There are weeks and then there are weeks. If you are visiting this morning and find
yourself in the midst of an emotional group of people, we are usually good old
southern Episcopalians. We normally keep
our emotions in check. You just find us in
a difficult place this week. My plan had
been to finish up teaching us how to live lives reflective of our
self-designation as Adventers and then to transition us toward Christmas. The phone call from our Mary Wednesday changed
all that. If you have not heard, though
I expect that via electronic means or phone calls every one has heard, David
Kline was killed Wednesday morning as he was trying to help a motorist. This was an odd year in the sense that Advent
4 and Christmas Eve were the same day, a liturgical event that happens only when
Christmas falls on a Monday. That causes
all kinds of stress for Altar Guilds and Flower Guilds and clergy. Toss in an unexpected death, and you have a
recipe for a real mess.
Of course, God specializes in redemption
and cleaning up real messes. He may not
do it the way we want, but He is always working to redeem all things. Though David’s death was untimely by our
standards, God is already using his death to provoke some deep
conversations. Both Adventers and those
who knew David have been struggling with the deep questions of faith. How can
a good God let something like this happen?
Now of all times? Where was God
when David really needed Him? David’s
death ruins Christmas for me, I can only imagine what it does to Mary. Why would God allow this? I know you preached this season that we need
to be prepared to meet God any moment, but really? This?
And so this sermon and all our teachings for the next few weeks will
likely have an urgency. None of us when
we left last Sunday expected any of us to be killed like that. Yet as a pastor, I can think of few others better
prepared to have met God this week than our brother David.
The oft-repeated description about David this
week has been the recognition that he and Mary lived their lives as if they
truly believed the Gospel. It’s not only
Adventers who noticed this, but even friends and acquaintances who claim to
have no faith of their own. And that, my
brothers and sisters, is an incredible testimony! Would that when we all passed, our friends
and neighbors would say of each of us that we lived our lived as if we believed
in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
I will, of course, speak more to David’s
life and death and faith at his funeral, but today I will endeavor to prepare
each one of us just a bit better, so that we might live lives that reflect
gloriously on our Lord and draw others into His saving embrace. Forgive me if I have an edge to my urgency,
particularly if you are visiting. I have
simply had it hammered home this week the urgency of our work and need for discipling.
I joked a bit last week at the first
service that lady Adventers needed to keep Mary’s story foremost in their minds
when friends in other denominations call women the root of evil. We have all heard the claim that there would
be no evil, were it not for the poor choice of Eve. Ignore for a moment the fact that Adam was
responsible for instructing her and that he was present when she ate of the
fruit. If you buy into the idea that Eve
was the source of the Fall, then you need to be giving Mary credit for the
redemption of humankind. Just as Eve
chooses unwisely, Mary chooses wisely.
What was undone in Eve’s choice is redeemed in Mary’s. So, my sisters especially, keep that
knowledge in your quiver when you are facing some unthoughtful Christians.
Mary’s story today, though, is informative
for other reasons. Not only does Mary
teach us how we should view women, but she teaches how we should view all human
beings, including ourselves. And there
are four lessons I would like us to remember from our reading about Mary. Hopefully, they will be easier for us to
remember than the four marks of mission in the diocese that the bishop shared
with us three weeks ago.
First, what is the greeting of the angel
given to Mary? She is favored. In this greeting, we are revealed a couple
important characteristics about God. He
favors a young woman, tradition says a teenager. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t know
that my mother or father would have described me as favored as a teenager. I had a mouth. I was certain I knew it all. And I was not afraid to share how much I
knew! I see some chuckling, so I must
have had some spiritual twins out there.
Many of you out there were also parents.
Tell me, as your children reached those wonderful teenage years, was
favored the first word that came to your mind as you dealt with attitude, with
interpersonal relationships, with “I hate you’s,” and everything else that
comes with those difficult years? Yet
here is God revealing that He favors Mary.
We learn another bit about God’s
characteristics, too, in this story. Is
Mary out searching for God? Are we told that
Mary was out looking for a sign from God or an encounter with the angel
Gabriel? Of course not. She was going about her life, living day to
day as most of us live, when, presumably, the angel appeared to her and gave
her that amazing choice! In a way, God’s
seeking of Mary is typological of His seeking of all of us. One of the overarching themes of Scripture is
that of God as a shepherd. He is a
prototypical shepherd, though, in that He seeks after the lost sheep. Over and over again, we are reminded that God
leaves the flock to go in search of the lost sheep. Since each one of us was lost at some point,
we have, to one degree or another, experienced this side of God. He searches for each of us in the brambles
and crevasses and desert canyons of life.
To the extent that we are now His adopted
sons and daughters, we should be reflecting the characteristics of our Father
in heaven. That means we favor
others. When we look on others we do not
judge them as the world sees them. We go
after the lost sheep recognizing that God favors them every bit as much as He
favors us. And, as God reveals in His
approach of this teenage girl, we are called to favor even those whom society
would choose to ignore or disparage. It
part and parcel of why we feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit the lonely,
speak out when a slave is wrongly imprisoned, teach ESL, send missionaries to
lands to hear the Gospel, and any other number of ministries we undertake in
His name. But, we even go after those
who are like ourselves, recognizing that they, too, like us, need to know they
are favored and loved by God.
The second lesson of Mary’s response is
one of confusion. When God shows up, how
do we typically respond? Put
differently, does God show up in the places, in the events, in the way, and in
the times we expect Him? Or does He seem
to be about His own plan? Much hay was
made a couple weeks ago about my effort on behalf of Cyntoia. A lot of people wanted to believe I had this
incredible plan or vision for working for survivors and victims of modern
slavery. I wish. I had to disabuse them of that notion quickly. You all know me. In many ways I’m unremarkable. I know I’m eye candy, but I’m not like on the
level of Brad Pitt or whatever hunk is garnering the ladies’ attention these
days. I know I’m funny, but I don’t
quite rise to the level of a Jim Gaffigan or Robin Williams, though I am an
Episcopalian like the latter. Why are
you all chuckling? I’m no Rockefeller,
but I am certainly rich . . . scratch that, y’all get the point. I had to share that with people. Had I known everything that would come from
visiting that alleged location of slave trading, would I have gone through with
it? I don’t think so. Heck, I’m pretty certain that, had God shared
everything about my ministry prior to my willingness to seek ordination, I
would have pulled a Jonah and run away.
But in those feelings, I am just like you. Sure, we all want to believe that we would
run headlong into what God tells us, but let’s be honest. Most of us are stunned when He shows up. Most of us are shocked when God begins redeeming.
Take this week and David. How many of us discovered that on a
fundamental level we were not prepared to meet God were He to return this
moment? More frightening, how many of
our loved ones would be unprepared at His return? Yet, David’s death is already being used by
God to cause some of these hard conversations to take place. Repeatedly, I heard “I know you think I’m a
strong Christian, Father, but . . .” followed by a string of doubts or confusion. Far too many times I can count, I heard “All
I can think about, Father, is what if it was ________ or _________. I’m not sure they really believe. I’m not sure I did a good job raising them to
understand the importance of a saving faith in God.” Those questions cannot happen unless God is
present, redeeming, seeking, loving. And
as I have pointed out this early redemption in our midst, how have Adventers
responded? A bit confused, as was our
Lord’s mother, Mary.
The third characteristic I want you to
take away from Mary’s response is her doubt.
I get a kick this time of year when the world tries to explain that
Jesus could not have been born of a virgin, as if that would be tougher than
being raised from the dead. One of my
favorite excuses is the supposed advancement of our understanding about
sex. We like to pretend that we are so
much more advanced than those who came before us. There
is no way that Mary could have conceived a child without a sperm, so being a
virgin in those days was not what we understand it to be today? Really?
Both Mary and Joseph seem to understand the implication of her getting
pregnant without having sex well enough.
They may not have understood sperms and eggs and details like that, but
they understood sex and where babies come from.
Mary wonders how this can happen since she has not had sex with anyone
yet? To her teenage mind, as much as
our, such is not possible! So she
questions the claim of the angel.
Unlike Zechariah who a few verses earlier
rejected the angel’s message about fathering the one who would proclaim the arrival
of Messiah, How can I be sure of this,
Mary wonders how these events can happen given her understanding of how they
happen. I know. Good Christians are not supposed to question
anything. Everything is a part of God’s
plan, right? Hogwash! I’d use stronger words, but there are gentle
ears among us. Hogwash! Who really thinks God intended for David to
die Wednesday morning? What kind of sick
God would we be worshiping if He was sitting up there in heaven planning for
David to die, visiting trauma upon his family and friends and fellow Adventers,
giving a truck and car and other car driver a nice dose of survivor guilt, taking
away from us a voice that spoke to the need of change and the need to bring the
whole flock, and, oh yeah, removing from the lives of so many people a man who
lived his faith as if he believed the Gospel?
God does not plan evil for us.
God does not sharpen a lightning bolt up there and say “watch this!”
with an evil laugh. He loves us; He
regards us; He seeks us; and He redeems us.
We make the messes; He just cleans them up! What people intend for evil; God uses for His
good purposes. There’s a huge difference
in that understanding and the idea that He plans evil for us.
Nowhere, though, does He criticize us for
questioning. As I have engaged in
conversation after conversation this week, I hope no one has heard condemnation
in my voice. I have not intended it; and
I do not think God wanted you to feel it.
Over and over I tell Adventers to join Robert and Jim in their wrestling
with faith group. I don’t do it to sabotage
you. I’m not one of those sickos who
argue that God placed dinosaur bones in rocks to test our faith, like we need
help failing or like He desires any of us to fail. He’s a loving Father. He created us with brains. We are encouraged to question; we are
encouraged to wonder. And even when we
doubt, as did Zechariah, does He give up on us?
No, He favors and seeks and woos us!
Make no mistake: Nothing will be impossible with God! But God seems to be quite accepting of our
wonder and questions. God understands
our doubts, and works to overcome them.
Finally, the fourth and last
characteristic displayed by Mary is her obedience. Mary is allowed to doubt and to question, but
the time comes for a decision. God has
incredible patience with us until that moment in our own lives. I wonder how long the angel had to wait for
Mary’s response? All of salvation
history had been building to this point, and yet God was entrusting a young
girl to be the bearer of the Savior. She
knew some of the cost. What would Joseph say? What will my family say? What will my friends say? Would she have assented had she known that He
would have to die horribly on the Cross to complete God’s plan of
salvation? Only God knows. In the end, though, when push came to shove,
she trusted in God and His redemptive purposes, and agreed to do as He asked.
You and I often face similar decisions in
our lives. God places people or
ministries in front of us or in our heads.
We doubt our ability or expertise.
We doubt our eloquence or worthiness.
We question His wisdom in choosing us or doing His work in a certain
way. In the end, though, all disciples
reach a decision point like Mary. Are we
His servants, trusting He will accomplish His purposes in our lives through us
and even despite us; or do we serve someone or something else? There is, in the end, only one choice that
leads to salvation and life. All others
lead us away from Him.
In these four characteristics, Mary
outlines an Adventer faith. True, her
faith made it possible for the Incarnation to happen, but our faith responses
can, in the end, be no less remarkable, in a sense no less God-bearing. We are Adventers. We claim to be about the job of sentinels, of
watchmen, of those reminding Christians and the world around us that our Lord
will return again one day in power and in great glory. Until that moment happens, we are free to
wrestle, to question, to doubt, and to worry.
But we are also called to make a decision. Do we think His promise true? Are all things possible with God? David’s life and death caused others to take
notice. When unbelievers remark on
similarities between our lives and our faith, we have accomplished something
truly glorious for the world. When the
unchurched notice us working on behalf of those who can never repay us, they
begin to understand the favor with which we are all viewed by God. When we begin to wrestle and then respond in
faith, and celebrate the redemptive victories of God in our life, then the
world and the Church begins to realize the dark wilderness in which we minister
and the source of the light and hope within us.
We become, in a marvelous way, God-bearers for them, pointing them to
the way of light and life in Christ our Lord, and of the joy and blessedness
that really accompanies what we will remember tonight.
As we begin to leave this season and enter
into that first coming of our Lord, I pray that we all begin to demonstrate
those characteristics embodied by Mary.
I pray that we encounter this Babe in a manger with fresh eyes, with
fresh purpose, and with renewed hearts.
I pray that we engage others as we sprint towards this wondrous event,
with regard and willingness to accept their doubts and questions as
opportunities to share with them the source of our own Light. And I pray that, through our obedience, He
will be glorified again and again and again in the world, a world that, as the events
of this last week reminded us, is so in need of His saving grace.
In
Christ’s Peace,
Brian†
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