Unexpected Gifts - December 21, 2008

The Lord Is With You
Luke 1:26-38
Advent 4 – December 21, 2008

Have you ever had a Christmas where you didn't get anything on your list? When all of the presents were unexpected, because they weren't any of the things you had asked for? I remember one Christmas – I think I was a senior in college. As always, my mom had called before Christmas to ask me for my Christmas list. Of course, as a poor college student, I had no problem coming up with a long list of things I would like to have, things I couldn't afford to buy myself. I compiled a very thorough list, filled with the very specific things I wanted. I didn't quite get to the point of cutting out pictures and taping them to the page, but I made sure what I wanted was very clear. I certainly didn't expect to get everything on my list, but I did want to make sure my mom had plenty of options to choose from.

Well, with all the care & effort I put into making my list, you can imagine my surprise when I opened up my presents on Christmas morning, and the only thing I got from the list was - - SOCKS! And I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I have to admit that there was a big part of me that wondered, “What in the world did I make a list for if she wasn't gonna use it?!?”


I have to wonder if Mary felt a little bit like that during this exchange with the angel Gabriel. Because I'm fairly certain that what Mary got that first Christmas was nothing that she had put down on any list.

You see, Mary was a young girl, probably all of about 13 or 14, but considered a young woman, old enough to get married, ready to start her grown-up life soon. And as she dreamed about that life and planned for her future, I imagine that the things she wanted, the things on her “list”, so to speak, were to have a good marriage with a nice home, have some children, and raise their family right there in her hometown of Nazareth, living a quiet, happy, peaceful life, her very own happily-ever-after.

But then Gabriel comes bursting in on her life with a message from God. The Message version of the Bible puts Gabriel's message like this: “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you!” And the surprise? “You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.”
Well, I'll bet it sure was a surprise! Mary wasn't even married yet! Having a baby out of wedlock certainly wasn't on her list of things she wanted in her life, nevermind the damage to her reputation and her relationships that would come along with it. Traveling to Bethlehem for a census when she was nine months pregnant & giving birth in a stable or racing off to Egypt to escape King Herod's threat on her newborn son's life probably weren't on the list either. This is what it means to be God's favored one?! In the shock of that initial announcement, as she thought about what this would mean for her life, Mary might very well have wondered, “why did I bother making a list if God wasn't gonna use it? - Why make plans for my life if God is just going to upset them?”

We all face questions like those in our lives. We dream and we plan for the way we want our lives to be... our relationships, our families, our homes, our jobs, and on & on. Even if we don't plan out the exact specifics or cut out pictures and tape them to our paper list, most of us have our own mental wish list of the things we want in our lives. But sooner or later, we all find ourselves in situations that are nothing like what we asked for: someone we love dies; there's a crippling accident; we lose a job; the economy goes off in a tailspin. These are things no one ever asks for, and when they happen, we find ourselves wondering, “What do I do now?” We wonder why we planned our lives and dreamed our dreams if God was just gonna upset them. Why make a list if God isn't gonna use it?

Sometimes we think about God the way I was thinking of my mom that long ago Christmas morning – we think that just because we make a list, God is obligated to get us what's on it. We think that if we are truly God's favored ones, God will show us that favor by giving us everything we ask for.
But what I learned so many Christmases ago is that sometimes the unexpected gifts are even better than the things we ask for. Those socks my mom got me from my list are long gone – glad to know that, aren't ya? And I think most of the other things on that list would be long gone by now too, but I still have some of the presents my mom chose for me. She knew what she was doing, even if I couldn't appreciate it at the time.

And if that's true for moms, it's certainly even more true for God! God doesn't always give us the things we think we want, but God's unexpected gifts are even better! Although Mary may have thought she wanted safety and tranquility, what she got was beyond all of her expectations. When Gabriel came to her, he said, “ you will conceive and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” In that little boy, her son, the Son of the Most High, Mary would come to know the truth of Gabriel's greeting: “The Lord is with you.” The Lord is with you. Even as she had to face her parents and her fiancé with the unbelievable news that she was pregnant and still a virgin – The Lord is with you. Even as she traveled on the long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem – The Lord is with you. As they escaped to the foreign land of Egypt, the place where their ancestors had been enslaved – The Lord is with you. That was the promise, the reality that gave her hope, that gave her strength, that gave her the courage to say in response to God's call to bear this child and face all that came after, “Here I am, the servant of the LORD; let it be with me according to your word.”

Mary was just an ordinary girl, but she knew the truth of God's promise. And that promise is ours to hold on to too. It is the message of God's angel ringing throughout history to all of us: The Lord is with you.

The Lord is with you, no matter what situation you are facing. The Lord is with you and will never leave you. The Lord is with you, giving you hope and strength and courage. That is why we celebrate the birth of Jesus every year - for it is in him, born as a baby, sent to live with us and share our burdens and our pain - it is in Jesus that we see the face of God, God who is with us. It is something with we would never have thought to ask for, but worth more than anything else in the world.

Thanks be to God for unexpected gifts!

Amen.