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.

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You will find the Propers for Advent 4 here.

As we go through the Scripture readings the Church sets for Advent, we read from and about three main characters. We read from the prophecies of Isaiah who’s regarded as the prophet of the Advent. We read about the Blessed Virgin Mary who, of course, was chosen by God to be the mother of Christ. And we read about John the Baptist who was the forerunner, the one sent by God to prepare the way for Christ. Today, in fact, we hear from or about all three of them, but in particular today we hear about John the Baptist.

There’s no doubt that John is a very important figure in the Advent story, and in the story of our salvation, generally. But, having said that, he’s very much overshadowed by other people we read about in the Scriptures, isn’t he? If we think about the names we give to churches when they’re dedicated for worship, for example, we can probably think of lots that are dedicated to the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We can probably think of lots dedicated to Saints Peter or Paul. We can probably think too of lots that are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, we can probably think of lots of churches that are dedicated to lots of different saints, many of whom we don’t even read about in the Scriptures. But how many can we think of that are dedicated to John the Baptist? Probably not very many, if any at all, and I think that’s a great shame.

One of the things we often say about the saints is that they’re examples to us of how to live good, Christian lives, and probably the greatest example of that, is the Blessed Virgin Mary. She’s often held up as an example to Christians of obedience and faithfulness to God and Christ. There’s no doubt that Mary is an example of those things, but so is John the Baptist and yet he’s hardly ever, if ever, spoken of as someone who’s example we should follow. But actually, John is a great example to us. He’s someone whose story we should study and think about more than we perhaps do. He’s someone whose life and example we should take far more seriously that we perhaps do. And he’s someone whom I think, the Church should make a lot more fuss about than they usually do. So, this morning, as we read about John in the Gospel, let’s do just that, and think about John’s life and the example he’s set for us.

John’s father was Zechariah and Zechariah, was a priest. So John was born into a priestly family, and that means he was born into a relatively well-to-do family. He might not have been born into the ruling elite of Jewish society, but he was born into a family that would have had quite a high standard of living, much higher than most people could have hoped for. But John chose to give up his nice, comfortable life of relative luxury, his fine clothes, good food and nice house, to go and live in the wilderness, to wear animal skins and eat locusts and honey, and all so that he could preach and baptise in readiness for the coming of Christ. And, in a society, and a Church, in which wealth and possessions and status are often regarded as so important, if not the be-all-and-end-all, isn’t that’s an example to us today? John’s example to us is that, like him, we should care more about doing what God wants us to do than we do about wealth, possessions, status and the creature comforts we all surround ourselves with.

The life John chose, eventually led him to a prison cell and an early death. But then, in those days, and many other days too, openly criticising a king was quite likely to turn out badly for the one doing the criticising. But that didn’t stop John from speaking out against the king’s wrongdoing. And isn’t that an example to us too? There are a lot of things that go on in the world today that aren’t in keeping with God’s law and Jesus’ teaching, but that’s always been the case in every age. But rather than speaking out against it, aren’t we often more likely to see, even the Church of today modifying its teachings to suit the world’s values and standards rather than calling the world to change and adopt God’s values and standards, as it’s called to do and should do? And how much more likely are we to see wrongdoing excused or extenuating circumstances pleaded, or simply a blind eye turned to it when it’s the rich and famous and powerful who are doing the wrong? John’s example is that we should have the courage to speak out against wrongdoing when we see it, regardless of who the wrongdoer is.

The life John chose also gained him great fame and popularity and it would have been quite understandable if John had allowed that to go to his head. It would have been understandable if the adulation of the crowds had made John think that he was a bit more important than he really was.

It would have been understandable if John had started to think that perhaps he was the Messiah, or to take advantage of his popularity by at least claiming that he was and acting as though he was, even if he didn’t really believe it. That’s something we see all too often in the world, and in the Church too, sadly, isn’t it? A bit of fame or popularity, and perhaps particularly a little power or authority, going to someone’s head and leading someone to think that they’re far more important than they really are. But, despite his popularity, and power too, of a sort, over people, John didn’t allow himself to become pumped-up and have an over-inflated opinion of himself. This morning’s Gospel tells us that he denied every title people tried to thrust on him. No, he was not the Christ, he was not Elijah and he was not the Prophet. He was simply a messenger, preparing the way for someone far greater, whose sandal straps he wasn’t even worthy to undo, who was going to come after him. And so John is an example of humility to us. And he’s an example of the purpose of our humility as Christians too.

One of the ways the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to be an example to us, is that her obedience and faithfulness points our attention, not to Mary herself, but to her son, to Christ. And, in fact, if you look at images, paintings, icons or statues of Mary and the Christ-child, she’s very often portrayed pointing to Christ. And we can say the same thing about John too. As we read in the Gospel this morning, John’s humility in refusing honour and titles points us to the one who comes after him, John directs our attention away from himself, towards Christ. So, just like Mary, John points us to Christ. And that is an example that we should always follow as Christians. Whatever we do as Christians, whatever we do in the Church, no matter how popular what we do might make us, no matter how much authority were granted, none of that should ever be about us. None of it should ever be done to draw attention to ourselves. It should only ever be done to point beyond us to the one in whose name we do it. Whatever we do should point other people to Christ.

So John is an example to us, and his example is one we should follow. And John’s example is one we need to follow too. We need to follow John’s example because, in a sense, we share his ministry.

We’re not called to prepare people for Christ’s earthly ministry, of course, but we are called to prepare people to meet Christ. We’re called to prepare people to meet him in the Scriptures and the sacraments of the Church. We’re called to prepare people to meet him in prayer. We’re called to prepare people to meet him in other people. We’re called to prepare people to meet him in the power of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives. And we’re called to prepare people to meet him at the end of their earthly lives when they, and we, all will meet him as our judge. But we’ll only be able to do those things if we’ve followed something of John’s example.

We won’t prepare people to meet Christ if we put earthly things before spiritual things because then people will think that’s what God wants us to do. We won’t prepare people to meet Christ if we excuse or turn a blind eye to wrongdoing because then people will think it doesn’t really matter what we do in our lives. And we won’t prepare people to meet Christ if we’re full of our own importance because then people will be looking at us and not for Christ, or at Christ.

So let’s try to give John a little more thought than perhaps we do now and think a bit more about just what a fine example he set for us. And let’s try to make our lives and examples, a bit more like his.

Amen. 

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You will find the Propers for Advent 3 here.

Propers for Advent 2

Entrance Antiphon
People of Zion, the Lord will come to save all nations,
and you hearts will exult to hear his majestic voice.

The Collect
O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power and come among us,
and with great might succour us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honour and glory, now and for ever.
Amen

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)       Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
                                  Psalm 85
                                  2 Peter 3:8-14
                                  Mark 1:1-8

RCL (St Gabriel’s)        Isaiah 40:1-11
                                  Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
                                  2 Peter 3:8-15a
                                  Mark 1:1-8