Christmas Eve Message; Luke 1:26-38

Rev. George Miller
Dec 24, 2017
Luke 1:26-38

Last week FOX TV showed a live musical version of “The Christmas Story.” It received low ratings and poor reviews, but I enjoyed it.

Perhaps it’s because I don’t have any allegiance to the original film. Perhaps it’s because I knew some of the music. Perhaps it’s because of the way they fleshed out the mother’s role.

The show took place during an era when news came from the radio, milk was delivered to the porch, and meatloaf was sure to cheer a child up.

Just like the movie, we see the messy things that take place during the holidays- how fuses can burn out, tired go flat, and entire meals can be ruined by unexpected circumstances.

In one scene the mother sings that she is the one to help her family forget that times have been tough. She laments that there always seems to be a new stain on the carpet and papers are always piling up, but it is so clear that she loves her role as a mother.

In another scene she consoles her worried sons by telling them that nothing is falling from the sky or crumbling to the ground. That moments come, moments go, and just like that- they are gone.

By song’s end, the mother is by herself, looking around the home she has created for her family and she sings “All these crazy moments, they flicker, they pass…Crazy, messy moments that you try to hold onto…don’t last...”

Her song and the show is a testimony that Christmas is not magical because it is perfect, but that Christmas is magical because it is messy…

Something has taken place in the past few months. I don’t know if it’s because we’re living in a post-Irma reality. Or the political climate has actually made us pull more together.

Or if I’m at that age where I’ve got my home, I’ve got my friends, I’ve got some money in the bank and things don’t seem so root-less anymore.

Something akin to a great calm has allowed me to see today’s reading with a new set of eyes.

I don’t know about you, but in the past it’s seemed like Mary, the mother of Jesus, has always been up “here.”

Preachers will give sermons about her and tell us how, if we follow her example, we can be holy and favored just like her.

How Mary becomes an example for all the women of the world on how to be a parent.

I myself recall spending so much time trying to figure out why God chose her to be the mother of Jesus.

That she must have been so special, she must have been so unique, she must have been so pure and so perfect that she amongst all people were chosen to bear Emmanuel.

So therefore, if one was to be just like her, if one was to live just like her, if one was to be more Mary and less themselves than perhaps God will find favor and bless them too.

I recall being in my 20’s trying so hard to unlock the mystery of getting God to bless me- perhaps if I was more patient, or more humble, or more prayerful, or more MORE than perhaps I’d be rewarded with a life that wasn’t so meandering and messy.

If one is not careful, scripture about Mary can become a tool, a measuring stick, a way to wonder what God is looking for to reward a person with blessings.

Now, scripture doesn’t say much about Mary, but if you comb over the few verses she’s in, you’ll find that she is described as thoughtful, obedient, believing, worshipful, and devoted to her faith.

But then again, who isn’t?

Is anyone here today not thoughtful from time to time? Is anyone here not trying their best to follow what they think God wants?

But Mary, if Mary is to become the Mother of Jesus, if she is to carry the Christ-child in her womb, she must be more so.

She must be above, she must be beyond, she must be as unblemished and unmessy as unblemished and unmessy can be.

And perhaps, perhaps if we try our best, and try really, really hard and try more and do better at being thoughtful and obedient and believing, then God will look down and find favor on us too!

But how exhausting that train of thought is.

How self defeating it is to compare yourself to another, and to think that if you carbon copied them you too would get the same results.

No.

Not this year. Not this time.

Maybe, just maybe what Scripture is telling us is that Mary wasn’t chosen because she was the favored one, BUT that she was favored because she was the chosen one.

Allow me to explain- what if, what if Mary was more like us than we realize?

What if Mary really was just a small town girl, living in a small town world?

That if Mary was alive today she’d probably be in Lorida or Zolfo Springs working at Dollar General or McDonalds?

That if Mary was alive today she’d probably be a B and C student in high school?

That if Mary was alive today her fiancé’s name could have been Joey or JoBob just as much as it was Joseph?

For God to do something magical, for God to do something so amazing, did Jesus have to be born to a perfect person who was purer than pure?

What sounds more like a miracle to you- that Jesus was born to a mother who was the most thoughtful, obedient, believing woman alive.

Or would the greater miracle be that Jesus was born to a mother who experienced new stains on the floor, papers piling up, and could make magic out of meatloaf?

What we are talking about here is the very notion of how we see God at work in the world.

Do we think that God only uses perfect people who are beyond reproach?

Or do we think that God uses people who are imperfect, flawed and one of us?

Do we think God can only do wonders with jars that are full, people that are pure, and baskets that are overloaded with bread?

Or do we make the claim that God can do wonders with empty vessels, impure people and with limited supplies?

Why search for explanations as to why God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus, when scripture tells us again and again that we will never fully know why God does what God does.

Why would God choose Moses, a middle-aged murderer, to deliver God’s people?

Why would God chose Gideon, the youngest member of the weakest family of the smallest tribe to lead God’s army?

Why would God chose David, the ruddy 8th born son of a farmer to be God’s greatest monarch?

…why would God choose Sebring to build a church?

Why would God call someone like me to be the pastor?

Why would God call you to participate in this holy space and this holy time?

Is it because any of us are perfect? Is it because any of us are pure?

Is it because any of us are more thoughtful, obedient, believing than anyone else?

Why does God do anything God does?

So, at least for this year, I think it is Ok to not place Mary so high on a pedestal.

I think it is OK to say that she was most likely more like you and me, than she was not.

That it was her being chosen that made her favored. And it was her accepting the privilege to carry the Christ child that made her so awesome.

Maybe the magic of this Christmas season isn’t that God called upon the most perfect and pure of people to play a role in God’s story, but that God called someone who was just like us.

Maybe the magic of Christmas is not that it is perfect, but that it is messy.

That the Christmas story is more about the stains on the carpet and the papers that pile up then it is about unreachable ideals and perfect times.

That Christmas is a reminder that while it may feel like things are crumbling to the ground, or falling from the sky, we can catch our breath.

Christmas reminds us that these crazy, messy moments we live in are also the crazy, messy moments in which we can find God.

And in these crazy, messy moments God is able to do the most amazing, cool things.

Amen and amen.