A grand holiday tradition came to a screeching halt last year. For some folks it just wasn’t Christmas until this large, jolly person, who often dressed in red, gave out marvelous presents. She checked her list; she checked it twice; she had a good idea who was naughty and who was nice. And so she invited all the nicest folks over to her place for the holidays. She gave them a bag of gifts so extravagant that it would make Saint Nick blush redder than his Santa suit. When Oprah Winfrey hosted her annual “Favorite Things” episode, the crowd went nuts. Last year they got i-Pads, $500 gifts cards from Nordstrom’s and brand new Volkswagen Beetles. No wonder every Oprah fan wanted to be in the studio audience the day she handed out her favorite things!
Like Oprah, we all have our favorites: our favorite people and our favorite things. At Christmas time we have the opportunity to bring the two together. There are gifts to buy and treats to bake for your favorite people. For distant family and long lost friends, all it takes is a well chosen Christmas card to tell them that they remain among your favorites. While I don’t imagine that anyone in this sanctuary has pockets quite as deep as Oprah Winfrey, we all get to play favorites at Christmas time.
This tradition goes back all the way to today’s Gospel story where God picks out a favorite servant for a special task. We don’t know why God favored Mary. For years Jewish women longed to give birth to the Messiah. Mary hit the jackpot in a much bigger way than the nice people who got a car from Oprah. In fact, Mary might be the only woman in the history of the world more universally beloved than Oprah Winfrey! Mary was favored by God, and she got to mother the Son of God. Oprah’s party favors will one day succumb to moth and rust, but the favor of God lasts forever!
But being one of God’s favorites doesn’t mean that all your dreams come true. Just look at previous favorites of God such as Job, Abraham, Sara, Jacob, Joseph, Hannah, Moses and David. Their lives were not made any easier by God’s favoritism. In time Mary’s soul would be pierced by the original Christmas gift: her son Jesus. That’s how God’s grace works: it is absolutely free. You couldn’t buy God’s mercy if you tried, but once you have it, it will cost your entire life. But the gift of Christ the Lord is totally worth it since there is nothing in the world that compares to his grace and love. Turn with me to Luke 1:26-38 (p. 931) to hear the Good News.
Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ 34Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ 35The angel said to her, ‘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 Son of God. 36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.’ 38Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
Some gifts you just can’t refuse. When Grandma knits you a handmade Christmas sweater, you’re going to have to try it on in front of the whole family. The moment the golden doodle starts licking your child’s face, there is simply no exchanging the puppy wiggling under the tree. Once the fruitcake is out of the box it’s yours to keep, either as a Christmas treat or as your new seasonal door stop.
Jesus is the best Christmas gift ever, but that doesn’t mean that you are powerless to refuse him. Lots of people have exchanged Jesus for another god or some other grand idea. The Christmas miracle doesn’t mean much unless we have the freedom to choose Jesus for ourselves. I’d like to suggest that Mary had some freedom too when the angel of the Lord appeared before her with glad tidings of great joy. Frankly, there’s not much to say about Mary’s encounter with Gabriel unless she had some choice in the matter.
Take her cousin Elizabeth for example. In her old age Elizabeth was miraculously pregnant. Elizabeth had a splendid reaction to her miracle baby, but her husband Zechariah is another story. Upon entering the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense in the Temple, Zechariah heard from Gabriel that he was going to have a baby. ‘How will I know that this is so?” Zechariah interrogated the angel, “For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” Zechariah emerged from the Temple unable to speak. He was mute until the day the baby was born, just in time to name him John as the angel commanded. At first Zechariah was skeptical, only gradually getting on board with God’s plan.
Mary is totally different. In contrast to Uncle Zechariah, Mary is a model disciple. While Zechariah was a mature, old man, a priest of the Lord, at the top of that patriarchal society, Mary was at the very bottom. She was a girl, perhaps as old as sixteen, more likely as young as thirteen. She was engaged. In the eyes of the law, Mary was legally married to Joseph, but still too young to consummate the relationship. Mary was living in “no man’s land”- no longer the little girl of her father, but not yet living under the roof of her husband. In that sexist society where women found identity and protection from the man in her life, this was surely a precarious place to be. Mary was vulnerable and voiceless under the law. Yet this teenage girl had the guts to say, “Let it be” to God’s plan for her life.
Mary was risking her reputation, her marriage and her life by saying “Let it be” to God. Because Mary was engaged to Joseph, as far as the law was concerned, she was legally married. When her belly started to swell, she would not be accused of having premarital sex. Mary would have been charged with adultery! The law is clear in such matters. According to Deuteronomy 22:23-24
“If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her, you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”
In Mary’s day, adulterous women were generally brought to Jerusalem for trial. If she pleaded innocence she would have been publicly humiliated at the city gate. All her jewelry would be taken from her. Her hair would have been uncovered like the prostitutes. Her clothes would have been torn to expose a breast. Men and especially women passing by would have been encouraged to gawk and stare. Then the accused would be compelled to swear an oath that declared among other things “may the Lord cause you to be a curse among your people when he makes your womb to miscarry and your abdomen to swell.” After that, the woman would be forced to drink the bitter waters: a mixture of dust, holy water and ink from the pen of the rabbi who wrote the curse. If the woman survived the poisonous bitter waters and passersby itching to throw stones, the accused would be set free with a clean conscience but a spoiled reputation.
When Joseph learned he was going to be a father to a child that was not his own, he planned to compassionately dismiss Mary so that she wouldn’t have to face such a trial. Again the angel of the Lord intervened and spared Mary from divorce and perhaps prostitution: the only occupation available to a woman of such a questionable reputation. Against all odds, Joseph also said “Let it be” to God and took Mary as his wife. But even Joseph’s love and compassion couldn’t totally save Mary’s reputation.
When Mary and Joseph showed up in Bethlehem, his ancestral town, they weren’t exactly looking for a Holiday Inn. They were looking for some relatives to put them up for the census and to help them through labor and delivery. But there was no room among Joseph’s relatives, except for those half-decent cousins that let Mary deliver Jesus downstairs… where they kept the animals. Mary wasn’t delivered from her shame when she delivered the baby Jesus. The rumors and whispers about her baby would follow Mary all her days.
Years later when he returned to his hometown the neighbors mocked Jesus by calling him “Mary’s son” not “Joseph’s son.” That’s a not-so-subtle dig at the mysterious origins of Jesus’ birth. Is it any wonder that Jesus left town without performing any miracles. No one was willing to put their faith in a man with such a sketchy background.
Mary was just a teenager when she made the radical choice to accept God’s favor. She said “Let it be” to his plan for her life. She was old enough to know that her reputation would be ruined and her very life would be at risk. What she could not possibly know at thirteen was that God would take this boy away from her on the cross. She would get him back after the resurrection, but, Mary’s soul would be cut to pieces over this miracle baby. She never could have anticipated the high cost of God’s favor.
Mary’s life might have been easier without the favor of God, but it sure wouldn’t have been better. I seriously doubt that Mary would have traded her Jesus for a little more peace and quiet. The salvation of God that we celebrate every Christmas is better than a heaping pile of Oprah’s favorite things or anything else we stick under the tree. I can’t promise that saying “Let it be” to God’s plan for your life will make you any happier or safer, but I can affirm that the company and salvation of Jesus gives life meaning.
What is God beckoning you to do with your life? Is this the Christmas you reconcile with your family? Is this the Christmas you quit the job you hate and risk everything to find work that means something? Is this the Christmas you forgo the favorite things under the tree, and instead prioritize quality time with your favorite people? It takes hard work to discern the will of God, but when the clarity comes join Mary and millions of other believers who declared “Let it be.” You life may not be any easier, but you can find your true identity in the favor of God.
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