Trinity Episcopal Church

December 21, 2008

Today, on the Sunday before Christmas, we focus on the angel Gabriel who was sent by God to give a message to a young girl in Nazareth. After the Annunciation, and the angel left Mary, all she had was his word. Nazareth is sort of an ordinary small town, perhaps like Croswell (without the factory), about 2000 people or so, a few miles outside of a big city (Sepphoris was the Pt. Huron of Nazareth), and really not a very significant town in the world political/economical scheme of things (sorry Croswellites). God’s number one angel appeared to an common girl from an ordinary family and spoke God’s word to her---and she believed.
As far as the world is concerned; emperors and historians and kings and metropolitan epicenters, politicians, and even CNN I assume, God went to a nothing town in the middle of nowhere, and picked a nobody to accomplish an extraordinary world-changing event. To echo Mary’s words, “How can this be?”
In the bible, God was always taking ordinary people in common places and doing significant things with and through them. Think about all the big names in the bible and you’ll find they came from humble beginnings. Last week I talked about the Hebrew word for creation Bara and how it means God makes “something out of nothing.” He created the heavens and earth and through the six days he ended and said, “It is good.” This leads me to a tremendous Christmas thought.
Have you ever been in a situation where you can do nothing to improve it, at a spot in life where you can go nowhere on your own, when you’re are in a situation that is out of your control and only an act of God can get you through it? Well, that’s what God does best. Even among 6 billion + people in the world, God sees you and your situation as significant and God will make something good out of it. You have His word, so “Let it be.”
Fr. Rick

Trinity Episcopal Church

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December 21, 2008