Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Read Luke 1:26-33

“None of us can choose our time.  What matters is what you do with the time allotted to you.”   

Gandalf the Grey

Thanks for stopping by.  Here are four thoughts and a "So what?"  The "So what" a credit to my seminary professor D. Clair Davis.

The first two points have to do with Luke's gospel (you know, the one Linus quotes in the Peanuts special). The second two points have to do with Mary, Jesus' mother.

1. First, understand that God keeps his word. Over and over, in Luke's gospel, there's a Promise, and then there's fulfillment.  Promise and fulfillment.  
2. Second: Celebrate Diversity.  Wait.  What?  Oh, Jim's getting all woke, isn't he?  Superimposing his liberal politics onto the Scriptures. No, I'm not (honestly, I have enough positions to raise the eyebrows of people on both sides).  Watch and learn.  
3. Third: Kingdom power is counter-intuitive. The weak are made strong and the strong weak.  The mighty are humbled and the lowly lifted high.  
4. Fourth: Mary, despite her youth, is a model of Kingdom genius, unlike the much older religious leader, Zechariah.  Young Mary was naive enough to trust God's promise to her.  

First: Understand that God keeps his word.  Promise and Fulfillment 
Let's look at Luke's gospel record.  The book of Luke was written within a generation of Jesus’ death.  He lays out God’s plan in two ways: first, he lays it out in terms of promise. Second, Luke lays out God's plan in terms of fulfillment. There's the promise itself, and then, the fulfillment of the promise.  So simple a child can get it.  In fact, she did.

Generally speaking, the Old Testament of the Bible speaks of promise. The New speaks of fulfillment.  See, God has a plan for all of human history, and he's leaked tidbits of truth, spoiler alerts, for our edification, for our awareness, to give us hope.  

Ironically, the Fall, that is, the sin of Adam and Eve that drove them out of the Garden of Eden, inaugurates the period of promise.  "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Genesis 3:15).  Even then, God had a plan.  

And in God's Big Plan, John the Baptist acts as a bridge, or a link, between the Old Testament time of promise and the New Testament time of fulfillment.

Jesus' birth inaugurates the period of fulfillment, ongoing still today, and it's a period of fulfillment the scope of which extends, not to a select in-crowd, but to the widest possible audience.  Indeed, all creation will be restored. This is huge, and this is why a related piece of it is to... 

Second: Celebrate Diversity 
Luke, in his gospel account, makes a point to highlight Jesus' appreciation for diversity. It makes sense, because Luke was a gentile after all, a non-Jew.  So he had a huge stake in God's being inclusive.  If God isn't inclusive Luke was screwed.  

Luke was a direct beneficiary of God's worldwide love plan.  That's why one theme in Luke is that during his ministry, Jesus demonstrated his love, deliberately and consciously, toward outsiders. These events jumped out at Luke. Outsiders during Jesus' time included gentiles, the "immoral," women, children, the sick, the disabled, and shepherds (more on that later).  Ultimately, the Kingdom of God will reflect every "people, tribe, nation and tongue" (Revelation 5:9).  

That's right: God loves diversity.  My seminary prof Manny Ortiz challenged us to celebrate our differences. God loves those stripped of power by the power elite.  He loves those broken by a fallen world. The way may be narrow, but God opens his doors wide. 

Church folks, does your church look like that? Who are the outsiders in your world? In your heart?  Who are the morally suspect, who flocked to Jesus? Are they those you judge, deep down inside?  They're the ones Jesus is reaching out to, using... hmmm... I wonder who?  

Third: Consider that Kingdom power is counter-intuitive. 

The weak are strong; the strong are weak.  

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his 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. (Luke 1:28-30) 

If you're like me you may want to read that twice, just to actually read it once.  Breathe.  :-)

Now if you put it in context and read Luke, chapter one start to finish, you will notice that God goes to Zechariah first.  As he "should."  Zechariah is a priest. Zechariah has status, he’s got the “street cred.” He's an ordained man.  The problem is that when the angel Gabriel appears to him, Zechariah is too smart for his own good.  He's entitled.  He's cynical. He knows too much. Zechariah doesn’t believe the angel(!) when the angel tells him that he, an old man, will become a father.  Zechariah thinks he knows what God can and cannot do. 

God shows his favor to the least expected, so there’s hope for you and me.

So God teaches Zechariah a lesson that probably made his wife Elizabeth chuckle: God struck him dumb for close to a year.  He was speechless – literally.

• So here's a question: where do you "pull a Zechariah?" Where are you too smart for God? Where have you got it so figured out that you can say what God will and will not do?  
• Further to that point, are you so sure he won't act on your behalf, in your situation?  Has your life (or church) experience left you that jaded?  

Yeah me too. What do you say we open up our hearts to God again?

This is where Mary comes in.  Here's why:

• Mary was a girl, not a boy.  Culturally second class.  
• Mary was young, not mature. She was middle school age. 
• Luke sets Mary in deliberate contrast to the wise, old, "respected" priest Zechariah. 

Mary is about to rock this moment in history. This is why she's blest.  

By the time the angel Gabriel appears to Mary, her relatives (yes, they were related) Zechariah and Elizabeth are already six months into Elizabeth's pregnancy.  They're waiting for the birth of their own baby, who will be John the Baptist.  

The young, teenage (female) Mary is a better example to the world than the respected, mature (male) priest Zechariah.  Mary is all in.  “May it be as you have said.” Mary is living proof that you need to be like a child to inherit the kingdom of God.  Kingdom values are counter-intuitive.  

Fourth:  Open your heart to God's relentless love. 

Now here's another cool thing.  It doesn't even come down to Mary is awesome and Zechariah is a little dense (lovable, but dense).

Despite the difference in how they respond to the angel, God’s choice of both Zechariah and Mary comes from his grace. It comes from a place of God's unconditional love.  God shows Zechariah grace in spite of Zechariah's weaknesses, as he does with all of us. God graciously continues to include Zechariah in his plan, despite his thick-headedness.  Phew!  There's hope!  God persists in his live, even when we're dense.

Fun fact: Grace, by the way, is God’s tangible divine favor, demonstrated to people quite apart from any worthiness on their own part. 

Greetings, you who are highly favoured. 

God has shown extraordinary favor to Mary, not because of anything about Mary (see above), but entirely because of God's own character and initiative.  That explains Mary’s surprise when Luke's account says, “She was greatly troubled at the saying.”  Mary is no different than any of us might be.  And God can hold any of us in honor, just as he did with Mary. 

Mary is a model for the way God initiates his favor for any of us. Zechariah responds with disbelief, yet God persists. Mary responds with trust. Zechariah is speechless (haha). God loves and blesses them both.

So what?  
And of course, it’s all in the response, isn’t it? How will you respond to:

• God's faithfulness to his promises. 
• God's proactive love and inclusion of persons you might think are icky.   
• The counter-intuitive nature of the Kingdom of God (and why is this good news for you?) 
• The Lord, who acts in history, who fulfills his promises, who raises up the poor and bears patiently with our denseness?  

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?  Zechariah was.