I love to sing and I especially love Christmas Hymns and carols.  I am pleased that even in our small congregation we have very worshipful music.   I like those services that feature music and the simple reading of the Christmas story and related scriptures, and I sometimes think that those two mediums are the message itself, so I will try not to mess up the spirit and beauty of this service with this short homily.  I do love Christmas music, and to the chagrin of my family, I have been singing constantly and every time we get into the car I begin to sing, usually at the top of my prodigious lungs.   It probably wouldn’t be so bad, but you see I have a problem.  No, I know what your thinking, I am not tone deaf, in fact I am probably a better than average singer with some background in music.  My problem is that I can never remember all the words to many songs, so I either hum large portions of the song or even worse, I make up my own lyrics on the fly.  I wrote the lyrics to one of the hymns we are singing this morning, so cut me some slack on the spontaneity. 

So I will try to stick to the well-known basics when I sing, you know, Joy to the World, O Little Town of Bethlehem, the Hallelujah Chorus (if you remember just one word you got most of this one), and of Course, Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer.  I also think I can remember the words to the barking dog rendition of Jingle Bells.  But, I confess that I am not much on many of the new renditions of Christmas songs, or some of the newer songs.  I have not bought the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s latest Christmas Album, or the countless Christmas album by pop stars.  I do enjoy TSO’s creativity and fresh interpretations of timeless classics.  But for the most part give me Bing and Perry, at least when it comes to Christmas.  

But I have heard a pop star’s song that I really like and I believe that Kenny Rogers sings it, I know you have heard it, its been out several years and its called Mary, Did You Know?  Have you heard it?  To minimize the risk of forgetting or corrupting the lyrics, I looked them up on the internet and they go like this:

Mary did you know your baby boy would someday walk on water? Mary did you know your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? This child that you delivered will soon deliver you. Mary did you know your baby boy will give sight to a blind man? Mary did you know your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand? Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod? When you’ve kissed your little baby then you’ve kissed the face of God. Mary did you know…. Mary did you know 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 your baby boy is Lord of all creation? Mary did you know your baby boy will one day rule the nation? Did you know that your baby boy was Heaven’s perfect lamb? This sleeping child you’re holding is the great…..I AM. 

          Mary, what exactly did you know?  Today’s gospel text speaks of Mary, and what is commonly referred to as the annunciation, you know, where the angel surprises Mary with the news of her selection to birth the messiah.  I wonder as I wonder if this Good News was good news to Mary? Mary is an interesting character in scripture and it is interested how she is treated.  Catholics practically idolize her and Protestants practically ignore her. So what are we to think of Mary, the Mary that we see presented in the scriptures today?  Most of Christendom reveres her to the point of worship, some almost equate her with God, and others like three of the Gospel writers and the apostle Paul, hardly or don’t even mention her name.  John skips the birth narratives altogether, I guess he was the first scrooge. That Luke fashioned or preserved traditions regarding Mary was inspired, considering how infrequently she otherwise appears in the New Testament outside of this gospel. Mark, of course, skips the birth of Jesus altogether, and Mark’s Jesus seems indifferent to his mother when she shows up with his brothers in chapter three. As for Matthew, his Mary is mute. Not a word leaves her lips. She is present, but silent as the night in a certain beloved carol. For his part, Paul thinks it worth remarking that God’s Son was “born of a woman,” but he never bothers to mention her name.

But Luke remembers her name, and he tells us something of her story, a very important something today.  You see, Mary has been immortalized, canonized, and even as sanitized by history as those little alabaster statues of her, and she has been so on the basis of her purported great faith.  But when you really stop to think about it, the news flash of the ages must have at least been curious to her, and one wonders if she were even tempted to laugh like Sarah did when she learned about being pregnant with Isaac.   Her reply, “I am the Lord’s servant, May it be to me as you have said,” is the perfect combination of faith and an obedient heart.  Her faith prepared the way for the Messiah to enter our world, made the incarnation of God Almighty into human flesh a reality.  No wonder there are theologians (albeit mostly Catholic) who do nothing but study Mary, Mariologist they are called.  Mary has indeed taken her place in history only second to Jesus Himself.  There is art depicting her, songs about her, and countless icons and relics of worship surrounding her.  There are a myriad of churches and stately cathedrals dedicated to her, the most blessed of all women. 

So again, what are we to make of Mary here this morning? It seems to me that we are forgetting something very important in the account of Mary, and something very important about her great and our not always so great faith.  You see, the truth is before her great confession in verse 38, we have a different picture of Mary in verses 29 & 30: “Mary was greatly troubled at his (the angels’) words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, “do not be afraid. Mary, you have found favor with God.”  Mary was troubled at the angel’s news and Mary was very afraid.  Anytime the angel or other messenger appeared in scripture, and said do not be afraid, you can bet the angel was saying it because they were indeed afraid.  In Matt 1:20, the angel appeared to Joseph with the same formula, “fear not” because he was obviously afraid.  The heavenly host appeared to the shepherds and said what? “Fear not” to what had to be a field of frightened people.  The angel said to Zacharias, “fear not;” and to a very young, poor upright woman who didn’t understand what was about to happen to her, “Fear not.”  The angel was really saying, Mary, stop being afraid, it is OK.

          You see the way to faith is often through fear.  Now ironically, it is fear that keeps us from faith, not doubt.  A healthy does of skepticism is often an ally to faith.  It is invaluable in our quest for truth, and in discovering meaning and purpose in life, and in discerning the will of God.  But it is fear that hinders faith when we rightly see faith as a verb and not just a noun.  It is fear that keeps us from action and following God’s call in obedience, and it is fear that keeps us from faith.  Did Mary have her doubts?  Who knows?  But what we can say unequivocally is that she did have her fears. The difference in Mary and the difference in so many others is not the fact that she had fears, but it is what she did with them.

          And I would suggest for your consideration that fear is always somewhere connected with our faith experience, and it is that same fear that keeps us from faith.  Popular Christianity today suggests that doubt sabotages us, and it is a view that is taught in the large successful growing churches around town that preach a cognitive faith, you know the kind, and the ones where the more you know the more spiritual you are.  Palaces, excuse me places where the more you know about God the more you know God, and you can even get to the point of knowing the will and mind of God probably better than God does.

          But what is it that really keeps us from changing the world?  Is it knowledge, is it belief, is it our doctrine or dogma?  What is it that keeps us from rocking the Rock with the Good News of Jesus Christ, and what is it that keeps us in relative insignificance right here on 32^nd  street, a short street that is home to at least seven, count ‘em seven struggling congregations– maybe more.  It is in a world: fear.  It is fear that keeps us from making a difference, it is fear that paralyzes our missions and ministries, it is fear that keeps us bogged in the details and avoiding the bigger picture.  It is fear that keeps us from giving our time and ourselves wholly to the work of the church.  It is fear that keeps us from making a difference and putting love on the line for the Christ, right here where we worship on this street.

          We can choose to be stymied by our fears, and kid yourself not, you and I have them.  Or we can follow the example of Mary of whom I am compelled to call blessed not just because she birthed our savior, but because she showed us that our fears are not the last word.  They are only at best the second to the last word, for the last word for Mary, and our last word cannot be fear, but has to be faith. And in spite of her doubts, and in spite of what she did or didn’t know about her son, and especially in spite of her fears, her faith was exercised anyway and nothing less than the Light of the World came to us on an otherwise very dark night long ago in Bethlehem.  And at some point in time, when Mary understood it all, when Mary did know, she sang her own lesson of carols as recorded in the gospel of Luke, and it was nothing short of magnificent, and in fact it is forever immortalized as the Magnificat.  And it was a song that could only be sung with the voice of faith, a faith that would change the world forever. 

Mary, did you know?  MARY. . . .did you know?  Mary, what you did know and what you now teach us, is this: When it comes to changing the world one has to risk faith.  And in risking faith we always are afraid, it is a scary thing to buck the status quo and to leave our comfort zone.  But what we do with our fear is very important.  What we do with our fear makes all the difference in whether our faith is powerful or if it’s paralyzed.  What we do with our fear makes the difference in whether our preferred carols are on the order of Jingle Bells or the Hallelujah Chorus. 

No wonder the angels sang long ago– “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” And my friends, when that Good News overtakes us, our fears like Mary’s become an ally not an enemy, and we learn perhaps the most important advent lesson of all–and it is nothing short of magnificent.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.