Mary waited for the birth of your Son

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Just a few more days to go and we’ll be celebrating, with Mary, the birth of the Christ-child. I wonder if we’re fully prepared: probably not, not here at least. I wonder if Mary was fully prepared: probably not.

I wonder what we human beings would’ve come up with, if we’d been left to arrange the birth of Jesus? Probably a committee to decide on the type of people who’d make the best parents, then a selection process and a short list until we arrived at the ideal couple. I don’t suppose an unmarried mother and her carpenter fiancé would have stood a chance. In many ways, Mary represents much that has been rejected by human beings throughout the ages. She was young, unmarried, and pregnant, and that not even by her fiancé.

At face value, the story surrounding the birth of Jesus is pretty sordid. But that’s because the God ingredient has been left out. Once the God ingredient is added to the story, everything changes. The circumstances are seen in a completely different light, and Mary, far from being the villain of the piece, is seen as the heroine. Once the God ingredient is added, there’s a total change in perceptions.

I wonder how many people at the time were aware of this change in perceptions? Fortunately Joseph, although a righteous man, was also a man open to God. He could hear God above the roaring of conventions, and so was able to respond when God suggested he move in an unconventional direction. Joseph dreamed about an angel, following which he was sure enough of himself to continue his relationship with Mary. Nothing in the circumstances had changed, only Joseph’s perceptions. But on the strength of a dream, he was prepared to accept a wife who on the face of things, may have been unfaithful to him.

The people chosen by God, and still being chosen today, to carry on his work can very often seem most unlikely. Clearly the selection criteria used by God are totally different to the selection criteria used by human beings. Somehow, God is able to see the potential within human beings long before it’s been realised, and to work with that potential.

God never rejects anyone. He uses the most unlikely people for his purposes, and works with them and through them so that their potential is realised and they change out of all recognition.

And if we, like Mary, are willing to be used by God, we only have to open our heart and mind and soul to him. God knows our potential, and will do the rest. All we human beings have to do, is to trust him and to dare to follow him.

Eternal God,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect for The Fourth Sunday of Advent
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council