Luke 1:26-38

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Trusting in God brings us possibility, power, …= ;and pregnancy!

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

December 16, 2007=

When I lived down in the farming country of southeast Arkansas, I heard about a farmer who went to see his banker at the end of a really bad harvest season. It was the en= d of the year, and all the farmer’s loans were coming due. He walked into = the banker’s office and said, “Friend, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”

The banker replied, “Better give me the bad news first.”

The farmer said, ̶= 0;You remember how dry it was back in the spring, and I didn’t get half my = crop up out of the ground, and then it rained all fall and ruined what little cr= op I had. I’m not going to b= e able to repay the loan I had for the seed I bought.”

The banker said, “Yeah, that’s bad news all right.”

The farmer said, “That’s not all. = You remember the loan you made me to buy the new farm equipment? Well, I’ll not be able to pa= y that loan, either. I’ve had = to dip too deeply into my savings.”

The banker responded, “Well, that’s certainly bad news, too. That’s awful!”

The farmer went on, “And the loan you made me on my house and land and all my buildings?<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I won’t even be able to pay = the interest on that loan. I have= spent everything I have. I’m sorry.”

The banker looked at t= he farmer with a dazed expression and said, “This is really terrible. This is awful! With bad news like that, what in t= he world is your good news?”

The farmer brightened = a bit and smiled and said, “The good news is, I love this bank, and I’= ;m going to keep bringing you all my business!”

Sometimes we’re = not sure good news is really good, are we? I’m sure Mary had some misgivi= ngs about this announcement the angel Gabriel made to her. Was this good news or bad news? She was pregnant? She was going to have a son? In the first place, this was impos= sible, physically speaking. In the s= econd place, she was engaged to Joseph, and he was not going to like this news at all!

But as the angel’= ;s story unfolded, it became clear to Mary that this was no ordinary announcement. It was the announcement of salvation. The angel wasn’t talking about normal circumstances. Mary had been chosen to bear God&#= 8217;s Son. This child would be the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. This pregnancy would not be accomp= lished by normal physical means, but by the spiritual power of God. This was indeed good news!

For just a moment the = future of the human race hung on the decision of a simple peasant girl in Palestine. Then M= ary, in a remarkable, world-changing response of trust and faith and commitment, ag= reed to become the linchpin in God’s plan for the salvation of the planet.= Can you even imagine! She said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”[1]

This response of trust opened up Mary’s life to a whole new relationship with God. Suddenly she was living on a diffe= rent level. The good news for us t= oday is that our trust in God works the same way. God can take us to the next level,= too. He can open up our lives like he di= d for Mary, if we will just trust him. Let me draw some parallels for you.

The response of trust = brings us POSSIBILITY. Mary trusted in the angel’s message, and a whole new horizon of possibility opened up in her life. Before Gabriel came, there were so= me things that were just physically impossible. Now not only was Mary going to bear God’s Son, but her relative Elizabeth, as old as she was, was also go= ing to have a child. Gabriel put = it plainly, “Nothing will be impossible for God.”[2] God can do amazing, incredibl= e, miraculous, impossible things if we will just trust him.<= /p>

Several years ago, America= fell in love with a unique young lady. Her name was Heather Whitestone. = She came from Alabama= , but she overcame so much more to get to the pinnacle of her success. At the age of 18 months, Heather h= ad a reaction to an immunization that left her almost totally deaf. But instead of dwelling on her deficiency, she decided to maximize her possibility. Her mother kept telling her that s= he was an American, and the last four letters of American spell “I can.̶= 1; So Heather grew up believing in Go= d, believing in herself, and believing in an impossible goal—to become M= iss America= . In September of 1994, with thousan= ds of people watching and millions tuned in around the world, Heather Whitestone danced a routine to the song “Via Dolorosa,” about the crucifix= ion of Christ. And she couldnR= 17;t even hear the music! Her performance was so beautiful, it touched the hearts of everyone who saw her, and she was chosen Miss America.

A few years later, Hea= ther achieved another impossible goal. Now married, Heather Whitestone McCallum had an operation to install= two newly developed artificial hearing devices in her head—a new technolo= gy called cochlear implants. Whe= n they were activated, for the first time in three decades, Heather could hear!= = [3]

With God nothing is impossible, when we trust in him. He is the God of possibility. He is the God of POWER.= When we trust in him, we receive p= ower to overcome our obstacles and achieve our objectives. This is the power of salvation, the power of healing, the power of the Spirit.

The angel Gabriel prom= ised the power of God to the young woman Mary as she considered having a baby without a husband. He said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon = you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to = be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God.”[4] The word “overshadow= 221; is the same word that is used when the glory of the Lord dwells on Mount Sinai with Moses and when the cloud of God= 217;s presence comes over the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and three of the disciples. It’s the same spiritual power of God that is available to anyone who does what Mary did—trust in God totally and surrender our will to his.

The late Dr. Norman Vi= ncent Peale told one time about a prominent lawyer he knew who had all the trappi= ngs of success, but he had a chronic physical problem with internal bleeding th= at depleted his finances and filled his life with constant pain. One day as he lay in the hospital = he heard Dr. Peale give a radio message on Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”= ; Dr. Peale said that no matter your condition or circumstance, if you surrender your life completely to God and= put your trust in him, you can find divine strength to overcome anything.<= /o:p>

This lawyer, who had b= een taken to the hospital to die, had heard statements like that before. But this time, it just seemed to s= trike him as true. So he closed his= eyes and for the first time really meant it when he asked God to take control of= his life. When he did, he felt a = surge of peace, a release in his soul, and he believed that the internal bleeding would stop. When the doctors examined him, they found it had! Recovering from his illness, the lawyer told Dr. Peale, “I am slowly getting better, but the main thing is this new strength, this wonder= ful inner peace, this absolute sense of being attached to the power of God hims= elf. My family and I have had to face m= any difficult problems. Eac= h time we have been caught in what seemed like a blind alley, God opened a way.= 221;= 2

Trust opens a way for possibility and power…and PR= EGNANCY! Many of you ladies may be thinking= , “I’ll go for two out of three on this one!” Before any of you get really worri= ed, let me explain what I mean. T= here are several senses of the word “pregnant.” Of course, it can mean a literal, physical pregnancy. But there= is only one case I know of in which trusting God, by itself, resulted in an ac= tual pregnancy, and that was Mary.

“Pregnant”= also has two other definitions or synonyms. “Pregnant” can mean important, heavy with significance. Sometimes we speak of a “pregnant pause” in the conversation, before something significant is said.

In terms of importance= , only the resurrection on Easter is as important as the birth of Christ. This is the hingepoint of history,= the event that divides time into B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, the year= of the Lord’s birth). This= is when God becomes flesh to save the world.&= nbsp; This is the moment the whole world has been waiting for. Paul says that the entire creation= is “groaning in labor pains,R= 21;= = [5] straining to be set free from sin and decay and death, until the appearing = of Jesus Christ. This is an even= t of universal, cosmic importance!

The other meaning of “pregnant” is “abundant” or “overflowing”. Th= ese are fairly apt descriptions of a woman who is about to give birth. Pregnancy can be an uncomfortably abundant experience.

It’s like the Christmas season. There is an overflowing abundance all around us. For most of us there is abundant family and friends, abundant food, abundant gifts. For all of us= there is an abundance of meaning in these holy days. There are all the symbols of the s= eason that speak to us of the overflowing love and mercy of God—the manger,= the star, the shepherds, the wise men, the angel choir. All of them announce to us that &#= 8220;God so loved the world that he gave hi= s only Son so that whoever believed in him—trusted in him—would not perish but would have everlasting life.”[6] We have faith that “God is able by the power at work within us to accomplish abundantly= far more that all that we can ask or imagine.”[7] Jesus said, “I hav= e come that they may have life in all its abundance.”[= 8] That’s pregnancy!=

Trusting God brings us pregnancy in the sense of importance and abundance. In faith we are pa= rt of God’s plan for the Kingdom. We get to participate in the drama of salvation. We get to experience the overflowi= ng outpouring of his Spirit and his love.&nbs= p; Trusting God is an experience of pregnancy, bringing to birth in our lives the spiritual fruit of the Kingdom of God.

Dr. Jeremy Bassett, a pastor in Oklahoma, was observing the backstage preparations for a Christmas pageant in which h= is five-year-old niece, Olivia, and her best friend, Claire, were participating. One of the lit= tle boys was going around to everyone, saying, “I’m a sheep; what a= re you?” Each child respon= ded politely, including Olivia, who told the boy she was an angel. Then the kid walked up to Claire, = who had the role of Mary. He said, “I’m a sheep; what are you?”

Claire said simply, “I am Mary.”

Realizing he was face to face with the lead character (since Jesus wa= s a doll), the boy attempted to justify himself. He said very seriously, “It’s not easy being a sheep, you know.”

To which five-year-old Claire responded with equal seriousness, “Yes, I know. It’= s not easy being a virgin, either.”[9]<= o:p>

It was not easy for Mary to do what she did. It’s not easy being a b= earer of the Good News. It’s = not easy being a Christian—in this season or any other. So what can God do to help you today?

In 1975, the Catholic ethicist John Kavanaugh took a sabbatical to se= ek answers for his life. He went= to Calcutta, India, and lived and worked for three months at the mission for the destitute and dying run by Mother Teresa. O= n the first morning he was there, Mother Teresa asked him, “What can I do f= or you?” Kavanaugh asked h= er simply to pray for him. She a= sked, “What do you want me to pray for?”

He voiced the request that had brought him halfway around the world.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He asked her to pray that he would= have clarity about his life.

Mother Teresa said firmly, “No, I will not do that.” Kavanaugh asked her why, and she s= aid, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.= 221;

Kavanaugh responded that Mother Teresa always seemed to have the kind= of clarity that he was longing for. She laughed and said, “No, I have never had clarity; what I ha= ve always had is trust. So I wil= l pray that you trust God.”[10]=

Mary trusted God. I dou= bt if she had clarity about what that would mean in the long run. She could not foresee what it woul= d be like to raise the Son of God, to watch him go out and teach and heal and gi= ve himself for others, to be rejected and hated and crucified, and to rise again from = the dead. She couldn’t fore= see all that. But that day when t= he angel gave her the announcement, she trusted God. And it was enough.

Maybe you’d like some clarity about your life today. Where are you going? W= hat are you going to do? How can = you best spend your time and energy? I only have one answer for you: TRUS= T IN GOD. Live in that relatio= nship, and God will give you what you need, no matter what circumstances you face. God is with us—Emmanuel—and he is coming. With him, nothing is impossible. That is our hope.= That is our joy. That is truly Good News, this Chri= stmas and forever. Amen!

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