Christmas

“ I believe in the Virgin birth”  Luke 1:26-38

   We have lit the Christ Candle and tonite we celebrate the birth of the Christ-Child.  In the reading of Luke we listen to the words about Mary who bore the Saviour of the world.  Without Mary, Jesus would not have been a man and could not represent us to redeem and save us.  I have taken the letters of her name to spell out our outline for our meditation this evening:

M- Mystery   A- Attitude of  R-Reverence  and Y-Yielded to God

Mystery- “ something unknown”  We cannot explain the Virgin Birth—it is supernatural , and that is where we must leave it.  We believe it. But we cannot explain it. That is ok. Life without mystery is boring. It is said that all snowflakes have individual traits and are not the same.  We would not want them to all look alike.  I think mystery adds beauty to life as well as color. The colors of the Church year give us some interesting ways to look at the life of our Lord.  Green is Trinity season for growth. Purple of blue is used for the solemn and hopeful looking season of Advent. Lent comes with violet and Easter with white. Tonite is white for the King the baby Jesus.

The seasons of the year also bring us the unexpected and the mysterious…we are now in winter, one of the most desolate seasons of the year.  There are other things we cannot understand, yet we experience them. How about the aging process?  We are getting older. Some of us even have gray hair. Some of us are losing our hair. We don’t understand the process or know how to stop it, yet it is real. 

How do we define love?  Is it not a mystery that thing called love…our feeling of love for our children, our parents and our spouses?  We cannot quantify it or capture it, yet it is real.  There is mystery about us.  We should not try and take the mystery out of the season. There are some things we can never know, but they are real.  They are supernatural and unknown except to God Himself.

“ And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” I Timothy 3:16  He was born of a human mother, made in the womb of the Virgin Mary, yet the Eternal God was His Father. Without divinity , none of us would inherit heaven. “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore that Holy One who is to be born of thee will be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35  Matthew says it this way, “ an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘ Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit…” 1:20

We pray this in our Litany service. “ By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation ; by thy holy Nativity and Circumcision…Good Lord, deliver us.”  The word Incarnation means to “ be made flesh.”  That is the virgin birth.

So today we should feel the mystery of this wonderful time. Let us like Mary look Gabriel in the face , and see an angel.  Let us believe that with God all things are possible, and “with God nothing will be impossible.” 1:37

2.  Attitude of Reverence .  Our attitudes are important.  Mary’s response was an attitude of reverence.  V. 34, “ Then Mary said to the angel, ‘ How can this be, since I know not a man?’ “ God knew what He was doing when He chose Mary. “ Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” Or Kjv , better “ Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God.”

Mary did not know how it could happen, and she was puzzled, but she trusted God.

We must also overcome our fears. “ I will overcome my crippling fears with a creative fear of God expressed with awe and wonder, adoration and faithful obedience. He is the only Person I have to please.” Rev. Lloyd Ogilivie in his book on fear.

HOW CAN THIS BE? We often ask that in life…we do not know what is happening and we ask God what He is doing.  I know some of us have faced some tremendous crises in our life. Addictions, for example in our households.  We don’t know how to help people. So we ask, “ How can this be?” How can the God in whom I trusted and love put us through such trials of life?  Is there any reason at all for the seeming tragedies of our world that don’t add up in our math?  HOW CAN THIS BE?

Take a firm footing in God! “ The way I prepare myself for dark times ,” says Dave Dorpat , pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Geneva , Illinois is “ to get my relationship with the Lord in order. When that’s solid, I know I’m on the Rock , and like the Psalmist says, ‘ Ten thousand may fall at my right or left, but the Lord is with me.’ “

Scott Peck writes in The Road Less Traveled: “

Life is difficult.  This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.  Once we truly know that life is difficult---once we truly understand and accept it—then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

And then the “  ‘How shall this be’s v. 34 ‘of our life become the ‘ Let it be to me according to your word’ “ v. 38.

Mary’s attitude of reverence yielded to God.

3. and finally, “ Yielded to God”

“Even yet the Incarnation was not accomplished; there wanted the consent of Mary to be the agent in its fulfillment “  as someone said.

Vs. 38 , Then Mary said, “ behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word.”

In his autobiography , Roger Staubach tells of the time he was asked by a reporter,” What’s your ultimate goal in life?” “ My ultimate goal in life is beyond this life,” Staubach told him. “ It’s going to heaven.” Then he added, “ All your passes are completed in heaven.” “ What about defensive backs?” the reporter came back”  “ There are no defensive backs up there.”

Cardiologist Robert Eliot of the University of Nebraska gave some advice on how to cope with stress:” Rule no. 1 is don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule no. 2 is “ It is all small stuff.”  “ And if you can’t fight or flee, flow.”

In speaking of this Lloyd Ogilvie in his book  Making Stress Work for You says there is another alternative----“ discovering the loving, forgiving, reconciling , or transforming thing God wants to perform in and through us and others cooperating with Him in making it happen.”

This is how we turn the “how can this be” in our lives into the “ Let it be to me according to your Word.” We yield our lives and our wills to God.

As we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord, let us lovingly meditate on these lessons and the attitude of Mary , the Mother of our Lord.  Mystery in an attitude of reverence , yielded to God.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.