“God’s Other Plans”
Micah
5:2-5a
Luke
1:26-38
One of my favorite questions to
ask my daughters is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Of course, their answer frequently changes
from time to time depending on what their interests are at the moment, but it
is fun to hear their aspirations about their future. The wonderful thing about a question like
this is that it makes them to look beyond the present and into a time that for
them is very far off, but the most important thing about this question is that
it makes them think about the unlimited possibilities and potential they
have. Nothing is out of reach,
everything and anything is possible.
And yet we all know that as we
grow older, our plans for the future become more fine
tuned, and we realize that our unlimited possibilities and potentials are not
so unlimited. Not only do our gifts and
abilities begin to define more and more what we are able and not able to do,
but also our life circumstances begin to reshape and often times redirect our
great youthful aspirations.
When I graduated from college and began
looking for a job, one of the questions I was always
asked by future employers, and later a certain PNC committee was, “What are
your plans five or ten years from now?”
Kind of like an adult version of, “What do you want to be when you grow
up?” Of course, what they really want to
know is if I have aspirations for the future, and whether or not I have thought
about my future goals and plans, and whether or not I’m working to accomplish
them. At first, my answer was rather
clear. I was going to work in the
transportation industry, hopefully in some area of aviation. But what I soon found out was that God had
other plans.
I wonder what
Mary’s aspirations and hopes were when she was a little girl? Living in the small town of
The story of
Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel is a wonderful story full of great
hope, a little bit of humor, but also a lot of apprehension. At first glance, Gabriel’s words about just
who it is Mary will give birth to would cause anyone to be overjoyed and
greatly flattered. To say that Mary’s
future was beyond her wildest dreams is a huge understatement. I doubt she considered this possibility at
all. In her great youthful plan, I doubt
she said to herself, “When I grow up I’m going to give birth to the Son of the
Most High, and he will be given the throne of the King David, and he will be
the ruler of a kingdom that has no end.”
She may have had big dreams, but I doubt they were this big.
However, the
reality of this story is that for Mary her circumstances in life had already
defined her future for her. She was no
longer a little girl, but now an older teenager; a teenager engaged to an older
man, which was most likely a planned engagement. And now to hear news that she would conceive
and bear a son, not only shocked her, but would have filled her with enormous
anxiety and apprehension. After all, she
was still a virgin, and not even married, and her pregnancy would certainly not
sit well with her family, let alone Joseph’s.
In fact, Gabriel’s message wasn’t good news for her at all, but life
threatening news. Yea, some divine favor
she had.
You can’t
blame Mary for her misgivings and apprehensions about what was in store for
her. God’s other plans for were not what
she expected and as we now they certainly were not going to be easy. Little does she know that in a very short
time, she would have to go on a long and weary journey to a new town, where
there will be no room for them to sleep, that she would give birth to her son
in a animal barn, and lay him in a feeding
trough.
Little does she know that she will
someday be a single mom, living in poverty and obscurity in a small town where
at least one person in the gospel says that nothing good comes from there. Little does
she know now that the son she will have will be hated and despised, that he
will be condemned for blasphemy and sedition, that he will only live to be 33
years old, and that she will witness his horrific death as she sits at the foot
of his cross.
No, God’s plans don’t always fit
so snuggly into our own big plans for the future, and sometimes they aren’t
always easy. Sometimes, they are down
right hard to endure, at best leaving us, like Mary, to maybe even reluctantly
remark as she did, “Let it be with me according to your Word,” or at worse
leaving us to resign ourselves to our cruel fate as we utter the words of C-3PO
in Star Wars when he says, “I was made to suffer. It’s my lot in life.” No, God’s plans for us don’t always match up
to our great scheme of things, and they don’t always fit into our perceived
expectations of what it means to have divine favor. But the good news is that God does have other
plans.
My friends,
this story for us today is not just about Mary, but most importantly, it’s about
God’s action in her life, in the ordinary life of an ordinary teenage
girl. This story is about the
proclamation that God is about to do something new, not just in Mary’s life,
but in the life of the world. God has a
purpose for her that is beyond her limited vision, beyond her understanding of
how things are to be, for little does Mary know now that the same son she will
see die on the cross will be he same son will be raised from the dead.
Like Mary, we too see from with a
limited vision and understanding of how things will be for us in the
future. Sometimes that vision is clearer
than at other times. Many times it is
only after the fact, in hindsight, that we are able to say, “Now I
understand.” But at no time should we
become cynical fatalists in believing that we are stuck in some divine
pre-programmed simulation waiting for God’s big game to end.
God’s plans for us may go beyond
our limited perceptions and understanding, and they may not fit into our
expectations of what our future will and should be for us, but the good news is
that God does have other plans, other plans that have farther reaching
implications and purposes that we can even possibly hope to understand.
Mary cannot possibly completely
grasp what this pregnancy and birth will mean, not just for her, but for all of
humanity, for the one she will give birth to in a manager, will be the one who
will reveal the very heart and character of God, will be the one who will
reveal and make possible God’s plan of salvation, will be the one who will
truly be the Son of the Most High.
But, my friends, let me tell you
what I believe is the most glorious good news of our text for today. The most glorious good news is that if God
can work in the life of an ordinary teenage girl, and through her bring about the fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose for
the world, then God can work and in fact does work in our own ordinary lives
for the very same plan and purpose.
That’s right. We too have an
active and important role to play in God’s work in salvation history, in God’s
work in fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for the reconciliation and the
redemption of the whole world in Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t choose the best and
the brightest from us to do God’s work, but rather God chooses all of us ordinary
people, with all of our faults and apprehensions, with all of our best hopes
and dreams as well as our worst fears and doubts, and bestows upon us the
divine favor of grace to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves,
beyond our wildest dreams and expectations, beyond even our own plans for our
future, because God has other plans in mind for us.
As Advent comes to an end for us,
and we turn our thoughts about preparing ourselves for Christ’s return to
preparing ourselves to celebrate again the birth of our Lord and Savior, the
question for us today is whether or not we are willing to commit ourselves to
God’s other plans. This is no small
question for us to answer.
God’s other plans are not always
easy, and their paths are not always so clear, and we may tremble at the
uncertainty of where those paths will lead us, but will we, like Mary, commit
ourselves anyway, even if at first reluctantly?
Will we commit ourselves solely based on the promise of God’s heavenly
angel that with God nothing will be impossible?
This may be one of the greatest tests of our faith that we will face in
turning our lives completely over to God, and seeking God’s plans for us rather
than our own.
But in doing so, we can rest in
the assurance and most certain knowledge that God’s plan and purpose for us
will be revealed, as it already has been revealed in Jesus Christ, and as it
will be finally and fully revealed on the day of our redemption, for it is the
lives which have been given something great to do and to bear, even though they
may have been bruised in the process, which will come to truly know the favor
of God and the discovery of the fulfillment of life to which God’s grace
brings.
Thanks be
to God that for world, God had other plans for Mary, and thanks be to God that
for the world, God has other plans for us too.
Amen.