What Does God Require of Me?

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Luke 1:46b-55; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

As we continue in the season of Advent, we have reached the third week. And this year it seems as though the world is falling apart, with Russian tanks in the Ukraine, North Koreans hacking the computers of Sony Pictures, violent demonstrations in many cities against the police, ISIS terrorists attacking people in Iraq and Syria, Iran very close to nuclear weapons, and the Ebola virus that kills half of the otherwise healthy people it infects in West Africa. Heroin usage is up, pot has been legalized in two states, and marriage laws are in a state of change. Thankfully, gasoline prices are falling, but there is also the possibility that this will mean the end of the drilling boom we’ve been having here.

And this is the week when we remember the sacrifices that Mary had to make for God. Without sacrifice, there cannot be a victory. Mary – or Miriam, as she was known to her friends, made two terrific sacrifices for God. Her entire life was affected by those sacrifices.

Most of us know the story very well. Mary was a young girl, about fourteen or fifteen, which was marrying age in ancient Israel. She was engaged to a man named Joseph who was a carpenter, a highly skilled profession for the time. One day, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and said to her: “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 the Son of God. …38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

It wasn’t long before Mary had to explain to Joseph what was going on. It is clear from scripture that Joseph knew that he wasn’t the father of his fiancee’s child, and we’re pretty sure he had some difficult questions for Mary. But God came to the rescue and Joseph had a dream in which an angel assured Joseph of the truth of Mary’s story.

But those of you who have been in Mary’s shoes with an unplanned pregnancy, or have had a relative with a similar circumstance understand that Mary endured a lot of trouble over the next few years. Even today, two thousand years later, there are people who claim that Jesus’ real father must have been a Roman soldier. But it is also true that the boy Jesus was a source of great delight and wonderment to his mother.

Mary had another sacrifice to make, though. When she was an older woman, in her forties, she had to watch her now-famous son tortured and executed by the Romans. Mary stood at the foot of the cross that afternoon outside Jerusalem and watched her son die, bleeding from dozens of wounds, struggling to catch His breath. Mary watched and listened as Jesus commanded the Apostle John to take care of Mary as her son. Mary watched them take down his lifeless body and carry it to the tomb. I’m sure that Mary wept that weekend as only those who have lost children can weep. Those who are central to God’s story have always struggled with events that are worse than most of us experience. God’s people may or may not receive a special protection – but God’s people do experience joy in the end, at the end of all things.

Mary had the joy of seeing Jesus alive again, resurrected and walking and teaching again, and Mary watched Him ascend to heaven a little over a month later. Church tradition records that after the Ascension, after Pentecost, after Saul’s persecution forced the church to leave Jerusalem, Mary eventually went with the Apostle John to live in the great Greek town of Ephesus in what is today western Turkey, and there she died and is now with her Son again.

And so, having seen what God required of Mary, we may ask, “What does God Require of Me?”

Let me answer this way – it depends on who you are and where you are in your life’s journey.

If you do not yet have a relationship with God, let me say that God’s chief requirement of you today is that you look at your life and recognize that you have been in rebellion to God through much of your life. You have ignored God or even openly flaunted God and God’s commands. Perhaps you can claim to be a good person – that is ok, you have still been in rebellion to God and that is the most critical thing that God asks you to change. For God knows that if you will follow His Son Jesus, the two of you have plenty of time to work out the kinks in your relationship. But if you will not follow Jesus as your King, you are in rebellion to God and, like any King, God’s first command to a rebel is to stop being a rebel and to turn back to God.

Thus, recognize your rebellion for what it is and turn back to God, apologize, ask for forgiveness and follow the leadership of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. This is what God requires of you – of me – of us all before anything else.

But let’s assume you’ve already done that. You’ve already chosen to follow Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and leader and King. If you are attempting to follow Jesus as your Lord, as your leader, as your King, then He will ask you to change your lifestyle. The life of a soldier is rather different from the life of a civilian. You will need to become disciplined, get in shape, and be worthy of the title which you have.

In the same way, the title of “follower of Christ” requires us to work to become worthy. We must become disciplined, trading out sloppy, degrading habits for good habits. We must get in shape spiritually, changing our thinking and attitudes, getting rid of the negative things and speech which are common in the world and substituting a more positive outlook and speech, which will put our soul in shape. We call this “becoming holy”. What is the program?

Each of us has a drill sergeant that is called “The Holy Spirit”. And like the best drill sergeants, the Holy Spirit knows exactly what your weaknesses are and what you need to work on next. But unlike your friendly drill sergeant, the Holy Spirit doesn’t usually shout. The Holy Spirit speaks to you in a still, small voice into your heart, through the voices of godly friends, and through the words of holy scripture. God allows your following to truly be voluntary. But God wants you to become holy. God asked Mary to remain holy for His Son.

God sends you to work to be there for others. God asks you to learn from and to teach the people with whom you work or study. Even when you are tired, God asks you to give time to teach others about Him. Even when you are poor, God asks you to spend money or donate money for His work. Even when you feel like you don’t know anything, God asks you to use your talents, gifts, and wisdom to help others learn about Him. Even when all you can do is sit quietly in a room, God asks you to be there for others. God asks you to treat others as you would like to be treated – kindly, with love, with compassion, with gentleness. God asked Mary to be there for His Son.

As you age, God puts more people into your path and what God requires of you changes again. God may send you children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, school children, or other young people to lead to the knowledge of God and Christ. God may have you train these young people to become holy – or simply to listen to the Holy Spirit speak to them. God asked Mary to train His Son.

Later, God lets you retire from active daily work, and then He expects even more of you, for there are two ways to retire. The first is to sit down and drift slowly into the arms of Jesus, falling asleep in your chair. The second is to remain active, using your pension to fund your activities and your new-found time to accomplish those things you’ve always wanted to do for God. The greatest underutilized resource in the world is the power of the God-inspired Christian retiree to change the world for the better.

Now, you have wisdom to give, recognized by younger people. Now, you have time to work and plan. Now, you have experiences to share. Now, you have financial and material resources which allow you to live even without an employer. Life may be tight, but you can take risks that younger people with families to support cannot take. And God asks you now to use that wisdom, that time, those experiences, those resources to change the world. And with God’s help, you can do it! Mary told people what she had seen and what she had experienced to many other people, in particular telling Matthew and John and Luke of what she had known of the early Jesus, and they wrote those experiences down.

Finally, you end up in a hospital or a nursing home. And you may feel you are done, but God has one more task for you. God asks you to show your visitors, your nurses, your Moslem doctor, your Hindu physical therapist, and even your hospice nurse how much God means to you and how much Jesus has changed your life. You now have time – nothing but time. And each of these people has come to see you and talk with you. Near the end of his life, the Apostle Paul was chained to Roman guards eight hours at a time, but those Roman guards were chained to the Apostle Paul eight hours at a time and had to listen to him. And so we find Paul writing to Timothy that the entire guard detachment now knew the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can do the same, sharing the Good News with everyone who cares for you. And if you have assets, you can even plan for them to be used for ministry after you die with a bit of planning in your will. Your life of ministry can continue for years after you join Christ in the flesh. Mary’s story is told today and her ministry continues over 2000 years after the visit of the angel to her.

And so what does God require of us? God requires nothing less from us than we truly follow God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who has formed us into an instrument by which we have changed the world – are changing the world, and will change the world.

The world, you see, is changed for good in two ways by Christians.

First, there is the combined effect of the mere presence on earth of more and more people living without the fear of death, with the desire to follow the golden rule, with a desire to live holy lives. When one person lives this way, people make fun of him or her. When a hundred people live this way, a town is changed. When a hundred million live this way, the world is changed. And today, about 2 billion people claim to be Christian around the world.

The second way the world is changed for the good is through the good works that are done for other people for the express purpose of bringing them to know Christ. When we give people food through the food pantry, we change their lives and bring them closer to knowing Christ. When we help people through an AA meeting, they become stronger people, more likely to do good and less likely to do bad – and they come closer to knowing Christ. When a child receives an angel tree gift or joins Pioneer club, they are less likely to cause trouble and more likely to help others in their life – and they come closer to knowing Christ.

And so we change the world as well as our own lives by following Christ and doing what God requires of us.

There is the story of a teenage girl, like Mary, who heard the story of Mary and wanted to do something for the people around her. She saw that her country was falling apart, that the world was disintegrating around her, and that the future of her town looked grim. She lived in a housing development with about a hundred homes. And so what she did was very simple. She went outside one night and asked God what He wanted her to do. With the snow falling she stood under some lights on the corner and asked God what He wanted her to do. Then she listened. And God spoke to her.

In previous years it would have required much effort and much work, but technology had advanced, so she went home, took her computer and wrote up a brief invitation. This invitation said the following:

Dear friends and neighbors –

At this dark time of the year, I thought that we could come together for a brief Christmas celebration in our little place. Meet me at the corner of Main and High Street under the lamppost at 8:30 pm Christmas Eve, and we’ll have a little neighborhood celebration of Christmas. It should only take about 15 to 20 minutes. We’ll sing a couple of songs, say a prayer and read about the birth of Jesus. Bring anyone you like. If you have any questions, call me at xxx-xxxx

And then she printed up a hundred copies and put them on every door in her neighborhood about three days ahead of time. Then she went home to wait for phone calls. And a few phone calls came, a couple of suggestions were made, and some assignments were given.

Christmas Eve came and she was there under the lamppost at about 8:15. A few people walked up, and by 8:30, about 25 people were standing there under the lamppost. The girl handed out a song sheet. Everyone sang “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” A Baptist man named Fred said a prayer, a Methodist woman named Lucy read Luke Chapter 2, and everyone sang. “Away in a Manger.” A Lutheran man said a few words. He said:

“My name is Bill. We’ve mostly lived in this neighborhood together for more than ten years, but we don’t know each other very well. We all have different backgrounds, we’re from different places, with different sets of ancestors. I’ve seen most of you coming and going for years, but we never talk. As I look around here, I see that we only represent about 1 person in ten in this neighborhood. That’s ok. Some people who would have liked to come out couldn’t come, like Mrs Johnson in 629, who is having cancer treatments and can’t go out in the cold. Others probably are at church somewhere – we’ll go to an 11 o’clock service at our church. And many don’t want to leave their presents and Christmas trees.

You know, we Christians are supposed to be salt for the world. We are supposed to be a good seasoning for the world. Since the world is having trouble this Christmas, it’s time for us to begin to work together. If we don’t change the world, no one will. So, even though there may be other neighborhoods where people are fighting, let’s understand who we are – we are the children of God, and we will stand together against the evils that are tearing down our country and world.”

“So, Maria has brought some bread tonight to share. It’s not holy communion, it’s not the Eucharist – it’s just a group of Christian friends sharing a loaf of bread. But it’s a start. Let’s see how we can work together this year, and maybe we can have twice as many people here next Christmas Eve.”

A Catholic woman had brought a big loaf of homemade bread. They broke the bread and passed around the chunks and they each took a bite. And then they held hands and said the Lord’s Prayer together. One man mentioned that they should pray for their neighbors who were sick or ill. And a bunch of names poured out. Among them was a woman standing there who had lost her job. Someone mentioned they ought to start working together right then and there and so they all gave some money and came up with $215.25 for the woman who had lost her job. The teenage girl then stepped forward and said a prayer that covered all the worries and concerns. Then they all sang “Silent Night” and went home.

And something changed that year in that neighborhood. The gathering of the Christians in the neighborhood changed the neighborhood for the better. Things were friendlier. Several men in the neighborhood built a wheelchair ramp for Mrs Johnson, the woman with cancer. One of the women began a home daycare for kids in the neighborhood. The neighborhood even had a community picnic on July 4th. And the next Christmas Eve, there were 60 people at the little gathering.

Perhaps you can do the same in your neighborhood, your development, or your apartment building. You’ll find a sample invitation in your bulletin that you can fill in and make copies of. I’ve even put Bill’s little speech on the back for you if you don’t feel comfortable starting your own. This year, you can begin to change the world in your neighborhood. This year, you can begin to make a difference.

But making a difference requires the power of God working behind you, through you, and ahead of you. Come to the altar today to ask for that power for you, for someone you love, for the world.

All powerful God,

Send your Holy Spirit upon us, that we may have your guidance, direction, and counsel. Send your great power to work ahead of us, to work through us, and to finish the job behind us. Help us to find in Your Word the Wisdom that is necessary for your great works to be accomplished swiftly, efficiently, and without evil. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.