Luke 1:26-38

“Favored by God”

Today, we begin a series of sermons on Luke’s telling of the Christmas story. Every year, it is a challenge for those of us who are preachers to try to re-tell the Christmas story in ways that we can hear it fresh and new, because the passages are words that we have all heard many times. Yet, even though these passages we will be looking at during this series are passages that you have heard many times before, I want to invite you to listen with your heart and your mind to see what God is saying to us through these familiar passages. We’re going to be seeking to listen with fresh ears.

Today’s sermon is a simple, three-point sermon. Let’s begin by looking at the first point: God chooses the unlikely. This is a familiar theme in the Bible. If you go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, you will find that God constantly chose people who would be the least likely to be chosen to do great things.

God decides that he is going to form a new people that would be uniquely known as His people … a new nation that we know as Israel. And how does God do this? God starts with an elderly couple, who are so old that they can’t have children anymore. God tells them that they’re going to have a child and out of their loins, God is going to bring forth a whole new nation. Now, how unlikely is that?

Then, we come to the figure of Moses. God’s people have been enslaved for 400 years and now God needs someone to go and demand that the great Pharaoh set his people free. But who does God choose? Not the great orators of the day. He chooses a man named Moses who is living in the wilderness, shepherding goats. He’s a fugitive from the Law and he stutters. How unlikely is that?

When God chooses to bring forth a Royal Line from the people of Israel, who does he call? He calls upon a woman named Ruth. But Ruth is a Moabite. She is not even an Israelite! And she has lost her husband, so she has no one to produce a child with. Yet, God uses her to bring forth the Royal Line of David.

When we come to David, you probably remember the story in 1 Samuel 16, where God sends Samuel the prophet to anoint a new king over Israel. He goes to Jesse’s house in Bethlehem and he asks to see his sons. So, Jesse brings forth his eldest son … a strong and handsome young man. Samuel thinks that this must be the one. But God says, “No.” Jesse brings forth 6 more of his sons, but God rejected each one.

So finally, Samuel says, “Do you have any more boys?” Jesse said, “Well, I do have one more, but he’s the runt of the litter. He’s outside tending the sheep, but he’s just a kid!” Samuel says, “Bring him in here.” And when he brings this young boy in, you get the feeling that Samuel is scratching his head too, wondering, “You’re kidding, Lord. This one?” But God says, “Yes, this is the one.”

And I love how God tells us in 1 Samuel 16:7 about how he judges people. This is how God makes decisions on who he uses: “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’”

This is a theme that we see throughout the Scriptures. God seems to choose the underdogs or the most unlikely candidates to fulfill his purposes. And this is what we see in Mary. Mary was a most unlikely candidate to bear the Son of God. So, we have to wonder, “What was God looking for when he chose Mary?”

I mean, when you look at Scripture and all the sources written about Mary in later years … nowhere do we get the image of Mary being voted as “homecoming queen” at Nazareth High School. In all likelihood, she was a wall-flower. Not that she was unattractive, but she was not someone that all the guys were clamoring for either. She was probably uneducated, because most girls in that time were uneducated. She came from the wrong side of the tracks by society’s standards. She came from a tiny, little obscure village called Nazareth. You remember how when Philip told Nathanael about Jesus, Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” And Mary was a very young girl. The average lifetime of a woman in that time was around 30 years old. So, once a woman entered into puberty and was able to bear children, she would be engaged and married. So, Mary was probably around 13 years old.

So, what was God looking for? I mean, there was nothing special about this girl, except that God was looking for a heart that had certain characteristics that God is constantly looking for. And these characteristics are spelled out throughout the Scriptures. One particular list is found in Colossians 3:12-14 … where Paul says this: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

In this passage and others like it, this tells us, not only what characteristics God is looking for and who God can use, but it also tells us something about who God does not typically use. Because if you lack “compassion” … if you can’t have “empathy” for other people … if you are not “kind”, but rather hurtful towards other people … if you’re not “patient” with people … if you find it hard to “forgive” and offer grace to others … it is hard for God to choose you and use you. God does not choose people based on their ACT Scores or their outward appearances. God looks at the heart and asks, “Do you have a heart that I can use?” This is what we need to hear from this story.

You may be looking at yourself and thinking, “What do I have to offer God? I don’t have any special skills or abilities. I’m not the smartest person. What do I have to offer?” And what I want to say to you, is if you are in that place where you are wondering that, then you are in a wonderful place to be used by God. Because God is looking for people who are asking, “What do I have to offer?” God says, “If you have a willing heart, that’s all that I need. I’ll supply everything else.” I love that about God.

The second thing that we learn from this passage is that God accomplishes the inexplicable. God can accomplish the unexplainable. Most of us want things to make sense. We want the world to be ordered. We see the natural laws that God established for this world to work and we’re expecting God to work within those natural laws to accomplish his purposes. Yet sometimes, God doesn’t work according to our preconceived notions.

Generally, God does work within the laws that God himself established. But every once in a while, God says to us, “Don’t limit what I can do. I can do things that you can’t imagine, if you’ll just let me.” And every once in a while, God surprises us.

I find this true in this passage of Scripture. Even people like Mary and Joseph struggled with things that were “inexplicable”. I mean, sometimes believing that God is actually going to do some of the things he says he is going to do is just hard to believe.

So, when the Angel of Lord, Gabriel, comes to Mary and says, “Mary, you’ve found favor with God and so, you’re going to bring forth a child, and that child will be the Son of the Most High God. He will be great and he will rule on the throne of his ancestor, David. And of his reign, there shall be no end.” The text indicates that Mary is in a bit of shock as she hears this, because, she doesn’t even wrestle with the idea that she is going to give birth to the long awaited Messiah. Instead, she’s hung up on the fact that she is going to have a baby at all. She seems to miss the part about how this child is the one the prophets foretold and he will reign forever and ever.

Now, I’m thinking if Marie and I had been at the OBGYN’s office when the doctor came out and told us that we were going to have a baby and he told us, “Your baby is going to be the Messiah! Your child is going to rule over all the nations of the world and there is going to be no end to your child’s reign!” I’d be thinking that the doctor had lost a few screws along the way.

But Mary doesn’t question this. What she questions is the basic premise. She says, “Wait a minute. How can I have a baby? I’ve not been with a man. I’m a virgin.” This is something that is inexplicable. Mary is old enough to know that this isn’t how things work. It works by being with a man and then you have a baby. But she hasn’t been with a man, so how can she have a baby?

And what I appreciate about this, is that Mary is the first one to have questions and doubts about the “inexplicable” virgin birth. The second person who has questions about this is a fellow by the name of Joseph. Mary goes to Joseph and tries to explain all this, but what we find in Matthew’s Gospel is that Joseph says, “I don’t buy this at all. Something fishy is going on here.” It’s not until an angel appears to Joseph in a dream that he is convinced to believe it and marry Mary.

So, this was an inexplicable thing. And if you do not believe that God is able to do things that are out of the ordinary, then you’re stuck with not believing this story. Somewhere along the way we have to allow for the fact that God can do some things that we simply cannot understand. Most times, God does operate in certain ways, but on rare occasions, God steps in and does something that really messes with our heads.

We look at Abraham and Sarah. It was physically impossible for them to have a baby! But guess what? They had a baby. We see where Moses has managed to convince Pharaoh to set his people free and they are marching across the desert. But Pharaoh changes his mind and comes after them. The Israelites find themselves pinned up against the Red Sea. What are they going to do? Again, God does the inexplicable by parting the sea. We find David going up against the giant Philistine, Goliath. Everyone was laughing at him. But David takes one little rock and slays him. Every so often, God does something that we simply can’t explain. And some people struggle with this.

Many have struggled over the idea of a “virgin birth”. Throughout the centuries, this has been a lightning rod for theological debate. Some, believing that God only operates within the laws that he has established, have tried to explain the virgin birth away, saying that it wasn’t really a virgin birth … it was only a metaphorical way of pointing out who Jesus was. Even today, in a recent magazine article, one author describes the virgin birth as “an antique absurdity”. And that’s what it feels like to a lot of people.

But I would say this about the virgin birth. To those who would ask the question: “Do we have to believe in the virgin birth in order to be a Christian?” I would pose the question: “If Matthew 1 and Luke 1 were not in our New Testament, would you still be a Christian?” I would still be a Christian even if Matthew 1 and Luke 1 were not there. I didn’t become a Christian because I understood the virgin birth. I became a Christian because I fell in love with Jesus. I listened to what he said, and I saw what he did in my life and in others, and I believed he was the Son of God, and I put my faith in him.

But Matthew 1 and Luke 1 are in our New Testaments. Clearly, you don’t have to understand this in order to be a Christian. Paul doesn’t mention this in any of his writings. But, here’s the question I want to pose: Is it really that hard to believe, that the God who created the universe by speaking a word could touch the womb of Mary and do something that we can’t completely understand? To me, that doesn’t seem that hard to believe.

Part of what I recognize, is that we need to be willing to embrace a bit of mystery in life. Most of us want to be able to explain everything. But there needs to be room for some mystery in life. When you think you have everything figured out … watch out!

I remember in C.S. Lewis’ children’s book, The Chronicles of Narnia, one of my favorite phrases in the book is when they describe Absolom the lion. They constantly describe him by saying, “He is not a tame lion.” Well, God is not a tame God and he will not neatly fit into your box just because you have one. Yes, we can have questions and we struggle with things. Mary and Joseph were the first to struggle with this. But at the same time, there has to be room for mystery and majesty and miracles. We have to allow room for God to do things that we can’t completely understand.

I believe in the virgin birth. I think it is a beautiful way for God to express to us who this man, Jesus really is. It is the mystery of the Incarnation … that God dwelt among us somehow, as both divine and human, making what was unexplainable and untouchable … Emmanuel, God with us.

Paul describes this in Ephesians 3:20 when he says, “God has the power to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” We need to remember this. When we pray, we know that God normally operates in within the laws that he has established. But it is okay to pray for God to something out of the ordinary.

So, I want to encourage you to be open to God doing some things we might not expect. The way the Angel explain this to Mary is very simple. He said, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

The third thing we learn from this passage is something that is very important for us to hear. God’s favor is at times difficult to bear. Notice that when Mary first hears that she is going to bear God’s Son, she is not filled with joy at this point. When we think of Mary hearing the Angel’s news, we think of “The Magnificat” where Mary says, “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!” But you need to understand that there was some time between these two events. The Magnificat happens when Mary sees her cousin Elizabeth, which could have happened weeks or even months after the announcement. When it is first made known to her, Mary is perplexed and afraid. And so the Angel has to say to her, “Don’t be afraid.”

I think we can all understand this. God had found favor with Mary, but “this favor” came with “a calling” that was scary. She was a young woman that was going to have to try to explain to other people what had happened. In that day, if a young woman was engaged to a man and she became pregnant with a child that was not his, she could be stoned to death. Her parents might actually be the ones to call for the child to be stoned to death. So, this “favor” and “calling” began a difficult journey for Mary that didn’t end until she stood at the foot of the Cross.

The interesting thing that we find in the Bible, is that when God’s favor is upon you, that favor comes with “a calling”. And God’s favor doesn’t mean that your life is going to have no more difficulties or challenges. Instead, the Bible says that when God’s favor is upon us, He calls us to something that will be difficult and challenging.

Abraham was called to leave his home where he has lived his whole life, to live as a stranger in a foreign land. And he was called to do this at an elderly age. Moses is called upon to face Pharaoh and to risk his very life. David was chased by King Saul for a decade … trying to kill him before he became king. During this time, David writes many of the Psalms of Lament we find in our Bible.

God’s favor and God’s calling will require challenge. Jesus told us this when he said, “If any would be my disciples, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” So, following God’s calling in our lives means that we are going to take a path that is hard sometimes. It will be “the road less traveled” sometimes.

And this is not an easy message for us to hear. Because, many Christians today, especially in our country, think that life is primarily about gaining our personal happiness. We’re all about the pursuit of happiness. And yet, happiness is never an appropriate goal for our lives. It is a by-product of doing other things. Our aim is to pursue the life that God wants us to pursue and to do the things that God wants us to do. And when we do this, along the way we find his “peace that passes understanding”; we find “a joy unspeakable and full of glory”; and we find “a gladness of heart”; but not all the time.

How many times did Moses say, “Lord, I don’t want to lead these people. They are a stiff-necked people!” How many times did David say, “Lord, I don’t want to be king if this is what it means.” How many times must Mary have said, “Lord, I don’t want this burden to bear. Let someone else be the mother of the Christ Child.”

And I’m guessing that you have felt that way at times too. There have been times when you’ve wanted to opt out, because it was too hard. But God said, “No, keep going!” Or God was calling you to do something that you really didn’t want to do and you cried out, “God, please don’t make me do this.” But God said, “This is where I’m calling you to go.”

When I look back over my life, the moments where I have grown the most and experienced God’s presence the greatest have been those moments when I did not want to do it, yet God called me. And when I moved forward, I experienced God at work in the most profound ways.

And this is what we need to be reminded of when we read this story. In the end, Mary teaches us something very important. Even though she says to the Angel, “I don’t understand how this can happen, and I’m afraid, and I don’t understand what this means … but here I am, the servant of the Lord. May it be with me according to your Word.” And it was in pursuing this that she ultimately found peace and happiness. It was when she trusted in God’s goodness and promise to be with her. It was when she laid her burdens upon the Lord, yielded her life to him, and stepped out in faith obedient to His call upon her life, that she found God’s peace. And it is pursuing God’s call in our lives, that we ultimately find God’s peace and happiness.

So, God uses the unlikely. God does the inexplicable. And while God’s favor is sometimes difficult to bear, he always comes alongside of us, working in and through us. And in the end we find the very thing our hearts are looking for, when we say to him, “Here I am Lord, your servant. May it be with me according to your Word.”