Sermons

Fourth Sunday in Advent
Sunday 21 December 2008

David Paton-Williams
Readings: 2 Samuel 7 v1-11, 16 : Luke 1 v26-39

Every birth begins with a journey not just to hospital, not just for the baby but also a journey for the parents adjusting to the new reality of parenthood.

As we follow the story of Jesus' birth in Luke and Matthew we see his parents setting out on a journey into the unknown
a journey that involved both risk and faith.

For Mary her journey begins with the words "Let it be to me according to your word"

By saying that she is consenting to God's will allowing God's Spirit to form in her a new creation a new future for her and for the world.

And to do that is to take a very great risk.

She is risking the hopes and plans that she may have had for her marriage and her future.

She is risking public humiliation - as nothing like an unexplained pregnancy could be covered up in a small Galilean village.

She is risking divorce - the breaking of the legally binding contract of engagement - and that would mean becoming a social outcast and possibly even having to leave her village to avoid the scandal. Despite all this she says "Let it be to me according to your word"
She takes the risk of faith.

Faith that despite all appearances God knows that he is doing.

Faith that whatever dangers may lie ahead God would not abandon her.

Faith that through her own obedience and even sacrifice a door is being opened for God's will to be done in a new way in the world.
"Let it be to me according to your word"

For Joseph, his journey begins with a dream a dream that comes to him as he is considering how to end his betrothal in a quiet and sensitive way.

He, too, finds himself being asked to take a risk and to trust.

To trust that his dream isn't just the product of his own unconscious mind but that it also contains a real message from God.

To trust that all will be well even though his mind must be at a loss to understand what is going on.

He has to trust Mary - that he isn't simply being taken for a ride - and to trust her story which seemed so unlikely, when a far more obvious and all too human explanation offered itself for her pregnancy. And like Mary, Joseph's trusting involves risk.

He has to risk being made a fool of and looking weak - there would surely be rumour and stigma surrounding them from now on.

He has to take the risk and step out in faith and take Mary to be his wife.

And if the pregnancy begins in a risky way, it ends in one as well.

Luke has Mary and Joseph setting off on a long hard journey down 100 miles or so of rough tracks to Bethlehem, during the last weeks of her pregnancy.

And if that isn't enough to bring on a roadside delivery there is always the risk posed by bands of robbers along the way, especially along the notorious road from Jericho to Jerusalem.

Of course we shouldn't forget all the dangers involved in childbirth itself, which Mary shared with mothers everywhere.

And when the baby was born Matthew tells of the years spent as refugees in Egypt in fear of their lives.

none of these later dangers were things that Mary and Joseph were aware of when they said "yes" to God.

But that's the way it is on a journey, when you set out you don't know what you will face later on.

I have to confess to being a LOTR fan, a story which involves an epic journey which Frodo begins by quoting the words of his uncle Bilbo:

"There is only one Road, it is like a great river, its springs are at every doorstep and every path is its tributary. It's a dangerous business going out of your door. You step into the Road and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Mary and Joseph stepped into the Road because they God and each other, and they took the step of faith.

And the Road certainly swept them off - it swept Mary eventually to the foot of the cross where she had to stand watching her son die.

Of course she could have been spared all that pain and all the sacrifices along the way.

But then the Christ would not have been formed in her and brought into the world and brought up in that home filled with love and faith.

And as for Mary and Joseph, so for us.

Faith is like a Road, it leads right from our doorstep into the future
- we don't have to start from anywhere else than where we are
- with all our issues and questions and doubts and concerns

Like Mary and Joseph, we are called to step into the Road, to take the risk of living the life of faith.

And when we live our lives on that Road we never know where it will lead us.

It may lead us to joy and fulfilment, or to pain and challenge, or to both.

It may lead us to a deep engagement with other people, or with the world and the issues around us.

It may lead us to offer our gifts to God in a new way.

It may lead us to great personal sacrifice and transformation.

We may wonder at times whether it is worth it or whether we can carry on.

But if so, Mary and Joseph are an example and encouragement to us. That despite appearances at times, God does know what he is doing.

That whatever life may hold God will not abandon us.

That wherever it leads us the path of faith is one that enables Christ to be formed within us and to brought into the world once again.

So wherever we may be on the journey of faith - whether we are just starting off, or feel that we have been treading the path for many years

whether we are full of excitement and joy or whether we are travelling through a dark night of the soul

whether we sense that the path is about to take a new direction or whether are being asked to keep travelling in the same way

let us respond to God's call to take the risk to keep on travelling down the Road, and make Mary's words our own: "Lord, let it be to me according to your word."

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay