Community Church Sermons
December 16, 2007
Third
Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-56
Listen to this Sermon!
These are exciting times at our church! We’re planning for the future!
If you don’t know it already, we have a vision for transforming our campus into a more integrated, people-friendly and welcoming facility. This beautiful sanctuary will be preserved as it is, but shortened to its original design, and it will continue to serve us weekly as our chapel in which we will hold our smaller services, and special worship experiences. It will seat about 200 people! Our narthex tower will remain, but be greatly enlarged into a fellowship area where we can gather before and after services and share a cup of coffee and make new friends. And this fellowship area will join together this chapel, and a new sanctuary to be constructed out on that corner between our current office wing and Christian Life Center. The new sanctuary will have plenty of seating for everyone who wants to come and worship with us. It will be cool in the summer. And warm in the winter. And you’ll be able to hear everything that is said and sung! And yes, the chancel area will be large enough to hold our full vocal choir, the handbell choirs and all the bell tables, and even provide spacious room for poinsettia and chrismon trees and whatever else will enhance the experience of worship. It is going to be beautiful! And the icing on the cake, as far as I’m concerned, will be taking our driveway where Irene Lane enters, and looping it out around on the land beyond the columbarium. No one will ever again have to worry about walking out of church and getting run over by a truck on its way to the Plaza Restaurant! And best of all, this will create new, level parking lots where all the spaces are within easy walking distance of the doors, and where the columbarium becomes a part of the church grounds with quiet walkways and places to stop and meditate. It will be like a traditional “church yard” where everything is connected and where the past, present and future are beautifully woven together.
But what does this have to do with Christmas?
Well, people sometimes ask me, “Why do we have to prepare for the future? I don’t even buy green bananas! Why do we have to provide more room for newcomers, especially those from Michigan? Why can’t we just stay the way we are?”
I guess there are lots of answers to those questions. In an area where there are plenty of Methodist churches, Presbyterian churches, Lutheran churches, and where there are more Baptist churches than there are people, we are a very unique interdenominational ministry. People seem to resonate with the idea of being Christians first, and becoming a visible sign of Christian unity. And so they come to our church in larger numbers than to other churches. We can’t help it! It just happens!
And we are a church that inspires and challenges this great big beautiful bunch of people to step out into the community and love our neighbors as ourselves. There is no church in this area that has more significant mission outreach to help others than our church. Chris Evans – now Chris Longmire - from the Child Advocacy Center said to me, “Marty, without the Community Church there would be no Child Advocacy Center.” Name the names of all the organizations in our area that help hurting people and the same thing is said. “Without the Community Church, we could not do what we do.” So as we grow, we increase our ability to spread God’s love and to help more people. We’re not interested in growth for growth’s sake. That’s idolatry. But growing the influence of the Kingdom of God in the world and sending people out to serve the community and to love their neighbors is what churches are called to do.
But I know what you’re still probably wondering. “What does ANY of this have to do with Christmas?”
Well, EVERYTHING! Did you hear the Gospel lesson? When Mary learned that she was with child, her whole life changed! She could no longer live just for herself because now she had been entrusted with another life to care for. Oh, the mothers in our congregation today know what I’m saying. Being with child changes everything. Harmful things are put away. Healthy habits are taken up. All the past and even the present become focused on the future. Every ounce of energy is centered on nurturing the life of the child within.
Think about Mary. Fifteen, maybe sixteen years old. Single. Pregnant. I sometimes wonder why we don’t read anything about her parents in the Christmas story. Where was her mother? Where was her dad? Where were her friends? Not one is mentioned! All we know is that she is young, single and pregnant. In the world of her day there was no greater shame. The penalty for the sin Mary had obviously committed was death, by stoning. Do you think this might have been the reason she ran away to her Aunt Elizabeth’s house – to save the life of her baby?
We see Mary doing everything she can to preserve and protect and nurture the life within. Mothers are like that, when they are with child! And I love the fact that, in the story, Aunt Elizabeth is pregnant, too. She understands what it means to be with child. So she tells Mary she has nothing to be ashamed about – that the baby inside her is holy. She says, “You are the most blessed of all women!” What an amazing and gracious thing to say to a pregnant teenage girl! And Mary starts to sing a song! And in the song, she praises God for the gift within, and she promises God that she will take care of it, and nurture the child to serve the purposes of God, so that every generation in the future will be blessed by the child within!
Why do we tell this story about Mary, year after year at Christmas? Well, because its not just a story about Mary. It is also the story of the Church. It’s OUR story!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but there is a certain glow about the church in this season. Just like the glow we sometimes see on the face of an expectant mother! And just like parents-to-be decorate a nursery and hang mobiles over cribs, we’ve been decorating our sanctuary – an doesn’t it look beautiful? I think the baby will like all the colors, and the candles and the lights! And the church’s belly seems to grow in this season with swelling crowds of worshipers – just wait until you see how big she gets on Christmas Eve! And week after week, the church sings baby songs! Songs that ask questions like, “What Child is this?” – songs that imagine stars twinkling above as a baby lies in a manger, no crib for a bed – songs that dream about the person her child will grow up to become, the one who will save the world from sin and bring in the Kingdom of God.
Christmas reminds us that – like Mary – WE are with child.
The Christ child.
“Why do we have to prepare for
the future when we don’t even buy green bananas? Why do we have to provide more
room for newcomers, especially those from Michigan? Why can’t we just stay the
way we are?”
Because we are pregnant. We are with child. The Christ of God is in our womb and God has set us apart to do something beautiful for the world in His name!
And that means – like it did for Mary - that we can’t live just for ourselves anymore. I know its tempting for Christians to think of the Church as being for themselves, but its not. The Church is God’s bride, pregnant with the Christ child who is born for the world. The Church does not exist to make us comfortable, and bless only us, and to be just another one of the community amenities we enjoy. No, the Church exists to extend itself to others in love, and to lay down its life for the sake of the Good News of Jesus Christ. So we can’t just live for ourselves anymore.
Second, we have to make room. Isn’t that such a central piece of the Christmas story? There was no room for them in the inn. So the innkeeper made room. No church has the right to say enough is enough. To turn away a lonely relocated couple, to not provide a way for a handicapped person to find a seat, to turn a cold shoulder to those who are struggling with life’s challenges and in need of a church family that will support them is placing self-concern over the call of the Gospel. There was no room for them in the inn. So they made room – for Mary, for Joseph, for the baby, for shepherds, and sheep, and wise men from the East. The Church’s doors are open to everyone who wants to come to find the baby.
And third, we cannot stay the way we are because we have not yet become all that God intends us to be. Not one of us. Think again about Mary – a trembling little waif of a girl with the shame of the world heaped upon her shoulders – a loser – a moral failure – deserving rejection in the eyes of the world.
But God saw Mary as someone else. God saw Mary as the mother of his Son.
How does God see you? How does God see our church?
Oh, these are exciting times as we draw near to Christmas! The purple candles of mourning on our Advent wreath have given way to the pink candle of Joy!
Mary is with child!
And so are we!
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!