Change of Plans

Isaiah 7:10-16

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying,

Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.

Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph,

but before they lived together,

she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Her husband Joseph,

being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace,

planned to dismiss her quietly.

But just when he had resolved to do this,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,

for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

When Joseph awoke from sleep,

he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him;

he took her as his wife,

but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son;

and he named him Jesus.

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I’m going to let you in on a little secret about me.

This is something I don’t talk about too much,

         because it tends to shock and even dismay people

         who think they know me pretty well,

and especially when they are people who for one reason or another

         sense a need to be able to count on me to get things done.

So brace yourselves: here it is.

I think planning is mostly a waste of time.

Now, some of you might be thinking, wait a minute!

Didn’t I hear that you spent most of your first career

         in strategic planning?

Well, yes, that is true.

And then you might have some of those famous sayings about plans popping up in your head:

“Nobody plans to fail, but lots of people fail to plan.” Stuff like that.

But here’s the thing.

The problem with the plans we make is that once we make them,

         we have this compulsion to follow them to completion.

And way too often,

         this compulsion closes ourselves off to God’s plans,

while we are busy trying to make sure that our plans get done, hopefully just the way we planned them.

And this is especially true

         because God’s plans almost always include

         something totally unexpected,

and our plans are almost always made

         in order to keep the unexpected from happening.

Let’s consider Joseph.

Joseph’s plan for his life was taking shape, step by step.

No doubt he had been educated as he grew into manhood,

         not only in the Law, the Torah, but also as a carpenter.

Once he was able to make a living,

         he was ready to marry and start a family.

And he was engaged to be married to Mary.

We can imagine that he had plans for a house for them,

         plans for children who could learn his trade

         and carry it forward.

The kinds of basic plans that most human beings

         have in their heads for a good life, a happy life,

         a life with some essential elements of meaning.

And then he learns about something that blows all his plans apart – his fiancée, Mary, is pregnant.

Now, the Law allows him to have her stoned to death for adultery – and that is what this is considered.

But Joseph, we hear, is a righteous man.

He can’t bear to have her hurt.

So he decides on Plan B – he will quietly divorce her.

He does not want her to be publicly disgraced.

But then, an angel comes along in a dream

         and changes his plan again.

This change starts with a reminder

         that gets to the heart of most of our planning –

“don’t be afraid”.

Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

And then comes the shocker – the unexpected, really unbelievable part.

The child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. The prophecy you know so well is being fulfilled.

When her son is born, you will name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

So Joseph accepts God’s plan to start his family

         in the midst of what will appear to everyone around him

         to be a scandal, a messy, complicated family situation.

Joseph is obedient to God, and participates in God’s plan,

         even though it blows his life’s plans completely apart.

And we don’t hear it in this reading, but we know

         that this does not result in an easy life for this family

         by any means.

They begin their life together as refugees.

Jesus is born away from home,

         and before they can journey back home

         they are forced to flee from the plans of Herod,

         plans which were developed specifically to eliminate Jesus.

They become refugees in Egypt,

         unable to return to their home until the hateful king has died. When we try to imagine what their lives may have been like,

         we only need to look at the conditions

         that refugees are experiencing around the world today.

We only need to consider

         how we each would embrace and help someone

         who was here in our midst, seeking asylum and a better life, even though we thought they did not belong here.

This was the birth and early life of our Lord and Savior.

Not anything like what his parents would have planned.

But God’s plans are not our plans, and God’s ways are not our ways.

God’s ways are full of unexpected things.

Let’s see in this video how Christmas itself is filled with unexpected things.  This is a short Christmas pageant performed by a church in New Zealand, so listen carefully – the accent is a bit, well, unexpected.

The Unexpected Christmas

God’s ways are unexpected.

And God’s ways are good.

We hear from the prophet Jeremiah,

         “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord,

         plans for your welfare and not for harm,

         to give you a future with hope.”

I have come to believe that clinging to our own plans

         tends to close our hearts and minds to God’s plans.

It keeps us heading down paths of our own choosing,

         paths created to pursue the desires of our own hearts.

It causes a noise to grow within us that keeps us from hearing,

         truly hearing, what God is planning for the world,

         what God is calling us to do to participate in that plan.

But preparing is a different story – preparing is different from planning.

Toward the end of my career in strategic planning,

         I was working with my friend and colleague Roland Loup,

         who many of you met earlier this year

         as he facilitated our congregational workshops earlier this year, when we developed this church’s mission statement

         as a guide for our future work.

Roland’s research in executive leadership has moved away from developing strategic plans, and now instead emphasizes strategic purpose, as a way of preparing for the unexpected.

What is the purpose of your organization,

         whether it’s a company, or a church, or a family, whatever,

         that you need to stay focused on

in order to keep centered on what matters most,

especially when the unexpected happens,

when things change and you must turn in a different direction?

How do you prepare for that?

I think this idea also works for followers of Christ.

Through Christ, God has given us the structure

         for the spiritual purpose of our life.

And it is based upon the two commandments

         Jesus told us were the greatest:

Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength;

and Love your neighbor as yourself.

This is how we prepare the way of the Lord.

This is how we prepare during Advent for the coming of Christ.

When Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him,

         he was acting out of complete love for the Lord God

         in his obedience,

and he was acting out of love for Mary, 

         caring as much about her well-being as his own.

If he had followed through with his own plan,

         Mary would have been alone through her pregnancy and birth. We can question whether she even would have survived it.

It’s hard to imagine that Joseph saw these changes of plans as ones that would make his life easiest or best.

It’s easy to see how any one of us would have turned away from such a situation.

But a spiritually prepared life,

a life of spiritual purpose,

lived in openness to the work of God through the Holy Spirit,

is a life that is shaped around the life and model of Jesus Christ.

trusting in the grace and mercy that alone saves us..

So let us welcome the unexpected changes of plans

         that give us the chance, over and over, to turn,

         to follow Christ, to walk in the light.

Let us be prepared for the unexpectedness of God’s plan.

God has a plan. God’s plan is us.

God’s plans are filled with unexpected things.

May we be always prepared, so that through us,

God’s will may be done. Amen.

Are You The One?

Isaiah 35:1-10

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,

and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.

Say to those who are of a fearful heart,

"Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.

He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.

He will come and save you."

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

then the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

the burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water;

the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way;

the unclean shall not travel on it,

but it shall be for God's people;

no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.

No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,

and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Matthew 11:2-11
When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing,

he sent word by his disciples and said to him,

"Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:
the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John:

"What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?

A reed shaken by the wind?

What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes?

Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.

What then did you go out to see? A prophet?

Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

This is the one about whom it is written,

'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way before you.'

Truly I tell you, among those born of women

no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist;

yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

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You know those stories or songs you hear sometimes, about when people meet, and they just know, almost instantly, that that’s “the one”?  You know, someone is at a party, and they see someone across a crowded room, or they have a brief conversation after being introduced, and then they go home, saying, “You’re the one! I’m going to marry you!”

I never really believed those stories, but a year ago this weekend something very close to that actually happened to me. From just about the first time Wade and I met, it seemed, we just knew we were meant to be together.

Sometimes you just know.

But not always….

We hear in scripture this morning, that after all the time he had spent out in the wilderness baptizing, after all the times Jesus walked by and he pointed to him, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God!”, John the Baptist is not yet really sure if Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah. We can forgive him, I imagine, for being pretty discouraged at this point in his life. He is in prison, and has been there pretty much since the start of Jesus’ public ministry. So all he knows about what is happening is second-hand, through messages being sneaked in by John’s disciples. And what prophet wouldn’t want the chance to see first-hand that the Word of the Lord, that had been spoken through them to the people, was actually coming true? 

When he is asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”, Jesus’ reply mirrors the words Jodie read this morning, from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah said, 

“Don’t be afraid! Here is your God.

He will come and save you."

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

then the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.”

And so, Jesus says, “Go and tell John all you hear and see - the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” All the things Isaiah named have come to pass, and more.

John was not alone in his doubt. In fact, many of the gospel stories are about people testing Jesus, people challenging Jesus, people seeking signs and wonders to prove whether or not Jesus truly was “the one” – the one they had been waiting for.

The gospels themselves were written in order to provide stories as documented proof of the things that had happened in Jesus’ life, that defined him as “the one” – the Messiah.

But Jesus knew that his disciples would have a hard time keeping the faith, and obediently following, once he was gone. This is why the gospels record how he patiently and thoroughly prepared them; prepared us.

He prepared us to know that he is God, that his way of loving is God’s way of loving, that we are forgiven whether we realize it or not, and that living as forgiven people, one and all, is the truest and richest form of life. He prepared us through the Beatitudes, and through all his “I AM” statements, telling us “I am the living water. I am the bread of life. I am the way, the truth, the life.” I AM. 

He prepared his disciples by challenging them to say who they believed he was, and also by telling them who they are, and whose they are.

When he asked “Who do you say that I am?”, Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Messiah”. And because of that, Peter learned something new about who he was – the rock, steady and strong. In spite of his weaknesses, this is how Jesus named him.

Jesus also prepared the disciples not only for what was to come, how he was to die, and then to rise again, but also for how his leaving them after only three years would make way for the Holy Spirit to come, to give them and us the continuing guidance we would need, to keep the Word of God alive and relevant in our hearts, showing us the way.

Through all this we know and can completely trust, that:

·      God is God, and we are not. Not any one of us. God is God, Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God. God is “The One”, in all these three persons.

·      We participate with God as the body of Christ, the church. Even as we boldly declare the hope that is in us, we also boldly declare our status as sinner, with no hope other than the hope freely offered by Jesus Christ. We do nothing on our own; any good we ever do is because the Holy Spirit comes alongside us to complete our lame and limited efforts.

So no one of us is ever “the one”. We come alongside others in need, for a season, for a moment sometimes, to be the people God calls us to be. And then we move on, and someone new is called for the next moment, the next situation, the next season. And we do this again and again, throughout our lives. It’s how we practice communion, how we work together to help each other through the joys and challenges of life. For one circumstance, for one person, for one moment or for one brief season of life, with God’s help, we may be “the one” needed for the particular gift we can share. But we are never fully “The One” – that is only The One God – God in community, Holy in One.

In the gospel according to John, it is John the Baptist who says, “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” John knew that he was doing important work, but that it was not about him at all – it was about The Messiah, the Holy One, God in the Flesh. He would not allow his own disciples to get confused, thinking that they were following John the Baptist, but rather pointing, over and over again, to Jesus the Christ.

So the answer to the question – “Are You The One?” – when it is asked to any of us – is, “well, yes and no”. We are one people in Christ. We are one of all God’s children who are called to ministry of reconciliation and hope, using whatever gifts God has given to us to make things better in whatever small way we can, whenever we can. We are ones who are called to say “yes” to the needs of the world, knowing that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” But we are not, ever, “The One”. The One is The One God, Holy in Three. And The One will always be with us, always will walk alongside us, always will call the right person to the right place for the right time, always will remind that person that “you must decrease so Christ can increase”.

This is the Advent Sunday when we also remember how the angel came to Mary, and described to her just how God was calling her to participate in the incredible story of salvation.

Mary was not The One.

But Mary had a role to play, and even though what was being asked of her was beyond what any of us could possibly imagine, she responded in two significant ways, two ways that are models for us whenever we are called to service by God.

First, she responded with humility. “Here I am, let it be with me according to your will.”

Second, she responded with boundless hope for what this call would mean for the future.

Today’s readings also include what is known as Mary’s Magnificat – this joyful, hopeful, powerful song of Mary, from the first chapter of Luke’s gospel:

Luke 1:46b-55
"My soul magnifies the Lord, 

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever." 

Even though we sing “Mary, Did You Know?”, this passage makes it clear that Mary knew, both the awesome responsibility given to her, and the awesome hope for the world that came along with the birth of this divine child.

I pray that we all can approach the work God has for us with the same humility, the same hope, the same sense of possibility – knowing that…

No one of us is “The One”,

but that we are called, every day of our lives, to serve “The One” – both in true humility and in boundless hope.