Henderson Hills Baptist Church

Interruptions

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David.  Lk 1:26-32 (ESV)

My days are filled with interruptions; it seems that I am never able to stay on task and finish what I would like to have completed. I will set a goal of finishing the writing of a sermon by a particular time and inevitably, it is almost never done. The phone will ring, a meeting goes much longer than expected, or a crisis pops up and the sermon is not finished. It is probably the same for you in the course of your day. What happens on a daily basis also happens in life as a whole. There are times when life is good and going according to plan. Then something changes all of that. It could be an auto accident, an unexpected illness, an unanticipated opportunity that throws your life into a spin. This last week, I had lunch with a man who said that three months earlier he and his wife were living in a beautiful town in the southeast. They were close to their family and in a church that they loved. Then, an unplanned opportunity presented itself here in Oklahoma and before they knew it, God seemed to be leading them here and now, he was sitting in a restaurant in Oklahoma City talking to me! Now, that is a significant interruption.

Some interruptions are more important than others are. In the grand scheme of things, a sudden unexpected visit that interrupts sermon preparation does not matter that much. It will still be done; it may be late but it will be ready before Sunday. A move across country is a major interruption but it is nothing like what happened to Mary. Her whole life was turned upside down by a divine interruption. Imagine the experience of a teenage Jewish girl. She is not sophisticated, well educated, or prominent. At best, she was ordinary. However, there was a change coming in her life. We really do not know how it had happened. You know how it is in small towns; everyone knows everyone. Somehow, she met a man who was a number of years older than she was. Maybe her parents had him do some carpentry work around their home, he was in the business. It could be that their families knew each other and that is how they met. It could have happened in a number of different ways but Mary and Joseph’s relationship had deepened to the point that they were now engaged. In their 1st century Jewish culture, marriages did not happen as they do today. When they decided to marry, a couple would begin a formal exclusive relationship, called the kiddushin, which was much more binding and significant than our practice of engagement is today. There was no physical intimacy but in many ways the man and the woman was considered a couple and their relationship could only be separated by a divorce. I’m all for long engagements; marriage is too important to enter into ill prepared. As sexist as it sounds to our modern sensitivities, one of the purposes of the kiddushin was to prove the fidelity of the wife. Let’s just be frank here, if she became pregnant during the kiddushin, she had either been unfaithful to her future husband or they had sinned by having premarital sex. The former would likely stop the relationship and the man would write a bill of divorcement. This shamed her, revealed that she was unfaithful, and could even lead to stoning. Mary was not like that. She was a simple girl, not extraordinary in any way but she was also faithful and had a heart for God.

So, Mary now has her life planned out. She and Joseph will marry in about a year, she will have a family, Joseph will continue in his business, and they will buy that house in the cul-de-sac with the white picket fence. At least that is what she thought would happen, however, God broke in and completely threw her life into a new, unexpected, and even fearful direction. Let’s read it again. Remember, Mary’s life is all planned out, she is at the crucial phase of her relationship with Joseph, life is simple, turning out the way she had planned then the day came.

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David (Luke 1:28-32).

Now that is the mother of all divine interruptions! It was, of course, much unexpected, frightening, derailing, and humbling at the same time. She had an experience that few people have ever knowingly experienced, a conversation with an angel. This messenger from God said that she should not fear, she had been chosen by God to bring His son in the world, and that He would rule over the Kingdom of God as prophesied in the Old Testament!

I have often thought about that day and the dramatic change that occurred between when Mary got up that morning and went to bed that night. It was a life changing, actually world changing interruption. There are many amazing things about this. Mary would have said that she was the worst prospect in the world for something like this. Joseph would probably have thought that this Immaculate Conception story is crazy. Mary’s marriage would be over and her house with the white picket fence was lost.

We will consider Mary’s response to the angel tomorrow but for today, let’s learn the lessons of divine interruptions. We need to learn to hold our plans with hands wide opened. Let God easily put in what He wants and remove what He wants. Remember that interruptions in life are not always simple, neat, clean, or painless. Yet when our plans have dramatically and unexpectedly changed and life is not working out the way we thought, we could know that there is a Sovereign, loving, good God who is working behind the scenes to get us where we need to go. Finally, remember that not everyone will understand. Some will be skeptical and others critical. You may be one of the only people to recognize the hand of God or hear His voice. An old song is rumbling around in my head right now. The title is “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”. One line rings loud and clear even after all these years, “though none go with me, I still will follow, no turning back, no turning back.”

2 Peter 3:18

Dennis

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