Marvel at Your God’s Amazing Choices!

4th Sunday in Advent, 12/19/21 Luke 1:39-55 Marvel at Your God’s Amazing Choices! I. He chooses to deliver on his promises. II. He chooses to favor unlikely human beings. On what do you base the choices you make? What criteria do you use? Well, quite often when making a choice we consider which one will be best for us. And that only makes sense. Why choose something inferior when you could have something better? Another important consideration when making a choice is the cost. Sure, if we can afford it, we’d like the best option. But if cost is an issue, we might decide to make do with a lesser quality, but cheaper choice. Your personal pleasure and satisfaction also come into play when making choices. Why choose something when you know that the potential for disappointment is high? That would be foolish. You choose what has the high potential to please and satisfy you. Today marks the final Sunday in the season of Advent. That means that Christmas is right around the corner, but I’m sure you already were keenly aware of that. That also means we’re moving into a familiar Christian environment. All of us here today are aware that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know the account of his birth. You might even be able to recite those familiar verses of Luke 2 which recount his birth. But this morning we have the blessed opportunity to ponder why it all happened as it did. In fact, to see how unlikely that his birth happened at all. Just what do I mean by that? Well, our God had choices to make, just as we do. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, reflects on those amazing choices in these words before us. As we see what led our God to make those choices, may the Holy Spirit cause us to marvel. Marvel at your God’s amazing choices. It’s my prayer that the Lord will fill you with the wonder that is Christmas as we prepare to celebrate it late this week. I. Have you ever changed your mind regarding your intentions? What I mean is, you planned to do something, and then something happened which caused you to change your mind. It happens all the time, doesn’t it? And especially when other people are involved. For instance, you may have told your child that you intend to take them to some place special. That’s your plan. But then your child misbehaves in a most egregious way. And you know that there must be discipline. There must be consequences. So, the trip you intended to take with your child to a special place is not going to happen. You changed your mind regarding your intentions. For centuries God’s intention was to send a Savior into the world. He had plenty of opportunities to change his mind, but he never did. We see his plans unfold before us this morning in these opening verses of St. Luke’s Gospel. First, we hear that things are progressing nicely with the pregnancy of Elizabeth. What’s so extraordinary about that? Well, you’ll recall that her pregnancy was a miracle in fulfilment of one of God’s promises. God had promised centuries earlier to send a prophet like Elijah to prepare the way for the Savior. He chose an elderly, childless couple to be the parents of John the Baptist. What’s more, he used a miracle to fill John the Baptist with the Holy Spirit in the womb of Elizabeth. Incredible! And we hear about one of the outcomes of the presence of the Holy Spirit in these words of Elizabeth, “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” God had told Zechariah and Elizabeth that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb and God chose to deliver on his promise But there’s more. Elizabeth also refers to the greater miracle that had occurred with her relative Mary. She states, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” You know the details of how it happened. In the verses just before our text, Luke informs us how the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced to her that she would become the mother of the Savior. When Mary wondered how this could be since she was a virgin, Gabriel informed her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” God had promised 700 years earlier that a virgin would be with child. That was his intent. That was his promise. God chose to deliver on that promise. So, what’s so amazing about the fact that God fulfilled his promises? Recall the history of God’s relationship with his Old Testament people, the Children of Israel. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was deplorable. Instead of honoring him as the God who had brought them out of slavery in Egypt and formed them into a nation through whom he would bring a Savior into the world, they were utterly unfaithful to him. And not just once or twice, but for generation after generation spanning more than 1,000 years. His children gave him countless reasons not to honor his good intentions for them. They gave him every reason for him to turn his back on them forever. But he never did. He chose to deliver on his promises. How amazing! And how amazing that he hasn’t changed his mind about us! Seriously, why should God forgive you and me, when we have such a hard time forgiving others? Why should God continue loving you and me, when we tend to harbor grudges and show animosity toward others? Why should God hold our hand, leading us to heaven, when we continually let go of his hand so that we can go our own way, at least for a time? And yet he remains faithful to us. Each day we live in his forgiveness with the guarantee of eternal life with him in heaven. That’s what he chooses to do for us. Marvel at your God’s amazing choices! He chooses to deliver on his promises. Today is the final Sunday in the season of Advent, which is a season of repentance in preparation for the coming of Jesus. How has that gone for you? Have you spent time each day of this Advent season considering your sins, confessing them, and receiving God’s assurance of forgiveness? Or, have you excused yourself from such a spiritual exercise since this is probably the busiest time of the year for you, and repentance doesn’t fit into your schedule? Or, have you spent time sincerely confessing your sins, only to return to the same ones you just confessed? Let’s admit it. Our record isn’t pretty. We’ve given our God countless reasons to change his mind about us, to decide to withdraw his love and forgiveness. We don’t deserve to celebrate the birth of our Savior later this week. But your God didn’t change his mind! He chose to fulfill his promises in spite of my sinful record and yours. By his grace we will claim the newborn Savior to be our own. We’ll do that because he came into our world to make us his own. It took nothing less than his death on the cross. How amazing that Jesus should choose to do that for you and me! And then he rose again to make us certain that we are his forever. Marvel at your God’s amazing choices! II. I have a question for you. How many Jewish women did the Lord have to choose from as he selected one to be the mother of Jesus? Was it just a handful, or were there hundreds or even thousands? There’s no use spending much time wondering. We simply don’t know. What we do know is that Mary was amazed that the Lord had chosen her. Luke records her song of praise to the Lord over the fact that she was the one. In that song she praises the Lord for several things. One, she praises the Lord because “he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” She admits that she’s only a humble Jewish woman. There was nothing that made her stand out among her people. But the Lord chose her to be the mother of the Savior, and, in doing so, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” The likely choices—the high and mighty, the people admired by the world—the Lord brings low. But the ones our world despises, he lifts up. Consider how Christians have admired Mary for thousands of years and have praised God for her willingness to be the mother of our Lord. What’s more, she praises the Lord because “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.” Did you catch what she praised the Lord for? He was merciful. She realized that she deserved nothing but condemnation for her sins. The same for her fellow Jewish people. The same for you and me. And yet the Lord chooses to be merciful to sinful people. That mercy flows from his boundless love for sinful people. He’s not in the business of condemning us. He’s in the business of saving us. Marvel at your God’s amazing choices! He chooses to favor unlikely human beings. I’m going to guess that you’ll be working hard this week to make your celebration of Christmas memorable. You’re looking forward to spending it with loved ones. But will it be everything you hope it will? From a human perspective, probably not. You’ll have your disappointments. Things won’t go as you planned. Your loved ones won’t cooperate as you had hoped. But from a spiritual perspective, Christmas will be everything your God meant it to be. He chose to favor you by sending his Son into the world as your Savior from sin. That’s what Christmas is all about and nothing can change that. And now God continues to choose to favor you as he reminds you of your forgiveness each day of your sinful life. In fact, in eternity he chose you to be his own forever. How amazing! This Christmas, marvel at your God’s amazing choices! And then praise him for it with your voice and your lives! Amen.