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“Nothing is too wonderful to be true.
Nothing is so holy it’s unreachable.
And nothing is as sacred and wondrous to God as we are.
God loves us beyond all understanding. I say it all the time and here I am, saying it again!
But this fact, that we are wonderful in God’s eyes, is really difficult for us to believe and to accept.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus who takes center stage today, is a really good teacher. In today’s readings, Mary schools us on graceful acceptance of the incomprehensible Love that is God.
Mary said yes, she walked with faith, she journeyed in trust and, even though she had nary a clue what was going to happen, she responded to God’s beckoning, to God’s reaching out, to God’s Love taking on flesh in that Bethlehem barn.
Mary was receptive, she made room for God in her life and when God called, she answered.
Now before you say, “well sure, that was Mary….there’s no way I could do that,” consider this:
Mary, contrary to generations of theologians who have tried to make her more than human, was a young girl who had no remarkable pedigree, no history of exhibiting outrageous faith and who was, from an ordinary family.
So, why did God choose her?
Because she was ordinary, and ordinary humans—people like you and me, people like Mary and Joseph---are absolutely adored by God.
This is the true miracle, the true wonder of the story of Jesus’ birth: it happened to regular people.
Regular people were chosen to bear and raise God in the Flesh.
Regular people who responded with amazing, astounding and outlandish grace, but were regular people nonetheless.
I suppose we could say that God knew Mary would say yes.
I suppose we could say that God knew Joseph wouldn’t throw Mary to the curb when he found out about the pregnancy.
I suppose we could say that God had this whole thing planned out, like some type of masterful puppeteer, but there’s no evidence to suggest this to be true.
Rather there is a preponderance of evidence to suggest that God approaches us and asks us---all the time---to be the bearers of God’s wondrous light to the entire world and that, those of us who say “yes” are in for the ride of our lives.
Noah, Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, Moses, Aaron and Miriam, David and Nathan, Ruth and Naomi---these are not people of extraordinary moral character or tremendous faith when God reaches out to them. As a matter of fact, most of them tried their darndest to, at best, ignore and, at worst, reject God’s overtures. But, regardless of their hesitancy, regardless of their utter humanity, each and every one of them ended up being servants of God, bearers of Good News, prophetic witnesses of God’s abundant, expansive and remarkable Love.
This is what we’re all called to do and to be.
God doesn’t choose us for who we are at our worst moments, God chooses us for who we can be at our best. And God knows that we all---each of us---can be something amazing. Something wonderful. Something prophetic. Because God knows we are—each and every one of us—someONE amazing, someONE wonderful, SomeONE prophetic.
We just need to find our voice, our faith, our trust.
And then we need to
use our voice,
exercise our faith
and exert our trust.
We can learn how to do this, by watching Mary.
Mary asks Gabriel, “How Can this Be?”
Gabriel replies, it can be because you, like all of humanity, is favored by, loved by and longed for by God. And nothing—“NOTHING is impossible with God.”
Mary, HEARING that nothing is impossible with God, BELIEVING that nothing is impossible with God, TRUSTING that nothing is impossible with God simply responds with:
“Here I am Lord. Let it Be according to Your Word.”
She didn’t do a cost benefit analysis. She didn’t consult her business manager or her therapist or her life coach.
She simply said, Here I am Lord. Your servant. Let it Be.
Mary wasn’t any holier than you and me. But, perhaps because of her age, perhaps because she was from a small country town, perhaps because she was so in awe of having an angel visit, or maybe just because she was receptive to wonder, Mary stepped aside and let the Love of God take her over, making her an extraordinary instrument of God.
Although Mary wasn’t any holier than you and me,
she sure was brave.
Not because she had a child before marriage. Not because she stood by Jesus all the days of his life, not even because she said yes. No Mary was brave because she trusted. She had faith and she truly believed that NOTHING was too wonderful, too outrageous, too incomprehensible to be true… even the fact that God can and that God does love each and every one of us enough to name us God’s Favored One.
We’re regular folks who’ve been graced with God’s Favor.
And my Advent wish for each and every one of us is that we accept this favor and learn, by taking baby steps, to trust and to live into it through Faith, accepting that the Love of God isn’t too wonderful to be True, but it is too wonderful to be ignored.
It’s too wonderful to be tossed aside.
It’s too wonderful to be denied.
Mary’s soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. Her spirit rejoices in God her Savior and her wonder is sacred, her trust holy and her example for us?
Priceless.
Nothing is too wonderful to be true, and nothing is too holy to be unreachable and nothing and nobody---is beyond God’s loving embrace.
So, my friends, I invite you to join me in entering the mystery and wonder of Christmas, of the incarnation, of Emmaunuel—God with us---and, taking a page from Mary’s instruction book to open wide our arms and proclaim, Here I am, Lord, Here I am.
Amen.+
***this sermon was preached on Advent 4 in 2011 . When I read the readings for this week and started thinking about what I wanted to say, I looked at other sermons I’ve written on this text. When I read this sermon I realized that, in light of the prophetic joint pastoral letter released by the RC and Episcopal Bishop last week, THIS was what I wanted to say to you this week: trusting in God’s outrageous love for us can lead us all into brave and astounding prophecy. So I offered it again this week, with just a few edits***
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