This is my favorite scripture as it talks about how Mary bought the gift of salvation into the world. This is a story of how Mary and Elizabeth, two women talk about how to change the world. Just their acts of giving birth, will change politics, economics, and even the destiny of the world. There is a lot to this story – there is the promise of God, there is the discussion of Mary and Elizabeth. Today I want to focus on the message of the angel. Whenever an angel comes to deliver a message from heaven, the first thing that he says is Fear not – he is always going to tell us something that is out of our realm of understanding. In this case Mary will give birth to a son. But how is that possible, if I am a virgin. The angel says that all things are possible with God. God will not be everything that we ask, but if it is in God’s will it will happen, whether it is impossible or not. Angels always protect, guide, announce, and instruct us to fulfill Gods will. This is a good day to focus on the angel’s lesson….. The Angel's Lesson Illustration Information Title The Angel's Lesson Author Unknown Reference received from a friend on the Internet Submitted By Ellen Klinke Submitted On March 13, 2006 Last Modified March 13, 2006 Labels • Acceptance • Choice • Conversion • Grace • Love • Trusting God He placed one scoop of clay upon another until a form lay lifeless on the ground. All of the Garden's inhabitants paused to witness the event. Hawks hovered. Giraffes stretched. Trees bowed. Butterflies paused on petals and watched. "You will love me, nature," God said. "I made you that way. You will obey me, universe. For you were designed to do so. You will reflect my glory, skies, for that is how you were created. But this one will be like me. This one will be able to choose." All were silent as the Creator reached into himself and removed something yet unseen. A seed. "It's called 'choice.' The seed of choice." Creation stood in silence and gazed upon the lifeless form. An angel spoke, "But what if he..." "What if he chooses not to love?" the Creator finished. "Come, I will show you." Unbound by today, God and the angel walked into the realm of tomorrow. "There, see the fruit of the seed of choice, both the sweet and the bitter." The angel gasped at what he saw. Spontaneous love. Voluntary devotion. Chosen tenderness. Never had he seen anything like these. He felt the love of the Adams. He heard the joy of Eve and her daughters. He saw the food and the burdens shared. He absorbed the kindness and marveled at the warmth. "Heaven has never seen such beauty, my Lord. Truly, this is your greatest creation." "Ah, but you've only seen the sweet. Now witness the bitter." A stench enveloped the pair. The angel turned in horror and proclaimed, "What is it?" The Creator spoke only one word: "Selfishness." The angel stood speechless as they passed through centuries of repugnance. Never had he seen such filth. Rotten hearts. Ruptured promises. Forgotten loyalties. Children of the creation wandering blindly in lonely labyrinths. "This is the result of choice?" the angel asked. "Yes." "They will forget you?" "Yes." Yes." "They will reject you?" "Yes." "They will never come back?" "Some will. Most won't." "What will it take to make them listen?" The Creator walked on in time, further and further into the future, until he stood by a tree. A tree that would be fashioned into a cradle. Even then he could smell the hay that would surround him. With another step into the future, he paused before another tree. It stood alone, a stubborn ruler on a bald hill. The trunk was thick, and the wood was strong. Soon it would be cut. Soon it would be trimmed. Soon it would be mounted on the stony brow of another hill. And soon he would be hung on it. He felt the wood rub against a back he did not yet wear. "Will you go down there?" the angel asked. "I will." "Is there no other way?" "There is not." "Wouldn't it be easier to not plant the seed? Wouldn't it be easier to not give the choice?" "It would," the Creator spoke slowly. "But to remove the choice is to remove the love." He looked around the hill and foresaw a scene. Three figures hung on three crosses. Arms spread. Heads fallen forward. They moaned with the wind. Men clad in soldier's garb sat on the ground near the trio. They played games in the dirt and laughed. Men clad in religion stood off to one side. They smiled. Arrogant, cocky. They had protected God, they thought by killing this false one. Women clad in sorrow huddled at the foot of the hill. Speechless. Faces tear streaked. Eyes downward. One put her arm around another and tried to lead her away. She wouldn't leave. "I will stay," she said softly, "I will stay." All heaven stood to fight. All nature rose to rescue. All eternity poised to protect. But the Creator gave no command. "It must be done...," he said, and withdrew. But as he stepped in time, he heard the cry that he would someday scream: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He wrenched at tomorrow's agony. The angel spoke again. "It would be less painful..." The Creator interrupted softly. "But it wouldn't be love." They stepped into the Garden again. The Maker looked earnestly at the clay creation. A monsoon of love swelled up within him. He had died for the creation before he had made him. God's form bent over the sculptured face and breathed. Dust stirred on the lips of the new one. The chest rose, cracking the red mud. The cheeks fleshened. A finger moved. And an eye opened. But more incredible than the moving of the flesh was the stirring of the spirit. Those who could see the unseen gasped. Perhaps it was the wind that said it first. Perhaps what the star saw that moment is what has made it blink ever since. Maybe it was left to an angel to whisper it: It looks like... it appears to so much like... it is him!" The angel wasn't speaking of the face, the features, or the body. He was looking inside--at the soul. "It's eternal!" gasped another. Within the man, God has placed a divine seed. A seed of his self (a seed of choice). The God of might had created earth's mightiest... And the One who had chosen to love had created one who could love in return. Now it's our choice. Those who give messages from heaven are angels. Those who spread the good news on earth are called evangels. Ev- good – angel message. Let us in this season be evangels that spread the good news of Christ to all those in the world! Extra illustrations…….. An Extraordinary Gift Wade Burton tells about a man who was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He had a stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at a lunch counter, a woman came out of the ladies' rest room carrying a tiny baby. She asked the man, "Will you hold my baby for me, I left my purse in the rest room." He did. But as the woman neared the front door of the bus station, she darted out into the crowded street and was immediately lost in the crowd. The man couldn't believe his eyes. He rushed to the door to call the woman, but could not see her. What should he do? Put the baby down and run? When calmness settled in he went to the Traveler's Aid booth and they soon found the real mother. The woman who had left him holding the baby was not the baby's mother. She had taken the child, perhaps to satisfy a motherly urge to hold a child. The man breathed a sigh of relief when the real mother was found. After all, what was he to do with a baby? In a way each of us is in the same situation as this gentleman. We are left with the question, "What will we do with the baby?" Have we really come to terms with the fact that this baby is not simply extraordinarily gifted, but that he is himself a gift from the heart of God? King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.eSermons.com A Jewish comedian tells about a Jewish lady named Mrs. Rosenberg many years ago who was stranded late one night at a fashionable resort on Cape Cod - one that did not admit Jews. The desk clerk looked down at his book and said, "Sorry, no room. The hotel is full." The Jewish lady said, "But your sign says that you have vacancies." The desk clerk stammered and then said curtly, "You know that we do not admit Jews. Now if you will try the other side of town . . . " Mrs. Rosenberg stiffened noticeably and said, "I'll have you know I converted to your religion." The desk clerk said, "Oh, yeah, let me give you a little test. How was Jesus born?" Mrs. Rosenberg replied, "He was born to a virgin named Mary in a little town called Bethlehem." "Very good," replied the hotel clerk. "tell me more." Mrs. Rosenberg replied, "He was born in a manger." "That's right ," said the hotel clerk. "Why was he born in a manger?" Mrs. Rosenberg said loudly, "Because a jerk like you in the hotel wouldn't give a Jewish lady a room for the night!" King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com CHRISTMAS SURVEY What do people believe about the birth of Christ? A few days ago Newsweek Magazine conducted a poll asking some questions about Christ and His birth.* Here are some of the results: 67% - believe that the entire story of Christmas is historically accurate 24% - believe the story of Christmas is a theological invention If Jesus had never born, people believed there would be: 63% - less charity 61% - less kindness 59% - less personal happiness 58% - less tolerance 47% - more war (16% say less, 26% say the same) 38% - less religious divisions (21% say more, 26% say the same) Maybe you think "everyone in my church believes the right things". Well, maybe, but maybe not. Hopefully you are reaching people who believe the wrong things too. SOURCE: Brian Mavis, SermonCentral.com. Citation: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6653824/site/newsweek/ * For this NEWSWEEK Poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed by telephone 1,009 adults, aged 18 and older on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3. The margin of error Billy Graham says: “As an evangelist, I have often felt too far spent to minister from the pulpit to men and women who have filled stadiums to hear a message from the Lord. Yet again and again my weakness has vanished, and my strength has been renewed. I have been filled with God’s power not only in my soul but physically. On many occasions, God has become especially real, and has sent His unseen angelic visitors to touch my body to let me be His messenger for heaven, speaking as a dying man to dying men.”