December 20, 2020

 “Nothing will be impossible with God.”  Christians have clung to this verse through the ages.  I have held grieving parents as they quoted this scripture to me and wondered why God didn’t do the impossible and spare their child.  I have seen people use this scripture to give false hope to people that their desires will be fulfilled.  I have often told my son, “God is not a wishing well.”  This is my way of saying that God isn’t there to sit and listen to our list of demands and then to grant us our wishes.  On the other hand, I don’t want to squelch anyone’s pouring their heart out to God, pleading, laying those prayers at God’s feet, knowing that God is our partner in carrying our burdens, all the difficulties that we bear. 

As my colleagues gathered for Text Study this week, we pondered this scripture, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”  We opened our Greek New Testament and we found that the original language says something a little bit different.  It goes something like this, “No proclamation or promise from God will go unfulfilled.”  This says to us that God has plans that are big—a vision of what this world could and will be.  God has plans to transform this world into one of peace and justice and right relationship.  This plan is unfolding and in-process.  God is active and powerful in this process.  God is giving messages to the people.  God is showing up.  God is bringing the Kingdom into this world.  And God is vulnerable in this process.  God is working through unlikely, flawed people.  God is working through people with very little power.  God is not forcing anyone to do anything.  God is relying on people to open their hearts to God’s plan and vision and carry it out at great risk to themselves. 

We have plans and they are important to us.  We are invested in them.  God has plans that take into account all the needs, past, present, and future.  Sometimes we are so invested in our plans, they come first and we try to fit God in our plans.  What we are called to do as Christians is to adjust our plans so they fit into God’s plans.

King David was wondering how God’s plans would fit in with King David’s plans.  He wanted to fit God into his expectations, into his control.  King David was busy telling God what was good for God.  He wanted to build God a temple.  This was not part of God’s vision.  God had not made a promise or proclamation to stay in one place or live in a building built by humans.  When King David told God his plans, God made sure David knew that David’s plans did not match God’s plans.  God reiterated God’s plans—that God would be movable to be among the people, that God couldn’t be contained and fenced in, that God would not be controlled, that God would give the people a place to thrive, that God would make the name of David great and establish his reign forever.  There is a joke that goes like this, “Want to make God laugh?  Tell God your plans.”  This is what is happening to David.  He was trying to do something nice, but it did not fit in with God’s plans.  Of course, this didn’t stop Solomon from building the temple during his reign and for David to move forward with plans for a wonderous temple.

Sterling was watching a Batman cartoon the other night.  Bruce Wayne was getting ready to go to some fancy event when Commissioner Gordon called.  Sterling said, “Change of plans!”  Batman was needed to respond to some emergency.  I immediately thought of Mary.  Who knows what her plans were, but then this angel shows up and gives her this “good news.”  Being a favored one of God is a difficult spot to be in.  But Mary, Batman, and Commissioner Gordon all have the bigger picture in mind.  They have a vision of a world where there is peace and relationship and kindness.

We can all take our wish list to God and tell God everything that’s on our hearts.  But our vision is so small.  We just can’t see the bigger picture.  When I pray for a friend’s healing, God has in mind the healing of all the heavens and the earth, people, animals, ecosystems, relationships, in body, mind and spirit.  God has in mind a balance of needs and an end to suffering.  God has the bigger picture of death and resurrection in mind in which new life happens in unexpected ways. 

Mary certainly had plans.  She had heard all her life about the coming Messiah and the lifting up of the lowly, God plans and vision for the healing and unity of all creation.  I’m sure she wondered as we all do about her plans God’s plans fit into them, but as the angel stood before her, she realized that her plans were going to fit into God’s plans.  To be favored by God is not a pleasant role.  God’s favored are prophets attacked by religious leaders, leaders of stiff-necked people, women whose offspring suffer, people called to do the impossible—bear a child without a husband, bear a child in old age, share a unpopular message, go someplace dangerous and unknown, give something up for the sake of others.

It isn’t just any impossible thing that’s going to happen.  It is the impossible thing that God has proclaimed, ordained, promised that is in line with God’s plans for the hope and healing of all—those things will happen. 

How do we know it is part of God’s plan?

Listen to God through the scriptures and through the feedback of other people.  Especially include the input of people who will be affected by your decision.

Examine your motivations and expectations.  Why are you inclined to do something?  What are the possible outcomes?  Who will be impacted? 

Take an inventory of your resources.  What do you have that will be useful?  Who are other people who know more that can be a help?  Do you have the time and energy to see it through? 

Be realistic.  What happens when something goes wrong?  Will you be able to learn from it or see it as a failure?

Mary had an angel before her, but she didn’t take for granted that this was God’s plan.  She weighed what she knew from the scriptures, that a Messiah would be born of the house and family of David.  She verified that this was God’s plan later with Elizabeth.  Mary pondered what the angel was saying.  She asked questions, “How can this be?”  She was at least partly motivated by her expectation of the coming Messiah and wanting to be part of God’s vision, as revealed in her Magnificat song that we looked at last week.  She wasn’t just trying to fit God into her plans, but she was open to a whole new direction, a very active part in God’s plan to save the people. 

Mary didn’t have all the information.  None of us does when we respond to God’s call.  Mary would have been aware of the dangers of childbirth, having a bastard child, being a prophet, raising a prophet, etc.  Still she says, “Here I am, the servant of my God.”  We aren’t going to know the details or twists and turns, all the consequences of any decision we make, but we know that God is with us, that we have no reason to fear, and that God can work through flawed people to bring in the Kingdom.

God cannot be put in a box.  God is very clear with King David.  God never asked for a house, a church, or a temple.  Those may serve our neighbor, but not God.  Instead, God likes living in a tent.  God is mobile.  In Jesus, God became even more mobile.  In Jesus, God moved about the countryside, crossed borders, met with lepers and people who were thought to be cursed, hungry oppressed powerless people, people who were self-important, people who were tired, grouchy, emotional, annoying.  And Jesus lived that vision of relationship and healing with them and with all the forgotten and lowly today.  They could see it because they were living it.  We, too, are called, not to fit God in with our plans, but to respond in loving relationship to our neighbors in need and to live the vision.  We will fail.  We will face difficulties that will make us want to give up.  But we are not alone and we are empowered by our relationship with God and each other.  Nothing God ordains, announces, or proclaims goes unfulfilled.  The hungry will be filled.  The grieving will be comforted.  The lowly will be honored.  King David’s reign will go on forever through Jesus.  Let us open ourselves to that vision and take our place with Mary, saying, “Here I am, a servant of my God.  I love your vision, God, and I want to see it come to pass.  Make me an instrument of your peace.  Show me how I fit in with your plans.”

I hit save on this sermon and checked Facebook and found out my friend Jill died.  If anyone could have been prayed and wished back to good health it was her.  She probably had over 200 prayer chains praying for her, all her clergy colleagues and their churches and all their connections.  That she died does not mean that God isn’t powerful or that it was God’s will.  It doesn’t mean that heaven needed another angel.  What it means is that her body couldn’t take any more.  We have these fragile bodies—we are so reminded of that this year especially.  Jesus took on this fragile body and even he wasn’t spared from death.  God keeps God’s promises.  God never promised that our bodies would stay alive.  But God did make promises to Jill in her baptism that God would walk with her through the valley of the shadow of death and that God would bring her through to new life.  God promised that death is not the end, that our Savior Jesus has conquered death and brings us all into new life.  None of God’s promises or proclamations goes unfulfilled, and so I know my friend Jill has new life in Jesus Christ.  That God has brought Haley and Gracie through to new life, Viola and Glen and Bonnie and Lillian, Dave, and yes, even Bella and Buddy and Sashimi.  God will draw all creation to God’s self.  We put our faith in God’s promises.