"GREAT EXPECTATIONS"

Now for me - I won't speak for Lorraine - that's not a "bad" experience. It's just, well...excruciatingly predictable. You see...every year, around the second week in October, my mother calls me and says, "What do you want for Christmas?" And I say, "Mom...it's only the second week in October! I have no idea what I want for Christmad" And she says, "I don't care. I need to know. Send me a list." So, every year for the past 19 years, I have mailed her a list during the third week in October, and it always has the same things on it: Oil of Olay, knee-hi stockings, blank video tapes and money. And...surprise, surprise...guess what I've gotten for Christmas each of these 19 years? Oil of Olay, knee-hi stockings, blank video tapes and money.

During our visit, there will first be explanations about how "we didn't do very much this year," followed by an hour and a half of opening several hundred gifts. Then there will be a great push to start consuming all the cakes and candy and cheese balls my mother has made...always balanced in the days to follow with some gttntle suggestions that I try to lose some weight. And that'll be Christmas!

It's fine...but there aren't really any great expectations on my part! It's a pretty predictable process!

For some folks, the holidays are a wonderful time. For some others, the holidays are not so good. That's why we've scheduled to have a counselor come in on Dec. 13th to discuss grief and loss; this can be the worst time of year for some people.

For many of us, the Christmas season starts out with great expectations but always ends up being a bit of a disappointment. I think one reason for that is that, in many ways, we come into the holidays with a lot of misplaced expectations. We want Christmas to be some great "event" that's what the world is selling. When the truth is...Christmas, in the purest sense, is not an "event" Christmas is an encounter -- an encounter with God's grace. And what we get from it depends on how we respond to it.

In our Gospel reading this morning, we heard the story of Mary's encounter with God's grace - the offer of a wonderful gift to her and to the world...and we discover that what Mary offers God in response is her "yes."

Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross revolutionized how we understand the grieving process by identifying the various phases people go through - shock, denial, guilt, anger, acceptance, things like that - and she outlined those into what we now call the "stages of grief."

Well, from Mary's story we can see and understand what we might call the "stages of grace." Those predictable phases that will lead us from an encounter with God to the experience of responding "yes" to the gifts God offers. For Mary, as for us, the phases of grace are fear...doubt.. .trust...and, finally, if we are willing, acceptance.

Look again at this story of Gabriel's visit to Mary. The angel is sent to tell Mary that she will be having a child...THE Child...the One conceived by God...Jesus. Consider how the angel greeted Mary. In traditional language, many of you may recognize the words as part of a prayer: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." Sounds impressive...full of great expectations...but, frankly, I think Mary's response was along the lines of, "Who, me?!" Scripture says Mary was "deeply troubled" by these words...she was frightened. And why not? Here was this young teenaged girl, probably illiterate, living in a little backwater town, with a life as plain as plain can be...being greeted by an angel and given this overwhelming news.

Now we may look upon Mary today...with 2000 years of adoration around her...and say, well, look at all she got - she was "highly favored" by God. But think about it for a minute. Just exactly what was this "favor" she received? A long and exhausting journey to a small town where, due to a shortage of housing options, her baby would be born in a make-shift stable and cradled in the food trough where animals had recently eaten.

And after Bethlehem, what followed? The return to Nazareth and the long years of obscurity and poverty there in the village hidden among its hills. Her baby would grow into a man whose life, Mary soon perceived, would be one of increasing danger. Humble people loved him; while others, especially the more powerful people, regarded him with increasing hatred. At last, one day he would be taken by the priests and rulers of his own nation, accused before the Roman governor, led to a hilltop amidst a jeering crowd, and there hung upon a cross. Mary would stand and watch her son die there that day. That was the career that would follow the greeting of the angel. That was the blessing...the "favor with God."

Who could blame her for being afraid at the angel's greeting? God was sending great expectations about what Mary could and would endure. And yet, of course, we can look back upon all this and see one of the most revered of all human lives. Mary...the mother of the ultimate miracle.

Sometimes God comes in unexpectedly and greets us - whispering a greeting into our hearts that says, "I have some great expectations of you, my child" And we, too, are sorely afraid. We hear the voice and immediately say, "Who, me?!"

Jesus himself says, in the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, "...to whom much is given much will be required...." God rarely comes calling without a plan in mind. And we can never know where - - and through what - that plan will take us.

But I think that the reverse of Jesus' words are also true: from whom much is required, much will be given. God message always comes with a blessing if we can accept it. We should never let fear stop us from responding. The angel said to Mary - and the Scripture says to us - "Don't be afraid." God has got a great plan...filled with great expectations.

Fear, of course, was not the only phase of grace for Mary. After she said "Who, me? !" then she said, "Not me!" "Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I have never been with a man?" And beneath that question there were many assumptions: I'm just a young girl. God doesn't use people like me. I'm not smart enough...rich enough...popular enough...pretty enough - to be the mother of the Christ!

That's such a common human reaction, isn't it? We personally - nor anyone we actually know - nor anyplace we actually live - could ever be the source of something wonderful. Wonderful, miraculous things always come from someone else...somewhere else...out there somewhere.

In the Gospel of John, a guy named Philip says to a guy named Nathanael, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote - Jesus ofNazareth, the son of Joseph." And Nathanael smirks: "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" You see, Nathanael lived just a few miles from Nazareth...so he knew there was no way the Messiah could come from some little hole in the wall place like that!

We think that way, too, don't we? On Thanksgiving morning I was happily watching the Macy's Thanksgivmg Day Parade when, an hour into it, channel 5 cut away to something called the "Mid-America Parade." And it was happening right here in St. Louis. You could see the Arch as folks paraded up Market St. ! I was so annoyed. Why would they forego the Macy's Parade to show some stupid local parade! Local station! Sheesh! So I turned to channel 4 and watched "America's Parade" which was bits and pieces of lots of different local parades taking place in different cities all over the country. Somehow that seemed superior to watching something that was happening right here!

"Familiarity breeds contempt" the old maxim states. And so it is. We think that greatness always has to come from somewhere or someone else. But God doesn't work that way. Our lesson reading from the prophet Micah - for example - promised that, "you, O Bethlehem, who are one of the little towns, from you shall come forth..." the long awaited Messiah.

1 Corinthians 1.27 says, "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." Sometimes, like Mary, when we say, "Not md" God says, "Uh, yeah...YOW" Why not you? Why not me? Why not this church? Why not this place? God brings blessings...God unveils miracles...where God sees fit. All God needs is a willing vessel.

In answer to Mary's questions, the angel explained, "Nothing is impossible with God." Nothing. We say, "No way!" God says, "Way!" Like Mary, once we get past the "Who, me?!" and the "Not md" then we can get to the third stage of grace - beyond the fear and doubt to the place of faith and trust - to the point of "Possibly me."

Faith: we are told in Hebrews, chapter I 1, "...is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Trusting God's ultimate plan when the circumstances of the moment don't make any sense is something that requires us to look beyond the obvious.

Sweeping across Germany at the end of World War II, Allied forces searched farms and houses looking for snipers. At one abandoned house, that was now almost a heap of rubble, searchers with flashlights found their way to the basement. There, on the crumbling wall, a victim of the Holocaust had scratched a Star of David. And beneath it, in rough lettering, this message:
"I believe in the sun - even when it doesn't shine;
I believe in love - even when it isn't shown;
I believe in God - even when God doesn't speak."

When Mary heard the angel say, "Nothing is impossible with God" something inside of her must have resonated with the truth of that statement, for it was then that she allowed herself to move into trust. That trust in God often doesn't come to us in a big, dramatic way; rather it's something that simply resonates within us very softly...but very sure.

A young man who lived out in the country started attending church and became a committed Christian. His buddies were pretty baffled by this change, and they started to question him about his experience. "Did you see a vision?" asked one friend. "Did you hear God speak?" asked another. The young man said no to all these questions. "Well, how do you know that God is really with you?" The country boy searched for an answer and finally he said: "It's like when you catch a fish...you can't see the fish or hear the fish; you just feel it tugging on your line. I just feel God tugging on my heart."

From "Who, me?!" to "Not me" to "Possibly me" we pass through the stages of grace until we come to the pivotal moment. We can still turn back from our encounter with God...we can still turn down the gift of grace that's being offered to us. Or we can choose the response that Mary chose and say, finally, "Yes, me." That's when grace comes alive.

When the pivotal moment came for Mary, instead of bargaining, rationalizing, stalling, or making excuses, she said, "Let it be to me as you say." Years ago, when he was still with the Beatles, Paul McCartney wrote a song that became very popular. In that song there is a line that says, "When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom. Let it be."

Perhaps, as this Advent season moves toward Christmas, those are the young mother-to-be Mary's words to us. When we find ourselves in times of trouble...or times of challenge...or times of encounter with God, the secret to peace might be found in our learning to say, "Yes, me." "Let it be."

What kind of expectations do you bring to this Christmas? Christmas is not an event. Christmas is an encounter with God's amazing grace. It is an offer to which we are asked to respond.

The stages of grief ultimately end with acceptance. Ultimately, so do the stages of grace. If God has been "tugging on your heart" lately:
-- to change something in your life...
-- to try something new in your life...
- to finally, really accept the gift of grace that is Jesus Christ into your life... then say, "Yes, me." Let it be. Ifyou do, this Christmas will most likely surpass even your greatest expectations! Amen.

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