The Season of Good Will

Reading

Luke 2: 1-19

Talk

We've heard again the story of the angel telling the shepherds about the birth of Christ, and then a whole host of angels appearing, praising God and announcing awesome news. We're probably more familiar with the older translation of what they said, which goes, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

The strange idea that has grown out of this text is that Christmas is the “Season of Good Will” as if this is the only time of year when we should be nice to each other! But actually, the angels were announcing something far more significant. To understand what they were saying, let's fill in a bit of background.

Human beings are designed to live in communion with God. But, almost from the start, we decided we would do things our way, independently of God. And, as a race, we still do that today. That results in two problems.

Firstly, we make a mess of the wonderful world that God put in our charge. You only have to watch the news to see how good we've become at making a mess, from the chaos last week at Gatwick airport to the horrors of the Syrian war.

Secondly, we set ourselves up as enemies of God, alienating ourselves from him, breaking away from the relationship he always intended us to have with him.

Try as we might, we can't sort out our own mess, and we can't, of ourselves, put an end to our conflict with God—we don't want to!

Fortunately for us, God loves people. The angels were really announcing that God's means of making peace for us has now come to earth, and the way is open for us to return to God, if we're willing to take it.

He sent Jesus to live among us as one of us. The first Christmas launched the mission to end our conflict with God and to bring in his kingdom, where our mess can be sorted out.

The Apostle Paul writes about God “[rescuing] us from the dominion of darkness and [bringing] us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Thirty-three years after that first Christmas, Jesus achieved for us what we can't do for ourselves. We see him riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of praise and honour, and, within a week, being crucified, paying the penalty of our sins for us, all as foretold in scripture.

God gave us Christmas knowing there would be Easter. He did it willingly because he loves us so much. As the Apostle John wrote in his gospel, “… God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

This is why, as Christians, we celebrate Christmas: the time when Jesus came to live among us, so that through his death and rising again our living can be transformed by his power.

God offers us life through Jesus, whatever our sin, however dark and deep our shame.

Since that first Christmas, God's season of goodwill is every day, all year round. His offer of peace is always open to anyone who will turn back from their own ways and become a follower of Jesus.

Each new disciple is a new member of God's kingdom, which has been growing for over 2000 years.

And it all began with the wonder of a baby in a manger.

Mary

Reading

Luke 1:39-56

Introduction

I've been asked to speak today about Mary, the mother of Jesus. As a Protestant who has worshipped in a variety of Protestant traditions, Mary has never had a high priority in my understanding of faith. Orthodox and Roman traditions have a very different view of Mary, venerating her almost (if not actually) above Jesus himself, calling her “The Mother of God” – which is something I can understand, within limits – or “The Queen of Heaven” – which is an idea I have no time for.

My wife and I went to Cyprus this year, and we visited some religious sites in the Troodos mountains. There are many small churches in that area with very ancient frescoes of religious scenes. We visited one of them and walked around, trying to understand what was depicted. One scene showed what seemed to be the visit of Gabriel to Mary, another the presentation of the infant Jesus at the temple. Then the guide joined us and put us straight: the images were not about Jesus, they were about Mary, the mother of Jesus. I discovered that there's a whole tradition about the birth, life, and death of Mary. Later research has shown that these traditions come from dubious post-New Testament apocryphal writings that reflect a growing veneration of Mary from the Second Century onwards.

Setting the Scene

Scripture itself says very little about Mary. In the old testament, she's an unidentified virgin who “shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” She has cameo roles in John's gospel and Acts. Matthew puts her in Joseph's shadow, and Mark doesn't mention her at all. Almost everything we can reliably know about Mary comes from Luke's gospel, and Jewish culture of the time fills in some of the background for us.

When we first encounter Mary in Luke's gospel, she's a young Jewish girl engaged to be married (by parental arrangement) to a decent Jewish boy with a reliable trade. So that makes her no older than 15 when the angel Gabriel appears.

As an ordinary Jewish girl, she'd have been well-versed in the Old Testament scriptures, and fully engaged in national and family festivals and celebrations and Sabbaths, and in synagogue worship. Family was important, and eastern cultures then, even as they do now, had a strong shame-and-honour basis.

Her parents had laid down a plan for Mary's life, and I'm sure she would have had hopes and dreams for what lay ahead of her with Joseph. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails,” and Mary's plans were superseded when God's messenger, Gabriel, showed up. Mary's response to Gabriel—and all her responses in Luke's gospel—give us a clear example of the kind of response the Lord God Almighty expects from earth-bound believers.

She responds with:

• questioning doubt, but then
• simple acceptance, then
• faith from the heart

Questioning Doubt

As far as I know, I've never met an angel. I imagine that meeting one could be quite a shock! That seems to have been Mary's reaction: she “was greatly troubled at his words.” What had the angel said? “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

I don't know about you, but if a messenger from God came and said that to me I'd be delighted! Isn't that what we all want to be sure of? That we are highly favoured? That the Lord is with us? But Mary was troubled by the angel's greeting, and wondered what it might mean. In Mary's culture, as a woman, and a young one at that, she was a second class citizen; men got all the attention.

The angel's next words to Mary were, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.” Again, words we all want to hear but, actually, words that are true of all of us who belong to Jesus. Isn't it good to know that God is for us, not against us? And actually, at the birth of Jesus, the angels announced that God's favour is offered to all mankind. Because of Jesus, it's possible for all and any of us to find God's favour and salvation.

Mary was an ordinary, faithful, observant, Jewish girl. She was in the right family line, betrothed to a young man also in the right family line, and it was time for Messiah to come. And that's what the angel explained to Mary.

She was going to have a baby. She was to call him Jesus. He would grow up to be great. He would be called the Son of the Most High. He would sit on David's throne. His kingdom would never end.

As a Jewish girl, Mary would know about the promises God made to king David centuries before. So she points out an obvious flaw in the plan. “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Good point!

There's nothing wrong with having doubts, although doubts can be of two kinds.

• The “I don't believe that!” kind are unhelpful; they're closed off and lead us away from faith. I heard a Jewish lecturer in Embryonics at Birmingham University say, “Parthenogenesis always gives rise to female offspring, so Mary wasn't a virgin.” (Parthenogenesis, by the way, is reproduction without the involvement of the male of the species, which some insects, fish, reptiles and birds can do—but not mammals.)
• The “How can this be?” kind of doubt leads us to questioning exploration, a search for answers. And God says that if we seek him we will find him. We may not always get the answers to our questions but, if we find God in our seeking, we can learn to live with them.

Mary asked a reasonable, rational question and she was given an answer: God is going to act out of the ordinary. This child is special. As evidence that God can do this, he's also enabled your relative Elizabeth to become pregnant in her old age. (You'll realise I'm paraphrasing very loosely here.) Nothing is impossible with God!

Nothing is impossible with God! There's a point my lecturer failed to grasp…

Simple Acceptance

“'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May your word to me be fulfilled.'”

This is a young woman with a right perspective in life. She is the Lord's servant. She's raised her questions, had them answered, and accepted that this is what God wants: who is she to resist?

Just think about what's being set in motion here. She's been told that she's going to have a baby, something that would normally be thrilling news! But—she's not married. What will mum and dad think? What about the neighbours? How will mum and dad cope with the shame? What will Joseph do? How will I ever live this down?

“I am the Lord's servant,” and that's enough for Mary. She's not just having any baby; she's having the most important baby ever. Whether the immensity of that has sunk in at this point we don't know but Mary is the Lord's servant. May God's will be done.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were more like Mary? So often, when we get an inkling of God's will for our lives, our response can be quite different. “That's not what I had in mind. This will ruin my career. My reputation will be in tatters. This can't be right—think about the consequences. Lord, I think you've got this wrong! I'm not the right person. Can't you send someone else?”

Mary has a simple acceptance of God's will and a quiet confidence in God's plan. It may be problematic for her but God is in it. And what did the angel say? “… no word from God will ever fail.”

Do you have an inkling of God's will for your life? Have your been wrestling against it for a while? It's time to stop fighting and to go with God's plan.

Perhaps you're being called simply to follow Jesus, to become a disciple, a Christian. Today would be a good day to accept God's gift of salvation.

Faith from the Heart

In recent years, televised depictions of these events have made much of the shame that would have been laid on Mary for having become pregnant out of wedlock. But Mary was not universally rejected as a harlot, as our reading clearly shows.

Mary hurried off to see Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant by then. “When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” And Mary's step of acceptance was rewarded with clear confirmation that she had it right.

The words Elizabeth spoke were a tremendous encouragement to Mary; affirming words in keeping with what the angel had said. Words that were spoken before Mary had any chance to explain her own encounter with the angel. She was convinced that God was in all that was about to happen to her. She knew she could count on Elizabeth's support.

She was so thrilled that she overflowed with joy! Here's my paraphrase of what she said:

I'm thrilled with God!
I'm a nobody but he's doing something with me that everyone forever will marvel at.
He's so good to everyone who trusts him, all through the ages.
He's done amazing things.
He's put those who think they're something back in their places.
And those who seem actually to be something, he's taken down a peg or two.
He's blessed the poor instead of letting the rich grab it all.
He's keeping his promises to his people.
He's blessing them just like he said he would,
all those years ago!

When we step out in simple faith to follow God's calling, confirmation of that calling will come, perhaps in unexpected ways. Faith pleases God; God responds to faith and encourages it.

By now, Mary's heart is full of faith; faith that will sustain her through the months and years to come.

And Mary has another quality: the ability to hold on to things God has said to her. We read about her treasuring up the things the shepherds told her, and pondering them in her heart (Lk 2:19); she marvelled at what was said about Jesus when they presented him at the temple for the first time (Lk 2:33); The things that the 12-year old Jesus said when they found him at the temple, she treasured in her heart (Lk 2:51).

Following through on my call to preach hasn't been easy. I almost gave up at one point. But I can recall words of prophecy and encouragement that have been spoken into my life down the years, words that even now help me to keep going. We have to remember the words God speaks purposefully into our lives. When the going gets tough, rely on God's promises.

Plain Sailing?

If God has a plan for our lives, shouldn't everything be plain sailing? When we hit obstacles, doesn't that show we made a mistake—that we heard God wrong?

At this point in her life, Mary knew about God's big picture but she had no detail about what was going to happen, and she didn't have an easy time of it.

• Would Joseph still want her? Well God sorted that one out by sending Gabriel to have a word with Joseph.
• Then they had to go on the run to Egypt to get away from king Herod, who was hell-bent on destroying any rival for his throne.
• Once Herod was out of the way, they came back from Egypt to a remote existence in an unimpressive rural backwater known as Nazareth. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” says Nathanael in John's gospel.
• She and Joseph had more children, but then Joseph disappears from the record with the most likely reason being that he died. Mary had to face all the challenges of Jesus' public ministry and execution without support from Joseph. 
• She suffered the loss of Jesus himself and, as foretold, a sword of pain pierced her own soul. Perhaps only those among us who have lost children can imagine how painful it must have been for Mary to watch Jesus die on a Roman cross.

The last we read about Mary is in Acts, after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Luke records, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”

Remember Mary's words: “I am the Lord's servant. … May your word to me be fulfilled.”

Mary had been God's choice. She had been the right choice.

Remember the angel's words: “… no word from God will ever fail.”

God's plan, and Mary's role in it, had been fully accomplished.
Challenge

Mary's story shows us that no one is too ordinary for God to use, even in extraordinary ways.

When God calls, let's be like Mary and respond in simple faith.

We may have reasonable doubts or questions, but let's not let them stop us moving forward.

Opposition doesn't mean we're wrong. It means we have to rely on God's promises.

Colossians Part VIII: Final Instructions

Readings

Colossians 1:9-13, NIV
Colossians 4:2-18, NIV

Introduction

Well, we've come to the last part in our series on Colossians. Last time, we thought about what Paul had to say about various personal relationships, and we could think of what he said as balancing authority and responsibility, tempering both with an attitude of submission and humility. Today, we think of other relationships:

• our relationship with God through prayer, and
• our relationship with those outside the kingdom through our witness.

Prayer

I'm sure we've all heard many a sermon on prayer. It's something that puzzles us. Doesn't God know everything anyway? Can we really change his mind by praying? How does prayer work?

Now, I'm not the world's best pray-er. There are probably people here who know a lot more about it. But we don't have to be experts. It's just something we need to do, and the way we do it can be as individual as we are.

Prayer for me is about consciously acknowledging the presence of God, talking life and issues over with him, allowing him to influence me. It's about working with God to bring about change; God wants us to be involved in what he's doing. However strange it may seem, prayer is something that God wants us to do; it's something that Paul encourages us to do: “Devote yourselves to prayer.”

The translators have used this word devote to convey Paul's meaning to us. When we devote something, whether that be an object or time, we set it apart for a special purpose. When we devote ourselves to something, we sweep all else aside to make way for that thing. So Paul is telling us that prayer is really important—something we can't ignore.

The Greek word behind the translators' devote is proskartereo and its use in scripture suggests persistence, intent engagement, constant attention, perseverance. Prayer is not something we restrict to a specific time in our week—it's an ongoing occupation.

Prayer is much more than religiously 'saying prayers'. It's about a purposeful, expectant interaction with God. For example, just saying the Lord's prayer does absolutely nothing for us. That prayer was intended as a model, a shape for our praying. We need to get inside the Lord's prayer, to inhabit it, to understand that this is what God wants, and I want it too! We discover God's presence and purposes when we spend time in prayer!

Prayer can be dangerous! Sometimes God's answer can be, 'I want you to do something about this.'

Paul tells us in our praying to be watchful and thankful. We should keep an eye out for the needs around us, pray about them and look for the answers, then give thanks when the answers come, perhaps especially when we discover we are the answer!

Prayer can also be part of our involvement with the worldwide church. Paul says, “And pray for us, too...” A literal translation of the Greek here would be something like 'praying together also concerning us.' The word translated as together suggests we're not in intended to be doing this only as individuals. Whether what Paul wrote suggests corporate prayer in the Colossian church, or joining their prayers together with Paul's is perhaps arguable, but certainly we should be praying for those who are working to spread God's kingdom. Paul gives us some ideas of what to pray, and we'll think about that in a while.

Obviously, we are also going to pray for ourselves. What sort of things should we pray for? In Ephesians, Paul says, “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” I think that phrase “in the Spirit” re-emphasises the point about real engagement when we pray, not merely reciting prayers.

In praying for ourselves, we may pray, 'Please God, change this situation for me.' His answer may be, 'No, because I want to change you for the situation.' But pray about anything and everything. God cares for you!

There are some things we should be concerned about for ourselves, and that's why we read Paul's prayer for the Colossians again. I'm not going to preach on that passage again, but have another read of it when you get home. The things in that prayer are what Paul thought important for Christians, things that have never diminished in importance. We can, and should, pray that we might benefit from the same things today.

We also read what Epaphras prayed for the Colossians: that they “may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” So Paul and Epaphras are praying the same things really. Should we not want these things for ourselves, for each other?

Witness

What do you believe? Why do you believe it? What difference does it make to the way you live? If it makes no difference, you don't really believe it.

We are witnesses to the saving grace of God. We're living testimonies to the difference our God can bring to the needy, and to those who think they need nothing. If we are living out our faith, people will notice. Some of them will wonder why we're different. Some will ask what makes us different. We need to be ready to tell others our personal stories of our faith.

You don't need to have a deep understanding of theology. Your story doesn't have to be spectacular. You don't have to have answers to all the questions about suffering, wars, and why God allows bad things to happen. It's just your experience, what God means to you.

Is it important that others believe the gospel? Well, if it's only in Christ that people are rescued from the dominion of darkness, find entrance to the kingdom of his Son and forgiveness of sins, then it is important, and our witness is important. We need to be ready and willing to share.

So, how can we prepare ourselves? Paul suggests three things in this passage:

• Our prayers
• Our actions
• Our words

Our Prayers

Given what we've already thought about prayer, it's no great surprise that prayer is an important part of being ready to share our stories. We really can't get by without it.

I wonder what we think of Paul. Do we imagine him to have been someone who had it all together, who fearlessly spread the gospel wherever he went? He was an ordinary human being just like us, and just like us he needed all the help God could give him. And so he asked the Colossians to pray for his ministry, specifically asking for two things.

Firstly, he wants a door to be opened for his message. He was in Rome under house arrest, so maybe he was asking the Colossians to pray for his release, or maybe he was asking for opportunities to come his way regardless of his circumstances—after all, he was allowed to receive visitors and was constantly watched over by Roman guards. Ironically, they would have been a captive audience!

Secondly, he wants to proclaim the mystery of Christ clearly. Paul was a scholar with encyclopaedic knowledge of scripture. If anyone knew how to present the gospel it was surely him. Yet he asks for the Colossians to pray for clarity, so that he might be effective in his presentation.

Now, if Paul asked for prayer for those things, these are good things to pray for our own witness: opportunities to share, and the ability to be clear in our sharing.

When we pray like this for ourselves, we're telling God we're available to be involved in his work of rescuing people.

Our Actions

Paul says, “Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders…” He isn't talking about us putting on a show. A literal translation here would be, “walk in wisdom toward the ones outside.” Our walk is our way of living, and our living should always be consistent with our faith. All those virtues we were told to clothe ourselves with earlier (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness) are not to be kept within the confines of our fellowship.

We're wise to remember that we're always on display. What image do we project? We're wise to show the same love to those outside our faith as we do to those on the inside. To the Jew of Paul's day, gentiles were considered worse than dogs—but Christ is for all, Jew and gentile alike. To the Islamist of today, unbelievers are scum to be used and abused and disposed of however they see fit. Hundreds of mass graves have been discovered in territories that were controlled by the so-called Islamic State. It's hardly the sort of behaviour that would attract me to join them.

Our wise conduct will show the love of God to those who have yet to discover Christ for themselves. Our wise conduct will be welcoming of those who are seeking, and generous towards the needy. Our wise conduct will show the clear difference that God has made to our living.

Our wise conduct will make people wonder why we're different and ask us. And Paul tells us to “… make the most of every opportunity.” If you're praying for opportunities, expect opportunities. Trust that the opportunities God gives you are within the grasp of your abilities. You can do it!

A friend told me about an experience he had as a young man when he started working for the Post Office. All the men made fun of his beliefs but he stuck at it. One day he announced he had tickets for a film featuring Billy Graham. All but one rubbished the idea. The most foul-mouthed villain of the lot agreed to go along—just for a laugh! He watched the film with tears running down his cheeks and was converted that very night! The other men back at the sorting office were amazed at the transformation.

We may not always be the last link in the chain that leads someone to salvation, but we never know what influence we may have. If my friend hadn't been open about his faith, who knows what would have happened to that man? And I am standing here today because a school friend was willing to stand up and be counted.

Our Words

Our words speak volumes about our character. When I was at university, there was a guy in the Christian Union who seemed incapable of speaking anything other than sarcasm. He was most offended when I told him I'd heard enough of it! We've probably all met people who are always grumpy, or bossy, or negative, or cynical, or divisive.

But Paul tells us, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Jesus said, “… the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45). If we find it hard to be gracious in our speech, perhaps the problem lies in our hearts…

If we are Christians, then we're recipients of God's grace. That grace should be shown in our relationships and our speech. Even when we have good cause to tell someone off!

We all know how salt adds flavour to food. Paul tells us to add flavour to our speech! That doesn't mean we should embellish the truth. To the Jews of the day, salt was an idiom for wisdom. So as well as being wise in our conduct, we need to be wise in what we say and how we say it.

Peter writes in his first letter, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

Paul implies in Colossians that the practice of gracious, wise conversation will mean that when anyone asks us about what we believe, we'll be better prepared to answer them.

We can help ourselves by talking to each other about faith, and listening to each other, and encouraging each other. What stops us doing that? Is it that we have nothing to say? Or are we just embarrassed? Is it British reserve? A fear that we might be seen as showing off? We need to develop the habit of sharing our faith and our experiences of God. If we can't talk to each other here we'll find it almost impossible anywhere else.

Conclusion

And so, today we've shared some thoughts about prayer and about sharing our faith with others, and we've come to the end of our series on Colossians. The remainder of the chapter consists of final greetings and refers to a number of people.

Paul's letter to Colossae addressed specific needs in a particular church, and imparted some general teaching to the people there. But, just as Paul thought it would be useful for the people in Laodicea to read the letter as well, it's also useful for us. We too face opposing influences in our society. Understanding who Christ is, what God has done for us in Christ, how God expects us to live, and the liberty God has given us to live that way, will help us resist the pressures that can undermine our trust, water down our message and divert us from the path to life.

As a preacher, I want my words to be interesting, certainly, perhaps educational. But above all, I want my words to be transformative, not merely informative. I hope that you'll think about what I've said, read for yourselves the scriptures I've been talking about. I hope you've heard the Holy Spirit speaking to you, not just me.

But, having heard, what will you do? To the Hebrew, to hear was more than just listening: to hear was to put into practice. Jesus said, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.”

There are some serious challenges in Colossians, but there are also liberating truths. Read it again; read Ephesians too, and allow yourselves to be transformed by what you discover.