Westwood Presbyterian Church

      We come to the third and last in our series of what is it that God requires of human beings. We have seen that we are to seek justice and we used John the Baptist as our example; last week we talked about loving mercy and we used Joseph as our example; and this morning we will think about walking humbly with God, and we will use Mary as our example.

      We know very little about Mary, we don't know how old she was. We do know that she was engaged to be married, but was not yet married so she was probably in her mid to late teens, but that is at best a guess. She came from Nazareth, which was a community that everyone in Israel made fun of - there were Nazareth jokes just like there are Newfie jokes today. So all in all, we know that she was not very important or powerful or really significant to anyone except her fiancée and her family.

      One day Mary was minding her own business when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and said, "Hail, you who are highly favoured of God." Mary knew enough to know that this was not the usual way that angels started conversations with people - she knew that usually the first thing that angels say is "Don't be afraid." And she was also taken aback by the fact that the angel was saying that she was highly favoured by God.

      I am sure that you have heard the joke, "Last year l had a flaw in my character, I was proud, but I solved that problem and now I am perfect." We live in a society where we are taught to believe that we are the best at something, that it is our right to be #1, that we need to have self esteem, to be proud of who we are. And that may be true - but it so easily slips into arrogance, into self-centeredness, into thinking that we are the ones around whom the world should revolve.

      Mary does not suffer from an over-inflated ego, she is fully aware of her humble position, and so she is genuinely surprised by the fact that the angel would say that she has been favoured by God. That God has even noticed who she was will have been a surprise to Mary. Mary matters to God, not because Mary thinks that she is important, not because Mary is proud of her accomplishments, not because Mary has self-esteem - but simply because Mary is a human being made in the image of God.

      The first key to walking humbly with God is to recognize who we really are. Human beings are made in the image of God - of no other part of creation does God say that - no other animals are identified in this way. We, human beings, are made in the image of God. And that is what makes each and every human being special. Notice that we did not make ourselves in the image of God, being in the image of God is not something that we cooked up ourselves - being made in the image of God is something that God does - and God alone. We matter to God because God has made us in his image. Our self-esteem rests not in what we have done, not in the good life that we have lived, not in the stuff that we own - but rather in what God has done for us - in who we are as the people of God made in God's image.

      If we are secure in who we are as people made in the image of God then we will not need to be "better" than the next guy - because our value is not increased by being "better" than the next guy.

      There is tremendous freedom in recognizing that my value is rooted in who I am - not in what I do or what I have. My identity as someone made in the image of God, and therefore loved by God cannot be changed by my losing a hockey game, failing a course, making a bad investment decision, and so on. None of those things change that I am someone made in the image of God, nothing can change that.

      The angel Gabriel tells Mary what the plan is - you are to have a son, and the child will be called the Son of the Most High God. Big plan here. And Mary raises what appears to be an obvious and serious problem - she is a virgin and while she is engaged the wedding is still a while off How is she to have a child?

      Any discussion of Mary raises the question of the Virgin Birth, and so I want to make a few brief comments.

      First, we need to be clear about what the Bible claims. It says that Mary conceived Jesus while she was still a virgin. The Bible makes no claim about her having been a virgin all of her life, neither does the Bible make any statement about how Mary was conceived. But the Bible does make a strong claim that Jesus was born of a virgin.

      Our scientific rational minds want to say that such a thing is impossible. But before we say it is impossible let us consider the implications of saying there was no miraculous conception. People in those days knew where babies came from, as is clear from what Mary says. Both Matthew and Luke tell about a virgin birth, and the details in the stories that are recorded are such that it is clear that Mary and Joseph had to be the ones who told the story of the miraculous conception. So if we want to say that the virgin birth did not happen, we are then saying that Mary and Joseph are liars.

      No matter how impossible it seems from a scientific point of view to affirm the Virgin birth, it seems the only possible answer. As this passage end~ with, "nothing is impossible with God."

      Back to Mary's reaction to news Gabriel brings. She raises questions, trying to understand how this can be for it seems impossible. And Gabriel tried to answer but seems to be struggling to find the right words - Gabriel talks about Mary being over shadowed by the Most High God. This is not so much an explanation of how this is going to happen, as a promise of God's on­going presence with Mary.

      As we walk humbly with God, God will come to us and ask us to do things - will invite us to take steps of faith.

      We may not be visited by an angel as Mary was, rather we may feel a prompting in us, something that bothers us so much that we feel we simply must address the problem.

      Or it may be that someone visits us and invites us to do something that we never thought of doing, but inside of us there is both excitement and fear.

      Or it may be more dramatic, for God still speaks through visions and dreams, calling His people to the plans He has.

      Even when we have heard clearly what it is that God is inviting us to do, we may still have questions wondering how it is possible that we could the ones that God will use in this way. We may have questions about how God is going to do what He says he will do, how He will bring about the miracle He is planning.

      As Mary demonstrates, it is fine to ask questions of God, to ask how the impossible is going to become the possible. Asking question is fine, as long as we are prepared to hear, "Trust me" as God's answer. Our limited human minds cannot comprehend what God can and will do. We cannot even begin to understand how God will go about doing the unimaginable. God is in the business of doing the impossible - there comes a point at which we need to be satisfied with God's "Trust me." 

      And that brings us to the third clue to walking humbly with God, Mary's profound statement, "I am the Lord's servant, let it be to me as you have said." And we say, "Wow."

      The Heidelberg Catechism contains the line, "I am not my own, but belong to Jesus Christ."

      We are not our own, we are not in charge, we are not the top dog - we are servants of Jesus Christ. Mary understood this, she willingly submitted her plans, her goals, her dreams, to God's plan and goal and dream. And look at what happened. She is probably the most known woman in the world - all because she said "yes" to God. She submitted herself to God - submitted to what seemed a completely impossible plan.

      At the end of the day, when all the talking is done - when all the questions have been asked ­and we have heard from God - "trust me." - we have a choice to make - will we trust Him - will we take the step of faith - will we go out and do what he invites us to do? Will we with Mary say, "I am the Lord's servant, let it be as you have said." That is hard, for it will mean giving up our goals, our dreams, our plans - and surrendering them to what God wants.

      Walking with God is not easy on our egos, on our wants, but God is in the business of doing· something more wonderful than we can imagine - and we are invited into the adventure, to become one of the players in the game.

      Made in the image of God we are invited to be the ones that God uses to transform the world, will we say "Yes." - will we walk humbly with our God.