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Written by Pastor Darrell Cooper
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Friday, 06 March 2009 10:08 |
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Luke 1:26-38
December 21, 2008 - Lindsborg Cov.
“Mary Didn’t Know”
(Incarnation)
Sermon
(This sermon is intended to be accompanied by a visual slide show which beautifully illustrates the various images suggested in the message.)
Terry Johnson sings, “Mary, Did You Know?” (accompanied by PS & slide show)
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy
Would someday walk on water?
Mary did you know
That your baby boy
Will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy
Has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you.
Mary did you know
That your baby boy
Will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know
That your baby boy
Will calm the storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy
Has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby
You've kissed the face of God.
The blind will see
The deaf will hear
The dead will live again
The lame will leap
The dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb
Mary did you know
That your baby boy
Is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know
That your baby boy Will one day rule the nations?
Did you know
That your baby boy
Is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding
Is the Great I Am
This beautiful song was written by Mark Lowry. What Mark is doing in this song is meditating on the nature of what I believe is the greatest miracle in the history of mankind. It is an event theologians refer to as the incarnation. This event happened roughly 2,000 years ago now, when God became just like us. He literally became one of us.
If you meditate on that for very long it will begin to stagger your imagination. God became man. How did He do that? How? And, more importantly, why? And what are the implications of the fact that God is now human? What does that mean for Him. What does it mean for us?
In the spirit of this song (“Mary, Did You Know?”) I would like to continue to interrogate Mary, if you will, to ask a series of rhetorical questions intended to help us reflect on the nature and the reality of this great mystery, the incarnation.
Mary, did you know that you have given birth to your own Creator?
Mary, did you know that the cradle you rock will lead to a cross on a rock?
Mary, did you know that the child you now feed will one day feed multitudes?
Mary, did you know that the sole of your baby’s foot will someday be pierced with the same sword that pierces your own soul?
Mary, did you know that the tiny little hand that now grasps your finger will one day . . .
. . . touch a leper to cleanse him?
. . . touch blind eyes to heal them?
. . . touch crippled feet to free them?
. . . touch deaf ears to open them?
Mary, did you know that the little voice that now bosses you around will one day
. . . boss diseases around?
. . . boss storms around?
. . . boss demons around?
. . . boss sin around?
. . . boss death around?
Mary, did you know that the child you rescued from the clutches of Herod in order to save His life will one day rescue you, and all of us, from the clutches of sin, self, and Satan in order to save us all?
Mary, did you know that the little boy that sleeps peacefully in your arms will one day be a man who sleeps peacefully through storms on a raging sea? And when He wakes and cries and you seek to calm the storm in His heart, did you know that He will one day wake and hear your cries and seek to calm the storm in yours?
Mary, did you know that your little boy will be called . . .
. . . a drunkard?
. . . a deceiver?
. . . a revolutionary?
. . . a lunatic?
Mary, did you know that your little boy will be called . . .
. . . a bastard?
. . . a blasphemer?
. . . a glutton?
. . . demon possessed?
Mary, did you know that your little boy will die a shameful death as a disgraced criminal?
Mary, did you know that the cries from the cradle will be book-ended by cries from a cross?
Mary, did you know that even though . . .
. . . He has no boat, He will be a fisherman?
. . . He has no sheep, He will be a shepherd?
. . . He has no degree, He will be a teacher?
. . . He has no license, He will be a doctor?
. . . He has no clay, He will be a potter?
. . . He has no money, He will own everything?
. . . He writes no book, He will be an author?
. . . He is not a Levite, He will be a priest?
. . . He carries no sword, He will be a warrior?
. . . He is weak, He will be powerful?
. . . He has no crown, He will be a King?
. . . Death takes Him, He will defang and defeat death itself?
Mary, did you know that your Son will one day become your . . .
Teacher?
Healer?
Lord?
He will one day be your . . .
Master? As well as your . . .
Servant? And your . . .
Friend?
He will become your . . .
Prophet?
Priest?
King?
He will be your . . .
Counselor?
Provider?
Protector?
Mary, did you know that your little boy, your son, will one day become your . . .
Brother?
Savior?
God?
Of course, Mary didn’t know most of these things. How could she? These were things yet to be revealed. Mary didn’t know. But we do. And think of it!
The incarnation!
The God-man!
God in human flesh!
Creator becomes creature!
God changed his address from “Throne-room of Heaven” to “Dead-End Road, Backwater, Judea”.
God surrendered His throne in Heaven to become a homeless political refugee in Egypt.
God traded the unlimited might of His omnipotence for the weakness of frail humanity.
God traded His self-sufficiency for the extreme vulnerability of a helpless baby, completely dependent on others for food, clothing, cleaning, shelter, and protection. He even needed someone else’s help in order to burp!
Jesus traded the vast wealth of His Father’s glorious Kingdom for the abject poverty of a rural Jewish craftsman.
He emptied Himself so He could fill us with Himself.
Think of it!
The incarnation
The God-man
To paraphrase St. Augustine, “The heavens cannot contain Him, and yet a woman carried Him in her womb.” (“On the Birthday of Our Lord Jesus Christ”)
I would like to close with the words of another song, this one written by Michael Card. It is called “To The Mystery” and it too wrestles with the strange reality of the incarnation and suggests that the only rational response to such mind-bending truth is to worship.
When the Father longed to show
A love he wanted us to know
He sent his only son and so
Became a holy embryo
That is the Mystery
More than you can see
Give up on your pondering
And fall down on your knees
No fiction as fantastic and wild
A mother made by her own child
The hopeless babe who cried
Was God Incarnate and man deified
That is the Mystery
More than you can see
Give up on your pondering
And fall down on your knees
Because the fall did devastate
Creator must now recreate
And so to take our sin
Was made like us so we could be like Him
That is the Mystery
More than you can see
Give up on your pondering
And fall down on your knees
(Repeat v. 2 and chorus)
No fiction as fantastic and wild
A mother made by her own child
The hopeless babe who cried
Was God Incarnate and man deified
That is the Mystery
More than you can see
Give up on your pondering
And fall down on your knees
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 March 2009 10:23 |
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