2016.12.11 Sermon
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
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In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a
town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man
whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s
name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings,
favored one! The Lord is with you.”[b] 29 But she was much
perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this
might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for
you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in
your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He
will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and
the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.
33
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How
can this be, since I am a virgin?”[c] 35 The angel said to her, “The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[d] will be
holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative
Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the
sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing
will be impossible with God.” 38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the
servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
(http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=348407586)
Sermon
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Joy overcomes doubt! So, what exactly is joy? What about
doubt?
Let’s talk about doubt to start with. As a noun, doubt is defined
as a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction. It is this form,
we can see in the words of Mary “How can this be, since I am a
virgin?” I am sure she is feeling uncertain about this whole God
wanting her to be the mother of the Savior. And yet if nothing
else, Mary did not show a lack of conviction to her call. “Here
am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to
your word.” As a verb, this is something we can all do easily –
question a truth/ fact or just disbelieve. We do this all-day
long. Do we really believe the commercials on TV? How about
the news we hear on the radio or TV or the internet? Of
course, not. We doubt because that is in our nature to
question things, even things that for all intents and purposes
are real and true. Maybe this is why doubt is such a powerful
enemy – we use it so much. We are programmed to doubt.
God made us this way to protect us from harm. But doubts can
get away on us. For some of us, doubt and its emotional
brother “fear” become the controlling influence in our lives.
We have only to look around us these days to see the effects of
doubt and fear. Politics, finances, weather and so on are all
things which weigh heavy on our minds. All the technologies
flooding us with events and innuendo. How do we sort out
truth from fantasy? Doubt reigns over all of us. So, it should
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come as no surprise that doubt was surely on Mary’s mind that
day.
I really like the picture chosen for doubt because it shows the
cover of a book with the title ripped off. We must make a
judgement about it being good or bad. It raises doubts.
So enough about doubt for a moment and let’s move over to
joy. Joy is much easier to talk about. We are happy when we
talk about joy. Joy the noun is defined as a feeling of great
pleasure or happiness. I think we can all think of things, places,
people or events which just the memory of them brings great
pleasure and happiness to our hearts. A marriage, a child, a
home or a special Christmas gift. Instantly, a smile comes to
your face and you begin to feel warm and fuzzy inside. And
that is just as a noun. Can you imagine if we put joy in to action
as a verb. Well as a verb, joy is rejoicing. And although we do
not use it very often this way, it is ok to feel joyed at someone
or something. In the gospel reading today, we can only imagine
the joy that Mary would have experienced at this wondrous
news. She was talking with an angel and it was telling her of
something fantastic that was going to happen. Mary, the young
lady was going to be a mother and not just any mother but the
mom of the Messiah. She would have heard of the coming
Messiah from her faith teachings but never in a million years
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would she have ever expected to be the mom to the Messiah.
Joy overwhelming.
Take a look at the overhead and see if you can find anything on
there that describes Mary’s joy or even your joy at something
good that has happened to you. There should be something
there for everyone.
We know this story so well that it is hard for me to find
something to tell you about that you would not have heard a
couple of dozen times before. But I want us to think about how
joy overcomes doubt in this lesson. It might not be obvious but
it is there nonetheless.
Every time someone sees an angel in the bible, the same phrase
is used “Do not be afraid!” The angel knows that for anyone to
have this experience there is definitely going to be fear. We
can only believe that Mary would have experienced it also. So,
Gabriel’s declaration of “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have
found favor with God.” Would have brought a sense of relief
and joy to Mary’s heart. Joy overcame fear and doubt about
what was happening.
Gabriel goes on to tell Mary that she was going to conceive and
that it would be by the power of the Holy Spirit. This would
have calmed Mary’s concern about the process of conception
and the fact that it was not being done by a human man. See
she was betrothed to Joseph and having another man cause her
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conception would have been a terrible sin and a shame. Having
the Holy Spirit move in an act of creation similar to the creation
story she would have learned as a child would have given her
much joy to be part of creation. Her doubts were diminishing.
What I find the most interesting and we don’t spend much time
on it is the next thing she is told and that is the report of her
cousin Elizabeth being six months along. Mary knew Elizabeth
had not been able to conceive so it gave her great joy to hear
that this miracle had been done for Elizabeth by the power of
God. So, if this was true then for sure what the angel was
saying was true. She was going to be a mom. I want to point
out that Mary was not the only one in this story that
experienced the freeing power of joy in wiping out doubt.
Think about Elizabeth!! She was very mature, was never able
to conceive and was dubious when told she would have a child
and yet, there she was carrying the one who would prepare the
way for the Messiah. Her joy would have been palpable. I
would imagine she would not be able to contain it. Her doubts
were vanquished. Her faith was strengthened. God kept His
promise. She was blessed.
So where do we see joy overcoming doubt in our lives? Do you
see it happening all around you? It is easy to miss but it is
happening. Maybe that phone call you received from family or
friends. My favorite – the credit card bill that comes in lower
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than expected! Or how about the price of gasoline going down
again. We can find joy in our lives through the smallest of
things when we remain focused on having Jesus as our Lord and
Saviour. You see at this time of the year we are looking
forward to the birth of Christ not for that event per se but
because it begins the life and subsequent death and
resurrection this birth enabled. Our joy is found in the Christ
who calls to us in our weakness. He beckons us to believe in
Him when everything else around us fills us with doubt. Jesus
loves us even though we are sinners and do not deserve Him.
That is surely something for us to find joy in. This joy is made
full and complete with Jesus’ death on the cross on that hill in
that far away land so long ago. Even back then, He knew you
and was willing to take on your guilt and shame so that you
would be made right before God. Jesus rising on the third day
is the basis for our joy, our faith in Him. Jesus rising fulfilled all
the promises of God and wiped away the doubts and fears of
all. This gift of joy was given to us by God through the gift of
grace so that we might believe and have everlasting life with
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
When we look at the story of Mary, we can imagine the joy she
would have felt in her heart as she heard the words of the
angel and the announcement of what was to transpire. She for
sure would have had doubts but her joy in God, her very faith in
His promises, would have moved her through the doubts and
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fears to a place of true happiness and peace. That is my wish
for you my brothers and sisters: your joy in believing in the
risen Christ will bring you and those whose lives you will touch,
hope and peace in the days ahead. There will be times of doubt
and fear, but our joy in the love of Jesus will carry us through.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with
joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will
overcome doubt and overflow with confident hope through the
power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NLT)
Amen.
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