Mary: Willing Servant

Ps. 116:12-19; Luke 1:26-38. Mary: Willing Servant.
All of us are called to serve God. Often, however, we find excuses for not obeying our call. Moses said he did not have sufficient gifts as a speaker. Jeremiah said he was too young. Saul simply went into hiding. We claim we are too busy or we don’t have the talents necessary for it.
We can understand the reluctance to serve. It is so natural to put self first. So much in our culture urges us to take care of yourself above all. But anyone who does not intentionally serve the Lord needs to repent, for we are not in tune with God. God has work to be done, and needs his people to get the work done. God even presses ordinary people into his service for the great event of the birth of the Messiah. During this time God drafted Zechariah and Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary to serve the cause of grace and truth which is the Kingdom of God.
When she has heard God's plan and will for her life, she humbly submits to it. She said: "Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your Word.” It is like Isaiah, who heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And Isaiah said: “Here I am; send me.”
Mary is not a slave pressed into service unwillingly, because she understands that when God calls, we need to respond in obedience, whether it happens to be convenient or not. Perhaps she knows that in the Bible, the call to serve is always a positive. Responding to the call to serve does not make us slaves; instead it calls us to our true purpose in life. Loving God motivates our willingness to serve. David declares his love for God in Ps. 116, and that is why he can say in this same psalm: “O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.” Thus, serving the Lord is the opposite of slavery.
So Mary willingly gives herself to do what is asked of her. Thomas a Kempis wrote that to have a heart at peace, care neither for human praise nor blame. We will have free consciences if we care only about being in harmony with God's plan for our lives. By this standard, Mary is at peace.
This is not necessarily easy. Some of you know how hard it is to serve the Lord in your place of employment; for some it is tough to serve the Lord even at home. It is not about an easy life; it is about a good life, in harmony with God.
Several episodes in Mary's life make clear that she did not fully understand what the cause was all about to which she gave herself. However, she trusted the message and the messenger. She knew that the master would see that all would turn out well, and so Mary gave herself as servant. "Use me in accordance with the word you have spoken,” she said.
1. What makes the need for willing servants so urgent? To understand this, we need to be aware of how great the need of human beings is, for the work God undertakes is the response of the grace of God to the deepest needs of the world. Think of it:
• The persecuted church waits for justice.
• Multitudes of poor, sick and homeless are
longing for food and drink.
• Many men, women and children live amongst
the tangled wrecks of bombed out houses,
fearing the next bomb may end their lives.
They look for peace.
• Many believe, but struggle with unbelief, waiting to see the promises fulfilled. We live with an awareness that there are only skeleton reminders of what the world was and should be.
• Many lived in fear because their rulers are warlords who place little value on ordinary lives.
• We are like blind people who grope towards
meaning and hope, looking for someone to take us by the hand and guide us.
• and then, mostly urgently and basically, there is our need to be set free from the death of sin into a new life with God.

As Christians weknow that maxing out our credit cards gives only the thinnest, flimsiest satisfaction. And we who have become attentive to life as it is for the neediest know that our heavenly Father is even more attentive and alert to the orphaned, to the oppressed, the hungering and thirsting than we are.
2. Believers celebrate Advent and look forward to Christmas because we are convinced that God knows our needs, and hears our afflictions and sufferings. He knows our sin that brought this on us. And God acts!
God speaks to us through messengers like Gabriel! We believe that he hears, knows and takes action. For this reason, God’s messenger, God's Word and God’s actions are the center of this event, the birth of Christ. Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary, are only servants, mostly passive, unable to bring about what happens. Sin and guilt are enemies of being servants. All are under the power of sin, and none of us is righteous, Romans 3.
So what happened to Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary is the power of God at work: this is what our God can and will do. That's our hope. This story puts God at the center, and God puts Jesus at the center. Mary knows that: she said: let it be to me according to the Word of God.
Mary has just heard the message of God's salvation from the angel Gabriel. She has heard that God's favor rests on her, and that God is with her. It takes her by surprise to hear these words, but she may accept hem at face value, just as you and I may do when we begin our services of worship with similar greetings.
3. Now the greeting to Mary is not special, but the content of the message. Gabriel tells Mary that God is going to carry on his work in a unique way; after all, there is only one Jesus, and one mother of Jesus. The one of virgin born is an iron wedge from God to cleave our darkness. Who Mary is, and how she became pregnant, and how she and Joseph can be the parent of a child born by the power of the Spirit -- these are truly secondary.
Let's listen to the most important part of the message, words in which Gabriel identifies the person and purpose of this child. Advent waiting in a needy world needs a special one, needs a clear statement about the Christ. Otherwise Christmas celebrations are only an opiate to dull the pain, but not the message of deliverance or a new creation.
The child is gift from God, from above. Mary did not conceive through the will of a man, says John's gospel. Jesus' identity is clear: he will be called Son of the Most High. No one else deserves such self-identity, not even Mary. It singles Jesus out as the presence of Holy God in a vicious, sin-loving world. The Son of the Most High has come to the place where death is king. This is Jesus: most astonishing: God with us, God with us. Holy Son of God in a paradise reduced to a pigsty. That's who he is.
Why did God bring him to this world? He receives the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob, over all the lineage of Abraham, really. There had been other kings but their kingdoms ended, usually after a few decades, sometimes less. But of the son of Mary Son of the Most High it is said: His kingdom shall never end.
Through Jesus, God asserts his kingship over all creation. He is the King of the kings of the world. He defeats Satan and his pretended dominion. He brings the Kingdom of peace and justice. This is what makes Jesus special.
What child is this, who laid to rest,
on Mary's lap lies sleeping?
This is Christ the king.

How shall we respond?
Begin by remembering humanity’s deepest poverty and pain. Remember a world full of men and women who hurt terribly, who want to believe, but need help with their unbelief. Pay attention to just the one person, perhaps. For example: Canada has lost 100 soldiers in Afghanistan. But think of just the one dad and the one mom who lost their only son in this war. Many have lost family members in war. But never did this family lose this son, this daughter!
Advent shows us God's knowledge of our misery, and the loving action God has taken in coming to our assistance.
Imagine this: the Son of the Most High on earth!
The Son of the Most High, living in the hearts of the people of God. God in the woes of earth, to bring people the joy of the kingdom.
Pray for God to deal with all of us according to the promises of his word. That is light, peace and joy.
That is the eternal kingdom, our home now and always.
Prayer:
Dear God, you have helped your servant people in remembrance of your mercy, according to the promise you made to our ancestors and their descendants forever. Thank you for your faithful love. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.