Meditation on Luke 1: 26-38; 46-55

          “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Faith”          

Message for Fourth Sunday in Advent

Christ's Birth Announced and The Song of Mary 

     It all started with one empty banana box. John set it out in the lobby of his small church near the small town of Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania.  Oh, and he put up a sign requesting donations of clothing.

     You know the boxes I mean. The ones with holes that are used to ship bananas to grocery stores and Super Walmarts.  John noticed that banana boxes are relatively clean and strong enough for shipping clothing. He asked his local grocer what he was going to do with the banana boxes after the bananas were placed on display.

     Nothing, the grocer said.  So John got as many as he wanted for free.

     That was the easy part—finding the boxes to ship the donations of clothing, shoes, school supplies and personal care items. They would be shipped overseas to missionaries who distributed them to needy people, many of them refugees.

     The hard part was starting over—seeking his ministry and God’s Will for his life after he had already been the pastor of the church and principal of its Christian school.  Politics split the school and led to its closure. Afterward, John found himself in a mental crisis.  He sought help, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and began taking medications.  Slowly, with the support of God, his wife and his congregation, he began to crawl out of the deep well of depression he fell into when the situation at the school turned ugly.

     John couldn’t imagine life if he were not a pastor.  But he stepped away from his pulpit when anxiety wouldn’t allow him to speak publicly, let alone lead worship, preach, and do pastoral care.

     He wondered sadly if God would ever use him again.  If God could use him again, despite his struggle with mental illness. 

     He still had a heart for mission and the gift of compassion. And he was willing to serve however God led him to serve. He had lived in poverty and conflict as a child. He had experienced foster care, being moved from place to place.  He knew what it felt like to be hungry, needy, and the lonely outsider.

     Then, in 1991, his denomination’s district missions council asked him if he would be willing to serve as the compassionate ministries coordinator for the Washington District of the Church of the Nazarene, an area that covered 90 churches.   It didn’t matter to John that the position was new, not yet fully developed and completely volunteer.  He said yes.

    John read about a small African country called Mozambique that had undergone 15 years of civil war that left a million Mozambicans dead and 3 million refugees.  Half the country was unemployed. Drought had devastated the crops.  The people were in desperate need of food and clothing. 

    So John put out the banana box.  And he wrote about Mozambique in a newsletter that he sent to the 90 churches in his district.  He paid for the postage himself.

    The donations of clothing and shoes began pouring in.  They filled up the box in the lobby, then the entire lobby, the hallways, church basement, and garage. More clothes began to arrive, so John rented a trailer to store them in, again paying for it himself.  More than 1,200 boxes arrived.  And some church members helped John sort and repack the boxes, but he labeled and taped all 1,200 boxes himself.  Then he learned that he needed $8,000 to ship them to Mozambique. He felt faint. 

     He didn’t have $8,000.

     He sent a letter to churches that had donated clothing asking that they send money for shipping. They did.    

     On November 20, 1992, 15 volunteers from his church helped John load a container that was sent to Mozambique.  It was the first of many shipments of clothing and later school and medical supplies that originated from the tiny country church near the small town of Fawn Grove.

    God, who in His Word promises to mold and use us for good works He has already planned, blessed thousands of needy people around the globe through the ideas and efforts of one humble man and some gracious volunteers.

    Ordinary people.  Extraordinary faith.

***

   Why Mary is chosen for such a task—to be the one to bear the Savior of the World—only God knows. Luke does not explain why the Lord favors this young virgin, practically a child herself by our standards.  The bloodline is important, of course.  She is one of the children of Israel. And she is engaged to Joseph, who is a descendant of David.

     But we do not know what makes Mary so special that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ. 

     This puzzled me until I realized again this week that this is how God operates.  He doesn’t choose extraordinary people to do amazing things for Him; he chooses ordinary people who believe in Him and allow Him to do amazing things through them.

      Before the angel appears to Mary, she is just an ordinary Jewish girl living in Galilee. She says it herself—“My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me.”

      Although Luke tells us very little about Mary in this passage, he tells us what we need to know to understand who Jesus is. 

      He’s not just the Son of God.  He is also the son of an ordinary human being.

      In Jesus Christ, God takes on the form of a man with all his frailty. Christ had to suffer and be tempted in all the ways human beings experience, yet remain blameless—without sin—to be the perfect sacrifice for sinful humanity. 

     We couldn’t remove our own guilt, so our merciful God, because He loves us, removed our guilt through His Son, Emmanuel. So that in God’s eyes, because of Christ, we may also be seen as blameless, without sin.  We look ahead to the future with the hope of what we will be when God has finished making us into new creatures, transforming us into the likeness of His Son.

     It is as the angel Gabriel proclaims in our reading today, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”

 ***

       Mary is a wonderful example of how God accomplishes His purposes through those who are willing to serve Him. As is John, the one whom people in his denomination affectionately call The Banana Box Man.

       And we have been chosen, Ebenezer, to do good works for God that He has already planned. We have been chosen not because we are so special but because God is gracious and works through ordinary people whom He blesses with extraordinary faith.

       We have that blessing, brothers and sisters.

       And God will equip us in the coming weeks, months, and years to do His good works.

       He will reveal His Will for us if we faithfully seek Him.

       If our hearts are open to serving Him however He leads us. 

       And if we sincerely believe the words of the angel Gabriel, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”

     Let us pray… Lord, we are so thankful that you sent your Son to live among us, to be one of us, to save us from our sins.  Give us more of your extraordinary faith so that we may believe in your amazing love for us and so we may allow you to use us as you desire. Show us how to bring the love and peace of Christ to all we meet during this joyful season, when we remember and celebrate how you came to us so humbly, to an ordinary young woman named Mary.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.