Hopes and Dreams

This is the message given in Onida and Agar Sunday, December 16.  Scriptures used are Luke 1:26-45, Luke 2:8-20, and Matthew 2:13-15.

We’ve been talking about the people who were waiting for that first Christmas to come. Today, we’re going to look at one of the main characters in the Christmas story. We’re going to look at Mary.

At first, of course, Mary was not waiting for the first Christmas at all. She was waiting to be married to Joseph soon. She was probably thinking about their wedding. She was probably making plans for their life together, thinking about where they’d live, dreaming about what they’d do, the children they’d have, the life they would lead. Then, suddenly, the angel Gabriel shows up and tells Mary that before she’s married, she’s going to have a baby, a son. She’s not going to have just any baby, though. This baby she’s going to have will be great. He’ll be called Son of the most high. God will give him the throne of David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end.

And all of Mary’s plans and hopes and dreams were up in smoke. This was going to change everything. And not necessarily in a good way, at least not for Mary.

Can you even imagine how Mary must have felt? We don’t know how old Mary was, but a lot of people think she probably fairly young. Many say a teenager, maybe not even in her upper teens. To see an angel would be stunning enough. Then, to have that angel tell her that she’s going to have a baby when she’s not married yet. That would’ve been pretty stunning, too. But then, all the rest of it. All this stuff about how great her son is going to be.

I wonder if Mary was really even able to comprehend what the angel was telling her. Would you? Can we even begin to understand what that would be like? What would you think if this happened to you? Would you think you were dreaming? Would you think you were seeing things? Would you think you’d gone crazy?

This was certainly not the way Mary wanted or expected things to go. It probably did not make a lot of sense to her. But, somehow, Mary accepted what had happened to her. Not only did she accept it, she agreed to it. She put her plans and hopes and dreams aside. But then came the waiting. Nine months of it, of course. Waiting, and thinking, and wondering, and praying.

She must have been scared to death. She had Joseph, of course. We’ll talk about him next week, but Joseph stayed with Mary through this. Did anyone else? Did her family accept her? Elizabeth did. We’re told about that. But what about the rest of her family: her mother, her father, any siblings she may have had? Did they believe Mary was telling the truth about what had happened? Did they support her? We don’t know.

Nine months of waiting. Nine months of worrying. Nine months of wondering. Nine months of thinking about this child, the Son of God, that she was carrying.

What do you suppose she thought about? Probably all sorts of things. I’ll bet she wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. Wouldn’t you? I mean, probably every mother wants everything to be absolutely perfect for her children anyway. Add to that the fact that you know this child is going to be the Son of God. Again, she probably had all kinds of plans, all kinds of dreams. She probably knew exactly where she wanted the birth to take place. She probably planned exactly where she and Joseph would raise Jesus. She probably planned exactly how she and Joseph were going to do it. For nine months, she planned it out, thinking of every possible detail, wanting to get everything as close to perfect as she possibly could

And then, shortly before Mary is going to give birth, Joseph tells her that they’ve got to take a trip. They’ve got to go to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was eighty miles away. Today we think of eighty miles as not much, but they had to walk it. At least Joseph did. We’re told that Mary was able to ride on a donkey. Think about that. Nine months pregnant, and having to ride eighty miles on a donkey. Wondering when they would get there. Wondering what would happen when they did. Then, they get there, and they have no place to stay. They have to go out into the barn with the animals.

And that’s where Jesus was born. After nine months of waiting, nine months of dreaming, nine months of Mary wanting the birth of the Son of God to absolutely perfect, all of Mary’s plans and dreams were up in smoke. Again. The Son of God was born in a dirty, smelly barn with dirty, smelly animals.

Mary must have been so disappointed. I mean, she was obviously thrilled that the birth had gone well. She was glad that her baby was born healthy and that everything seemed to be okay. But still, when we’re told Mary "pondered these things", I’d bet this was one of the things she pondered. This was not the way she had wanted or expected things to go. It probably did not make a lot of sense to her. She probably wondered if she was up to raising a child at all, much less raising the Son of God.

She probably vowed to make up for it, though. She probably though, "Just wait until we get back to Nazareth. Then things will get back on track. The birth may not have gone right, but things will be all right once we get back home." Then Joseph came to talk to her again. He tells Mary they cannot go home, at least right now. They’ll have to wait. Instead, for now, they have to go to Egypt for their own safety. And one more time, Mary’s plans and hopes and dreams were shattered.

Nothing about these events went the way Mary wanted it to. She had waited, and she had planned, and nothing went the way she had planned it. Nothing went the way Mary thought it should go. And yet, somehow, it all went the way God had planned it. It all went the way God wanted it to go. In fact, at this point, we really cannot imagine these things going any other way.

In our lives, you and I make lots of plans, too. We have lots of hopes and dreams about our futures. We have lots of hopes and dreams about the futures of our children and our grandchildren, too. Those of us who don’t have children, have hopes and dreams for our nieces and nephews, or our grand-nieces and grand-nephews. We wait, and we plan, and we hope. We know exactly how we want things to go.

There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s natural. At the same time, though, we need to be ready for God to come along and change it all, just like God did with Mary. We need to be ready to accept the fact that God’s plans for our lives may not be the same as our plans for our lives. God’s plans for the lives of our children and grandchildren, our nieces and nephews, our grand-nieces and grand-nephews, may not be the same as our plans, either.

You and I make lots of plans, and then we wait, and sometimes our plans come true, but a lot times they don’t. Our plans don’t come true for lots of reasons. Sometimes it’s because our plans were not very good to begin with. Sometimes it’s because life just got in the way. But sometimes it’s because, while our plans may have been all well and good, they just were not the same as God’s plans. God has another plan for us, one that we did not want or expect. Maybe one that does not make a lot of sense to us.

That’s when we have to make a choice. There are various things we could do, just as there are various things Mary could have done. We can refuse to go along with God’s plan, just as Mary could’ve refused. After all, I doubt that God would’ve wanted Jesus to be born to someone who did not want to accept him. In fact, God probably would not have chosen Mary in the first place if she was the kind to do that. Mary could have refused to go along with what God wanted, just as we can refuse to go along with what God wants for us. God always gives us that choice.

We can try to force things to go our way, just as Mary could’ve tried to force things to go her way. She could’ve refused to go to Bethlehem. She could’ve refused to go to Egypt. She could’ve insisted on following her plans for Jesus and given birth in Nazareth. The thing is, though, that would’ve had pretty bad consequences. That could’ve gotten them arrested. It could’ve gotten Jesus killed.

When we try to force things to go our way, there usually are bad consequences, too. Still, God always gives us that choice, too. God encourages us to follow, but God never forces us. We can go our own way if that’s what we choose to do.

Or, we can go along with God’s plan. We can say, as Mary did, "I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your word." We can forget about our own plans, and instead follow God’s plans for our lives and for the lives of our children. We can say, "God, this is not what I expected. This is not what I wanted. This does not make any sense to me. But God, I am your servant. I’ll trust you. May it be to me according to your word."

It’s a tough choice. I’m not pretending it’s not. It was a tough choice for Mary, and it’s a tough choice for us. It’s a choice that takes a lot of courage. It’s a choice that takes a lot of faith. It’s a choice that takes a lot of trust.

Mary was able to make that choice. She was able to trust God even when she did not understand and even when things did not make sense. And God made things work out. They did not work out the way Mary wanted them to go, but they went the way God wanted them to go.

God will do that for us, too. If we can trust God even when we don’t understand and even when things don’t make sense, God will make things work out. They may not go the way we want them to go, but they will go the way God wants them to go.