“You’ve Gotta Be Kidding!”

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

For most folks, when they begin their new life with the Lord, it’s an exciting time. They begin to realize a new purpose for this existence, and a new way to walk through it. They come to know that they now have a new partner – one who cares both about and for them. And then a strange thing happens. They begin to sense that the Lord has plans for them that had never entered their mind before – plans that, at first, don’t seem to make much sense.

Consider Moses – In Exodus 3, we find him on Mount Horeb, watching a bush, engulfed in flame without being consumed, and hearing the voice of the Lord telling him that he was to go back to Egypt to bring the people out of slavery and into a new land. Moses wasn’t all that happy about going, and offered every excuse possible. But God had a response for every one of his objections.
Consider Jonah – In Jonah 1, the prophet is called by the Lord to go to the city of Nineveh to preach against their evil life styles. Down deep, he knows that God isn’t sending him to condemn the city, but rather to change the lives of the people, and he isn’t about to go quietly. He runs as far and as fast as he can, but to paraphrase the old saying - “You can’t out run God!”
Consider Esther – a young Jewish woman who has become the chosen queen of King Xerxes, ruler of the Medo-Persian empire. She is told of a plot by a man named Haman that would destroy the lives of every Jew in the empire, and she is the only one who is in position to reveal the truth to the King. She knows that to do so would violate the law and would result in certain death for her, but her cousin Mordecai reminds her that she had come to her royal position “for such a time as this.”
Consider the Gibson Corners United Methodist Church – called to go to Ecuador on a mission trip, thinking that they knew what it was all about, but in all actuality, could never have even imagined that the call would last 10 years, and that there is still more to do even today!
Consider Bill Prentice – still a relatively new man in Christ 15 years ago, who was invited to join a prison ministry. It was an effort that would reach out to drug and alcohol and sex offenders. He didn’t want to seem reluctant to serve the Lord, but he would shortly ask the same question that had to have been on the hearts and lips of Moses, and Jonah, and Esther, and some folks at Gibson Corners, as well as countless millions of the faithful over the past three thousand years - “Who? Me? You want me to do what? Lord, you’ve gotta’ be kidding!”

And then there was that young unmarried woman of Israel who was called by God to do something that was even more incredible than these.

Read Luke 1:26-29

“Greatly troubled”? I would certainly think so! Anyone who isn’t at least a little nervous when the Lord comes to offer them an opportunity to serve, probably doesn’t know just how strange God’s call can be! Mary had to have been a truly faithful woman, and when the angel called her “highly favored”, that would be equivalent to a friend of ours saying to us – “Hey – you’re really smart – I’ve got a job for you!” She knew instantly that the conversation was going to become pretty weird!
“Who? Me?”

Moses and Jonah and Esther and Gibson Corners and Bill all gave God every reason as to why his plan wouldn’t work, but in every case, God let them (us!) know that they wouldn’t be going and working alone – that he would be there with them (us!). The truth is that God doesn’t give calls to just anyone! They go to those who he knows will do it in his way and in his time. He gives them to those who know that it is the good Lord Himself who will be doing all the “heavy lifting”, and that our part of the job is to be faithful. But we all still suffer from the “Peter Syndrome”, and tend to keep at least a glimpse of the storm within our range of vision.

Read Luke 1:30-34

“You want me to what? But that’s impossible! I may be young, and I may not be married, but I know how this works, and I haven’t done that yet!” But God isn’t in the “normalcy” mode of doing things! He is in the “miraculous” mode! If his will could be accomplished in a human way, we wouldn’t need him. The calls would simply be “assignments”, and they could be completed with a conscientious attitude, a focused work ethic, and a great, personal effort.
But God calls us to do, through him, the impossible.

Consider Moses – 10 plagues that he couldn’t even have begun to put together, 2 water crossings that were miraculous in many ways, sustenance that came to them out of nowhere, visible signs that would lead them through the entire journey, and if that wasn’t enough, God’s own blessed word that was given by his own mighty hand! And after 40 years of trial, the people would receive the gift that had been promised to Abraham 600 years before.
Jonah – he would be stopped in his head long flight by a violent storm, the crew would cast lots that would fall immediately on Jonah, he would be thrown overboard and would promptly be swallowed up by a great fish, only to be vomited out 3 days later on the very shore that he had just left. He would surrender to the Lord’s desire, and as a result, 120,000 people and their herds and flocks would be saved.
Esther – she works up her courage, asks for 3 days of fasting, and then goes and does what she has been prepared to do. “If I perish, I perish” is her watch word, and not only are the Jews of the empire saved, and not only doesn’t Esther perish, but the scoundrel Haman and his henchmen are duly punished.
Gibson Corners – through their faithful struggle and loving service to the people of Ecuador, a school is now in operation, serving over 150 children with not only the 3 R’s, but is bringing the word of God to their hearts and souls.
Bill – he was scared stiff when he entered through the sally port of that Pennsylvania State Prison the first morning, wondering just what he could possibly have to say to “those despicable criminals”. But over the years, he would be blessed beyond all measure over and over again, and on one weekend a few years later, in the chapel at Waymart SCI, he would accept the Lord’s call to pastoral ministry.
And Mary, too, would accept the Lord’s impossible call on her life.

Read Luke 1:35-38

“For nothing is impossible with God.” Please note this – do NOT miss this very important point! The angel told Mary, and he tells each of us, that the impossible is accomplished “with” God, not “for” God or “through” God or "by" God! With God!

A businessman was asked to tell what his personal faith meant to him. He reached back to his boyhood experience and recalled walking with his father one day, having to reach up to hold on to his hand. After a while he said, “I can't hold on any longer, and you'll have to hold on to me for a while.” And he remembered the moment when he felt his father's hand take over. That, he said, was the way it felt to him to have faith in God. And that it was precisely an act of grace.

It is important that Christians not let grace become a universal principle or ideology. It is the grace of God of which the Bible speaks. Not the grace of some abstract principle of justice or love or acceptance. As God's grace, and not some principle of grace, God is the one who determines what it will be and where it will go. God ... called us with a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to his own purpose and grace (2 Tim. 1:9). But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift (Eph.4:7).
- Homiletics On Line

The Lord’s call to us is not just an assignment that we are expected to carry out. It is a measure of his grace that is given freely to each of us. It was to Moses, it was to Jonah, it was to Esther, it was to Gibson Corners, it was to Bill Prentice, and it was to Mary.
Grace is unexplainable, it is irrational, it is impossible, it is irresistible, and, quite honestly, it has to be just a little bit crazy.
After all, who but God Himself would ever think that the perfect way to enter this world would be through the womb of a young, unmarried virgin? Who but God Himself would ever decide that the perfect place to make this entrance would be in a dirty, drafty, smelly stable? Who but the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God would decide to come into this world as a helpless human infant who can’t speak or reason or even understand what is happening. Who else but a Loving and Almighty God would consent to be attended by humble adopted parents, by a group of unclean shepherds who were considered outcasts by their society, and by a few foreign astrologers? And by you? And by me?

God never “kids us” when he calls us to ministry and mission – he is always perfectly serious in his call - and yet, his ways are so unlike ours that they are hard to comprehend, and even harder to accept. And yet, as the angel told the woman who would soon bear the Son of God, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Do you trust him enough to believe that? Do you trust him enough to accept the call that he is placing on your life in this very moment? Do you trust him enough to know that our God is always in the “let’s-do-the-impossible-together” business? “Nothing is impossible with God!”

That’s what Christmas is about. The impossible act being made real, the unworthy sinner being loved beyond all reason, the grace of God shared throughout the physical world, the glory of Jesus Christ coming down for you and me and all who will say yes to the impossible.
That is the message of Christmas. Proclaim it, live it, share it.