This is the last in our sermon
series on the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. When we left Mary last week, she was at the
cross. Jesus told a disciple, described
only as “the disciple whom he loved”, to take care of her. And then, Mary watched Jesus die.
We read the story today of the women discovering the
empty tomb and learning that Jesus was no longer dead. But Mary, the mother of Jesus, was not with
them. None of the versions of the story
of the empty tomb say that Mary was there.
Other Marys were there. Mary
Magdalene was there. Mary the mother of
James was there. But Mary the mother of
Jesus was not.
We’re not told how Mary found out that Jesus had
risen. I wish we were. Don’t you?
Don’t you wish we knew how that conversation went? To see Mary at first not understanding, then
maybe not believing, and then finally being convinced that Jesus was no longer
dead, that he had in fact risen and was alive!
That would be an incredible thing. But we don’t get that.
We do see Mary one more time in the Bible. It’s in the first chapter of Acts. Jesus has ascended and gone back to heaven
for the last time. The disciples all
went back to Jerusalem, to the room where they’d been staying. We’re told “They all joined together
constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and
with his brothers.”
And that’s it.
That’s the last time we hear about Mary in the Bible.
We don’t know how long she lived after that. We assume she would’ve seen at least the
start of the work of the apostles. She
would’ve seen Jesus’ message start to spread.
Maybe she even saw enough to know that what Jesus had started was really
going to endure. Maybe she saw enough
that she started to really understand what Gabriel had meant when he said that
Jesus’ kingdom would never end.
I like to think of Mary near the end of her life—and by
the way, you don’t seem able to find any pictures that show Mary as an old
woman—but I like to think of Mary near the end of her life, surrounded by her
other children and her grandchildren, reflecting on the life she’s lived. She probably never did understand why God
would’ve chosen her, of all people, to be the mother of the Savior of the
world. But at that point, she probably
stopped wondering about it. After all,
why she was chosen really did not matter any more. She had been chosen, and she’d done the best
she could.
It was quite a life that she had. She gave birth to the Savior in a barn,
surrounded by a bunch of smelly animals.
She went on the run with Joseph and Jesus for a few years, escaping the
authorities that were out to get them.
She brought Jesus to the point where he was ready to go out on his
own. And then, she let him go. She had to be content to seeing him only once
in a while, when he happened to come back to Nazareth. She had to stand by and watch when he was
arrested and killed, knowing there was nothing she could do about it. And then, the joy of hearing that he’d been
raised from the dead.
There had to be a lot of times where she felt like she
did not really know what she was doing.
Don’t you think? I suppose all
parents feel that way sometimes, like they really don’t know what they’re
doing, but here she was, trying to raise the divine Son of God. How do you do that? How do you discipline him? Do you dare spank the divine Son of God? I’m not suggesting Jesus was a bad kid or
anything, but little kids misbehaving doesn’t make them bad kids. It just makes them kids. But yet, even when you know they’re not bad
kids, you still have to discipline them in some way. How do you do that when you know this is
God’s son?
Well, she did
the best she could, and she trusted God to take it from there. And God did.
Mary played the role she had been given, and she played it as well as
she could. And when her role was
finished, when she had done what she was supposed to do, she left the
stage. And the story went on without
her.
And when you think about it, that’s how it works for all
of us. We go through our lives, and a
lot of times we don’t know what we’re doing.
But we do the best we can, and trust God to take it from there. We play the role we’ve been given, and we
play it as well as we can. Sometimes,
we’re given different roles to play at different stages of our lives. But still, we play them as well as we can,
and trust God to take it from there. And
then, when our role is finished, when we’ve done what we’re supposed to do, we
leave the stage. And the story goes on
without us.
That’s how it’s always been. Think of the history of this church. Think of all the people, both lay people and
clergy, who’ve been important to the history of this church. Each of them had a role to play. They played it as well as they could, trusted
God to take it from there, and then, for one reason or another, they left the
stage, and the story went on without them.
Right now, we’re all here. And each of us has a role to play. Each of us needs to play that role as well as
we can. Then, we need to trust God to
take it from there. Because at some
point—I hope it’s not for a long time, but at some point—we will all leave the
stage, and the story will go on without us.
Maybe that sounds kind of sad. But I don’t think it is. I think, instead, that it’s very hopeful.
The history of this church is a good one. There have been some incredible things that
have happened. They happened because God
worked through some good people to make them happen. It’s important that we recognize that history
and be proud of it.
But there are some incredible things that are happening
right now, too. Onida has made some
wonderful upgrades to its audio/visual equipment, to where it’s as good as any
church in the area. Gettysburg has built
a wonderful addition which is helping in ways that I, at least, never even
thought about when we decided to build it.
In both Onida and Gettysburg, our children’s programs have seen
incredible growth. Even in Agar, the
church still makes solid contributions to missions and is still a community of
loving, caring people who take care of each other and reach out to the
community in every way they can.
Incredible things are happening here, and they’re happening because God
is working through some good people to make them happen.
And I’m convinced that God is just getting started. I’m convinced that God has a lot more
incredible things in store for this church.
It seems to us like this church has been here a long time, and maybe in
human terms it has been, but remember, we’re talking about God here. We’re told that a thousand years are like a
day to God, and this church has been here a lot less than a thousand
years. This church has had some great
days in the past, and it’s having some great days now, but I’m firmly convinced
that its greatest days are still to come.
I’m convinced that God will work through good people to make things
happen in this church that you and I cannot even imagine. The story of this church is nowhere near its
end. In fact, I think it’s still near
the beginning.
Mary played the role she was given to play. She did not know why she’d been chosen to
play that role. She sometimes felt like
she did not know what she was doing. But
God worked through her, and incredible things happened. Mary just saw the beginning of them. She was just a part of a larger story, a
story that’s gone on for two thousand years, a story that will go on for a
number of more years that, quite literally, only God knows.
You and I have been given roles to play. We don’t know what we’ve been chosen to play
those roles. We sometimes feel like we
don’t know what we’re doing. But God
will work through us. And incredible
things will happen. You and I will just
see the beginning of them. We’re part of
a larger story, a story that will go on, again, for a number of more years
that, quite literally, only God knows.
Someday, our role will be finished. We’ll have done what we’re supposed to do,
we’ll all leave the stage, and the story will go on without us. But that’s okay. Because the story will go on, to the honor
and glory of God.
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