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 Sermons | Passionate worship

This sermon was preached by Pastor Keith Cardwell at Swift Presbyterian Church.

Nov. 29, 2020 | First Sunday of Advent

Do Not Be Afraid To Hold Hope
Luke 1:26–45


“Do not be afraid, Mary. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son”
[Luke 1:30–31]


 W E OFTEN FOCUS on the angel’s announcement, then jump to the birth of Jesus and skip the time in between.

What did Mary do during those long months as she waited for the birth of her child? What did she think about on the long nights when her back hurt and she couldn’t sleep?

Mary trusted God enough to become his servant, yet she must have wondered and worried about the child who grew within her. She knew the child, yet she did not yet know. What were her hopes as she dreamed of the future, and how do her hopes relate to our hopes so many years later?

† † †

ANNE FRANK, in her diary, agreed, writing:

“Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.”

Something deep and universal in each of us needs hope in order to live.

† † †

DO NOT BE AFRAID to hold hope. Our hope as we await the coming of Christ is something profound. What we hope for is both here and not-yet-here.

Mary experienced the child even as she hoped for it, and yet the child would not fully be until he was born.

Paul speaks of hope in terms of birth when he says:

We know that up to the present time, all creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth. But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts also groan within ourselves as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free. For it is by hope that we are saved … if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience [Romans 8:22–25].

† † †

IN RAPHAEL’S PAINTING The Alba Madonna, Mary sits with the child Jesus on her lap. He is playing with a toy that has been made out of two sticks tied together in the form of a cross.

His mother looks beyond him; her eyes are fixed pensively on that cross.

Raphael reminds us that the hope of Israel and the child of Mary was born in order to die.

† † †

SO, LET’S THINK about that for a few minutes. Mary’s whole life on earth was a journey of hope. She relied totally on the promises of God, but her hope was tested far beyond anything we can imagine.

Mary stood there watching her Son die a brutal death.

She stood there while her Son offered his sacrifice. Even then Mary did not fear but held to hope. Trusting God our Father.

† † †

AS MARY STOOD beneath the cross, did she remember the words spoken to her by the angel years earlier? The words were God’s promises to her.

What Mary witnessed at the cross seemed to cancel all these promises.

God promised that Mary’s Son would be called great, but now He was dying in disgrace. God promised that her Son would sit on the throne of David His Father, but now he was rejected and thrown out of the city of David!

Mary was told by the angel that Jesus would be the very Son of God, but now God did not send 10,000 angels when His Son was being put to death.

It is impossible for us to imagine the magnitude of the testing of Mary’s hope. Was it all over? Would evil have the last word?

† † †

MARY PERSEVERED IN HOPE, anchored securely in God’s promises. Mary trusted that God would do what He had promised. Mary’s anchor of hope did not break loose.

How can we apply all this to our own lives?

Hope protects us from becoming paralyzed by fear and discouragement. And this divine hope is not going to leave us disappointed.

† † †

WHEN JESUS PREPARED the disciples for his coming death he told them that death is a kind of birth:

A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. [John 16:21–22]

† † †

OUR HOPE IS IN THE ONE who gives life, takes away life, and gives new life. Our hope is that one day we will be born — again — into the very life of God.

But for now, we await the coming of the Christ child, knowing even as we wait that Christ indeed has come. He lives within us, as he once lived within Mary, to give us hope.

Do not be afraid to hold this hope.

— Keith Cardwell   

«Hope protects us from becoming paralyzed by fear and discouragement. And this divine hope is not going to leave us disappointed.»

SCRIPTURE FOR THE DAY


►This is the Word of God for the people of God:


Luke 1:26–45
Holy Bible, New International Version


The birth of Jesus foretold
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Mary visits Elizabeth
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

— This is the Word of the Lord.
— Thanks be to God.


  


Footnote:

a.  Luke 1:35  Or So the child to be born will be called holy,


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