Waiting Together

Luke 1: 26-44

December 21, 2014

Advent 4

When we think of interruptions,

they usually aren’t good.

It’s usually a negative word.

Our sleep was interrupted,

The class was interrupted

An outburst interrupted the courtroom.

Our life was interrupted.

We were just going along and then we were interrupted.

But not all interruptions are bad.

As a pastor, people often tell me,
“I’m sorry I interrupted you.”

It’s usually from someone with some a theological question,

which is what I actually went to school for.

Not for what you interrupted me from,

which is usually copying things, making signs, and scheduling meetings.

So to be clear, the interruptions are usually

more fun than what I’m supposed to be doing.

But I digress.

Interruptions can be inconvenient,

But they’re not all bad.

Take this story today for instance,

Mary is doing whatever she’s doing that day,

making bread or sewing or washing something.

Doing whatever she was doing with her life.

Preparing for her marriage,

thinking her future would be very similar to her mother’s life,

and the life of most other women.

And just then Gabriel comes to her

Mary and Elizabeth
Julie-Ann Bowden

and tells her that she would bear God’s child.

The savior, the Messiah, the one that everyone was waiting for.

That is quite an interruption.

And Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, got a similar interruption

Well, her husband Zachariah did first, and he was skeptical,

so Gabriel rendered him mute.

Gabriel maybe learned from this experience

that you might need to get buy-in from the woman

who is going to carry the child before you talk to the man.

But I digress again.

But eventually, Elizabeth’s life gets interrupted by the fact

that she is going to have a child too.

Except she and her husband were very old and were not really

expecting to raise a child at this point in their lives.

Imagine standing there, brushing your teeth,

in whatever  state of life you are in right now

and having an angel of God come and tell

you that you were going to be a parent to the Messiah,

right now, if that was okay with you.

That would be a pretty big interruption in your life, right?

One might think that the best response would be to refuse,

to run away, to go into hiding.

Or you might just decide to go along with

whatever God has in mind.

And if you did that, you might join together with other people

who have gotten the same kind of interruption

which is what Mary does.

After Mary hears the news, she goes out to see

her sister Elizabeth, the one other person

who truly understands  this gigantic interruption.

And talks with her, celebrates with her, I’m sure they share

their fears and apprehensions, they make plans.

They rejoice together.

This was kind of the first meeting of the

Christian church when you think about it.

Two people, interrupted in their life by God,

coming together to share their joy and their pain,

to make plans together, and to wait together

for the wonderful things that God has in store

for them and for all the world.

That is what we do together as the church.

God has interrupted us.--

Maybe we haven’t had as giant an interruption as Mary,

like parenting the savior of the world--  

but still we’ve been interrupted.

Maybe we didn’t believe in God, or we were uncommitted.

Maybe we just thought we were going to

live out our lives as lapsed Lutherans or Catholics,

Maybe we just thought we could sit in the pew

occasionally and not get involved.

Maybe we just didn’t care.

But then God interrupted us, or will interrupt us.

Someone came to us give us greetings,

told us we were highly favored,

and told us to not be afraid.

And now our lives are not what they were before.

So we gather together with other highly favored

people who have had the same interruptions in their lives

We celebrate,

and we share our joy and our pain

and make plans about what to do.

And we rejoice with God at the fact that our lives

did not go exactly as we had planned.

And we rejoice in the honor that God has given us.

That God has asked us to be involved in the salvation of the world.

Just like Mary was asked.

We rejoice that God has this wonderful plan of grace, and forgiveness,

and salvation, and love

and that we are a part of it.

And we wait together for the savior of the world

to come into our lives and interrupt us again.

We wait together for the wonderful things

that God has in store

for us and for all the world.