We’ve just heard what must be one of the most well-known of all Bible stories, the story of the archangel Gabriel’s visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s a story we know by different names, The Annunciation, Mary’s Fiat, which means ‘let it be’ or perhaps as Mary’s ‘Yes’ to God. But by whatever name or title we know this story, I’m sure we do all know it.
But although this is a particularly well-known example of someone saying ‘Yes’ to God, it’s by no means the only one. In fact, the Scriptures are full of stories about people who said ‘Yes’ to God. Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, for example, said ‘Yes’ to God. So did the man we heard about last week, John the Baptist. The Patriarchs and prophets whom we read so much about in the Old Testament, they all said ‘Yes’ to God. And of course Jesus himself said ‘Yes’ to God, as did his disciples through their faith in Jesus. And of course, that’s something that’s continued to the present day, we wouldn’t be here in church today if it weren’t for all those who’d said ‘Yes’ to God throughout the Church’s history. That’s obvious really because the continuance of the Church and the Christian faith depends on people saying ‘Yes’ to God and being obedient to his will through the ages and passing their faith on to the next generation. I’m sure we all know that. But if we all do know that, and by all, I mean all Christians, why is it that so many people in the Church seem to say ‘No’ to God?
I don’t think many people say ‘No‘ to God explicitly. I’m sure very few people who call themselves Christians would, knowing what God wants of them, actually say ‘No, I’m not doing that’ but lots of them do say ‘No’ to God because the way they try to practice their faith makes it virtually impossible for them to do what God wants them to do.
One of the things we know that we’re all called to do as Christians, is share our faith. We have to do that if we want the Church and the Christian faith to survive, as I’ve just said. Doing that is part of the Great Commission that Jesus gave to his disciples before his Ascension, so we know it’s something we’re all supposed to do. But lots of Christians don’t do that. They can’t do that because they keep quiet about their faith and try to keep their faith to themselves.
There are lots of reasons people do that. For example, during my last few weeks at work, before I went to Mirfield as an ordinand, I told people at the various timber yards I used to visit that I was leaving the timber treatment company to go to theological college to train for the priesthood.
When I told people that, there was a bit of the mickey-taking that I expected, but I was surprised by the number of people who took me to one side and said something along the lines of, ‘I go to Church myself, but I don’t like to say anything about it because this lot will just take the mickey out of me.’
I think the worst example of this kind of thing I’ve ever come across happened while I was at Mirfield and I went on a two-week placement at a hospital chaplaincy. I was absolutely appalled by what I found there. The chaplaincy manager was an Anglican priest, but he forbade me, and everyone else in the team too, from speaking to anyone on the wards about the Christian faith unless they’d specifically requested that we did. He even told us not to pray with them unless they asked us to. Not only that, but he also collected all the chaplaincy literature from the wards and had it reprinted with any specific references to Christianity removed. He even started removing the Bibles from the bedside cabinets on the wards, until he was told to put them back by the Head of Nursing at the hospital. When I asked him what he was playing at, he said that he needed to do all this because any references to Christianity were offensive to non-Christians. Well, it was a multi-faith chaplaincy so there were quite a few non-Christians on the team, and they were completely mystified by it all. In fact, the Muslim chaplains asked me if I knew what was going on. They asked me, “What’s his problem? He acts as though he’s ashamed of his faith.” But I couldn’t answer them because I was just as mystified as they were by it all.
Thankfully, not everyone is as bad as that, but lots of Christians do act as though they’re ashamed of their faith, or at least as though their faith causes them some embarrassment. I think, at least in part, that’s what lies behind much of the current trend in the Church to change the Christian faith so that it’s more in line with the values of the world. But when we do that, we can’t fulfil the Great Commission Jesus gave to his disciples because we’re making the Church and its people disciples of the world rather than making the people of the world disciples of Christ. And so, in effect, we’re saying ‘No’ to God.
The most common way we say ‘No’ to God though is by privatising our faith. And people do that for all sorts of reasons. They do for the reason I’ve already mentioned; that they think people will make fun of them if they find out that they’re Christians. Some people think that Christians are a bit odd, or stupid, or even pathetic, at times. One person once told me that Christianity is for sad, inadequate people who can’t cope with real life and so they need the ‘crutch’ of God and religion to lean on.
People sometimes keep quiet about their faith simply for the sake of a quiet life; they do it so that people don’t start having a go at them about all that’s wrong in the world, those who say, ‘How can you believe in God when such and such is going on in the world?’ I’m sure we’ve all heard that one at times. Or it might be the ‘Religion has caused more wars in the world than anything else in history’ brigade who are having a go at them. Sometimes it’s because they think other people’s attitude towards them will change if it’s known that they’re Christians and they’ll be treated differently than they were before. That often happens because people don’t know how to behave around Christians; people aren’t always at ease around Christians because they think they have to be on their best behaviour when a Christian is around.
And so, for all these reasons, or perhaps a mixture of these reasons, people hide their faith. They hide their faith so that they can fit in with everyone else, so that they can be treated as ‘normal people’ and have an easier time than they think they would have or might have, if other people knew they were Christians. But when we do this, we say ‘No’ to God.
But is that really the way we should repay God for what he’s done for us? As Christians, shouldn’t we find a better way of thanking God, than saying ‘No’ to him for the sake of an easy time?
What if Abram had said ‘No’ to God and never left his home in Ur? What if Moses had said ‘No’ to God and stayed in Midian tending his sheep instead of returning to Egypt? What if the prophets had said ‘No’ to God and let the faith of Israel die out? What if Mary had said ‘No’ to God and refused to bear his Son, or Joseph had said ‘No’ to God and divorced Mary? What if John the Baptist had said ‘No’ to God and decided that a nice, comfortable priestly life was more important than preparing the way for the Lord? And what if Jesus had said ‘No’ to God? What if Jesus had given in to temptation in the wilderness or decided that it was better and safer to stay at home in Nazareth than to carry out the mission and ministry that God wanted him to carry out? What if Jesus had said ‘No’ to God in Gethsemane and done what he must have so desperately wanted to do and ignored the Father’s will and saved himself?
But those people didn’t say ‘No’ to God: they said ‘Yes’, and they did what God asked of them. The ‘Yes’ to God of the patriarchs and prophets, of Mary and Joseph and John, led to Jesus, and thanks to his ‘Yes’ to God, we’re here today 2000 years later as his Jesus’ disciples.
A disciple, of course, is a follower and Jesus is an extremely hard act to follow. But surely, we can at least try to follow the example of some of the other people who said ‘Yes’ to God through the years? Surely, we can at least try to follow the example of Mary, a young girl who risked everything to do what God asked of her?
We think Mary might have only been about 14 years old when the archangel visited her. For such a young girl to become pregnant today would be something of a scandal, how much more scandalous it was in Jewish society 2000 years ago. Mary was a betrothed young woman. That’s sometimes likened to being engaged but betrothal was much more than what we mean by an engagement. Being pregnant, who in their right mind would have believed that Mary was still a virgin? No one. So, as a betrothed woman, she would have been regarded as an adulteress, even though she wasn’t married. The very least she could have expected was for Joseph to divorce her and having to spend the rest of her life with a stain, a black mark on her character. She risked the possibility of being stoned to death. Mary could have taken an easy way out of all this and played it safe: she could have said ‘No’ to God, married Joseph and led a normal life Yet, knowing the risks she ran, knowing all that might happen, Mary’s response to Gabriel, and to God, was to say, “Let it be with me according to your word.”
Mary said ‘Yes’ to God, and so should we. Perhaps we can’t ever fully live up to Jesus’ example of complete obedience to the father’s will, but surely, we can at least try to follow the example of a young girl who risked so much for God, and put up with a little bit of trouble and discomfort on account of our faith?
Amen.
You will find the Propers for Advent 4 here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 