"God is Real" December 21,2014

2nd Samuel 7: 1-11 & 16 Luke 1:26-38 This morning I have a question for you? Do you believe God is an active person in your life today? More than Do you believe in God, or do you believe in Santa Claus, that God is alive? The last several days I have heard one interview after another of personalities confessing under their breath I used to go to Church, almost like I used to believe in the Easter Bunny. I fear most of us are like the Bette Midler song of a few years ago “God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us from a distance.” God is in the high hills where our help comes from. Like King David we believe in the footsteps poem, that we never see God, or know God, but are assured whenever we have needed, when overwhelmed God was there. In that kind of belief, God is an energy of Moral Good, of Right, that there was a time long long ago at the dawn of the universe when God was real, and there shall come a time when we will be judged, but this is the 21st century, this is reality, the height of technology and information, when provided we have batteries enough and reception bars we are the Masters and Kings of our World. King David was a success story, the shepherd boy who became King of a Super Power! David the seventh son of a seventh son, exiled from the court of King Saul, who led a guerrilla army to become ruler of the Ancient world, with all the power of a Pharaoh. Although he was Prophet to the King, when asked for God's blessing Nathan tells David what David wanted to hear. Until in the dark night of the soul, Nathan encounters the reality of God. And instead of telling Nathan to say to David “Well done Good and faithful servant, you have proven yourself over a little, now I will set you over kingdoms...” God says “Just whom do you think you are?” You thought because King Hiram of Tyre built a cedar house for you,You thought as a demonstration of your power and wealth, you could bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and you thought you could build a lovely cedar box to keep it to visit when you wanted? God is not a thing to be kept in a box! God is not housed in a place! When Abraham and Isaac and Jacob wandered the face of the earth, when Moses and Joshua led the people through the wilderness, did God ever ask, how come you never built me a temple? NO! Who do you think took you from being 7th son of a 7th son, from being a shepherd boy to being king of Israel? I God, will shepherd you. You thought you could build a house for God, I will make a house out of you. This passage in 2nd Samuel is not only declaration that David had been too much involved in killing to build the house of God. This passage is not only setting up that Jesus would be descended from the house and lineage of David. This is the climax of the Nation of Israel from Moses through Judges to Saul to David with renewal of the promise as given to Abraham. This is Nathan's and David's encounter with God, that God is real and active, not a passive bystander in life watching us, waiting to use fate and circumstance for good. Recently, a family asked for a different kind of funeral. Instead of gathering in the church for a worship service. Instead of a public viewing or wake. Instead of the singing of hymns and reading of sacred texts. We gathered in their living room in this season in front of the hearth of their fireplace, and we each reflected on who this person was to us... The one who affirmed “My daughter works so hard!” She could upbraid you and reprimand you like no one else, but if anyone else tried she would defend you. “Grandma was my best buddy and confidant.” It was not the celebration of death we are accustomed to, but was a celebration of who the person was to each who were gathered together as a body. In like manner a wedding, where there was no dress, no aisle, no sand or unity candle, no public profession but sincere confession of love and devotion. In so many different occasions, we have come to realize what seemed impossible is real. It is perplexing. We cannot imagine why this would matter, why it is important to say the words, to confess God as real, or why God would want to enter into our lives when so often we wish we could escape. But God does! That is Luke's telling. In Mark, the only reference to Mary, is that along with Jesus' brothers, Mary comes to take Jesus home when they interpret he is crazy. In Matthew, she is only one of the visitors at the tomb. In John, Mary is not even mentioned. But Luke takes time to demonstrate for us, instead of being a Saint, instead of being Mother of God, instead of being Holy and Pure, Mary is the first Believer. Time and human culture have seized upon the miracle of Mary being a Virgin, Luke's point was in contrast to her cousin Elizabeth who was far beyond the age of conception but who like Hannah of the Old testament of Israel prayed to be given a child and was the mother of John the Baptist, so Mary was too young. The scandal and miracle of Mary being the mother of Jesus, is first that she was a commoner, like any of us. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, and described her as “favored” the point is not that she is recognized for having been good, but like any of us this is announcement of God's grace. You have been chosen. You are blessed by God. However, whereas in some parts of our nation today being a teen-ager and getting pregnant is status, Mary's world makes the Taliban Honor Killings seem pedestrian. Accepting this gift from God put her life at risk, put her engagement and marriage at risk. She was accepting family disgrace, probable stoning and at the least shunning not only of her family but her world. Luke's Gospel reads too quickly. When Gabriel announced that Mary was favored by God, she responds by being perplexed. We ought to stop there, because that is where each of us stop adjusting our reality. You want to marry me? My parent, my partner, my child has died? I have cancer? There is a disorientation that is perplexing. God is real? Then there is confusion? Why me? Why now? Does God not have better things to do, more important than me? Has God thought this through? Being incarnate, becoming human? Being human means feeling, suffering, dying, being afraid, being vulnerable, God wants that? Afterward, Mary responds with Commitment... “Here am I” and the Angel departs. That, I believe is the hardest part of all for Mary, the point at which we too often idealize Mary . Once you make the commitment. Once you accept your Calling, saying “Here Am I Send Me” there is a point of loneliness of realization, God what have we gotten into as the Impossible becomes real. Too often, we see ourselves as being King David, ruler of all we command, with everyone telling us what we want to hear, believing we are self- made, and in control. Too often we believe we are pure and holy and righteous, as if we were the Mother of God. This morning's passages demonstrate that we, all of us are human. But God is real, and God enters into our lives to challenge us with accepting blessings that will turn our lives upside down and inside out, not because we are so good, but because God chooses to use us. Nothing is impossible for God. God has formed every element of creation from a baby's eye lashes to a spider's web to volcanoes, tsunamis and polar vortex. God stood toe to toe with King David, and confronted Mary with the reality of God being born, and God is with each of us at all those perplexing times, Calling us by saying “YOU ARE FAVORED!” To which the awaited reply is “Here am I.” “You are favored...”