Prepare Ye: Ponder
Notes
Transcript
…Gracious and Loving God, giver of life, Redeemer of our lives, and the one who sustains us through all of life’s tumultuous waves, we come to you this day, the First Sunday of Advent, looking for the words of hope, love, and faith that will get us through this most hectic time of year, all amid a pandemic. So we ask you in this time to settle our hearts, minds, and spirits on you and your Son as we ponder what it means to submit to your will, Amen.
Family...
Family...
Family. When I say the word family, what comes to mind? Is it a family seated around a table, everyone smiling, laughing, and being at peace…like this painting from Norman Rockwell..
Rockwell Family Dinner
From Bing.com
This is a painting by Norman Rockwell. Rockwell lived from 1894–1978 and became famous for his paintings in a magazine called the Saturday Evening Post. In perhaps Rockwell’s most iconic Post painting, the father of a family is at the head of a dinner table, carving the roast. The mother is wearing her unsoiled apron, beaming over the meal in matronly elegance. The children gather dutifully around the table—obedient-looking and rosy-cheeked. Rockwell’s message? This family’s life is absolutely perfect!
But I wonder whose family he was depicting because, maybe my family wasn’t typical or normal but aside from two days a year, we never really gathered as a whole family around a table and when we did, the more accurate depiction might have looked something like this...
Typical Family Dinner...
Typical Family Dinner...
From Bing.com
Now, this is not to say that we had this happen every time we gathered but there were definitely times when not everyone was smiling around the table...
The point of showing these pictures is to show what I think many people have in their minds about what holiday or any other day dinners should really be like when in all actuality, the time around the table looks very much different. I have to wonder if family, according to Norman Rockwell, has no hassles, no headaches and is never in hot water. I have to really think that it is not really an accurate depiction of family. I would also venture that many of us have experienced family as having sometimes very painful and perplexing predicaments. You know, loved ones die, children make bad decisions, parents get divorced, and sometimes there is not enough money to make it through the entire month.
Mary and her Family
Mary and her Family
So, at this point, I can imagine that some of you might be wondering what this has to do with Advent, Christ’s birth, and how we apply today’s scripture to our daily lives…right?
Well, let me ask you this…do you think Mary’s family was like the Normal Rockwell family or do you think that it was more like the family of today, just in a different era?
I am going to make the leap that Mary’s family was much like today’s families. She had a relative, who in her old age, was going to have a baby. Mary, herself was engaged to be married to Joseph. Enter the angel, Gabriel, and now Mary must figure how to tell her parents, her fiance, and the entire village that she was pregnant. She might have just as well stitched a large, red letter “A” on her tunic and been done with it.
Gabriel and Mary
Gabriel and Mary
You see, for Mary, being of marrying age and being engaged meant that she was essentially married. I know I have said this before, but it is worth repeating...Mary would face much difficulty in deciding to follow God’s pronouncement from Gabriel.
Let’s remember what Gabriel actually said to her...
“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.
Here’s what I want you to hear clearly…Mary was being told that she would have to face her fiance, her parents, her family, and the entire village and tell them that she was pregnant. In anyone’s mind that heard this news, they would wonder who the father was. You see, for young women, if you went against your family and had relations with anyone but to whom you were betrothed, you would have been labeled an adulterer. Much like many today who do not know this story, it is impossible to believe that something like this could have happened. But this is the miracle of Christmas. Gabriel goes on to explain how this would happen...
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
From this, we can see that even Mary was incredulous about how this could occur since she had never been with a man in a way that would result in a pregnancy. But Gabriel, as a messenger of God (Angel), calmly and patiently replies with words of calm and peace. He basically says, “Mary, you are a precious creation of God, and because God has found you to be worthy of this calling, you will receive a blessing beyond all belief.”
Now, can you imagine thirteen-year-old Mary going to her twenty-something fiancé Joseph? Here’s the scene as I see it in my mind’s eye…Mary approaches Joseph and he starts talking about floor plans and wall colors and Mary interrupts, “Joseph, sit down. We need to talk. Joseph, honey, I’m pregnant.” So long Norman Rockwell. Houston, we have a problem! I also see, that if Joseph wasn’t already sitting that he might have been sitting after Mary’s announcement, right?
What would your first response have been in this situation? Really, in the modern day world, our options are not much different. When everything looks impossible, our first response is to close the proverbial door, to ignore the problem and imagine that it doesn’t exist. Here’s the thing though, in this story and in our present age, a pregnancy is hard to hide...
Joseph’s Response
Joseph’s Response
Somewhat different from today, Joseph really only has two options. He can quietly walk away from Mary and their impending marriage, i.e. close the door on the problem and walk away OR he can carry on with the marriage and pretend that the pregnancy does not exist. Luke’s Gospel does not record Joseph’s response, however, we know from Matthew that Joseph chooses the latter of the two options because Gabriel also appears to him in a dream.
So, Joseph chooses not to close the door on this situation and rather to adopt Jesus as his own, which then makes Jesus a descendant of David and Jesse. Joseph chooses not to close or slam the door, he opens the door wide and accepts his call to be the father of God and this seems like an impossible task in my mind.
However, we are reminded of one very important thing in this passage...
For nothing will be impossible with God.”
These are really easy words to read but often seem impossible to follow, right? Here’s the thing though, when we truly open the door to God in our lives and believe these words completely, nothing truly is impossible.
Think about it this way…if a woman in her nineties, never having had children, can become pregnant, if the Red Sea can part, if another woman can become pregnant beyond child-bearing years, and a virgin can become pregnant by the Holy Spirit, how can we doubt these words at all? As we move into Advent this year, I want us all to consider what it is in our lives that seem impossible and ponder the story of Mary and Joseph. Here’s is an impossible situation and the two main characters could have easily walked away from one another, but they didn’t. These two characters become central figures in our faith because they are the parents of the Son of God. Think about how you would have responded in this situation and if you truly desire to answer God’s prompting in your life…think about how you can answer that call, especially now. The world needs all of us to answer and to open the door wide in our hearts…Amen.