[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Advent 4B: “Mary- Speak First, Think Later?” or “Surprise for the Tooth Fairy!”

[Joe Parrish]

Forwarded: 
-------- Original message --------From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org> Date: 12/23/17  3:40 PM  (GMT-05:00) To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org> Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Advent 4B: “Mary- Speak First, Think Later?” or “Surprise for the Tooth Fairy!” 


Dear Friends,

 

I'm back preaching after a 2 week break.  This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “Mary- Speak First,
Think Later?” or “Surprise for the Tooth Fairy!” and deals with all the
lessons.  Here it is: 

 

I’ve got an old story that matches this sermon.  An Ecunet friend was working for Meals on
Wheels.  Occasionally, she would take her
four-year-old daughter on her afternoon rounds. The little girl was unfailingly
intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers
and wheelchairs. One day my friend noticed that her daughter was staring at a
pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As she braced herself for the
inevitable barrage of questions, the child merely turned and whispered, “The
tooth fairy will never believe this!” 
You heard the gospel today, when the angel Gabriel asked Mary if she was
willing to be the mother of Jesus; and you heard her response.  In today’s language, her answer would have
been “Absolutely!”  You know the old
saying, speak first; think later.  After
the angel left her and reality set in, she must have suddenly realized the
situation she was in.  You know how- in
the story about the four-year-old- “the tooth fairy will never believe
this!”  Well that was Mary’s situation as
well- not the tooth fairy; not her family; not her friends; not the
townspeople; and probably not her beloved Joseph.  In our culture, being an unwed mother is no
big thing anymore; but in those days, having a baby out of wedlock often got
you stoned to death.  What was she to
tell all these people when the baby began to show and they asked who the father
was—“I didn’t do anything; it’s God’s baby!” 
And their probably answer: “Oh, really!” 
When you think about it, at first being the mother of the Messiah must
have sounded really wonderful, almost like being the queen mother; but for most
of her life, it would be as Simeon predicted in Luke 2: 35: “You, Mary, will
suffer as though you had been stabbed by a dagger.”

 

The dagger started piercing her soul when she had to
tell Joseph, and he almost put her away privately to spare her death.  She had a brief relief when she went to see
her cousin Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist), but as we must also do- she
couldn’t run away forever; she had to go home and face everybody.  Then there was the trip to Bethlehem (the
city of Bread- where Jesus, the Bread of Life was born); the trip bouncing
give-or-take 50 miles on the back of a donkey; the trip on which her water
probably broke; the trip that resulted in no place to give birth but a barn and
no one to help her but an inexperienced husband (men weren’t allowed in
birthing areas in those days).  Next,
finding a house and building a life with her child and husband, only to be
visited by the wise men and sent by God as a homeless refugee to Egypt, to
escape Herod’s murder of all the Jewish boys two years and younger.  Watch the dagger pierce and twist even
more.  She endured a return to Nazareth,
and then the strangeness of her son. 
When he was twelve, he wasn’t even sorry when he made the family come
all the way back to Jerusalem for him. 
He only said, “Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?!” –
strange way to talk to parents, especially in those days.  Then, when he was a young adult and she asked
him to do something about the lack of wine at a wedding, again- strange words
to a mother: “Mother, what have I to do with you?  My hour has not yet come.”  She watched his popularity grow and then
wane, with people talking about him and wondering if he was crazy.  When she and his brothers finally went to get
him and take him home, he refused to go with them and said, “These who listen
to God’s will are my mother and my brothers and my sisters.”  Ignoring her motherhood must have twisted
that dagger predicted by Simeon a little more. 
Finally, she watched as her beloved firstborn son was beaten and
tortured and crucified naked, between two thieves on a compost heap.  She must have wondered if the angel Gabriel’s
visit had just been a dream or even a devil-trick.  She had to suffer through the hard times,
through Good Friday, to get to Easter. 
But she, like Job, hung in.  Remember
Job’s statement about God: “Even though He slay me; yet shall I trust
Him!”  But after Good Friday comes Easter;
after crucifixion comes resurrection! 
She was there in the upper room when he appeared!  She was mentioned as one of the faithful of
the early church.  Because of her
endurance, we have power for living; grace for dying, and eternal life as our
sure promise. 

 

Where are your struggles?  What
ideas, dreams, plans are you struggling to give birth?  What is causing the dagger to pierce you own
soul and then twist and turn and torture? 
Did you notice Luke 1: 37: “Nothing is impossible for God!”  Say it with me.  (Nothing is impossible for God!)  Say it again. 
Do you believe it?  Whatever God
has in His plans for you- you can do if you believe it.  Nothing is impossible for God.  When Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the
Holy Spirit, she had no idea what was ahead. 
When God plants a seed in you, you also have no idea what is ahead.  All you can be sure of is that (if it’s worth
anything) it will involve pain and struggle and discouragement; but if you
don’t give up it will also involve glorious delight and fulfillment.  Did you notice the thought for the week?  Let’s read it together: “Do not pray for
tasks equal to your powers.  Pray for powers
equal to your tasks.” (Anonymous)  Do you
remember the wonderful song- “I just can’t give up now”?  Let’s sing it together.

 

For anyone who is
interested, this sermon and updated African-American wisdom statements are
posted on our parish’s web site under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: http://www.stpaulsepisag.org .

 

Blessed preaching,

Judy Boli

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Saginaw, Michigan





-- 

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Propertalk" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to propertalk.topic+unsubscribe at ecunet.org.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20171223/5d92c7bc/attachment.htm>