I'm Having a What??

I’m Having a What??
Whenever I read a passage of Scripture, I read several times and each time I try and get into the character’s mind. Sometimes, I’ll read the from the same character’s point of view in different ways. This particular passage, I have read from Mary’s point of view in just about every way that I think I can. I have read her being angry, excited, nervous, sad, curious, apathetic… and each time, the meaning changes a little bit for me. Mary is such an interesting character in the Bible… We know some things about her: Her mother’s name was Anna and her cousin was Elizabeth, who was already 6 months pregnant when Mary heard from the angel… Her husband, Joseph was a carpenter from the lineage of King David… you know King David, the one who wrote most of the Psalms…She talks to angels…She prays…When the angel came to her, she was probably around 13-15, which would have been the normal time for girls in that time to get married and begin to have children…She may have had more children, including at least one other son named James, and well, there’s that other child of hers that I would hope that we know, Jesus…
For all that we think that we know about Mary, we have no idea about how she felt, which is why I often put different emotions into her sayings…
When we look at this passage in Luke, where Gabriel comes to tell Mary of this good news… It strikes me as funny that Gabriel calls it good news at first. I mean think about it… Pretend you’re Mary’s mother or Father and she comes home and tells you that she’s going to have a baby and an angel told her that it’s God’s baby… What is your reaction? Anger… Shame…Confusion…Happiness… We don’t know how Mary’s parents felt about the news. Maybe they felt all those things… They didn’t disown her…
Then there’s Joseph… If your fiancée had come to you before your wedding and told you that she was going to have a baby… But you weren’t this baby’s father, God was the father… What is your reaction? Anger…shame…confusion…happiness… You can watch just about any daytime talk show and see what other people’s reactions would be… We don’t know Joseph’s initial reaction, but we do know what he did later… He married her and raised that baby with love.
Now, both Mary and Joseph had to deal with the gossip and the rumors about her pregnancy and the confusion about their story. If you heard this story today from someone around town, would the first thing that you thought of be that this story must be true!
And, there’s one character in this story that has to deal with the entire situation from the news of the angel to telling her family and fiancée and dealing with the gossip… that’s Mary. Put yourself in her shoes for a minute… An angel comes to you and tells you that you are on earth most blessed and you are going to have a baby that is the Son of God and you will name him Jesus. What do you say? “I’m having a what?” How do you react? “That’s great news!” What on earth is going on?
Well, let’s see… we’ve got the angel Gabriel standing in front of Mary and what’s the first thing that he says to her? “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!” Sounds like he’s trying to butter Mary up a little bit… Like when someone is trying to get you to do something for them and instead of asking right off, they say “You look wonderful today! You are such a nice person! That project that you did turned out just perfect!” There’s the phrase “flattery will get you everywhere”… Do you think that’s what Gabriel was trying to do? Flatter Mary a little bit and before she could do anything, hit her with the news?
Mary was a little bit wiser than that…Mary didn’t quite accept Gabriel’s words… She thought about them and they made her nervous… If he was trying to butter her up, she could see right through him! Gabriel was probably able to sense her uneasiness, so he told her don’t be afraid…. Then, he began to tell her what God had in store for her. He didn’t come right out and say it though… He told her that God had been gracious to her…. And then… then came the news…. You’re going to be pregnant and have a son, you’ll name him Jesus and, by the way… This will be God’s child… Mary did question a little bit, she wasn’t married…so, how can this be?
Gabriel’s just the messenger, so how do you think he was feeling about these questions? When you have to deliver some kind of project to somebody, but you didn’t create the project and you’re confronted with questions, how long does it take before you get fed up and walk away? Well, Gabriel was a little patient, but he had to remind Mary… God can do anything!
The last sentence that Mary says is a very interesting one, depending on how you read it… It could be happy! “I am the Lord’s Servant! May it happen to me according to your will!” It could be fearful… “I am the Lord’s servant…may it happen to me according to your will...” Sad… “I am the Lord’s servant…may it happen to me according to your will…” maybe Mary just wanted to get Gabriel out of there, so she said what she thought would make him happy… “Yeah, I’m the Lord’s servant… May it happen to me according to your will… Yeah, whatever….” Each time we can see Mary differently… So, how did she say it? Well, we really don’t know… but…
There’s another part of Luke, the magnificat…In the magnifact, we have a song that Mary sings about God and how she is completely humbled that God has chosen her. As she shares what God has done, she also recognizes what this baby means for the world and what future generations will say about her. Whatever her emotions were in the beginning of this journey, she has accepted willingly and with joy this baby that she will have.
While we haven’t had the exact experience as Mary, where an angel tells us that we’re going to have a baby! But…we’ve still heard calls from God. Calls from God to do something…Calls from God to reach out to all people…Calls from God to create disciples…Calls from God…Those calls that we hear are a lot like Mary’s news. We may have different reactions to what God is telling us, and we have a choice of what to do…
There are times when you hear that angel or you hear God calling you and you don’t want to do whatever it is… I don’t want to move away from my family! I don’t want to change jobs! I don’t want to listen to you! I’m in control of my life… I know what’s best for me… You stay out of it! If I want to take this job, I will and there’s nothing that you can do about it! You know, the thing is, that’s true to a certain extent… We do have free will and we can tell God “no” or that we don’t want to… But, God doesn’t always take no for an answer…God isn’t always so quiet when we say that we don’t want to do something….It seems easy to be in charge and to feel important by saying that “I don’t wanna…” But, in the end we know what we should do…Even if we do say no; God’s not going to leave our side… God will still be there, and encouraging us to do what God wants and knows is best… Sometimes it takes bruises along the way, but God is there right there to pick us up and waiting for us to sing our magnificat!
Before I accepted my calling to ministry, I went my own way… I told God, “That’s nice that you think I should be in ministry, but I think I should be performing on Broadway, so that’s what I’m going to do…” and “That’s nice that you think I should be in ministry, but I’m working in retail and I’m going to take that manager’s position…” Both were perfectly legitimate careers and what I thought was right and thought that I wanted…But, God had something different in mind… It took me awhile before I could finally say, “I am your servant…Let it be with me according to your will…” And there are often times when I sit back and I say, okay, you got me here… Now what? But like Mary’s magnificat tells the stories of God’s faithfulness and the stories of God’s work in the history of the Israelites , we are reminded of God’s work still…God provides whatever it is that we need… Be it strength, be it courage, be it the right words to say, be it gentleness… Whatever… God will provide…. God provided for Mary...
Having a baby was something new for Mary…She didn’t know how to do this…It was so far out of her comfort zone. But by going out of her comfort zone, she was part of one of the most amazing stories of God…By going outside of her comfort zone, she became the mother of Jesus…The baby who’s birth we celebrate, the Messiah that we rejoice in…By stepping outside of her comfort zone, she allowed God to do wonderful and amazing things through her! What are we willing to do to step out of our comfort zones for God to do wonderful and amazing things through us? It’s not easy to step outside of our comfort zones because they are just that…Comfortable. We like to be in them because they’re what we know and what we like…But how much are we willing to trust that in getting out of our comfort zones that God will be there? That as we are uncomfortable for a bit that we remember God’s faithfulness…It’s not easy and that’s why it’s important to rely on God that much more.
How much ridicule did Mary face? She must have heard so much gossip and whispers behind her back… Joseph even considered leaving her because of it! But, God provided both of them the strength that they needed to get by…God provided the refuge that they needed that night when she had the baby…God gave them all that they needed and all it took was Mary to say “I am the Lord’s servant, let it be with me according to your will…”
It’s not easy to take that step and feel “out of control” to feel like you’re “not in charge” anymore… Who wants to feel like that? But, when you know that God is in control, things just run so much easier… When you call to God and say, “A little help here!” God answers…What do you hear God calling to you today? Have you told God, no or not right now, but that question keeps creeping up? What do you hear God calling Sheridan-Norway United Methodist Church to today? Have we told God, no or not right now, but God won’t be silent? Maybe we should try this…? “I am your servant… Let it be with me according to YOUR will…. According to your will…”