Loading...Sermon December 24, 2017
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Advent IV, Year B //lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Advent/BAdv4_RCL.html
Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Luke 1:38
Please be seated.
Eating breakfast at Bittings is always interesting. There are lots of people who meet up there and you see lots of people from Newport that you know. In fact, I think in some cases, there are assigned seats.
Earlier this week as the women met for breakfast, plenty of interesting people stopped by to say hello. There’s Don who attends St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church and is a one-man advocate and order taker for their prayer shawl ministry. He delivered one shawl to Susan Rice for a friend of hers and wound up with three more orders!
But the thing that I’ve been thinking about is the young woman who stopped by our table because she saw her former, beloved high school teacher, Susan Rice. She gave her a big hug and updated all of us on her time at college and some special studies in the upcoming semester. It was clear that this young woman appreciated her teacher and we all knew that not only the subject matter, but also the love, enthusiasm and care demonstrated by Susan was continuing to live on in the life of this young woman.
Fortunately, I’ve seen this so often and have also participated in similar thank yous.
This morning we hear of the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, telling her an astonishing story… Mary has been chosen by God to give birth to God’s son. Mary is a little puzzled how all of this can happen. The angel provides an explanation and tells Mary that nothing is impossible for God. Mary unequivocally states the relationship we all have with God: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”
Here am I, the servant of the Lord…
Mary is not stating something unusual; she is just stating fact. I think it’s a fact we sometimes forget or at least I forget. I get busy planning my life. I get caught up in my agenda and calendar. I get caught up in what people ask me to do or need of me. Often I plan my own life as if it’s mine to plan and control.
Yet, God has created us to serve God’s purposes. God has created us to build God’s Kingdom here on earth. God has created each and every one of us to serve God.
We do have free choice and we can decide we don’t want to serve God; yet, our God-given talents and abilities, usually unique to us, are specifically needed to create God’s Kingdom. The very purpose of our life is to serve God.
Sometimes we see how serving God through our lives makes a difference in the world. Often, we never see that…we never know. The point is that we, like Mary remember and say, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord….”
Amen
