Mary Mother of God

Advent is the anticipation of God’s Promise becoming Provision

We get lulled into a false sense of security. numbed to sleep by momentary peace.

• But The temptation of the Christmas season in our culture is to be lulled to sleep. Everything is tender and mild, everything is no crying He makes.
Whether Through coziness, through consumerism, the feeling of advent is to settle into a cold winter’s night. It sounds nice but true Advent is not sleeping through it but waking up to be dependent on God for true peace and not rest in lesser powers that numb us into a false peace.

We make the mistake in advent to use the season to cozy in and go to sleep. Mary shows us the opposite is needed

Luke 1:28–30 ESV

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

• This is not only the provisional entrance of God’s promise in the world, it is also the introduction of Mary.

Advent is the anticipation that God uses normal situations used in extraordinary ways

• Jesus enters quietly, humbly, mysteriously

• Mary is not at all a particular somebody

Luke 1:26–27 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

• There is a reality in Jesus’ entry into the world where

• None of the powers of the world care.

• but All of heaven and creation can’t wait.

• This is the good news of Advent. God is still in the world using normal things in extraordinary ways.

• God doesn’t need the biggest, shiniest, most powerful thing in the world to accomplish His work

Mary reminds us that God doesn’t wait until everything is fixed and ready for His arrival, He fixes everything in His arrival.

• God is calling us to interact with Him in the places we are. Not because they are fixed and ready but precisely because they are not.

• But please know God does normal and broken situations in extraordinary ways. We will see at the end Advent’s invitation is to live with faith in God who still works that way.

Advent is the anticipation that God still does the impossible.

Luke 1:34 ESV

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

• But this annunciation from Gabriel is the annunciation that God is doing the impossible. God is doing more than we can fathom.

• In Gabriel’s announcement we see that he forms his news to Mary around who Christ is and what He is like. Look at the initial declaration

Luke 1:32–33 ESV

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:35 ESV

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

• Gabriel shares the reality of Jesus to the woman who will give birth to Jesus. But this is the first she’s hearing about it.

• When you are the Creator, doing the impossible is not a problem.

• When you make the plans, creating and financing impossible things is not a barrier.

• The barrier is not God’s will or work in this situation, it is the response from the world.

• We have a God who is doing impossible things in our possible world. Advent is the confession that this is a reality.

Advent is the invitation to see that faith waits in the ordinary for God to do the extraordinary.

Luke 1:37–38 ESV

For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

• These are places of absurdity that call us to faith.

• I am using the word absurd on purpose. I think it is one of the best descriptions of faith.

• The word absurd assumes there is nothing we can do about it. That is absurd. It is beyond our ability and imagination.

• Absurd forces us to run up to our limits. To try and figure out things that we can’t even figure out.

• We wait at the place where we see the need for God to do something. And we wait with faith. We trust that we are in the right place.

– The whole advent story is strangely ordinary.

• The place

• The characters

• The action

• But God entering into the scene makes it extraordinary.

• We look around in the waiting and think, “are we in the right place?” Nothing looks like it should. But faith in Christ’s Advent shows us that we are in exactly the right place. That it is not dependent on what the room looks like, or what the situation looks like, but it looks like what God is doing in that place.

• Advent is the absurd reminder that God is working in world. And it is the invitation to wait in faith for God to do impossible things in our possible world.