Nothing Will Be Impossible With God

Luke 1:26-38 (NRSV)

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. " 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 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 ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God." 36 "And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

All of us have the experience of saying "yes" to a project and then when we start it we realized we got into more than we bargained for. A friend may have asked us for a couple hours of work to help move them. Yet, when we begin the task we realize they may have really meant about five hours of work, but perhaps they were too afraid to ask for that much time. In our attempt to be kind we just go along with it, while on the inside we might also be complaining.

Deciding about how to handle these situations is never easy. I am like most in that I've found myself in between situations and I have not always made the best decision. But, our God does give us the grace to keep getting up and trying.

I think one thing that we can all identify with is when we are asked to take on a task and we respond: "Oh, I am not sure I am the person to take care of that for you." The other person or people we may say that to, will twist our arm and become very pursuasive . Perhaps we agree to the project, or maybe we don't. But if most of us had the confidence in ourselves that God has in us we could turn the world upside down and back up right and the world would hardly be recognizable.

As with just about any thing, we cannot accomplish it on our own accord. God created us as social human beings who need the help of others. As Mary realized her own weakness in the call God was placing upon her to bear the Child Jesus, the Angel assured her by saying: "Nothing will be impossible with God." And notice how the Angel greets Mary in the very beginning: "The Lord is with you." Do we believe that God is with us and that with God nothing will be impossible?

Our world as we know it does not really welcome the idea of letting someone else help us to make things right. We have become over the years a self-reliant people. We now have cell phones, e-mail, the internet, remote controls for television, radio, air conditioner and x-boxes. While all of these things lead to self-reliance they also give consumerism all of it's power of pursuasion . Yet the bad side of it all is that we rely more on what we see to provide for us rather than on what we do not see. It's that St. Thomas in us that says: "If I do not see,,,,I will not believe" that we discussed yesterday.

God challenges Mary as God does today to take that leap of faith and to believe that with God nothing will be impossible, because God is with us in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. As lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Christians looking into 2010 with our United States Congress suggesting that they back off LGBT legislation so as to not upset the majority during the mid-term elections, LGBT individuals need to ask how we can help our national leaders understand why not leaving LGBT people as second class citizens of society is important. We need to be preparing ourselves to welcome the Christ-Child by also calling upon our religious and national leaders to recognize that all of us are individuals created in the image and likeness of God who is Creator, Servant and Life-Giver are also people who need our civil rights given and protected. This is why the Affirmation Declaration and the work of The Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force are so important.

As issues of heterosexism result in homophobia in families and churches the work of organizations such as PFLAG, Soul Force, Beyond Ex-Gay and Truth Wins Out (TWO) becomes all the more important. With the economy still barely recovering and money being so tight these and other organizations like it need help to keep their advocacy and help services active. This blog is not about asking for money and I won't do that, I will say that if we want to see LGBT people and organizations moving forward to help than LGBT related organizations and groups need to be remembered as much as possible. In helping other LGBT individuals we are helping Jesus in other LGBT individuals through the work of organizations such as these.

Apart for organizations, we ourselves have the power with our voices and our time to help bring about the reign of Christ on earth through our participation in the advance of LGBT people. The landscape for LGBT civil rights and being released from religious oppression will not happen by us doing it on our own. We need the help of God and we need the support of each other.

As we prepare for Christmas in another couple days, let us take time to pray about how we can prepare our hearts to welcome Christ by asking him to help us to know where we can make a difference in the world around us. And if we wonder how we will get it all done, let us remember that God is with us and with God, nothing will be impossible.

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Human Family, Book of Common Prayer, Page 815)