Sermon Preached by Michael Cheuk
December 18, 2011
Luke 1:26-38
“Congratulations!” said the doctor to Beth and me. “Beth, you are pregnant!”
You. Are. Pregnant. Three simple words, and yet, how they’ve changed our lives! Beth and I had been trying to conceive for several years and after having gone through the first round of fertility treatments, we finally heard the news that we had been waiting for. Now, I don’t know about Beth, but after the elation of those glad tidings wore off, a wave of panic began to flood my mind. “Oh my goodness!” I thought. “My life will never be the same!”
Well, I had no idea! There is something about having a baby that totally rocks your world. Rebecca Woolf has written that when you have a baby, a lot of things change. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive; in fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!) Others mentioned that once you have a baby, you give parents with a screaming child an “I-know-the-feeling” look instead of a “Can’t-they-shut-him-up?” one. You also start to appreciate Sesame Street for its intellectual contribution.[1]
But let’s be honest, in addition to wonderful changes, having a baby can also make disruptive changes to your life. In having a baby, parents have to let go of some things. They have to let go of some independence. As a parent, I came to realize that I can’t just do what I want, or go someplace on a whim . . . well, not if I wanted to stay married. With a baby, it takes at least five times longer just to get out the door, because along with the baby, you’re also bringing diapers, wipes, the snugli, the burping cloth, and the car seat. By the time you pack all that, sometimes you forget where you were going in the first place! Furthermore, as a parent, I had to learn to let go of what some things I was used to doing in the past. Before babies, I was used to sleeping uninterrupted all night. With babies, parents, especially mothers, no longer take sleep for granted.
As new parents, Beth and I struggled for sleep, whether Thea and Wes were crying at night (we wondered, why can’t they fall asleep?) or whether they were sleeping peacefully (we wondered, are they still breathing?!). Perhaps the worst time for our sleep came after Wesley’s birth. If it wasn’t Wesley waking up crying, it was Thea crawling in bed with us. It’s almost as if our kids had a system worked out before they went to bed. Thea might say, “Wes, it’s your turn tonight to wake Mom and Dad up, because I’m exhausted.”
So let’s face it, welcoming a baby can disrupt your life. Mary knew all about that. Engaged to be married to Joseph, this teenage girl’s world was rocked upside down when a divine messenger appeared before her and told her that she was going to have a baby. Yes, we are all aware of Mary’s problem of being an out-of-wedlock mother bearing a child that wasn’t Joseph’s. But have you ever considered what a challenge it would be to raise a child who was going to be called the Son of the Most High and expected to rule from the throne of David? Sure, that sounds good on the surface, but think about the pressure. Many parents today struggle under the expectation for their kids to make good grades and be accepted to a good college. We remind our kids, “Go do your homework!” We nag, “How’s that project coming?” We cajole, “If you keep slacking off, you won’t get accepted at UVa, and you’ll end up at Tech!” Now, can you imagine the added pressure if you were trying to groom your child to be the President of the United States? “Start working on your policy toward Libya!” “Now repeat after me, the Department of Commerce, Education, and . . . Energy!”
Mary was told that she would bear a child who was going to rule a kingdom in the midst of the Roman Empire, the greatest, most powerful earthly kingdom the world had ever seen to date. Caesar called himself “the Son of God” and he was ruthless in getting rid of anyone who dared to claim that title. When the angel pronounced to Mary that she would give birth to a son and he would be given the throne of his father David, what Mary most likely heard was not a life of status and ease as queen mother. What Mary most likely heard was a death sentence on Jesus. Caesar would tolerate no challengers to this throne, and if the angel’s pronouncement were true, Mary would have to prepare herself for a time when her baby will experience great pain and rejection. She would have to brace herself for a future that would include the execution of her son. And any mother will tell you that her baby’s pain feels much worse than her own. Can you imagine what Mary must have felt when she heard the prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2:34-35? After Simeon blessed Mary and Jesus, he said to Mary: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
“Greetings,” proclaimed the angel, “you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” It is hard to miss the irony of such a greeting. There are not a lot of us who would consider ourselves highly favored by the Lord when such “favor” would include a future of pain and loss as a result of the premature loss of one’s child. Now we understand why Mary was greatly troubled at the angel’s words, because we know how a mother’s instinct can sense what is going to happen. Now we also understand why the angel said, “Do not be afraid,” because God knows how fearful we become when the future is out of our control, even when that future is something we highly desire. Consider this: who wants a future that does not saddle future generations with debt? But so far, our country’s leaders have been unwilling to forge a solution to this problem for fear of losing power. Our leaders, our corporations, our political system, and our citizens are unwilling to let go of some of our benefits and privileges for the sake of the common good. It’s OK to cut the benefits of others, but not ours. It’s OK to tax others, but not us. Let someone else bear the burden for our prosperity. Let someone else labor for our comfort. Let someone else’s lives be disrupted for our safety.
Similarly, God’s people had been praying for the restoration of David’s throne for centuries, and their prayers were never so fervent as in Mary’s day when the people of God were subjugated by the Roman Empire. This restoration was to come through a baby within the lineage of David. This redemption of humanity was being birthed in an infant. This salvation of the world was to come through a child born of a mother. And yet, when asked to receive this child, I wonder if Mary was ever tempted to say: “Let someone else bear the burden of our restoration,” “Let someone else labor for our redemption,” and “Let someone else’s life be disrupted for our salvation”? And are we ever tempted to say: “Sure, let Jesus reign . . . as long as he does not disrupt my life and my plans for my future,” and “Sure, may Jesus’ kingdom never end . . . as long as he does not interfere with the way we do things in our country and in our church”?
Come to think about it, it is really we who first disrupted Jesus’ life of joyful communion with his heavenly Father. Because of our sin and disobedience, Jesus interrupted the life that he had known in order to be born as a human baby to a peasant couple in a little village. As the apostle Paul so powerfully pronounced in Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus Christ let go of his privilege and comfort in order to enter fully into our human condition full of suffering and sorrow and death. But not all received him as the Gospel writer wrote so eloquently about Jesus in John 1:11-14: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
When Jesus first came, his own did not receive him. Will we receive this Christ child and allow Him to make his dwelling among us? If so, He will disrupt our lives. Even as Christians, many of us are comfortable in our daily patterns, and we are reluctant to change. And even when we are no longer comfortable with certain areas of our lives, we find it hard to allow Jesus to disrupt our harmful habits, our addictions, our patterns of worry and anxiety. We are fearful of letting go of things that worked well for us in the past, even though they do not work so well for us in the present. But it is precisely in these situations that we desperately need the baby Jesus to disrupt our lives, to disrupt our complacency, to disrupt the places where we are stuck. Like a farmer who tills the earth and disrupts the soil hardened by the cold of winter, the Spirit of God comes to disrupt and loosen the soil of our hearts so that the seed of God’s Word might take root and grow and bear fruit. What is at stake here is a barren future versus a fruitful future. A barren future is based on fear. A fruitful future is based on faith. Faith means letting go of our independence and putting our trust and dependence on God. Do not be afraid.
In the months leading up to our anniversary celebration, Jay Lynn conducted a series of interviews to ask various groups within the church about our past and our present. The answers have been published in a graphical format in this month’s newsletter, and they are also posted on our website. And for those of you who were at the church’s anniversary celebration, you also saw a video of some of the interviews and answers. In the coming year, as part of our on-going anniversary year celebration, Jay will schedule more gathering and listening sessions to help us prayerfully consider and discern the future direction that God has for us. God is always doing a new thing in the life of God’s people.
However, welcoming God’s future into our lives is not for the timid or the faint of heart. Instead of unthinkingly saying “yes,” it’s probably better to consider the cost and to ask questions. Mary herself asked the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” For us, we might ask, “How will this be, since we’ve never done it this way before?” But when we put our faith and trust in God, God has proven over and over again that when things seem to come to a dead end, God specializes in preparing a way that leads to life. For nothing is impossible with God. In Christ, all things are possible, from a virgin birth to the birth of new ministries the likes of which this community has never seen before. This Sunday, God is announcing that the Holy Spirit will come upon Farmville Baptist and the power of the Most High will overshadow us so that a new future is birthed into our lives. The question for us is “Will we provide a loving reception for God’s plan of salvation for our community through the lives of the members of this church?”
On this last Sunday in Advent, we are reminded that Christians do not celebrate a romanticized notion of a cuddly, adorable, harmless baby Jesus. Even as a baby, Jesus came to disrupt the lives of Mary, of Joseph, of Caesar Augustus. Ultimately, Jesus came to disrupt even the evil powers and principalities of this world. This Sunday, we hear the announcement that the baby Jesus is coming, and as babies are wont to do, the Christ child will come to disrupt our lives. When Mary heard that announcement, she responded with a loving reception, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
How will we respond?
Amen.
[1] http://www.babycenter.com/0_forty-two-things-that-change-when-you-have-a-baby_1452535.bc
