Need a word of hope or to be drawn into the Christmas spirit? Have a listen to my homily of hope here!

 

Imagine what it felt like for Mary, visited by the Angel Gabriel, and told she had been chosen specially by God to bring heaven to earth. The Renaissance Master, Leonardo Da Vinci, captured this wondrous moment in his painting entitled, The Annunciation, hanging today in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.  He portrays the young maiden Mary in a beautifully flowing dress seated in a cloistered garden reading a book. Then the Angel Gabriel appears, with glorious golden wings extended out behind him. Da Vinci paints him kneeling before her and offering a three-bloomed lily in his left hand symbolizing Mary’s purity and the sacred trinity. His right hand outstretches in blessing. 

 

“Greetings, You favored one. The Lord is with you,” the Angel said.

 

Mary’s fright must have shown all over her face. Her hands in the painting are raised in a defensive pose. But the Angel quickly assures her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High and his kingdom will have no end.”

 

Mary quickly states the obvious, “How can this be?”

 

Who was Mary or even you or me to think we could ever help God do anything, much less the miraculous. 

 

And yet, evidenced in the Bible and across time, God chooses ordinary people to accomplish the extraordinary. 

 

The Angel Gabriel responds with the ultimate, for all time, proclamation of hope: “Nothing is impossible with God.”  God will always make a way for who and what God loves. If you still have a breath, God is not done yet. He still has something for you. The question is can we, like Mary, take a chance and place our path in God’s hands?  

 

“Here I am Lord,” Mary proclaims. “Let it be with me according to your word.” That amazing “yes” made the space for God to enter the world. The early church called her the first Disciple. Mary’s Yes is a pattern for every soul. It is the catalyst of hope.

 

But Mary was not the only courageous “Yes” that first Christmas. God tapped others for His divine mission of Love. There was steady Joseph, the humble shepherds, the rich magi, joyful Elizabeth, doubting Zechariah, the faithful prophets Simeon and Anna; each contributed their unique Yes and helped usher in hope. 

 

Saying Yes to God sometimes means putting another’s needs before your own. Joseph was betrothed to Mary and he discovers she is with child, and not his child. His first instinct is to divorce her. In the first Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. The angel says, “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.” Joseph awoke from his sleep and took his steadfast place by Mary, an exemplar of obedience, loyalty and love. Can you imagine the blessing for Jesus to be raised on earth by such a noble father?And for Joseph to spend his life in the service of God? Not in his wildest imagination could he have imagined such a profound life. 

 

In the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, an Angel appears to some shepherds, the magnificent glory terrifying them. Again, the Angel said, “Do not be afraid; for see; I am bringing you good news of great joy for all; to you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, who is Messiah, the Lord.” The sky then erupted with a multitude of angels singing, a bit of heaven brought down to earth. Sometimes the exquisiteness of this world takes our breath away, leaving us awestruck. That had to be the easiest “yes” ever. These young men of the meadows dropped everything and immediately went to Bethlehem to see the wondrous baby Jesus. Often, God taps unlikely people to witness His glory and whose job is getting out the message that hope is real and true. 

 

A desire to experience “Something More,” something larger than themselves and their fragile earthly reality, inspired a wise threesome of magi to say Yes to God. They saddled their camels and traveled far from what they knew, believing a Wonder Star would lead them to their heart’s greatest desire. The challenging journey and coming face to face with God transformed their lives. They could not return home the same way they came after coming in contact with something greater. A brush with the eternal. Heaven is always breaking through. Our eyes and hearts just have to be open to see it.  

 

I am reminded of the words of Einstein who said, “Either you believe everything is a miracle, or nothing is.” Pay attention to divine signs, soul tugs and grace nudges!

 

The long and humbling road it took for Zechariah, the priest, to say Yes to God especially resonates. Remember he was visited in the Temple by the Angel Gabriel with a miracle message that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son, John the Baptist, to  prepare the way for the Lord. Zechariah hesitated, “How will I know this is so? For I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years.” For this doubting priest  making excuses to God, he found himself temporarily mute. Remember Mary visited Elizabeth and Zechariah during her pregnancy. Elizabeth completely believed in God’s power as did John who we are told leapt in her belly. It took time for Zechariah to work out a yes in the secret of his heart. 

 

Can’t we all identify with Zechariah? I have hesitated with God’s nudges in my own life. I think back to my minister, Tom Tewell in New York, who at a dinner suggested I go to Divinity School. I was flabbergasted. I had just completed and paid for a Masters degree in Art Business. I pondered what God was asking of me. My eventual yes to Vanderbilt Divinity School awakened a beautiful calling God had placed on my heart.  Next came a young guy named Clay Stauffer who asked me to come work with him here at Woodmont. Again, the answer wasn’t an immediate Yes. I needed time to wrap my heart around God’s ask and a plan much different from what I had imagined. Every courageous Yes has expanded my life and nurtured my soul. Sometimes the yes needs time to gestate. We must get quiet, prayerful and open to God leading us to the Yes. After John’s birth, Zechariah wrote on a tablet, “His name is to be John” and his speech was miraculously restored. Nothing compares to that moment when your heart is in alignment with the heart of God. Zechariah burst into a song of blessing. 

 

And finally there were the two prophets Simeon and Anna in the Temple in Jerusalem. They are exemplars for me of the scripture from Luke 21:10, “By your endurance, you will gain your souls.” They both said Yes to God and then waited years and years for God’s answer.  Sometimes we say, “Here I am Lord,” and we are met with disappointing silence. But God is always at work.The right time will come.  What I admire about these two is they stayed the course. They waited in faith and expectation for the fruition of their greatest hopes. We all have to be open and patient to God’s timing. The two prophets were old when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the Temple. And yet, time falls away when God does the extraordinary. Simeon proclaimed in the presence of the babe Jesus, “My eyes have seen salvation.” 

 

Karl Barth wrote, “Christmas is the miracle of new beginnings where human possibility meets divine creativity.” 

 

In the secret of your heart, do you believe in the theology of Emmanuel, God among us. God who loves us. God who promises our future is secure. Our capacity to say Yes must begin with a private inward knowing and trust. Then we can follow Mary and honestly say, “Here I am Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” 

 

Faith is a lifelong practice of surrender to God and His plan. Always God is pushing us to something more. Our acceptance may not be perfect or easy. There is hesitation, doubts, starts and stops. Often we are drawn out of our comfort zones.  And sometimes God asks us to do things that shift our own plans for our lives. It will always be easier to say Yes to the secular world over the Divine. Yet the world will always leave the soul longing for more. 

 

We have no idea the why’s, the how’s, the when’s, of God’s mission to love and save creation. Sometimes, like in Mary’s case, we say “Yes” and the Holy Spirit immediately rushes in. Other times, we say Yes and then have to keep saying Yes again and again until God is finally directing a new way in our life and faith. 

 

Each participant in the Christmas story said yes to God not knowing or prepared for what was ahead. They bravely stepped forward, trembling yet trusting, because they believed God would come through.  

 

A Christian mystic said, “the moment you say yes to God, something begins to change in the deepest center of your heart; for love has finally been given permission to move.” Remember God never forces our wills. The Christmas story was driven by ordinary people like you and me receiving a divine nudge and choosing to be a bearer of hope in the world. 

 

Henri Nouwen said “saying Yes to God’s love is the hardest and most beautiful thing we will ever do. It means trusting that His plan is better than our fears.” “Here I am Lord, let it be with me according to your word,” takes immense courage but when we say yes to God we open ourselves to new and larger life, exponentially more love, and maybe even the miraculous. 

 

The movie, “Yes Day” is a Mason family favorite starring Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez as the parents of three children. Recognizing a need for something new and positive in their family, the kids’ school counselor suggested they enact a family “Yes Day,” where for 24 hours, the parents have to say “Yes” to their kids’ wildest desires. My family reenacted our own “Yes Day” at our house after watching the movie. We learn the mother, played by Jennifer Garner, used to be an adventurous woman who said “Yes” to everything, but with the pressures of life and growing fears for her children and of the world, she fell into a habit of saying “No” to protect, manage and control. Sound familiar? The movie “Yes Day” begins with colorful costumes, whipped cream on pancakes, water balloon fights in the yard, driving through the car wash with the windows open, ice cream sundae challenges, and going to a theme park. 

 

David and I proclaimed one Saturday a “Yes day” at our house. We ate dessert for breakfast and had a shaving cream war which turned into a full force food fight, spaghetti and meatballs everywhere. 

 

What the family discovers in the movie and us Mason’s is that saying Yes does not protect anyone from the messiness of human life, but it does open one’s heart to new possibilities for love and joy. And where there is love and joy, there will always be hope. 

 

How big is my and your brave? Do we trust God? Sometimes we have to suspend reason and practicality, step around our fears, so God can do something new and holy in and through us. Hope begins with a Yes!

 

I have missed opportunities to say “Yes” to God. I allowed anxiety, pride, and my need to control to get in the way. Fear shrinks our ability to say “Yes” to the unknown but of course is known by God. It is a choice. Slow down, be still, hear the rustle of angel’s wings. God is always reaching out to us. Saying Yes to God is the ultimate posture of Hope and the only way we might join the prophet Simeon and say, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” 

 

Every “yes” draws you closer to God and the person God knows you can be. Trust your intuition. Thomas Merton said inside every soul is an eternal Yes. 

 

Make today a “Yes day”, and tomorrow, and the next day, and every day you have a breath. In the car drop off in the morning, I say to the kids, “Do something that makes today count for good.” We live in a world desperate for heaven to break through. And it begins with you and me. It could be a spoken word of kindness, letting the person go before you in the grocery aisle with a smile, making a nourishing chicken soup and taking it to someone in need of tenderness. Maybe you extend the olive branch first in a relationship, or make a donation to St. Jude’s hospital in support of Savannah Bolton, a child in our church currently fighting for her life. 

 

If you find yourself lost, doubting, burned out, or heartbroken, say yes to hope this Christmas with one small act of trust, or a prayer whispered through tears, or a kindness offered when you feel only emptiness, or a decision to keep walking forward even though the path is hard and unclear. 

 

Hallelujah! Christmas is not a one-time, never to happen again event. The beautiful relationship between God and humanity is still very much alive and always in operation. Richard Rohr said, “The Angel Gabriel still comes, the invitation is still given: Will you let God be born through you?” 

 

 

The promise of Christmas is the way things are right now are not how they have to be or will be. All things are possible with God who declares, “Watch, I am going to do a new, glorious thing!” God can coax new life, new love, new possibilities in each human heart. Can we echo Mary’s, Joseph’s, the shepherds, Elizabeth’s, Zechariah’s, John the Baptist’s, and the prophets Anna and Simeon’s “yes’” and be bearers of hope again in the world today?

 

“Here I am Lord, Let it be with me according to your word!”

 

 

Everyone knows how much I love Lauren Daigle! “Let it be a Hallelujah” is a new one! Enjoy!