My Life Is in Your Hands

Rev. Alex Sloter Luke 1:26-38 My Life Is in Your Hands Advent 4 (12/20/2020) Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Merry Christmas! Almost. Over the last few weeks, we have talked about waiting for God’s promises. Last week, we talked about waiting for the anointed Redeemer to come and set us free. Well, the anointed Redeemer has almost arrived. On Dec. 24, a mere 96 hours from now, or 104.5 hours if you are counting, we will again celebrate Jesus’ birth. You may have purchased all your gifts, finalized plans with all of your family members, rewrapped various presents after they were attacked by your toddler, but are you really ready for Christmas? Are you ready to receive the christ child? In order to help us answer that question and get ready to celebrate Christ’s birth, I would like to spend the next few minutes thinking about faith because that is how we receive the gift of Christ. We receive him through faith. Faith: Belief in a fact Faith is a word we use a lot. It is standard vocabulary for any Christian, but maybe because it is so standard, we often have a hard time defining it. What is real faith? Some people may define it as belief, which seems like a good answer. After all, Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth that Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Faith is belief in the fact of God and Christ. The problem with this definition is that it usually fails to change a person’s life. Faith, real faith, should do something to us. It should make us Christians, moving us from people who are ruled by sin and opposed to God, people who hold their lives in their own hands, and turning us into men and women ruled by Christ and led by God’s Spirit, people whose lives are held by God’s hands. But mere belief does not accomplish this. Mere belief does not change many lives. Let me give you an example. I never met my paternal grandfather. But I accept the reality of his life. I believe that he really lived, and that he really died before my father was born. I believe the story I have been told about how he died, and I have even named my oldest son after him. That is where the Paul comes from in Alexander Paul. But belief in this man’s life hasn’t changed my own life in any significant way. I believe in the fact of his existence, but I don’t have faith in my paternal grandfather. This is the kind of belief that many people have in Christ. They believe in the fact of his existence, but that bare belief never deepens into real faith. So if a man is asked, “Do you believe in God?” he may say yes. If asked, “Do you believe in Christ?” here too, he may say yes. But what he means is that he believes in the fact that God exists, and that a man named Jesus once lived on earth. But the acknowledgement of these facts fails to affect his life in any significant way. He believes in God and Christ in the same way that I believe in my grandfather, but that belief never deepens into real faith. This kind of faith, this bare belief in the fact of God and Christ, cannot save us because it fails to bring us into a relationship with God. The book of James says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” Even the reaction of the demons to the one true God is more than mere belief. They believe that God exists, they know that God exists, and they respond, they shudder. But most people who believe in the fact of God’s existence haven’t even gotten this far. Their belief doesn’t produce fear, they don’t shudder with the demons, or faith, they don’t live a life ruled by Christ or led by his Spirit. Their belief is the mere acceptance of an otherwise meaningless fact. Whatever else it may be, it is not yet faith. At best, belief in the fact of God’s existence can prepare our hearts for faith because a person must first believe that God exists before he can have faith in him, but mere belief does not save. Faith: Trust that places us in the hands of God Thankfully, we have an example of true faith in our Gospel reading this morning. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she is going to have a son. But not just any son, the Son of God. Though she is a virgin, the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. The angel concludes his message to Mary with a call to faith, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary responds with faith, “Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Let it be to me according to your word. That is true faith. It is true faith because Mary places herself completely in the hands of God. And that is what faith is. It is trust in God that places our lives in the hands of God. When Mary said, “Let it be to me according to your word,” she was going far beyond bare belief in the angel’s message. Of course she believed in the fact of what he said, but she marries this acceptance with trust. A trust that submits to God’s will. A trust that takes her life out of her own hands, and places it in the hands of God. Let it be to me according to your word. Marriage provides a good example of what this kind of faith looks like. When a couple gets married, they make vows to one another. When we think about these vows, we often think about what we promised this other person. But if we look at it from the other direction, we see what our spouse has vowed to us. He or she said, “I take thee to be my lawful wedded husband (or wife) to have and hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.” Your spouse vowed “to have and to hold you” to take your life into his hands in every circumstance, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness or health. That is a fantastic promise. But what kind of a person could allow someone else to hold their life so closely? What kind of person could agree to give himself into the hands of another person in every circumstance? Only someone who has faith, an unshakeable trust in the goodness and trustworthiness of the person making the vow. Only then would he be able to say, “Let it be to me according to your word. My life is in your hands.” That is kind of like our relationship to God. When God comes to us, he wants to take our lives in his hands. He wants to be our God in every circumstance, for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. He wants us to run to him in every need. To rely on him in every temptation. To be guided by him in every circumstance. He wants us to look to him for all blessing. To praise him for every good thing. To take refuge in him from every evil. He wants to hold our lives in his hands. But what kind of person is able to give himself to God in this way? Not someone who only acknowledges the fact of God’s existence. But the one whose belief has deepened to trust. Someone who trusts the grace of God even more fully than a husband trusts his wife. Someone so confident in God’s goodness that he is willing to stake his life on it a thousand times over. That person can say with Mary, “Let it be to me according to your word.” That is faith that saves. Are You Ready for Christmas? So are you ready for Christmas? If you have faith, if you are ready to put your life in the hands of the child in the manger, then you are ready. But who is ever really ready to place their life in the hands of another person, especially someone they have never seen? Faith is never easy. And just like trust in human relationships, it is often easy to lose. But the child in the manger proves the goodness and trustworthiness of God so that we can say with Mary, “Let it be to me according to your word. My life is in your hands.” My favorite Christmas carol is What Child is This? And because I am on particularly good terms with the minister here, I was able to get it included in our Christmas Eve service. The second verse of the carol goes like this, “Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian, fear; for sinners here the silent Word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the babe, the son of Mary!” Already in the manger, the christ child was pleading for you, his very presence a sign of God’s favor and of his intention to save every human creature. He was not born to live, but to die. Nails and spear would pierce him through; the cross be born for me and you. What should our response be to such a child? The gift given for our salvation? Only one, trust. This Christmas Eve, as we marvel at the birth of Christ once more, the only response our heart can give is this, “Let it be to me according to your word. My life is in your hands.” Go in peace, people loved by God, Amen.