Mary of Nazareth

from my message on Nov. 25, 2012 from Luke 1:26-38

The Journey.  Today we start a 5 week series that includes small group study and messages in worship using a book by Adam Hamilton entitled The Journey.  This fits in well with our emphasis on a path of discipleship where this church is trying to help people fall in love with Jesus, grow deeper in relationship with Him, until that love spills over into the lives of others.  Now, I know today is not Black Friday, or Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday.  It is not even the first Sunday of Advent, which starts next week, but there are 5 lessons in the book, so we need to start the journey today.

Each week, we will be looking at one of the characters in the Christmas story.  We are going with them towards the coming of the Messiah Jesus.  Today, we start with Mary.  Today, I have 2 questions for you  and 1 memeory device which involves your hands.

The first questions is Where are you from?  Say the answer out loud.  Is it the place where you were born?  The hometown where you grew up?  Is it the military?  Sometimes people tell me they are from the Air Force, because they moved around so much.  Is it a business?  Sometimes people tell me they grew up in the oil patch.  Is it your family?  Or your place in the family?  Is it the place where you went to college? 

Mary grew up in Nazareth.  Adam Hamiliton in his book captures very well just how small and insignificant Nazareth was.  Today it is a thriving city, but back then it may have had 100-400 people in it.  They may have lived in caves that they dug out of the soft limestone.  Mary may have been 12 or 13 years old.  She was a nobody in nowheresville.  She was a hick from the sticks.

The start of the memory device involves you tightening your hands into fists.  It will get tiring very fast.  Try it.  Sometimes we hold onto where we are from as the most important thing about us.  We hold onto our education, our place in the family, what somebody said about us, the past, a diagnosis....as if that determined who we are.  You can relax your clenched fists.  Where you are from is not the most important thing about you.

The second question is Where are you going?  Mary of Nazareth was visited by an angel.  This young, unmarried girl was greeted with Hail O Favored One, the Lord is with you.  You are going to bear a son who will be the Savior of the world.  He will be great, the Son of God, and holy.  Mary raises her hands and asks How can this be since I am a virgin?  The angel replies Nothing is impossible with God.  Mary does not have clenched fists, she relaxes her hands in a downward pose and says, I am the servant of the Lord.  May it be to me according to your word. 

Can you let go with your hands?  This is the hardest thing to do for American Christians...to release, to submit, to give up control.  We think we are so competent, so powerful.  We say, We got this Jesus.  If we need you, we will call you.  Can you let go with your hands?

This was a good message.  The clenching of fists to illustrate our trying to hold on and the letting go as a sign of humility, of trusting in God.  On Wednesday, we went to Houston to celebrate Thanksgiving with Cathy's family.  M.D. Anderson is only 17 miles from my in-laws' home.  We have 2 persons from this congregation at M.D. Anderson now.  How often does that happen?  So I went to see them on Wednesday.  The complex is massive.  Even though I am a male, I asked for directions, and found helpful people.  I went to elevator E, tehe 10th floor in the main bldg. to visit Adam, a young man, student at TCU.  We have had many prayers for him.  Phil and Laura, his parents were there.  I have some good news to share.  Adam's rare cancer is responding to his treatments.  He has some tests and scans scheduled for this next week.  If all goes well, he could come back to Austin this next week!

Then I found Michelle.  She happened to be in the same main bldg., down on the first floor.  When I got there, she was just coming out of her appt.  Not so good news, her cancer has not responded to any of the chemo's.  She had just that moment signed the papers to enter some new drug protocol.  Over her lunch of broccoli cheese soup she told me that she was not ready to give up or give in.  She has her parents there in the Houston area.  Her son has transferred to a school there.  Her employer has found work for her there.  Michelle is part of a cancer support group.  She told me the people were at all different stages of coping.  She told me of cancer humor in the example of sometimes playing the "cancer card."  She would be in a line with a crowd, and say, I feel so bad because of my chemo treatments.  Instantly, she would find herself at the head of the line.

When the subject gets touchy, Michelle could change topics.  By the way, she has given me permission to tell her story.  So she asked me how things were at church.  I told her about the start of this new series, the Journey, and how this first week was about Mary.  Mary, who did not clench her fists, but let go, and said, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be to me.  How Mary offered herself in submission and carried the child who was to be the Savior of the world.  Michelle offered how easy pregnancy was for her, how her body took over, how she knew just what to do.  I said that I hoped that would be the case as she faced this cancer now, that her body, her soul, her mind, her spirit would know just what to do.  That she could let go.  She said that Mary's story was not such a happy one.  She was there at the cross, watching her son die.  I said, You're right.  The journey is not just to Bethlehem, but also to Golgotha, to the cross.  But that is not the end of the story either, because on the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead.  Mary's letting go was not just for her; it was for all of humanity.  The only way for salvation to come into the world was for her to let go of her son, for life, for death, for eternal life.  I prayed that Michelle could let go also. 

Where are you from?  What are you holding onto today?  Can you clench your fists?  I wonder can you control your child?  your anger?  the fiscal cliff?  that old hurt?  the unfairness?  the diagnosis?  the civil war in Syria? 

Where are you going?  Can you open your hands?  Can you say Let it be?  It is interesting that Mary never identifies herself as Mary of Nazareth.  She says about herself, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be.  She has given us an example as followers of Jesus of letting go of our agendas and timelines to do what God has in store for us.  Let it be so.