Angels At The Doorway
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For December 20, 2020:
Angels At The Doorway
by Chris Keating
Luke 1:26-38
Angels, unlike pizza delivery drivers, don’t ring doorbells. They don’t knock at the front door or ask to be announced. That seems to be the general policy throughout scripture, and it is probably for the best.
Think about it: if Mary had one of those fancy video doorbells, do you think she would have opened the door? Imagine waking up late at night and spotting an angel at your front door. Before Gabriel would have had the chance to say, “Do not be afraid,” Mary would have dialed 9-1-1. He would have been on his way, receiving the same treatment reserved for door-to-door sales reps.
But direct marketing is not Gabriel’s department. He is not there to offer an investment opportunity, or even to push popcorn for the scout troop. Gabriel is not selling anything. Gabriel has a singular mission in mind, and its success revolves around Mary’s willingness to trust God.
Confused and bewildered, Mary does not shoo her guest away. Instead, her only question is about logistics. “How can this be?” she wonders.
Trust is not easily earned — even during a global pandemic.
Millions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine are currently on their way across the country as part of the government’s Project Warp Speed, an effort that has been compared to the Allied landing at Normandy during World War II. Delivery of the vaccine will eventually involve more complexities and logistics than Santa Claus’ annual trek across the globe.
But the public’s trust in the vaccine is mixed. A survey of New York City firefighters, for example, showed that more than half will not accept the vaccine when it is first available. Even more alarming are polls indicating that fewer than 50 percent of African American adults are definitely planning to be vaccinated.
Like Mary, many are pondering and wondering, perhaps even doubting and skeptical.
Luke’s story offers an example of trust as an act of faithful discipleship. Gabriel is not sent to recruit Mary. Instead, she is summoned to believe in the impossible, called to trust in a message far more complex than anything we can imagine. Her trust must go beyond trusting in a vaccine. It must go beyond trusting government. It must go far beyond accepting election results, or embracing science we may not understand.
Mary’s consent must go beyond usual human preconceived notions or illusions of invulnerability.
Mary is called to trust in the old, old story of God’s steadfast covenant. She is called to trust in the inscrutable way God works in the world. It is the way that God worked through her soon to be husband’s ancestor David. Closer to home, it is the same way her cousin Elizabeth was called to trust.
Angels won’t be knocking at our doors this Advent. But they may show up as healthcare workers prepared to inject us with hope. When they arrive, they’ll bring a startling message. Our response may well be the same as Mary’s: “How can this be?”
In the News
Delivering the vaccine is just one hurdle Project Warp Speed faces. A greater one may be gaining the public’s trust.
While vaccination against Covid-19 may be the best and most reasonable hope at defeating the pandemic, there remains widespread rumors and lack of trust about vaccines in general. A year ago — way back before stay-at-home orders, face masks and social distancing were on our radar — Dr. Anthony Fauci made it clear that effective vaccines are imperative to public health. Misinformation, Fauci wrote in December of 2019, “is threatening to erode the public’s trust in vaccines.”
Trust will be crucial in effectively eradicating the virus so that life can return to normal. Building trust goes well beyond anti-vaxxer beliefs. Health officials also need to address the skepticism about the government’s response to the coronavirus, as well as generational experiences of injustice.
Public trust in science and medicine has increased over the course of the pandemic, but overall less than fifty percent of Americans have confidence in medical scientists to act in the public interest. That’s down from 60 percent as recently as 2016. Trust in science is also divided along partisan lines, with 53 percent of Democrats reporting they have a great deal of trust in medical scientists compared to only 31 percent of Republicans.
Levels of distrust in the vaccine are especially low among Black Americas. Large numbers of African American adults say they are unlikely to get the Covid-19 vaccine, even if it was deemed safe and available at no charge. Even Black adults with serious medical conditions are hesitant about receiving the vaccine. Only nine percent of Black Americans express confidence that a vaccine has been properly tested and will be distributed fairly.
Those fears emerge from generations of unjust treatment of Blacks including the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis studies of 1932-1972 that withheld medical treatment from its Black participants.
“It is not paranoia, it is not that Black people don’t ‘get it’ or are simply uneducated and unintelligent about their health,” Dr. Brittani James told NBC. James is a family practice physician in Chicago, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and cofounder of the Institute for Antiracism in Medicine. “The reality is that their worries have been earned and will not be corrected until medicine, public health and the government reckon with the past and what has been done to Black and brown people.”
Journalist German Lopez wonders if the federal government is up to that challenge.
Right now, America can finally see an end to its Covid-19 outbreak,” Lopez, a senior correspondent for Vox, wrote this week. “The first task is social distancing and masking to make sure more people make it to the point where they can get vaccinated. But then we need to make sure people actually can and want to get a Covid-19 vaccine. It’s not clear that the country is up to those challenges.”
In the Scriptures
Luke’s account of the annunciation to Mary runs parallel to the earlier announcement regarding John the Baptist’s birth (1:6-21). In that story, Gabriel appears to Zechariah as he is serving in the temple. The appearance follows a similar sequence: fear, assurance, an announcement of pregnancy, and a declaration of the child’s mission.
But there are important differences. Zechariah is a priest serving in the Jerusalem temple. His lineage is described along with liturgical details (offering of incense, the prayer of the whole assembly, the altar).
Zechariah resists the angelic declaration. He is skeptical, almost engaging Gabriel in debate. Zechariah has an armload of reasons why this won’t work. The old priest demands proof of the improbability of this announcement, and in response he is rendered silent. Gabriel is not fooling around! Luke notes that it is clear to those around Zechariah that he had seen something, but they do not understand his hand motions. There’s nearly a comical sense to Zechariah’s fumbling with hand signals, as if he were playing a game of holy charades. Following Luke’s intent at an orderly account of the Gospel, the silent Zechariah returns home and in due time his wife Elizabeth conceives. There will be plenty to talk about in months to come!
Mary’s status as a young woman is the first contrast in these two angelic appearances. Luke is attuned to the gender differences and seems eager to portray Mary’s willing embrace of discipleship. Moreover, her annunciation occurs not in the temple, but in the village of Nazareth. There is no doubt that this will be the story of a marginalized woman, an unwed mother of no particular significance.
Theologian Justo Gonzalez suggests that Mary’s response could indicate not only amazement, but possibly protest. (Luke, Belief A Theological Commentary on the Bible). Gonzalez points out that there would have been serious stigma attached to Mary’s condition, not to mention legal penalties. She is not unaware of the consequences, yet still is led to the place where she affirms the possibilities only God can imagine. Mary finds a pathway toward trust, a pathway that begins as she acknowledges the angel in her doorway.
In the Sermon
Understandably, Mary is perplexed. Likely she is concerned about what will happen next. Enduring the changes of pregnancy is one thing, but the social challenges are another. Courtney Buggs is correct in observing that while we have the advantage of knowing how the story ends, Mary does not. At this point, she only knows that an angel has interrupted her life.
Standing at the doorway, Gabriel shares the announcement that God is with her. She is favored, held in highest regard by God. The angel’s appearance is an unexpected intrusion that tosses any notion of predictable future aside. Everything shifts in Mary’s life — just as everything has shifted in our lives this year. The unexpected interruption of the pandemic has changed everything, including the way we experience trust.
Truth be told, trust in public institutions was falling well ahead of the pandemic. The government’s botched response at the beginning of the pandemic has done little to generate confidence in its ability to manage the end of the crisis. Corporations and government have seen levels of public confidence dwindle. Even churches and pastors earn the frequent side-ways glance.
Moreover, there are plenty of good reasons why minorities and other marginalized groups may find it difficult to believe that the government that has failed them so many times would suddenly get it right this time.
It all seems so impossible.
Until, perhaps, we catch sight of the angel standing at our doorway. His words convey the assurance that Mary will face neither the vicissitudes nor varicose veins of pregnancy alone. God is with her. God will sort out what seems impossible — despite the stares of neighbors, or the whispers of relatives.
That is the message we should preach this Sunday. Pay attention to those angels standing in doorways — they offer reminders that with God, nothing is impossible.
Three weeks ago, I drove my wife to the hospital. Covid-19 had settled on all of us, but it was far worse for her. Her oxygen saturation levels were falling, and she needed treatment for pneumonia. As we approached the ER entrance, neither of us knew how things would work out. I was allowed to step inside the hospital to kiss her goodbye. As we kissed, a nurse in the doorway — my angel Gabriel — said to me, “We’ll take good care of her.” I told myself to trust.
The good news is that she is now home, and on the way to recovery. She still has a way to go, but we have both learned that the angel’s message can be trusted. With God, nothing is impossible.
SECOND THOUGHTS
It’s Not Good…Yet
by Bethany Peerbolte
Luke 1:46b-55
Mary’s song (Luke 1:46-55) is a moment of defiant hope. The situation is not good… yet. Mary is pregnant and unwed. She is unprotected from the harsh reality she has been thrown into. Yet, she sings of hope and God’s glory. Oh to be so sure at a time such as that. Every year at this time we zoom in on Mary in this same moment, but this year is bound to reveal a little more. Our lives are in the midst of pandemic, job loss, natural disaster, racial turmoil, government distrust, quarantine exhaustion, Zoom fatigue, mourning for loved ones, fear of tomorrow stress. The situation is not good… yet.
Mary’s hope is a paradox held together by her faith alone. She is pregnant, which will cause her community to gossip and reject her, yet it is the thing that makes her blessed above all others. She will bear the son of God, which will cause her to stress and agonize, yet it is the thing that will bring her honor for millenniums to come. She will watch her child die on a cross, which will break her to pieces and yet it is the thing that will save her and the world. Through this all, Mary’s hope endures because her faith is able to hold both the crushing reality and God’s glory together in one moment.
What Mary does for her time and ours is she bears witness to things like faith and love and hope. She does this in a way that does not deny the paradox. Her life points clearly to hardship (the humble state of the servant), but her words point to God. Her faith in God’s favor allows her to face the hard realities of this world. She does not cower in fear and she does not boast. She sits in the moment aware of the paradox. This will be hard, but God is on my side doing something amazing.
Her words tell about the amazing thing God is doing. They are about revolution. It begins with the declaration “from now on.” Mary recognizes that a turning point has to happen for the world to change. She declares this as the moment. From now on, all generations will be blessed. They will no longer bear the chains the old system created, empty works, meaningless sacrifices, and dread over falling short. From now on, the ones who have amassed power will be humbled and scattered. From now on, the things worth striving for are humbleness, servanthood, mercy. These are words of a revolutionary dreaming up a world that is entirely different than the reality. The situation is not good… yet.
Mary reminds us of the “yet.” In her premarital pregnant state she is the image of “yet.” I would venture to say we need a bit of “yet” in our lives right now. The power of “yet” is not sugar coating a bad situation, like Mary we need to acknowledge the humbleness of the situation we are in. “Yet” is powerful because it reminds us there is a way through this. While we are still in a less than ideal situation “yet” encourages us to find a healthy way to cope.
The New York Times made the experience of pandemic frustration their focus of a recent article. Stressors like trying to take the safety measures seriously while our loved ones do not seem to care to follow any of them. They point out the heightening of public shaming and anger. We may want to yell at a stranger or a family member on the internet, but that is a terrible coping strategy. They advise directing anger at those in power, knowing the difference between shame and peer pressure, making it about our personal experience, and accept that some people will not change.
Mary is following these four rules well. She is not portrayed as angry but having been around women with unplanned pregnancies I am sure she had her moments. We do not remember her “less than magnificat” moments because Mary handles her stress in healthy ways. Ways surprisingly like the suggestions in the Times.
Mary directs her emotional energy to those in power — God. This not only serves to impact the one who can make a change, it also reminds her and anyone listening that God is on their side. There is only so much that we can do at the bottom of the power chain. However, if we can impact someone one level higher than us we eventually find someone with a direct line to the one who can make the change.
When Mary dreams of the world “from now on” she does not shame the world into changing. She knows the difference between shame and peer pressure. Peer pressure, when used lovingly, can help someone make a better choice. Mary does not point finger, her ideas of a world where power structures are turned upside down are given as gentle encouragements to her fellow humans to also dream and enact that world.
Mary makes her story about herself. Her soul and her spirit are reacting to the news. She is the servant who will do what she can to bring about this new revolutionary world. Throughout her life she uses her experience to influence the power around her. When she retrieves Jesus from the Temple she is honest about her anxiety while searching for him. At the wedding in Cana she is the one who notices the wine shortage and expresses the need for more. Mary experiences things for herself so she can make her plea personal.
As Mary watches Jesus’ ministry she must have realized some people will not change. She must have realized it when she saw Jesus’ hometown turn against him after he read from the scroll. Mary definitely knew it as Jesus was put on trial and the cross. She may have looked like she had surrendered to the horrible reality when she slumped over at the foot of the cross. But even there, Mary must have held on to the glimmer of “yet” because she knew her son, and her faith was rooted in the fact that God was for her.
Today it is our turn to hold onto the “yet.” We are in the moment we are in with a variety of struggles that 2020 has delt each of us. No matter who we were yesterday, today we choose which direction we look. Mary urges us to look to God, to dream of a future that is so unlike the one we are in now, and do what we can to hold on. The situation is not good…
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Luke 1:46b-55
“Misconceptions?”
Back in seminary you probably learned that the song that Mary sings in today’s psalm-like lesson is very close to the prayer that Hannah prayed following Samuel’s birth in 1 Samuel 2. Okay, there are some similarities: both are said by women, both praise God, both talk about divine reversals. There are some huge differences that are worth noting.
Hannah had been childless. She’s wanted a child so much she had prayed for one at Shiloh so fervently that Eli, the presiding priest, thought she was drunk.
Mary was also childless, but that was to be expected (yeah, pun intended) because she was a virgin.
Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, Zechariah, the priest’s wife, should be the one singing a prayer akin to Hannah’s. Elizabeth was the barren one, as Hannah had been.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
A House is not a House
David had built a fine palace, but when he sat back in his Barcalounger it nagged at his because his digs were better than the Lord’s. David had a house, but the Ark of the Covenant was in that storage unit out on State 21, maybe it’s time for the Lord’s presence also to reside in splendor. Well, yes and no. Nathan initially gave David the go-ahead, but later advised David not to break ground on the temple. All this time there is a dual meaning going on: David’s residence, i.e. his palace, and “David’s House” that is his line of descendants.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Let’s look inside
When I was cramming for the Presbyterian Bible Content Ordination Exam I was shocked to learn that there were items besides the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed in the Ark of the Covenant. There was also a pot of manna, a souvenir from their 40 years in the Wilderness and the Rod of Aaron. Aaron’s rod was noteworthy because it sprouted buds and even almonds as recorded in Numbers 17. Moses’ staff could turn into a snake, but it was his brother’s staff that was preserved in the Ark of the Covenant.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
The City of David, Bethlehem
Literally the name Bethlehem means “house of bread,” לחם בית . Some Hebrew texts separate the name into two words as I did above. “Bread” in this sense means food in general, as in “one does not live by bread alone.” This name may indicate that Bethlehem was in a fairly fertile place. Naomi returned to Bethlehem with her stubborn daughter-in-law Ruth, in tow. They arrived right when the barley harvest was getting underway. Ruth, the first convert to Judaism was David’s grandmother, a nice tie-in to David’s family.
* * *
Romans 16:25-27
Concluding doxology
Bible scholars call the last three verses of Paul’s letter to the Romans a doxology, a statement of praise or glory. It has the hurried feel of someone trying to say every possible idea before the magical three minutes of a long-distance call runs out. (Millennials, ask your parents about when long-distance calls were a big deal.) While it lifts up the mystery of Christ, at a rather early point in Paul’s career, for the most part it is a confused and confusing way to end a letter.
TIW Reader Challenge: Diagram the sentence that is Romans 16:25-27. Perhaps that will help you explain it to your congregations!
* * *
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Not the whole story
The portions of Psalm 89 that are part of today’s lectionary reading are the happy bits about God’s faithfulness and promises to stand by the king of Judah for generations. The latter third of the psalm sings a different song; it’s a lament, possibly written after the Babylonian invasion. Christians sometimes overlook — or never knew in the first place — that David’s throne wasn’t continuously occupied by one of “the house and lineage of David.
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:
Romans 16:25-27
Receiving Strength from God
Winding up his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul reminds them that God is the giver of strength. Their faith, and the things they have learned, will contribute to their strength of spirit. In our lives, God also brings strength when we need it, as Bill Bloom tells it. Bloom is a member of the volunteer ski patrol for a park near his home in Oregon. Skiing in the park one day, he recalls a call to locate some missing hikers who should have returned two days ago. Starting the search with his friend Randy, he says, “We didn’t see any tracks, only virgin snow. It was up to our knees, too deep and too powdery to ski, so Randy and I had to lift each leg and stomp down to break a trail. Going was slow and tough, and with such a substantial snowfall, we had to keep an eye out — or rather, an ear — for an avalanche…Randy and I took turns doing the exhausting work. We talked to take our minds off our effort. Randy had worked search-and-rescue a lot longer than my six years at Crater Lake. I peppered him with questions. He asked me all sorts of things about Vietnam. I told him my story, even though I wasn’t proud of my past. Too many wasted years. It felt good to talk, though, especially in the utter backwoods silence. Good to hear how far God had brought me.” Two other skiers came along, and joined the search.
“Now there were four of us to break trail. Two miles out, our path rounded sharply north. That’s when I heard it. Whumpf. The snow shook under my feet. Usually that only happened right before a slide or an avalanche…Everything looked fine. I took over the lead. Suddenly Randy yelled, “Here it comes!” I turned. The snow between the outcropping and the trees broke loose. It moved toward us like a silent wave. I took a step. A flash of white hit me. My feet and skis were instantly covered in snow. I couldn’t move out of the way. My survival training flashed through my mind. Fifteen minutes. That was about the longest a person could survive buried in an avalanche. Take a deep breath. Turn in the direction the slide is heading. See if you can ride down with it. The snow rose to my waist. All I could manage was to twist my torso. Make an air pocket. I sucked in a lungful of air and got my hands up to my face. A tremendous roar now. Snow engulfed me, wrenching my upper body while my lower body remained firmly in place. I thought I’d be torn in half.”
Bloom was trapped in the snow, trying to carve out a way to breathe. “The radio around my neck squawked. “Avalanche. Four involved.” Randy! “I’m out. Moving to the other three…” Randy kept talking to dispatch. He told them one was buried to his chin and digging himself out. Then he said, “We’re digging out the third.” What about me? I thought. I’d been under for at least 15 minutes. I couldn’t hear the radio anymore. The patch of blue before me grew fuzzy.” Bloom was sure that he would die. “But,” he says, “I wasn’t afraid, not like I’d been in Vietnam, or when I was drunk and high. I’d been powerless then too. Sobriety, and the 12 Steps to recovery I’d followed for 14 years, had taught me to accept powerlessness and rely on God’s will. Now, more than ever, I would have to…I didn’t feel the cold anymore. Instead, I felt peace. So many good things had happened in recovery. I’d gotten my career back, made good friends, found true love. I’d been living on borrowed time. No, not borrowed. A gift. Bonus time. I had been entombed in my addiction as surely as I was entombed in this snow. If I were to die now, I wanted to die thanking God for the life he had given me. New life. As my mind began to fade, I prayed: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. Blackness. I don’t know for how long. A nudge on my back. Am I dead? Hallucinating? Something jabbed my left elbow. Hard. Sometimes pain is the only thing that lets us know we’re alive. Someone was up there looking for me with a probe.” The rescuers found him, and cleared the snow so he could breathe. After they pulled him out, Randy told him, incredulously, that he had been under for forty minutes.
God’s strength had come when he needed it most.
* * *
Luke 1:26-38
Trust
For the Christ child to be born, Mary has to summon up an extraordinary amount of trust in the angel, in his message and in God to see her through what will be a difficult time. She has to place her trust in God’s plans. In her TED talk, Rachel Botsman observes that trust, for us, is shifting. We trust institutions like banks and churches much less than previous generations, and place more trust in strangers. We ride with people we don’t know, and sleep in their guest rooms, through the connections we make through technology.
She notes, “Let's start in France with a platform — with a company, I should say — with a rather funny-sounding name, BlaBlaCar. It's a platform that matches drivers and passengers who want to share long-distance journeys together. The average ride taken is 320 kilometers. So it's a good idea to choose your fellow travelers wisely. Social profiles and reviews help people make a choice. You can see if someone's a smoker, you can see what kind of music they like, you can see if they're going to bring their dog along for the ride. But it turns out that the key social identifier is how much you're going to talk in the car.” Trust makes it work. “It's remarkable, right, that this idea works at all, because it's counter to the lesson most of us were taught as a child: never get in a car with a stranger. And yet, BlaBlaCar transports more than four million people every single month. To put that in context, that's more passengers than the Eurostar or JetBlue airlines carry. BlaBlaCar is a beautiful illustration of how technology is enabling millions of people across the world to take a trust leap.”
Botsman says, in a definition that would fit for Mary, “I define trust a little differently. I define trust as a confident relationship to the unknown. Now, when you view trust through this lens, it starts to explain why it has the unique capacity to enable us to cope with uncertainty, to place our faith in strangers, to keep moving forward.” That’s the kind of trust that Mary has, which allows her to move into God’s plans.
* * *
Luke 1:46b-55
Restoration Needed
After hearing the angel Gabriel’s announcement, Mary sings a song of reversals, with the hungry restored to a life of plenty, and the lowly lifted up. In this Covid era, many Americans are waiting for such restoration. Parent and writer Deb Perelman notes the impact on working parents, who are also home-schooling their kids, saying “In the Covid-19 economy, you’re allowed only a kid or a job.” She and her fellow parents talk often about this, and agree on the emotional, physical and economic losses. “The consensus is that everyone agrees this is a catastrophe, but we are too bone-tired to raise our voices above a groan, let alone scream through a megaphone. Every single person confesses burnout, despair, feeling like they are losing their minds, knowing in their guts that this is untenable.” The stress is tremendous. One friend, she says, “told me that if their school reopens, her children are going back whether it’s safe or not because she cannot afford to not work.”
Students, too, will need to be filled up again. Many will have lost much of this school year. “Students will lose most of a year of learning as parents — their new untrained teachers — cannot supervise in any meaningful way while Zooming into the office. At best, the kids will be crabby and stir-crazy as they don’t get enough physical activity because they’re now tethered to their parents’ work spaces all day, running around the living room in lieu of fresh air.” Students who have special needs have suffered even more.
In another family, “When schools closed, Bridget Hughes, a fast-food worker and mother of three in Kansas City, Mo., had to cut back her hours. Her family has gone back on public assistance as a result. Because she and her husband, a gas station cashier, have jobs that can’t be done from home, each day is a child care puzzle. She works afternoons and evenings. He works nights. In the mornings, he sleeps and she oversees home school for the children, who are 6, 8 and 11.”
Mary’s song rings especially true for families who have school-aged children, and have been stretched thin for nine months. Restoration of work and school, whenever it can happen, will be welcome!
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
N.B. Mary’s Song/The Magnificat was an alternative reading for the Psalm last week and is the primary response to the First Reading this week. The call to worship based on it is repeated as well as the hymn versions.
Call to Worship:
Leader: Let us sing of the steadfast love of our God.
People: With our mouths we will proclaim God’s faithfulness.
Leader: God’s steadfast love is established forever.
People: God’s faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
Leader: God has made a covenant with the chosen.
People: You are our Father, our God, the Rock of our salvation.
OR
Leader: Let our spirits rejoice in God, our Savior.
People: God has looked with favor on our lowliness.
Leader: The Mighty One has done great things for us.
People: Holy is the name of our God.
Leader: God has brought down the powerful from their thrones.
People: God has lifted up the lowly.
OR
Leader: The God who created us in loves calls us.
People: We rejoice that God loves us and desires us.
Leader: God shows us the way to life eternal.
People: Thanks be to god who shows us the way.
Leader: God loved us so much that Jesus came to lead us to God.
People: We will follow Jesus and learn to love our God more deeply.
Hymns and Songs:
Tell Out My Soul
UMH: 200
H82: 437/438
W&P: 41
Renew: 130
My Soul Gives Glory to My God
UMH: 198
CH: 130
ELW: 882
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
Of the Father’s Love Begotten
UMH: 184
PH: 309
NCH: 118
CH: 104
LBW: 42
ELW: 295
W&P: 181
Renew: 252
Rise, Shine, You People
UMH: 187
LBW: 393
ELW: 665
W&P: 89
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
UMH: 190
H82: 66
PH: 1/2
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELW: 254
W&P: 153
AMEC: 103
Toda la Tierra (All Earth Is Waiting)
UMH: 210
NCH: 121
ELW: 266
W&P: 163
What Child Is This
UMH: 219
H82: 115
PH: 53
AAHH: 220
NNBH: 86
NCH: 148
CH: 162
LBW: 40
ELW: 296
W&P: 184
In the Bleak Midwinter
UMH: 221
H82: 112
PH: 36
NCH: 128
ELW: 294
W&P: 196
STLT: 241
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
UMH: 229
PH: 37
CH: 163
LBW: 44
ELW: 276
W&P: 221
O Come, All Ye Faithful
UMH: 234
H82: 83
PH: 41/42
AAHH: 199
NNBH: 93
NCH: 135
CH: 148
LBW: 45
ELW: 283
W&P: 182
AMEC: 106
STLT: 253
Renew: 1
Give Thanks
CCB: 92
Renew: 266
Walk with Me
CCB: 88
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is always trustworthy and true:
Grant us the faith to trust in you at all times
even when our lives seem to be in turmoil;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are trustworthy and true. You are our rock on which we lean. Help us to have faith in you even when our lives are filled with confusion and turmoil. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our lack of trust and faith in God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We say that we trust in you but our lives are filled with worry and care. Our thoughts are on the physical things of this world more than on the spiritual ones. We are more concerned with the praises of other people than we are about pleasing you. As we turn our lives toward you and your realm, inspire us with your Spirit that we may truly follow the Christ. Amen.
Leader: God is the one we can trust because God is the one who loves us unconditionally. Receive God’s grace and share it with others that you may truly be children of our God.
Prayers of the People
We worship and adore you, O God, because you are the one who has no hidden agenda or false motives. You are love and you come to us in that love to save us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We say that we trust in you but our lives are filled with worry and care. Our thoughts are on the physical things of this world more than on the spiritual ones. We are more concerned with the praises of other people than we are about pleasing you. As we turn our lives toward you and your realm, inspire us with your Spirit that we may truly follow the Christ.
We give you thanks for all the blessings of this life. We thank you for family and friends and our place in your Church where love is shared abundantly. We thank you for Jesus who shows us your love and teaches us how to live in it and out of it.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We know how difficult it is to live in love during the best of times and we pray for those who are going through difficult times. We pray for the sick, the dying, and the grieving. We pray for those who suffer from poverty and want and those who suffer from violence and hatred. We pray for those who struggle to make sense out of their lives and to live in the freedom you created us for.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about trusting people, like parents. It is good to have nice parents who take care of us and that we can trust. But even the best of parents sometimes make mistakes or might get angry with us because they don’t feel well or are worried about things. Yet we know they love us and we can depend on them. God is also our parent and we can always trust God and God never makes a mistake.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Chosen
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 1:26-38
God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, "Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!" (Luke 1:26b-28)
Say:
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he growls, then let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
When I was a little boy/girl we used to use that poem to choose up sides for a game. We’d point to a different person with each word and the person we were pointing to on the last word, “moe,” would be chosen to be on the team.
Or sometimes we would use it to see who would go first or sit by the window or eat the last piece of cake or just about anything. It was a way of choosing and it seemed like a fair way to choose someone.
I looked it up and it turns out, children have been using that poem or one like it for over 200 years only they use words, sometimes made-up words, from their own language.
In New York, a long time ago, they would say it like this:
Hana, man, mona, mike;
Barcelona, bona, strike;
Hare, ware, frown, vanac;
Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.
In Scotland and Ireland, they say: (e and ei at the ends of the words are pronounced: ee. As in bee.)
Ene, tene, mone, mei,
Pastor, lone, bone, strei,
Ene, fune, herke, berke,
Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?
Today, our lesson from the Gospel of Luke tells us about when God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus. It doesn’t tell us how God went about choosing Mary but I doubt God used “eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” don’t you?
And it doesn’t tell us if Mary was God’s first choice or if maybe God had chosen a bunch of other girls first but Mary was the only one who said, “Yes.”
Maybe God chose Mary because God knew that Mary was a kind and good person and would be a good mother to Jesus when he was born. I think that’s probably it, don’t you?
And I think God knew that Mary would say, “Yes.”
Sometimes, God chooses us to do things. God chooses us to be kind and helpful, to be loving and good. And all God asks of us is to say “Yes,” when God chooses us for some task or job to do.
Because sometimes it’s not just about God choosing us; it’s also about us choosing God. It’s about us choosing to be the kinds of people God wants us to be and doing the things that God wants us to do.
End with a prayer letting God know that we want to be chosen and we will do our best to be the kind of people God wants us to be.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 20, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Angels At The Doorway by Chris Keating — Angels bump into our lives with their message of interruption: “With God, nothing is impossible.”
- Second Thoughts: It’s Not Good…Yet by Bethany Peerbolte — Mary’s hope endures because her faith is able to hold both the crushing reality and God’s glory together in one moment..
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen and Mary Austin.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children's sermon: Chosen by Dean Feldmeyer.
Angels At The Doorwayby Chris Keating
Luke 1:26-38
Angels, unlike pizza delivery drivers, don’t ring doorbells. They don’t knock at the front door or ask to be announced. That seems to be the general policy throughout scripture, and it is probably for the best.
Think about it: if Mary had one of those fancy video doorbells, do you think she would have opened the door? Imagine waking up late at night and spotting an angel at your front door. Before Gabriel would have had the chance to say, “Do not be afraid,” Mary would have dialed 9-1-1. He would have been on his way, receiving the same treatment reserved for door-to-door sales reps.
But direct marketing is not Gabriel’s department. He is not there to offer an investment opportunity, or even to push popcorn for the scout troop. Gabriel is not selling anything. Gabriel has a singular mission in mind, and its success revolves around Mary’s willingness to trust God.
Confused and bewildered, Mary does not shoo her guest away. Instead, her only question is about logistics. “How can this be?” she wonders.
Trust is not easily earned — even during a global pandemic.
Millions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine are currently on their way across the country as part of the government’s Project Warp Speed, an effort that has been compared to the Allied landing at Normandy during World War II. Delivery of the vaccine will eventually involve more complexities and logistics than Santa Claus’ annual trek across the globe.
But the public’s trust in the vaccine is mixed. A survey of New York City firefighters, for example, showed that more than half will not accept the vaccine when it is first available. Even more alarming are polls indicating that fewer than 50 percent of African American adults are definitely planning to be vaccinated.
Like Mary, many are pondering and wondering, perhaps even doubting and skeptical.
Luke’s story offers an example of trust as an act of faithful discipleship. Gabriel is not sent to recruit Mary. Instead, she is summoned to believe in the impossible, called to trust in a message far more complex than anything we can imagine. Her trust must go beyond trusting in a vaccine. It must go beyond trusting government. It must go far beyond accepting election results, or embracing science we may not understand.
Mary’s consent must go beyond usual human preconceived notions or illusions of invulnerability.
Mary is called to trust in the old, old story of God’s steadfast covenant. She is called to trust in the inscrutable way God works in the world. It is the way that God worked through her soon to be husband’s ancestor David. Closer to home, it is the same way her cousin Elizabeth was called to trust.
Angels won’t be knocking at our doors this Advent. But they may show up as healthcare workers prepared to inject us with hope. When they arrive, they’ll bring a startling message. Our response may well be the same as Mary’s: “How can this be?”
In the News
Delivering the vaccine is just one hurdle Project Warp Speed faces. A greater one may be gaining the public’s trust.
While vaccination against Covid-19 may be the best and most reasonable hope at defeating the pandemic, there remains widespread rumors and lack of trust about vaccines in general. A year ago — way back before stay-at-home orders, face masks and social distancing were on our radar — Dr. Anthony Fauci made it clear that effective vaccines are imperative to public health. Misinformation, Fauci wrote in December of 2019, “is threatening to erode the public’s trust in vaccines.”
Trust will be crucial in effectively eradicating the virus so that life can return to normal. Building trust goes well beyond anti-vaxxer beliefs. Health officials also need to address the skepticism about the government’s response to the coronavirus, as well as generational experiences of injustice.
Public trust in science and medicine has increased over the course of the pandemic, but overall less than fifty percent of Americans have confidence in medical scientists to act in the public interest. That’s down from 60 percent as recently as 2016. Trust in science is also divided along partisan lines, with 53 percent of Democrats reporting they have a great deal of trust in medical scientists compared to only 31 percent of Republicans.
Levels of distrust in the vaccine are especially low among Black Americas. Large numbers of African American adults say they are unlikely to get the Covid-19 vaccine, even if it was deemed safe and available at no charge. Even Black adults with serious medical conditions are hesitant about receiving the vaccine. Only nine percent of Black Americans express confidence that a vaccine has been properly tested and will be distributed fairly.
Those fears emerge from generations of unjust treatment of Blacks including the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis studies of 1932-1972 that withheld medical treatment from its Black participants.
“It is not paranoia, it is not that Black people don’t ‘get it’ or are simply uneducated and unintelligent about their health,” Dr. Brittani James told NBC. James is a family practice physician in Chicago, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and cofounder of the Institute for Antiracism in Medicine. “The reality is that their worries have been earned and will not be corrected until medicine, public health and the government reckon with the past and what has been done to Black and brown people.”
Journalist German Lopez wonders if the federal government is up to that challenge.
Right now, America can finally see an end to its Covid-19 outbreak,” Lopez, a senior correspondent for Vox, wrote this week. “The first task is social distancing and masking to make sure more people make it to the point where they can get vaccinated. But then we need to make sure people actually can and want to get a Covid-19 vaccine. It’s not clear that the country is up to those challenges.”
In the Scriptures
Luke’s account of the annunciation to Mary runs parallel to the earlier announcement regarding John the Baptist’s birth (1:6-21). In that story, Gabriel appears to Zechariah as he is serving in the temple. The appearance follows a similar sequence: fear, assurance, an announcement of pregnancy, and a declaration of the child’s mission.
But there are important differences. Zechariah is a priest serving in the Jerusalem temple. His lineage is described along with liturgical details (offering of incense, the prayer of the whole assembly, the altar).
Zechariah resists the angelic declaration. He is skeptical, almost engaging Gabriel in debate. Zechariah has an armload of reasons why this won’t work. The old priest demands proof of the improbability of this announcement, and in response he is rendered silent. Gabriel is not fooling around! Luke notes that it is clear to those around Zechariah that he had seen something, but they do not understand his hand motions. There’s nearly a comical sense to Zechariah’s fumbling with hand signals, as if he were playing a game of holy charades. Following Luke’s intent at an orderly account of the Gospel, the silent Zechariah returns home and in due time his wife Elizabeth conceives. There will be plenty to talk about in months to come!
Mary’s status as a young woman is the first contrast in these two angelic appearances. Luke is attuned to the gender differences and seems eager to portray Mary’s willing embrace of discipleship. Moreover, her annunciation occurs not in the temple, but in the village of Nazareth. There is no doubt that this will be the story of a marginalized woman, an unwed mother of no particular significance.
Theologian Justo Gonzalez suggests that Mary’s response could indicate not only amazement, but possibly protest. (Luke, Belief A Theological Commentary on the Bible). Gonzalez points out that there would have been serious stigma attached to Mary’s condition, not to mention legal penalties. She is not unaware of the consequences, yet still is led to the place where she affirms the possibilities only God can imagine. Mary finds a pathway toward trust, a pathway that begins as she acknowledges the angel in her doorway.
In the Sermon
Understandably, Mary is perplexed. Likely she is concerned about what will happen next. Enduring the changes of pregnancy is one thing, but the social challenges are another. Courtney Buggs is correct in observing that while we have the advantage of knowing how the story ends, Mary does not. At this point, she only knows that an angel has interrupted her life.
Standing at the doorway, Gabriel shares the announcement that God is with her. She is favored, held in highest regard by God. The angel’s appearance is an unexpected intrusion that tosses any notion of predictable future aside. Everything shifts in Mary’s life — just as everything has shifted in our lives this year. The unexpected interruption of the pandemic has changed everything, including the way we experience trust.
Truth be told, trust in public institutions was falling well ahead of the pandemic. The government’s botched response at the beginning of the pandemic has done little to generate confidence in its ability to manage the end of the crisis. Corporations and government have seen levels of public confidence dwindle. Even churches and pastors earn the frequent side-ways glance.
Moreover, there are plenty of good reasons why minorities and other marginalized groups may find it difficult to believe that the government that has failed them so many times would suddenly get it right this time.
It all seems so impossible.
Until, perhaps, we catch sight of the angel standing at our doorway. His words convey the assurance that Mary will face neither the vicissitudes nor varicose veins of pregnancy alone. God is with her. God will sort out what seems impossible — despite the stares of neighbors, or the whispers of relatives.
That is the message we should preach this Sunday. Pay attention to those angels standing in doorways — they offer reminders that with God, nothing is impossible.
Three weeks ago, I drove my wife to the hospital. Covid-19 had settled on all of us, but it was far worse for her. Her oxygen saturation levels were falling, and she needed treatment for pneumonia. As we approached the ER entrance, neither of us knew how things would work out. I was allowed to step inside the hospital to kiss her goodbye. As we kissed, a nurse in the doorway — my angel Gabriel — said to me, “We’ll take good care of her.” I told myself to trust.
The good news is that she is now home, and on the way to recovery. She still has a way to go, but we have both learned that the angel’s message can be trusted. With God, nothing is impossible.
SECOND THOUGHTSIt’s Not Good…Yet
by Bethany Peerbolte
Luke 1:46b-55
Mary’s song (Luke 1:46-55) is a moment of defiant hope. The situation is not good… yet. Mary is pregnant and unwed. She is unprotected from the harsh reality she has been thrown into. Yet, she sings of hope and God’s glory. Oh to be so sure at a time such as that. Every year at this time we zoom in on Mary in this same moment, but this year is bound to reveal a little more. Our lives are in the midst of pandemic, job loss, natural disaster, racial turmoil, government distrust, quarantine exhaustion, Zoom fatigue, mourning for loved ones, fear of tomorrow stress. The situation is not good… yet.
Mary’s hope is a paradox held together by her faith alone. She is pregnant, which will cause her community to gossip and reject her, yet it is the thing that makes her blessed above all others. She will bear the son of God, which will cause her to stress and agonize, yet it is the thing that will bring her honor for millenniums to come. She will watch her child die on a cross, which will break her to pieces and yet it is the thing that will save her and the world. Through this all, Mary’s hope endures because her faith is able to hold both the crushing reality and God’s glory together in one moment.
What Mary does for her time and ours is she bears witness to things like faith and love and hope. She does this in a way that does not deny the paradox. Her life points clearly to hardship (the humble state of the servant), but her words point to God. Her faith in God’s favor allows her to face the hard realities of this world. She does not cower in fear and she does not boast. She sits in the moment aware of the paradox. This will be hard, but God is on my side doing something amazing.
Her words tell about the amazing thing God is doing. They are about revolution. It begins with the declaration “from now on.” Mary recognizes that a turning point has to happen for the world to change. She declares this as the moment. From now on, all generations will be blessed. They will no longer bear the chains the old system created, empty works, meaningless sacrifices, and dread over falling short. From now on, the ones who have amassed power will be humbled and scattered. From now on, the things worth striving for are humbleness, servanthood, mercy. These are words of a revolutionary dreaming up a world that is entirely different than the reality. The situation is not good… yet.
Mary reminds us of the “yet.” In her premarital pregnant state she is the image of “yet.” I would venture to say we need a bit of “yet” in our lives right now. The power of “yet” is not sugar coating a bad situation, like Mary we need to acknowledge the humbleness of the situation we are in. “Yet” is powerful because it reminds us there is a way through this. While we are still in a less than ideal situation “yet” encourages us to find a healthy way to cope.
The New York Times made the experience of pandemic frustration their focus of a recent article. Stressors like trying to take the safety measures seriously while our loved ones do not seem to care to follow any of them. They point out the heightening of public shaming and anger. We may want to yell at a stranger or a family member on the internet, but that is a terrible coping strategy. They advise directing anger at those in power, knowing the difference between shame and peer pressure, making it about our personal experience, and accept that some people will not change.
Mary is following these four rules well. She is not portrayed as angry but having been around women with unplanned pregnancies I am sure she had her moments. We do not remember her “less than magnificat” moments because Mary handles her stress in healthy ways. Ways surprisingly like the suggestions in the Times.
Mary directs her emotional energy to those in power — God. This not only serves to impact the one who can make a change, it also reminds her and anyone listening that God is on their side. There is only so much that we can do at the bottom of the power chain. However, if we can impact someone one level higher than us we eventually find someone with a direct line to the one who can make the change.
When Mary dreams of the world “from now on” she does not shame the world into changing. She knows the difference between shame and peer pressure. Peer pressure, when used lovingly, can help someone make a better choice. Mary does not point finger, her ideas of a world where power structures are turned upside down are given as gentle encouragements to her fellow humans to also dream and enact that world.
Mary makes her story about herself. Her soul and her spirit are reacting to the news. She is the servant who will do what she can to bring about this new revolutionary world. Throughout her life she uses her experience to influence the power around her. When she retrieves Jesus from the Temple she is honest about her anxiety while searching for him. At the wedding in Cana she is the one who notices the wine shortage and expresses the need for more. Mary experiences things for herself so she can make her plea personal.
As Mary watches Jesus’ ministry she must have realized some people will not change. She must have realized it when she saw Jesus’ hometown turn against him after he read from the scroll. Mary definitely knew it as Jesus was put on trial and the cross. She may have looked like she had surrendered to the horrible reality when she slumped over at the foot of the cross. But even there, Mary must have held on to the glimmer of “yet” because she knew her son, and her faith was rooted in the fact that God was for her.
Today it is our turn to hold onto the “yet.” We are in the moment we are in with a variety of struggles that 2020 has delt each of us. No matter who we were yesterday, today we choose which direction we look. Mary urges us to look to God, to dream of a future that is so unlike the one we are in now, and do what we can to hold on. The situation is not good…
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:Luke 1:46b-55
“Misconceptions?”
Back in seminary you probably learned that the song that Mary sings in today’s psalm-like lesson is very close to the prayer that Hannah prayed following Samuel’s birth in 1 Samuel 2. Okay, there are some similarities: both are said by women, both praise God, both talk about divine reversals. There are some huge differences that are worth noting.
Hannah had been childless. She’s wanted a child so much she had prayed for one at Shiloh so fervently that Eli, the presiding priest, thought she was drunk.
Mary was also childless, but that was to be expected (yeah, pun intended) because she was a virgin.
Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, Zechariah, the priest’s wife, should be the one singing a prayer akin to Hannah’s. Elizabeth was the barren one, as Hannah had been.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
A House is not a House
David had built a fine palace, but when he sat back in his Barcalounger it nagged at his because his digs were better than the Lord’s. David had a house, but the Ark of the Covenant was in that storage unit out on State 21, maybe it’s time for the Lord’s presence also to reside in splendor. Well, yes and no. Nathan initially gave David the go-ahead, but later advised David not to break ground on the temple. All this time there is a dual meaning going on: David’s residence, i.e. his palace, and “David’s House” that is his line of descendants.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Let’s look inside
When I was cramming for the Presbyterian Bible Content Ordination Exam I was shocked to learn that there were items besides the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed in the Ark of the Covenant. There was also a pot of manna, a souvenir from their 40 years in the Wilderness and the Rod of Aaron. Aaron’s rod was noteworthy because it sprouted buds and even almonds as recorded in Numbers 17. Moses’ staff could turn into a snake, but it was his brother’s staff that was preserved in the Ark of the Covenant.
* * *
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
The City of David, Bethlehem
Literally the name Bethlehem means “house of bread,” לחם בית . Some Hebrew texts separate the name into two words as I did above. “Bread” in this sense means food in general, as in “one does not live by bread alone.” This name may indicate that Bethlehem was in a fairly fertile place. Naomi returned to Bethlehem with her stubborn daughter-in-law Ruth, in tow. They arrived right when the barley harvest was getting underway. Ruth, the first convert to Judaism was David’s grandmother, a nice tie-in to David’s family.
* * *
Romans 16:25-27
Concluding doxology
Bible scholars call the last three verses of Paul’s letter to the Romans a doxology, a statement of praise or glory. It has the hurried feel of someone trying to say every possible idea before the magical three minutes of a long-distance call runs out. (Millennials, ask your parents about when long-distance calls were a big deal.) While it lifts up the mystery of Christ, at a rather early point in Paul’s career, for the most part it is a confused and confusing way to end a letter.
TIW Reader Challenge: Diagram the sentence that is Romans 16:25-27. Perhaps that will help you explain it to your congregations!
* * *
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Not the whole story
The portions of Psalm 89 that are part of today’s lectionary reading are the happy bits about God’s faithfulness and promises to stand by the king of Judah for generations. The latter third of the psalm sings a different song; it’s a lament, possibly written after the Babylonian invasion. Christians sometimes overlook — or never knew in the first place — that David’s throne wasn’t continuously occupied by one of “the house and lineage of David.
* * * * * *
From team member Mary Austin:Romans 16:25-27
Receiving Strength from God
Winding up his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul reminds them that God is the giver of strength. Their faith, and the things they have learned, will contribute to their strength of spirit. In our lives, God also brings strength when we need it, as Bill Bloom tells it. Bloom is a member of the volunteer ski patrol for a park near his home in Oregon. Skiing in the park one day, he recalls a call to locate some missing hikers who should have returned two days ago. Starting the search with his friend Randy, he says, “We didn’t see any tracks, only virgin snow. It was up to our knees, too deep and too powdery to ski, so Randy and I had to lift each leg and stomp down to break a trail. Going was slow and tough, and with such a substantial snowfall, we had to keep an eye out — or rather, an ear — for an avalanche…Randy and I took turns doing the exhausting work. We talked to take our minds off our effort. Randy had worked search-and-rescue a lot longer than my six years at Crater Lake. I peppered him with questions. He asked me all sorts of things about Vietnam. I told him my story, even though I wasn’t proud of my past. Too many wasted years. It felt good to talk, though, especially in the utter backwoods silence. Good to hear how far God had brought me.” Two other skiers came along, and joined the search.
“Now there were four of us to break trail. Two miles out, our path rounded sharply north. That’s when I heard it. Whumpf. The snow shook under my feet. Usually that only happened right before a slide or an avalanche…Everything looked fine. I took over the lead. Suddenly Randy yelled, “Here it comes!” I turned. The snow between the outcropping and the trees broke loose. It moved toward us like a silent wave. I took a step. A flash of white hit me. My feet and skis were instantly covered in snow. I couldn’t move out of the way. My survival training flashed through my mind. Fifteen minutes. That was about the longest a person could survive buried in an avalanche. Take a deep breath. Turn in the direction the slide is heading. See if you can ride down with it. The snow rose to my waist. All I could manage was to twist my torso. Make an air pocket. I sucked in a lungful of air and got my hands up to my face. A tremendous roar now. Snow engulfed me, wrenching my upper body while my lower body remained firmly in place. I thought I’d be torn in half.”
Bloom was trapped in the snow, trying to carve out a way to breathe. “The radio around my neck squawked. “Avalanche. Four involved.” Randy! “I’m out. Moving to the other three…” Randy kept talking to dispatch. He told them one was buried to his chin and digging himself out. Then he said, “We’re digging out the third.” What about me? I thought. I’d been under for at least 15 minutes. I couldn’t hear the radio anymore. The patch of blue before me grew fuzzy.” Bloom was sure that he would die. “But,” he says, “I wasn’t afraid, not like I’d been in Vietnam, or when I was drunk and high. I’d been powerless then too. Sobriety, and the 12 Steps to recovery I’d followed for 14 years, had taught me to accept powerlessness and rely on God’s will. Now, more than ever, I would have to…I didn’t feel the cold anymore. Instead, I felt peace. So many good things had happened in recovery. I’d gotten my career back, made good friends, found true love. I’d been living on borrowed time. No, not borrowed. A gift. Bonus time. I had been entombed in my addiction as surely as I was entombed in this snow. If I were to die now, I wanted to die thanking God for the life he had given me. New life. As my mind began to fade, I prayed: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. Blackness. I don’t know for how long. A nudge on my back. Am I dead? Hallucinating? Something jabbed my left elbow. Hard. Sometimes pain is the only thing that lets us know we’re alive. Someone was up there looking for me with a probe.” The rescuers found him, and cleared the snow so he could breathe. After they pulled him out, Randy told him, incredulously, that he had been under for forty minutes.
God’s strength had come when he needed it most.
* * *
Luke 1:26-38
Trust
For the Christ child to be born, Mary has to summon up an extraordinary amount of trust in the angel, in his message and in God to see her through what will be a difficult time. She has to place her trust in God’s plans. In her TED talk, Rachel Botsman observes that trust, for us, is shifting. We trust institutions like banks and churches much less than previous generations, and place more trust in strangers. We ride with people we don’t know, and sleep in their guest rooms, through the connections we make through technology.
She notes, “Let's start in France with a platform — with a company, I should say — with a rather funny-sounding name, BlaBlaCar. It's a platform that matches drivers and passengers who want to share long-distance journeys together. The average ride taken is 320 kilometers. So it's a good idea to choose your fellow travelers wisely. Social profiles and reviews help people make a choice. You can see if someone's a smoker, you can see what kind of music they like, you can see if they're going to bring their dog along for the ride. But it turns out that the key social identifier is how much you're going to talk in the car.” Trust makes it work. “It's remarkable, right, that this idea works at all, because it's counter to the lesson most of us were taught as a child: never get in a car with a stranger. And yet, BlaBlaCar transports more than four million people every single month. To put that in context, that's more passengers than the Eurostar or JetBlue airlines carry. BlaBlaCar is a beautiful illustration of how technology is enabling millions of people across the world to take a trust leap.”
Botsman says, in a definition that would fit for Mary, “I define trust a little differently. I define trust as a confident relationship to the unknown. Now, when you view trust through this lens, it starts to explain why it has the unique capacity to enable us to cope with uncertainty, to place our faith in strangers, to keep moving forward.” That’s the kind of trust that Mary has, which allows her to move into God’s plans.
* * *
Luke 1:46b-55
Restoration Needed
After hearing the angel Gabriel’s announcement, Mary sings a song of reversals, with the hungry restored to a life of plenty, and the lowly lifted up. In this Covid era, many Americans are waiting for such restoration. Parent and writer Deb Perelman notes the impact on working parents, who are also home-schooling their kids, saying “In the Covid-19 economy, you’re allowed only a kid or a job.” She and her fellow parents talk often about this, and agree on the emotional, physical and economic losses. “The consensus is that everyone agrees this is a catastrophe, but we are too bone-tired to raise our voices above a groan, let alone scream through a megaphone. Every single person confesses burnout, despair, feeling like they are losing their minds, knowing in their guts that this is untenable.” The stress is tremendous. One friend, she says, “told me that if their school reopens, her children are going back whether it’s safe or not because she cannot afford to not work.”
Students, too, will need to be filled up again. Many will have lost much of this school year. “Students will lose most of a year of learning as parents — their new untrained teachers — cannot supervise in any meaningful way while Zooming into the office. At best, the kids will be crabby and stir-crazy as they don’t get enough physical activity because they’re now tethered to their parents’ work spaces all day, running around the living room in lieu of fresh air.” Students who have special needs have suffered even more.
In another family, “When schools closed, Bridget Hughes, a fast-food worker and mother of three in Kansas City, Mo., had to cut back her hours. Her family has gone back on public assistance as a result. Because she and her husband, a gas station cashier, have jobs that can’t be done from home, each day is a child care puzzle. She works afternoons and evenings. He works nights. In the mornings, he sleeps and she oversees home school for the children, who are 6, 8 and 11.”
Mary’s song rings especially true for families who have school-aged children, and have been stretched thin for nine months. Restoration of work and school, whenever it can happen, will be welcome!
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
N.B. Mary’s Song/The Magnificat was an alternative reading for the Psalm last week and is the primary response to the First Reading this week. The call to worship based on it is repeated as well as the hymn versions.
Call to Worship:
Leader: Let us sing of the steadfast love of our God.
People: With our mouths we will proclaim God’s faithfulness.
Leader: God’s steadfast love is established forever.
People: God’s faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
Leader: God has made a covenant with the chosen.
People: You are our Father, our God, the Rock of our salvation.
OR
Leader: Let our spirits rejoice in God, our Savior.
People: God has looked with favor on our lowliness.
Leader: The Mighty One has done great things for us.
People: Holy is the name of our God.
Leader: God has brought down the powerful from their thrones.
People: God has lifted up the lowly.
OR
Leader: The God who created us in loves calls us.
People: We rejoice that God loves us and desires us.
Leader: God shows us the way to life eternal.
People: Thanks be to god who shows us the way.
Leader: God loved us so much that Jesus came to lead us to God.
People: We will follow Jesus and learn to love our God more deeply.
Hymns and Songs:
Tell Out My Soul
UMH: 200
H82: 437/438
W&P: 41
Renew: 130
My Soul Gives Glory to My God
UMH: 198
CH: 130
ELW: 882
Trust and Obey
UMH: 467
AAHH: 380
NNBH: 322
CH: 556
W&P: 443
AMEC: 377
Jesus Calls Us
UMH: 398
H82: 549/550
NNBH: 183
NCH: 171/172
CH: 337
LBW: 494
ELW: 696
W&P: 345
AMEC: 238
Of the Father’s Love Begotten
UMH: 184
PH: 309
NCH: 118
CH: 104
LBW: 42
ELW: 295
W&P: 181
Renew: 252
Rise, Shine, You People
UMH: 187
LBW: 393
ELW: 665
W&P: 89
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
UMH: 190
H82: 66
PH: 1/2
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELW: 254
W&P: 153
AMEC: 103
Toda la Tierra (All Earth Is Waiting)
UMH: 210
NCH: 121
ELW: 266
W&P: 163
What Child Is This
UMH: 219
H82: 115
PH: 53
AAHH: 220
NNBH: 86
NCH: 148
CH: 162
LBW: 40
ELW: 296
W&P: 184
In the Bleak Midwinter
UMH: 221
H82: 112
PH: 36
NCH: 128
ELW: 294
W&P: 196
STLT: 241
Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
UMH: 229
PH: 37
CH: 163
LBW: 44
ELW: 276
W&P: 221
O Come, All Ye Faithful
UMH: 234
H82: 83
PH: 41/42
AAHH: 199
NNBH: 93
NCH: 135
CH: 148
LBW: 45
ELW: 283
W&P: 182
AMEC: 106
STLT: 253
Renew: 1
Give Thanks
CCB: 92
Renew: 266
Walk with Me
CCB: 88
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is always trustworthy and true:
Grant us the faith to trust in you at all times
even when our lives seem to be in turmoil;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are trustworthy and true. You are our rock on which we lean. Help us to have faith in you even when our lives are filled with confusion and turmoil. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our lack of trust and faith in God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We say that we trust in you but our lives are filled with worry and care. Our thoughts are on the physical things of this world more than on the spiritual ones. We are more concerned with the praises of other people than we are about pleasing you. As we turn our lives toward you and your realm, inspire us with your Spirit that we may truly follow the Christ. Amen.
Leader: God is the one we can trust because God is the one who loves us unconditionally. Receive God’s grace and share it with others that you may truly be children of our God.
Prayers of the People
We worship and adore you, O God, because you are the one who has no hidden agenda or false motives. You are love and you come to us in that love to save us.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We say that we trust in you but our lives are filled with worry and care. Our thoughts are on the physical things of this world more than on the spiritual ones. We are more concerned with the praises of other people than we are about pleasing you. As we turn our lives toward you and your realm, inspire us with your Spirit that we may truly follow the Christ.
We give you thanks for all the blessings of this life. We thank you for family and friends and our place in your Church where love is shared abundantly. We thank you for Jesus who shows us your love and teaches us how to live in it and out of it.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We know how difficult it is to live in love during the best of times and we pray for those who are going through difficult times. We pray for the sick, the dying, and the grieving. We pray for those who suffer from poverty and want and those who suffer from violence and hatred. We pray for those who struggle to make sense out of their lives and to live in the freedom you created us for.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about trusting people, like parents. It is good to have nice parents who take care of us and that we can trust. But even the best of parents sometimes make mistakes or might get angry with us because they don’t feel well or are worried about things. Yet we know they love us and we can depend on them. God is also our parent and we can always trust God and God never makes a mistake.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMONChosen
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 1:26-38
God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, "Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!" (Luke 1:26b-28)
Say:
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he growls, then let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
When I was a little boy/girl we used to use that poem to choose up sides for a game. We’d point to a different person with each word and the person we were pointing to on the last word, “moe,” would be chosen to be on the team.
Or sometimes we would use it to see who would go first or sit by the window or eat the last piece of cake or just about anything. It was a way of choosing and it seemed like a fair way to choose someone.
I looked it up and it turns out, children have been using that poem or one like it for over 200 years only they use words, sometimes made-up words, from their own language.
In New York, a long time ago, they would say it like this:
Hana, man, mona, mike;
Barcelona, bona, strike;
Hare, ware, frown, vanac;
Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.
In Scotland and Ireland, they say: (e and ei at the ends of the words are pronounced: ee. As in bee.)
Ene, tene, mone, mei,
Pastor, lone, bone, strei,
Ene, fune, herke, berke,
Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?
Today, our lesson from the Gospel of Luke tells us about when God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus. It doesn’t tell us how God went about choosing Mary but I doubt God used “eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” don’t you?
And it doesn’t tell us if Mary was God’s first choice or if maybe God had chosen a bunch of other girls first but Mary was the only one who said, “Yes.”
Maybe God chose Mary because God knew that Mary was a kind and good person and would be a good mother to Jesus when he was born. I think that’s probably it, don’t you?
And I think God knew that Mary would say, “Yes.”
Sometimes, God chooses us to do things. God chooses us to be kind and helpful, to be loving and good. And all God asks of us is to say “Yes,” when God chooses us for some task or job to do.
Because sometimes it’s not just about God choosing us; it’s also about us choosing God. It’s about us choosing to be the kinds of people God wants us to be and doing the things that God wants us to do.
End with a prayer letting God know that we want to be chosen and we will do our best to be the kind of people God wants us to be.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 20, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
