What is Happening? A Sermon

Mark 1:21-28

Jesus walks into the synagogue at Capernaum, immediately heads to the pulpit, and without so much as asking for permission from the synagogue leaders,  starts preaching.  After that, the place falls into chaos.  

That’s because, no sooner had Jesus started preaching, when suddenly, a man stood up in the sanctuary, and started shouting Jesus.  The man, whom Mark says was possessed by an evil spirit, screamed at Jesus, demanding to know what Jesus would do with “us?”    Are you going to destroy us?  After all, “I know who you are.”  Yes, “you are the holy one of God.”

   Picture yourself in such a congregation.  How would you have responded to all of this commotion?  Would you have been amazed and shaken, as Mark suggests was the case for this congregation?  I expect that like us, this congregation liked things to be done “decently and in order.”  What would you make of both the preacher and the respondent to this preacher?  Would you call the police?

As Mark tells the story, the congregation was first amazed at Jesus’ authoritative teaching, contrasting his teaching with that of the religious leaders.  In hearing this story we must be careful not to read into it an anti-Jewish bias, while recognizing in Jesus a message that is both prophetic and challenging to our own religious and cultural sensibilities.  

There is in this story, a question posed to us – who is this person and how should I respond?    

Although they were amazed at the teaching, they were also shaken by the encounter with the man possessed with evil spirits.  They watch breathlessly, as Jesus demonstrates his authority over the demon by “harshly” demanding that the spirits be silent and then to come out of the man.  We’re told that at that moment, the evil spirit shook the host and with a scream left the man’s body. 

As the people in this congregation, people like you and like me, tried to make sense of the scene, they asked a question: “What’s this?”  What’s happening here?   Surely, we would be asking the same kinds of questions!

Then Mark writes: “Right away the news about him spread throughout the entire region of Galilee.”  Even without Facebook and Twitter, news spread quickly about this new teacher.    

The question of the hour wasn’t just:  What happened here?   A more important question was: Who is this person who has turned everything upside down?   How would you have responded to him and the chaos that he stirred up in that congregation?   What would you be thinking?

We might not be the most formal congregation in the world, but we like things done decently and in order.  That’s why we have a bulletin that lays out the service so that everyone knows where they need to be and do at the appropriate moment.  There’s a time for prayer and a time for song, a time for preaching and a time to gather at the table.  Just so everyone knows their place, the names of the person doing each job is noted.   Sometimes we make adjustments, but there is still a sense of order to our responses to the needs of the moment.  We’re not used to the kind of commotion Jesus caused in that congregation.  

What would happen here if some somebody walked in off the street and headed to the front, took the microphone – probably from the preacher – and starting talking – without permission?   I know I’d be a bit concerned, and I expect the Elders might be  concerned as well.  But then to complicate things, what if someone got into a frenzy, stood up, and started arguing with this strange preacher?   Wouldn’t we also ask the question: “What’s this?”  

I expect that this story could raise a deeper question in our hearts and minds.  As we ask the question: Who is Jesus?  We also ask a related question: What does this Jesus who always seems to be disturbing the status quo want from me?   

Albert Schweitzer, a famous doctor, missionary, organist, and bible scholar, wrote a book more than a century ago about the “search for the historical Jesus.”  He concluded that at the end of the search, the people seeking after the historical Jesus end up looking down into a well and seeing their own reflection.  When they asked who Jesus was, they ended up with a person who looked just like them and thought just like them.  In the end this “historical Jesus” served to validate their own ideas and ideologies.  

So, is Jesus nothing more than a reflection of our own imaginations?   

Last Sunday a group of us went to the DIA and took in the “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” exhibit.  Although the exhibit focused on Rembrandt’s paintings of Jesus, the exhibit placed his perspectives in the context of other artistic creations.   

What stood out for me was the revelation that Rembrandt used a young Sephardic Jew living in Amsterdam as his model for Jesus.  This made him unique, because most artists of that day portrayed Jesus as a good northern European man.  This Euro-centric vision of Jesus can be seen in the picture on our bulletin this morning.  For most  Europeans then, and probably most European and American Christians today, Jesus looks like  a good blue-eyed blonde European male – with long hair and a beard!  Rembrandt, however, turned things upside-down by trying to portray Jesus in a way that reflected his Jewish humanity.  

So, who is the real Jesus?  How does he affect the way you live and think?  Does he make you uncomfortable, as he made the attendees of this synagogue?   Does he challenge your sense of identity?  How do you experience his call to discipleship?  Would you be willing to drop everything, like Andrew and Simon, James and John, and follow him on a journey that often is uncomfortable and challenging?

In an earlier presidential election cycle, a candidate said that Jesus was his favorite philosopher.  Unfortunately, no one asked him why Jesus was his favorite teacher of wisdom.  What was it about Jesus that informed his world view?   What difference would the teachings of Jesus make in the way he would lead the nation?  

Many of us have a rather domesticated view of Jesus.  He’s our savior and our friend, but not much more.  We tend to ignore what Peter Gomes,  the late chaplain at Harvard, called “The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus.”  We know that the gospel must have been scandalous to some, because it upset enough people, that Jesus ended up dying on a cross.     But, what is it about the gospel that can be truly scandalous? 

In Mark, the scandal begins here, in the synagogue at Capernaum, where Jesus’ teaching and actions amaze and shakes up the people.   In Luke’s gospel, Jesus preaches in his home congregation, and causes such a stir that they the people not only chase him out of the synagogue, but they also try to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30).  

So, who is this Jesus, who causes such a scandal? 

Many years ago, back when I was but a youth, The Doobie Brothers had a hit song.   Maybe you remember it – “Jesus is Just alright with me.”  Is Jesus just all right?  Is he nothing more than a domesticated savior whom I turn to when I need him, but who I ignore the rest of the time?  Is he nothing more than a religious symbol that is useful in supporting an agenda?  Or is his message of God’s realm, a message that is expressed in his words and in his actions, something that changes the way we look at life and live our lives in this world?

     Yes, who is this Jesus?  And when he steps into our midst, what happens to us and to our world?   

Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pastor, Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Troy, Michigan
4th Sunday after Epiphany
January 29, 2012

Passing the Torch

1 Samuel 3:1-10

When Teddy Roosevelt became President in 1901 he was the first President since James Buchanan who hadn’t been directly involved in the Civil War.  Though Grover Cleveland did pay a substitute to take his place in the Union Army.

Bill Clinton was the first post-World War II generation President, and since Barack Obama’s election in 2008, it appears that the torch may be in the process of being passed once again.

Passing the torch of responsibility from one generation to the next is inevitable –   in politics, in business, in sports, and in the church.

At Central Woodward, we’re blessed with members who can remember the earliest days of this congregation, back when it sat on Woodward Avenue.  It’s good to hear your stories, and we’re hoping to get them down on video soon.  But a new day is dawning, and new generations are taking up the mantle of leadership.  And that’s the way it should be.

The story of Eli and Samuel that we heard read this morning is a “passing the torch” story.  In one way it’s a rather sad story, because Eli hoped to pass his priestly mantle to his sons.  Unfortunately, they had failed him and now God was turning to someone else.  The recent bankruptcy of the Crystal Cathedral is a good warning to those who wish to make the church a family enterprise!   It rarely works! But the torch must be passed, and in this case Eli passes it to Samuel.

If we’re to effectively pass the torch from one generation to the next, it’s important that we understand each other.  We sometimes hear about a generation gap, but these gaps exist because we tend not to understand each other’s stories and cultures.  Generational theory is one way to understand these differences.

To give you an example:  Think about the music we enjoy.  I’ve heard it said that until Elvis, everyone listened to the same kind of music.  After Elvis, music became generational.  My mom listened to Engelbert Humperdink, I listened to the Moody Blues, and Brett listens to some Finnish metal band.  This gap not only impacts family life, it impacts the church.  In fact, there have been reports of “worship wars” breaking out in many of our churches.

So, here’s my question:   Since we’re a multi-generational church, how can we effectively pass the torch of faith and leadership from one generation to the next?

I’d venture to say that there are at least five rather distinct generations present this congregation.  There’s the World War II generation, which some call the Greatest Generation.  Then there’s the so-called “Silent Generation,” followed by my generation – the ubiquitous Baby Boomers.  Then there’s the GenXers, a generation that has a rather sparse representation in this congregation.  They are followed by the Millennials – that generation of young adults who are under 30 and are the children of the Baby Boomers.  And now some of these Millennials have become parents, and we don’t even have a name for this newest generation.

Each generation experiences the world differently.  My parents grew up during the Depression, and my father was just old enough to serve in World War II.  When this generation emerged from that War, they started families and joined churches.  As a result, for a moment in time, the churches grew at a fast and furious pace.  But this expansion didn’t last long, because a new generation emerged in the 1960s and 1970s that saw the world very differently.  And unlike their parents this new generation was much less likely to join the church.  

The two generations that have followed after the Baby Boomers – the GenXers who are children of the Silent Generation, and the Millennials who are the children of the Boomers, are even more likely to absent themselves from the church.  That’s one of the reasons why so many churches struggle to attract young families with children.  

Since I’m the parent of a Millennial, I’m sort of aware of how they view the world. These young adults who are now ready to take up leadership roles in the church have grown up in a world that never knew a black and white TV, a record player or even an 8-Track player.  Instead of a typewriter, all they’ve ever known is the computer and the internet.  And they’re children may look at the computer in the same way they look at a typewriter.

Now, although this generation is increasingly uncertain about the relevancy of the church to their lives, they are very open spiritually and they’re interested in finding places of worship and community that are authentic.  They don’t just join the church for the sake of joining.  There are simply too many options available to them.  

Still, like Samuel, many of them are hearing God’s call on their lives.  But they’re hearing this call at a time when growing numbers of people are losing confidence in institutions.  Like the world into which Samuel was born, many younger adults are struggling to hear the voice of God.

The good news is that God is still speaking, to borrow a slogan from our UCC friends.  The question is – are we ready to help these new generations hear that voice?

    Eli is one who recognizes the importance of passing on the torch to a new generation, and so he helps Samuel tune in the voice of God.  You see, according to the story, Samuel didn’t know the LORD’s voice, and so he didn’t know how to answer.

  Although it took Eli three times before he figured out that God was speaking to Samuel, once he figured out that Samuel was hearing God’s voice he helped Samuel train his ear so he could respond to God’s calling.

Eli was Samuel’s mentor, and mentors see leadership potential and invest themselves in the lives of these emerging leaders.  In order to take up this role, Eli had to let go of power.

A major reason why things went bad at the Crystal Cathedral was that Robert Schuller couldn’t let go of power when his son became the pastor.  As a result his son failed and so did the church.  

In our congregation more members are over sixty-five than under sixty-five, and so the day is coming, and is already here, when leadership must be passed on to younger generations.

Passing the torch isn’t easy.  But then, letting our children go out into the world on their own isn’t easy.  We want to hang on as long as possible to the umbilical chord, but eventually it has to be broken.

As for the “children” – they’ve already cut the chord.  They’re taking up leadership.  They’re hearing the call.  And to give two examples of young adults and youth who have heard the call – I’ll point to Alex, who serves on the Young Adult Leadership Team for the Disciples, and Heidi, who serves on the Disciple Youth Leadership Team.  These are only two of our under 30 members who have heard God call their names and have answered: “Here I Am.”

So, where do you fit in this story of Eli and Samuel? Are you called to be a mentor or are you being called into leadership?

Just a word of warning here: Newer and younger leaders may do things differently.  They may want to sing different songs or engage in different kinds of mission.  In fact, they may stir things up a bit.

Yes, the time has come for a new generation to take up the mantle of leadership by serving as elders, officers, teachers, leaders, and mentors.   This passing of the torch, if it’s to be successful will take prayer and patience and openness.  But, even as we see the torch being passed, that doesn’t mean that the mentor generations get to retire – there’s too much kingdom business for us to be involved with, for anyone, young or old, to retire!

William Willimon said that he always identified with Samuel, until he was about fifty, and then he began to identify with Eli.  Tongue-in-cheek, Willimon says that in Hebrew Samuel means "a person who is from infancy to about forty."   [William Willimon, Pulpit Resource, 28 (January, February, March 2000), 13.]

In other words, when we reach age forty or thereabouts, our youthful exuberance and idealism begins to give way to the temperings of  maturity and experience.

As a pastor, I’m now well past forty, and so I too am one of the Elis.   Who are you?

Is God calling you to take up the mantle of leadership?  Or, is God calling you to begin mentoring the next generation of leaders?

How will you answer when God calls your name?

Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pastor, Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Troy, MI
2nd Sunday after Epiphany
January 15, 2012

In the Beginning . . . A Sermon for Epiphany

Genesis 1:1-5  

“The end of something is better than its beginning.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 Common English Bible) 

  I thought you’d want to hear this word from Ecclesiastes, since we’re moving into a new year.  Beginnings are important, but endings are even more important.  A few years ago the Lions won all their preseason games and everyone expected good things, and then they lost the next sixteen in a row.  This year, the Lions had an up and down season, but they ended up in the playoffs – that was a much better conclusion.    

Each of us has a story of beginnings to tell, what we don’t know is how things will turn out.   My own life began on March 3, 1958 in Los Angeles.   Five years later, I began my formal schooling as kindergartner in Mt. Shasta.  From then on,  for the next seventeen Septembers, I would begin a new school year.  After taking off two Septembers, I restarted school in January 1982, when I began my seminary career.  Of course I didn’t just start school, I also began a new phase of life on a Summer day in July when Cheryl and I were married.  There was another day of beginnings in June of 1985, when I was ordained.  Then, there was that day in April of 1990, when I became a parent.   These are just some of the beginnings of my life experiences.  I’ve had some endings, but there are still many of these beginnings that have yet to reach an ending.

Genesis 1 begins with the words, “In the beginning,” a phrase that is picked up  by the Gospel John, who declares:  

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The Word was with God in the beginning.  Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being.  (Jn 1:1-3a CEB).

The Gospel of Mark starts with the words: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”  And in Revelation Jesus declares:  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 21:6), while Paul writes:

So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation.  The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived! (2 Corinthians 5:17 CEB)

A time of beginnings, whether new or not, is a time when we begin with a clean slate.  Whatever happened in the past, for good of for bad, is in the past.  Now, however, is the time to move into the future, embracing all the opportunities the future presents.   And if God promises to be with us in the beginning, then surely we can expect God to be with us until the end of all things.  Although the end is better than the beginning, the writer of Ecclesiastes cautions us to be patient.   

Before we get to focused on the end of things, perhaps we could return to the beginning of the story – with the opening lines of Genesis 1.  

Do you hear a difference between this more traditional translation of the opening line of Genesis -- “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”  – and this more recent translation:  “When God began to create the heavens and the earth?”  

Did the universe emerge fully formed in a single moment?  Or is creation a process that is even now unfolding?  Is God finished with the work of creation and living in retirement?  Or is God still at work bringing order out of chaos and bringing light into the darkness?  

Since I’m not a Deist, I’ll cast my lot with the God who is still at work bringing order out of chaos and light into the darkness.  Because we live in a world where both chaos and darkness are still present, I find hope in the promise that God is still at work.  What is, is not the final word.      

We have experienced the Alpha, but not the Omega.

      If step back to look at the full picture of creation – from beginning to end – perhaps we can see why God declares the creation to be good.  It is full of potential.  But, as we look closer we see that things are not yet complete.  Disorder is still present and darkness remains.  Where is God in the midst of this disorder and chaos?  Is God too weak to bring order to creation?  Or is the power of God expressed differently than we’ve often been led to believe?  

May we say that God is at work, but not as the omnipotent miracle worker, who reaches and fixes things when their broke, but the one who comes to us in the revealed in and through the cross of Jesus?  

And where do we fit in the story?  If you continue reading Genesis 1, you will come to the creation of humanity, and you will hear God give humanity stewardship over the creation.  In doing this, God entrusts us with co-responsibility for this creation.  Mixed into this story, however, is the continued presence of chaos and darkness.  The biblical story gives us two words – God’s creation is good, but evil is real and it is present in our midst.  As we read on we discover that humans can get caught upon this darkness, but we also hear the promise that God has made provision in Christ to bring us back into the light.  This is the good news – the word of liberation. 

We know that in this time and place there are those who are experiencing a moment of darkness.  May we become light bearers in their moment of darkness.  There are also those who are experiencing chaos.  It could be the crisis of foreclosure, the loss of a job, or simply a loss of hope.  May we be instruments of God’s ordering of life.      

As we ponder this calling to join with God in bringing order and light into the world, may we also remember that even as we seek to respond to this invitation, we too need light and order in our own lives.  We are not free from complicity in the chaos and darkness of this life, for the ending is not yet upon us.

Perhaps we can hear a word of guidance in Mark’s story of Jesus’ baptism by John.  In this account, Jesus joins with the throngs of people coming to John to be baptized, as a sign that the desire to change their hearts and lives.  Jesus submits to this baptism, identifying himself with the sinners of this world.  But, as Jesus emerges from the waters of the Jordan, the heavens open, the Spirit of God descends like a dove upon Jesus, and then a voice from heaven declares: “You are my Son; whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”  

Yes, there is happiness to be found in the one through whom and in whom order and light comes into the world.  That same Spirit that descends upon Jesus is the same Spirit who hovered above the waters at the beginning of creation, when life itself began. This same Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost upon the disciples, empowering them to share with God in this work of bringing order and light into the world.    

Although the end may be better than the beginning, may this be a day of New Beginnings. 

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pastor, Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Troy, Michigan

1st Sunday after Epiphany

January 8, 2012

Awaiting the Blessed Hope

Titus 2:11-14

The other day I was asked why we’re reading from Titus 2 on Christmas Eve.   My conversation partner wanted to know what this passage has to do with Christmas.  I have to admit that on the surface it doesn’t seem to fit very well.  It doesn’t say anything about the birth of Jesus, and as far as I know it hasn’t inspired any Christmas carols, but sometimes what we see on the surface is deceiving.  When we look more closely at this passage,  we hear the announcement of “the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.”   And as the letter writer declares, this is the blessed hope for which we have been waiting.  With Christ comes the grace of God that inspires and empowers us to live into the message of Christmas. 

I imagine that most of us have come here tonight expecting to be drawn into the presence of the God who Scripture says appeared to the world in the babe born in Bethlehem.  Most of us come with hearts full of joy, though some come with a mixture of emotions, hoping  to celebrate this blessed event that ushered into existence a new age of divine blessing.  It’s an expectation that inspires our singing of carols and that calls for us to faithfully observe the wonder of this child’s birth as we listen to the angels declare through song that one has come into our midst, who according to Titus 2, bringing “salvation to all people,” and educating  “us so that we live sensible, ethical, and godly lives” (Titus 2:12 CEB)  

When we read Titus 2 in light of the gospel stories of Jesus’ birth and the powerful words of Isaiah as he declares that a great light shines in the darkness of our world, bringing joy to the nation, perhaps we may understand how this event changes the way we look at life and live our lives in the presence of the God who brings to the world justice and peace and grace. 

As we consider the words of this letter, my thoughts turn to Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.  While I enjoy Charlie Brown and the Grinch, this story that tells of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge remains my favorite extra-biblical Christmas story.  Nothing seems to catch the spirit of this season better than this tale set in 19th-century industrializing Britain, at a time when income inequality had reached epic heights.  Dickens used this story to open the eyes of a nation to  the plight of the poor,  the oppressed, and 

the marginalized, and invite them to respond in a way that truly reflected the Christmas story.         

If you’re like me and a fan of this story, you probably have a favorite version of the story.  Personally, I like most of them, from Mr. Magoo to Patrick Stewart, but my favorite portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge remains Alister Sim.  This 1951 version of the story may be in black and white, and the effects may be a bit primitive, but Sim captures  the essence of a man who is cold toward humanity and who is  consumed by greed and self-centeredness.  He also captures the pure joy that comes from discovering that he has a second chance to make things right.  Through his facial expressions and the giddiness he displays as a laughs and dances and even by standing on his head in a chair, which scares the living daylights out of his housekeeper, he shows us how to respond to what I would consider to be divine grace.  But it’s not just fleeting joy, for Ebenezer Scrooge is a changed man. 

    Yes Ebenezer Scrooge goes from being a person for whom Christmas is nothing more than a “humbug,” to someone who seeks to embody the fulness of Christmas – not the Christmas of the mall, but the Christmas that is ultimately rooted in the blessed hope of God.  In the beginning, he can’t be bothered by Christmas, especially if he’s being asked to contribute to the welfare of the poor.  But, he’s also annoyed by the joy of his nephew who invites him to share in Christmas and by the desire of his lowly clerk, Bob Cratchitt, that he have Christmas Day off so he can celebrate with his family, a family that includes Tiny Tim, a boy whose joy and wisdom know no bounds, and yet whose future is dark.   

Grace appears to Scrooge in the form of a warning from the ghost of his long dead business partner, Jacob Marley, who like Scrooge, had hardened himself toward humanity, and who now bore the chains he forged in life.  Marley tells Scrooge that he’ll be visited by three Christmas ghosts, and warns him to pay attention to these revelations, so that his fate might be different.  The lessons are hard, because  Scrooge is forced to relive old and difficult memories, while coming face to face with both the joys and the difficulties of his neighbors in the present, before seeing the future consequences of his actions.  

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge isn’t pure gospel, but can we not see in it a call to embrace the transformative nature of God’s grace that comes to us in story of the babe born in Bethlehem.  The question that is utmost in Scrooge’s mind, is whether these shadows of the future can be changed?   And the answer is, as Dickens tells it, yes, the future remains open. We can turn over a new leaf and live godly lives that express the grace and love of God to the world.  

As Dickens puts it  in the closing paragraph of the story:

And it was said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.  May that be truly said of us, and all of us!  And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

Indeed, may God bless us, everyone, as we embrace the full message of Christmas, the message that in Christ, we experience the blessed hope of God’s healing presence in our world, and therefore we can live sensible, ethical, and godly lives that express God’s love to the world.  Merry Christmas!   

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pastor, Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Troy, Michigan

December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve

Nothing is Impossible for God -- An Advent Sermon

Luke 1:26-38

Do you feel the tug of Christmas, both it’s sacred and it’s secular elements, pulling at you?  Do you feel like Advent has gone on long enough, and you’re ready to move on and celebrate Christmas?  After all, the presents have been purchased and wrapped.  The Christmas dinner menu is planned  – though I should remind you that we will be meeting for worship on Christmas morning at 11:00 A.M., so plan accordingly!  If you’re traveling, all the necessary arrangements have been made, except maybe filling up the gas tank one more time.   Perhaps you’re like that child who has been poking at the presents under the tree, maybe even picking them up, trying to figure out what’s inside.  There comes a point when you just want to pick it up and rip open the wrapping paper and see what’s inside.   Yes, the excitement of the season, which has been building for some time now, has a tendency to overwhelm all this Advent talk of preparation and waiting that we’ve been hearing these past four weeks.  Are you ready to get on with it?   Well, before you answer, could you hold that thought, because I have another question: Once those presents are opened and the dinner is over, do you feel like you need something more?   The tree is still there, but the presents are gone and the anticipation of Christmas dinner has given way to a week’s worth of leftovers.  So, what’s next?  College Bowl games?  The Super Bowl?   At least from personal experience, I have to wonder if our Christmas celebrations are a bit like a sugar high.  The crash comes quickly!

Of course, we’ve not yet arrived at Christmas Eve, so you can take this all with a grain of salt (or sugar).    In the mean time, maybe it’s worth contemplating the part of Christmas that lasts well beyond the opening of the presents and the eating of Christmas dinner.  

In our gospel reading Luke takes us back to the beginning of the Christmas story, to the moment at which the angel Gabriel visits a young girl named Miriam.  Miriam, which is the Hebrew name for the person we know as Mary, was probably  twelve or thirteen – about the age of a seventh grader – when this Angel  informs Mary that God had chosen to favor her with a special calling.  She will, the angel informs her, bear a child, who  will be called the “Son of the Most High,” and who will sit on David’s throne and rule over Jacob’s house forever.  In other words, she is going to bear the Messiah of God, the one who would deliver God’s people.  

If this were you, how would you respond to the angel’s announcement?  If you were a girl about thirteen, and an angel told you that God had chosen you to be the mother of the messiah?  Would you say – wow – what a great honor?  Or, would you say, thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll pass?  

This story reminds us that God acts in unexpected ways.  It’s not that God is capricious or undependable.  It’s just that God doesn’t operate according to conventional wisdom.  Does it make sense for God to choose a young peasant girl living in a  backwater village in Galilee to be the mother of God’s messiah, the one who will sit on David’s throne and rule over Israel forever?    Furthermore, what should we make of the circumstances surrounding this birth?   Now, Luke doesn’t say much about Joseph’s feelings or concerns about the birth, but it’s likely that Joseph was at least a decade older than Mary, and in making the marriage arrangements, it’s likely that Mary’s parents would have promised Joseph that his young bride was a virgin.   So, an unplanned pregnancy would not have been welcome news either to Joseph or to Mary.  So, it’s no wonder that she asks the Angel – how is this going to work?  

Gabriel’s answer doesn’t go into the details.  Scripture is rather shy about revealing such things, but Gabriel does tell her that the Holy Spirit will come over you, and the child you bear will be holy and he will be called “God’s son.”  Whatever else is said here – Jesus is declared to be holy.  No matter what they were saying in the parking lot when Mary or Jesus walks by – this child and his birth are holy.

And if Mary needs any further proof, all she needs to do is look to her cousin Elizabeth, who had been unable to conceive a child, but is now six months’ pregnant.  Surely Elizabeth is proof that  “Nothing is impossible with God.”

As you can probably tell from the sermon title, I was attracted to this statement. Don’t you find it a rather bold statement?  Do you wonder – what does Luke want us to hear in this statement by the angel?

If you spent last Sunday afternoon attending the theology conversation with Ron Allen, which by the way, Ron really enjoyed, you would likely have wrestled with this question.  Before I had to leave, Ron pointed out that there are two poles of thought about the nature of God’s power.  On one hand there are those who believe that God is “omnipotent.”   That is, God can do whatever God wants to do.  Now this doctrine has a very long history and it’s very attractive, because it holds out the promise that if God so desires, God can do anything – from stopping a storm to healing a loved one.  It gives us confidence in our prayers.  The only problem is, God doesn’t always seem to come through.  Earthquakes and tornadoes hit, killing hundreds if not thousands.  No matter how hard you pray, our loved ones die.  And so people who believe that God is both loving and all powerful often experience a crisis of faith.  They may wonder about where God is in all of this.  And as I’ve witnessed on countless occasions, people praying for the healing of a loved, begin to wonder about their own faith.  They begin wonder – what’s wrong with my faith?

On the other hand there are those who say that God is loving and just, but God might not be all powerful.  There may be limits to what God can do.  That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have power, it’s just that God’s power is different from what we have understood power to be.  According to Process theologians, for instance, instead of using the power of coercion, God uses the power of persuasion to draw us toward that which is good and loving.  As a result, we can be active participants in the work of God.

And so as I think about this word from Gabriel that nothing is impossible with God, these words of our friend Bruce Epperly come to mind.   He writes of Mary and Elizabeth that “ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they are open to God’s revealing in their lives, and then say ‘yes’ to God’s vision for their lives.”

“Ordinary people,” like Mary, “can do extraordinary things,” when they respond to God’s call, as Mary did when she answered God’s invitation to participate in the work of God in the world with the words: “I am the Lord’s Servant.  Let it be with me just as you have said.”   Mary answers God’s call in the same way that the prophets of old had responded.  In her receptiveness and in her faithfulness Mary becomes for us a model disciple of Jesus.

As we continue our Advent journey toward that moment when with the angels of God we can sing Gloria in Excelsis Deo, may we remember Mary’s example of faithfulness to the call of God, who often chooses what appear to be ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Preached by:

Dr. Robert D. Cornwall

Pastor, Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Troy, Michigan 

4th Sunday of Advent

December 18, 2011