What! Jesus Arrives Like This?
By The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
December 16, 2012
Text: Luke 1:26-38
There is a profound connection between levels of stress and change. When you look at most of the indicators of what causes stress in human beings, more often than not it involves change. Whether it is the beginning or the ending of a long relationship, whether it is moving to a new town or location, whether it is the beginning or the ending of a place of employment, whether it is the problems of health or the arrival of a new child, whether it is the death of someone dear to you, or whether it is bad news in the world: all of these involve change, and all of these involve stress.
Yet, one of the great ironies of human life and existence is that despite the inevitability of change and the stress that it brings, we often don't want to change, and we hold on to ways of doing things, and thinking of traditions, and things that we hold dear, never letting go of them for fear of the change that will take place. So, while in some circumstances change can help us, we sometimes resist it for fear of change. It is one of the great complexities of life: how do you manage the changes in your life?
We are so resistant at times to change, so frightened of anything new on the horizon for our lives, that we do everything in our power to hold it back. I was reading a fascinating article not long ago that talked about historic examples of reluctance to change, and a misunderstanding of the status quo. One of the things that I read was a letter that was written in January 1829 to then President Jackson in the United States:
Mr. President:
The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread
of a new form of transportation known as railroads. The Federal
Government must preserve the canals for the following reasons:
- If boats are supplanted by railroads, serious unemployment
will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, hostlers, repairmen and
lock tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to
mention the numerous farmers now employed in growing
hay for horses. - Boat-builders will suffer, and towline, whip and harness makers
would be left destitute; - Canal boats are absolutely essential - I love this! - to the
defense of the United States in the event of the expected
trouble with England. The Erie Canal would be the only means
by which we could ever move the supplies so vital to waging
modern war.
As you well know, Mr. President, railroad carriages are pulled at
the enormous speed of 15 mph by engines which, in addition to
endangering life and the limb of passengers, roar and smoke their
way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the
livestock, and frightening women and children.
The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel
at such break-neck speed.
Sincerely yours,
Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York
Priceless, eh? Resistance to change! Holding back the tide! Not allowing things to occur! Van Buren was frightened.
Now, our text this morning is a text about change. We have probably read it a hundred times over and missed one of the salient parts of Luke 1:26 and following, because it really is about change. It is about the change that takes place in Mary. It is about the change that takes place in the world. It is about the change that takes place in believers. And, it is about change that addresses unbelievers.
Look at the setting, it is incredible! It is a story of the Archangel Gabriel coming to the small, little known town of Nazareth, an outpost of the Roman Empire, to make a great declaration. It is always interesting, I find, that of all the Gospels, Luke is the one that gives us more involvement with angels, more than Mathew and Mark and John. Yet, Luke is so grounded in the humanity of Jesus! It is interesting that when this angel appears as an agent of God, the first reference is actually to Joseph, and to Joseph coming from the line of David, and Joseph being the father of the child in a sense, and certainly the betrothed of Mary.
Joseph appears on the scene and is part of the whole story, an earthly story, and a human story, and yet in a very inhuman way an angel appears to Mary. He says to Mary, “You are greatly favoured.” Mary, on being encountered by this angel, is terrified. We read, “She is distressed.” Wouldn't you be? All of a sudden, a spiritual body comes to you and makes an announcement. The angel's response to Mary is: “Do not be afraid! Look at your relative Elizabeth. She is old and she is going to bear a child. If she in her old age can bear a child, you as a virgin can bear a child, for all things are possible with God.”
Mary is overwhelmed. Mary's response is magnificent. She says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.” This is a story of change. Mary is the first in a chain of changes that take place. But, it is the very presence of the Word of God, the very power of the Word of God that changes and transforms Mary. This is a person who at the beginning of this encounter is terrified, and at the end is obedient and full of faith. Mary has been changed by God!
As many of you know, I love art. One of the pieces of religious art that I have looked at, not in person unfortunately, has been a fresco of The Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, and it is situated in a monastery outside of Florence by a very, very famous monk, Fran Angelico. He lived in the early part of the fifteen hundreds. Unlike most of the Annunciation depictions - where this angel appears on high and Mary is down below and looks terrified, and/or an angel that is all-powerful in the Heavens and Mary is full of joy and ecstasy for she is going to bear what the Angel said to her would be the Son of the Most High, from the line of David, from the House of Jacob, whose kingdom would have no end. The pictures are of Mary in ecstasy and joy. But, not Fran Angelico's!
Fran Angelico has the angel facing Mary - face to face! The angel looks benign. The angel has a peaceful countenance, a slight tinge of joy in the eyes, but not too much. Mary is sitting on a chair opposite the angel. They are the same size on the same level. Her hands are crossed in front of her chest. She looks completely and totally at peace. It is magnificent! And, the magnificence of it is that it captures Mary in the midst of this cataclysmic change. Mary is at peace. Mary has found in a sense her center.
She must have heard the words of the angel sounding in her ear that refer back to Genesis 18:17, when the Lord appeared to Sarah before she gave birth to Isaac, saying “Is there anything that the Lord cannot do?” Mary, on hearing nothing is impossible with God, knew from The Old Testament that God could do great things through Sarah, who was barren and gave birth to Isaac. Mary knew God's words were real, so Mary was at peace. She did not say, “Come wheel, come woe, my status quo!”, rather she said, and I quote again, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.”
It seems to me that what makes Mary great is the fact of course that she was chosen, she was elected, it was deemed that she would be the one who would carry the Son of God, but even more perhaps that she responded with faith. That faith changed the world. Why? It is because this story is about change: it is about God changing the world. God doesn't change the world through Mary; God changes the world through Mary's child. Mary is the radical means for this to happen. She is the one who is open to God to change the world through her. What an incredible thing!
Yet, for many believers, we take the opposite view of Mary. Much of our devotion and our prayers and our lives are actually rather than being changed by God is to change God's mind. A lot of our prayers, our invocations, and a lot of our requests are designed to get God to change God's mind. Think about your prayers recently. Are they not attempts to influence God so God would change God's mind? Do we not approach God as if somehow we have the answers and we need God to put in place all the things that will facilitate the change that we want? I think we do! I know I am guilty of it. We all do it! But, Mary? No! Mary understood that change was coming, and she had to have faith in the midst of that change.
Change is hard, and it is hard whether it is in relation to business or it is in relation to relationships themselves or in relationship to God. I was reading a book, which is a compendium of stories on change. You know, these days, the gurus always like to say, “Be full of change,” embrace change,” move towards transformation.” These are the buzzwords of our day, and have been for a few years. Change is always a good thing. But, oftentimes, it is not embraced.
One of the classic stories is one of the Swiss watch making industry - and this is something I had no idea about - but during the 1960s the Swiss watch making business and community had almost a monopoly on the making of watches. They were the ones who designed the moving second hand. They were the ones who designed many of the springs that make watches so delicate and so accurate. They developed the crown. They made watches waterproof. They had them as self-adjusting and self-winding. They produced the glorious cases that made these watches so beautiful. And, in the 1960s, 65% of all watches in the world were made in Switzerland, and 90% of all the profits were made in Switzerland. Staggering!
By the 1980s, twenty years, everything changed. Ironically, someone from Switzerland developed the quartz watch, but rather than embrace it, the Swiss manufacturers resisted it, because it did not fit into their paradigm, their view of what a watch should be. So, the Japanese took it over and Japanese companies started to make them. By the mid-1980s, 90 percent of all watches that were made were made outside of Switzerland, and Switzerland made 10 percent of all the money from the sale of watches. In twenty years! Now, they have made somewhat of a comeback. They have made a niche for themselves again, but never to recover the glory days of the 1960s. Why? It is because they were resistant to change.
I think when it comes to our relationship with God, we are reluctant to change: to change our attitudes and our ways, our behaviour, our values, our morals, our commitment to something greater and higher than ourselves. Indeed, unbelievers face change and take it on by trying to change God by putting something in God's place or having no God at all, as if somehow then they can cope with changes any better. Oh, how sad that is! How sad! Let me tell you this: when real hard change is coming into your life, and if it hasn't already done so, it will, it will be your faith in the Son that will be your rock. The irony is, you see, when you change, you get the peace and not the fear, you get the hope and not the uncertainty, and you get the assurance and not the doubt. Mary's boy-child changed everything!
There is also a sense in which we need to be, as Mary was, an agent of change. It is not that we are the ones that always embrace the changes, or we are the power or the source behind it. No! It was God who chose Mary. It was an agent of the Lord that spoke to her. It was the Holy Spirit that came upon her and gave her the seed of the birth of Jesus. Oh, it is God's doing. But, God still wants, like Mary, people who are willing to be agents of his change in the world. We call them disciples.
I don't know why, but I heard a Christmas carol not long ago on the radio, and the voice sounded like a musician I knew in my days in Nova Scotia. For some reason or another, I just decided to go back and look into this guy's life. There is a lot on the Web on him. Then, I found a link between him and another musician I knew, and then, a link to another musician, who I didn't know, but who was known by the other two.
Let me just clarify this. The first friend - and because we are on live in Nova Scotia tonight on a recording, I don't want to mention their full names in case I embarrass them - was J, and J had a great career in music. In his early days, he helped found one of Canada's greatest rock bands of the 1970s, a rock band that ended up in the Hall of Fame. His founding of this band caused him to be in the Hall of Fame. But, before they became really successful, J, who I knew well, left the band.
He left the band because he knew that he had in his life certain things that would actually destroy him if he were to live the life of a rocker. And so, he left the band, as he says to save himself. He continued to play at schools. He would do some community gatherings, where I met him. He would come to colleges and universities and play in coffee houses. His career really didn't go anywhere, while the band soared into the stratosphere! But, Jim was a man of faith. In the 1990s, he started to play again, and finally he wrote a musical, and the last line of the musical should say it all: kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy!
This is the wonderful thing. J continues to play blues. He is now in the Hall of Fame, but because he is a man of faith, he had decided to hook up with other musicians to encourage them in their walk with God and in their musical careers, and he hooked up with a man called T. T is blind, that is physically unable to see, but inside has the spirit of God. T sings and plays. A few years ago, he had a Number One Single. He plays in auditoriums. He has received the Order of Canada. He has received an Honorary Doctorate from King's College in Halifax. He goes around and he plays for troops all over the world to give them encouragement, and even though he can't see them, they can see and hear him. T is a wonderful person, and in collaboration with J, has produced glorious music: music to the praise of Mary's son.
Then, there is another friend. His name is D. D was a great athlete, and he played hockey and rock guitar, a typical twenty-something man, at the height of his life and his career. Junior hockey and an electric guitar - you don't get cooler than that in Canada! But, D was in a car accident and ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of his days. D credits two things seeing him through all this: one is the love and support of his family, especially his mother; the second is his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who he says has been with him every step of the long journey.
D began to sing and to play with Jim and with Terry, and they encouraged each other in their walk with God. Each had their own difficulties: Jim probably more in terms of facing life's struggles, T with his sight, and D with the inability to walk. Yet the three of them now are remarkable. J funds a shelter for women and men who are abused. T gives inspirational talks in high schools about being a good citizen. And D decided to use his ailments and his problems to become a Para-Olympian and to be in the World Championships, and to go around and talk to people about how God can help you overcome. This is incredible!
What is incredible about them is that in a sense all three of them had to face enormous changes in their lives, changes that would shake us to our foundations if we were confronted by them. But somehow, the Child of Mary has been there to guide them and to nurture them along the way. Henri Nouwen, the great Christian writer, has a wonderful prayer, and it is a prayer that I have read many times over when I myself have been resistant to God's hand of change. His prayer goes like this:
Dear God, I am so afraid to open my clenched fists. Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands, and to discover that I am not what I owned, but what you want to give me.
For him, what he had been given was Mary's Son, and Mary's Son helps us face all the changes of life with joy and with hope. May we all say this Advent, this morning, in our heart these words: “Here I am, the Servant of the Lord. Let it be with me, according to your Word.” Amen.