Amazing Faith

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on December 3, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Luke 1:26-38.

            What we read today is one of the most-loved Bible passages of the Christmas season.  It’s one of my favorites, too.  It’s a story of a miracle, of course.  It’s a story of an ordinary woman being called to do something extraordinary.  But at its heart, this is a story of great faith and of great trust.

            Let’s look at Mary.  Now, you will read in some places the unequivocal statement that Mary was a young woman, really still a girl, barely into her teens.  And that’s possible.  It would not have been uncommon for a young, teenage girl to be engaged to be married at that time.  But we have no real way to know that.  She certainly was not elderly, because she was still alive more than thirty years later when Jesus died on the cross.  But there’s nothing that says Mary could not have been in her twenties or even in her thirties.  We simply do not know.

            But regardless of her age, here she is.  For all that we can tell, she was an ordinary person.  We’re not given any indication that her family was wealthy or important or special in any way.  The one thing we’re told is that she was a relative of Elizabeth, who was about to become the mother of John the Baptist.  But that’s it.  Again, as far as we can tell, Mary was simply an ordinary person, with nothing at all remarkable about her.

            So she’s going about her daily business, and suddenly an angel appears in front of her.  And the angel says, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.”

            We’re told that Mary was greatly troubled at his words, and wondered what kind of greeting that might be.  I would think she was all that and then some.  Can you imagine how you’d feel?  You’re doing whatever you do every day, and all of a sudden an angel appears?  And apparently there was no doubt in Mary’s mind that this was an angel.  We don’t know how she knew, but she clearly knew.  Her mind must have been spinning.  What in the world is going on?  What does an angel want with me?  Why would I be highly favored?  What does that even mean, that I’m highly favored?  What’s this all about?

            The angel apparently knows what Mary’s feeling, because the angel goes on to tell Mary not to be afraid because she’s found favor with God.  And the angel then says the words we hear every year around this time.  “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

            Mary’s head must have still been spinning.  Can you imagine how you’d feel?  An angel comes along, out of the blue, and tells you that you’re going to have a son.  And not only that, but your son is going to be incredible.  He will be called great and the Son of the Most High.  He’ll have the throne of David.  He will reign forever.

            Now, if Mary believed this--and since she apparently knew she was talking to an angel she probably did believe it--this had to be incredible news.  But still, imagine it.  How would you feel if you were told that your son, who was not even born yet, was going to be called great, the Son of the Most High?  That he’ll have a throne and will reign forever?  Angel or not, you’d have to wonder how in the world this was all going to happen.

            And Mary wonders about all that.  But she goes a step before that.  She says, hey, wait a minute.  You’re talking about me having a son, and I’m a virgin.  How is this going to happen?

            The angel, of course, answers with some more familiar words.  “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

            And then comes the part that always amazes me.  Mary answers, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.”

            To me, this is more amazing than the virgin birth.  I mean, the virgin birth is a miracle, and it is amazing.  But as Christians, we know that God can do amazing things.  God can do miracles.  I don’t mean to take anything away from God, but God’s in the miracle business.  It’s what God does.  It’s who God is.

            But Mary.  Mary was an ordinary person.  And she is told all these incredible, unbelievable things by an angel.  And I don’t know that she really understood any of it.  She almost certainly did not understand how all this stuff could possibly happen.  I don’t imagine she knew all the hardships that awaited her, either.  And yet, she goes along with it.  And she does so willingly, obediently, with no complaint whatsoever.  She says, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.”  That’s pretty amazing.  That’s an amazing faith.

            What if Mary had said no?  Have you ever thought about that?  Because I assume she could have.  There’s nothing in the Bible reading that indicates God was going to force Mary to do this even if she did not want to.  What if she’d said no?  Would the angel have done more to try to convince her?  Would the angel have crossed Mary’s name off the list and gone on to a second choice?  What would’ve happened?

            Well, we’ll never know.  And while I do believe Mary could’ve said no, I also believe she was chosen by God because God knew she was not going to say no.  God knew that Mary was the right choice.  And while I’m sure Mary had all kinds of good qualities that made her the right choice, one of the main one was the amazing faith Mary had.  Mary, this ordinary person with extraordinary faith, would be willing to say yes to something she did not understand.  And she would never regret her choice.  No matter what happened to her, no matter how hard the road was, no matter what other people thought or did, she would still do what God wanted her to do.  She would trust God enough to follow God down any road God wanted her to go, no matter where that road might lead.

            And it was probably not an easy road.  We know the story of Jesus’ birth in a stable, but there’d have been a lot of tough things before that.  How’s Joseph going to react to this story?  Is he going to believe it?  Would you?  If you were a guy engaged to a woman, and she tells you she’s pregnant, and you know the child cannot be yours, would you believe that she had never been unfaithful to you, that this was a child that was being born of the Holy Spirit?  

            And what about the rest of your family?  What about your friends?  What about all the people in town?  Every time you walk down the street, hearing the whispers, being shunned by all the so-called “respectable” people.  Maybe even telling some of them your story, and having none of them ever believe you.  Basically being an outcast among people you’d known all your life.  That would be an incredibly hard thing.

            But Mary did it.  She put up with all of it.  And as far as we can tell, she never regretted her decision to do it.  She had put her complete faith and trust in God.  She knew that this was all happening because she was following God’s will.  And she knew that God would take care of her, and make everything work out the way it was supposed to, no matter how hard things might get.  Through it all, Mary continued to put her complete faith and trust in God.  She continued to have her amazing faith.

            But when you think about it, what Mary did is what each of us is called to do.  We may not have a conversation with an angel.  But we are called to follow God’s will.  We are called to put our complete faith and trust in God.  You and I are called to have amazing faith, too.

            And we’re called to do that no matter what God’s will is.  We’re called to do that even if God’s will is something incredible, something that seems impossible.  We’re called to do that even if we don’t really understand what God’s will is.  We’re called to do that even if we don’t understand how hard things are going to be.  We’re called to do that even if things get really, really hard.  We’re still called to follow God’s will.  We’re still called to go down whatever road God leads us down.  And we’re still called to trust that, if God is leading us down a road, then it must be the right one.  We’re called to continue down that road as long as God wants us to, no matter where that road takes us.  We’re called to put our complete faith and trust in God.  You and I are called to have amazing faith.

            It’s not an easy thing to do.  Because God sometimes does call us to do some hard things.  God never promises that our lives will be easy if we follow God.  Mary’s life was not easy.  Jesus’ life was not easy.  Most of the greatest heroes of the Bible led lives that were not easy.  But no matter how hard it got, they continued to follow God’s will.  They continued to put their complete faith and trust in God.

            Mary was an ordinary person.  But she had an amazing faith.  She put her complete faith and trust in God.  She followed the road God led her down, no matter how hard it got.  And she did so willingly, never regretting her choice to say yes to God.

            You and I are ordinary people.  But we can put our complete faith and trust in God, too.  We can follow the road God leads us down, no matter how hard it gets.  And we can do so willingly, too, never regretting our choice to say yes to God.  You and I can have what Mary had.  We can have amazing faith.