SURPRISE! (Luke 1.26-38)

 

Now don’t tell anyone, because I have a reputation to keep. But I love Christmas. This is my third Christmas as an ordained person. Before I was ordained I worried that I would be unable to celebrate Christmas. I would end up being bitter, and busy.

The way I celebrate Christmas is different. Christmas time is certainly much less relaxing than it was. I don’t get time off like many others; I do have to go to lots of things I don’t want to go to, like church.

The core of Christmas hasn’t changed for me. That sense of love. The incarnation of Jesus still happens, and I still get to eat Christmas Dinner! Back of the net! But now I have an excellent excuse to have it cooked for me. Oh, I’m working, I couldn’t possibly come to you. So in some ways Christmas is better.

I’ve discovered Christmas in a very different way, and deepened my knowledge and sense of what it means. That’s been a gift and a surprise.

This time of year is all about gifts and surprises. It’s certainly been a year of surprises hasn’t it! What a year it’s been! Can anyone remember January?

It seems wherever we go, we’re preoccupied with the gifts and surprises of Christmas.

We ponder, did she get me that thing I asked for? Did he get the hint that I dropped fifteen thousand times about the thing I want, or will it be socks again?

Remember when you could meet up with your friends and family without any fear? Being in this situation has been a surprise, and it’s certainly been dangerous, but has it been a gift?

For Mary like us, the surprise she received was dangerous and it certainly was a gift. I wonder how you would’ve felt if you were Mary?

Frightened perhaps? It’s not everyday an angel comes and greets you. Unless you come to church every week, then you see at least two, me and Paul.

She was certainly confused by what was going on. Imagine being told that you were to bare God’s child. What a surprise for her. What a gift. But what danger.

Childbirth in those times was the most dangerous thing a woman would do. Infant mortality and death during birth were very high. Mary’s life would be turned upside down. It must have worried her, she was to marry Joseph, she had her life all planned out. How, how was she going to explain this to Joseph? Would she survive the shame of it all, having a baby outside of wedlock, she would be called a whore.  

An ordinary probably teenage woman. She wasn’t rich or powerful, yet God chose her. What a gift and a surprise.

This sets the birth and incarnation of Jesus apart from any other incarnation story.

God chose the poor, the powerless, the normal to be parents to His child. To fulfil His promises through an ordinary Palestinian peasant. It’s certainly not the place you’d expect the king of kings to be born.

How amazing is that? That the creator of the universe, chose an ordinary woman from a downtrodden and oppressed people to bare himself. It’s a wonderful mystery and a powerful reminder of what God can do with us.

We might be ordinary. But God makes us extraordinary and powerful.

Mary gives us the biggest gift, the fact that she would sacrifice everything in order to do God’s will, to be the barer of God, to bring salvation from the mountaintops to the bottom of the sea, to all, to everyone, forever! How awesome is she! How right it is to call her blessed among women.

She trusts God, and entrusts her body to God. She is called to do something amazing. She trusts where God will lead her. She accepts God’s gift and surprise.

In the way the nativity is told, we sometimes forget what a revolutionary story it is. It’s not a lovely tale about a nice little silent baby, born in cow shed. It’s all about politics, muck and the filth of human conspiracy. God would choose to be one of us. The He was born into The Poor. A normal couple went where God wanted them to go.

Perhaps this year, with all that’s happened, with the trauma of it all, we need to reconnect with the story. Go deeper into it.

We’re not going to celebrate in the normal way, perhaps we need to rediscover what Christmas truly means to us.

So this is our last stop on the journey. The final Sunday of Advent. In the words of those great 20^th Century mystics and spiritualists ‘Europe’ It’s the final countdown! Advent is almost over. This season of thinking, reflecting and waiting in joyful anticipation of God’s arrival as Jesus.

Perhaps in this final part of Advent we need to be like Mary. Giving of ourselves, trusting in God, putting aside what we want for the good of others.

This year we may need to scale down our celebrations. We’re all finding this stressful and perhaps we’re disappointed. But Mary’s gift will still arrive.

In times of total darkness it takes the light of just one candle to banish it.  That light is coming, and it will shine.

We believe in a God of gifts and surprises. Who gives himself to us, and gives us more than we can imagine. AS Mary said ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’

May that always be our prayer too. Maranatha, Amen Come Lord Jesus.

Preached at 10:30am Holy Communion 

St John the Baptist Old Lakenham, Norwich.