WCC Christmas Eve Watchnight Service

11.30 pm, Thurs 24 Dec 2020

God’s Power Made Perfect in Weakness

 

Reading Luke 2: 1-7

The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem is not particularly far – not by today’s standards. It’s about the same distance as Aberdeen to Perth. You’d travel about 85 miles if you took the traditional route down to Lake Galilee, following the Jordan valley to Jericho, and then up the steep and lonely trail that takes you to Jerusalem. You’d find the Inn of the Good Samaritan on that road now, although it is a museum, not a hostelry. But when Joseph and Mary made their journey that place of refreshment didn’t exist. Just 85 miles, give or take a couple. But it would have taken them about five days to walk it. For any who have experienced or observed the weariness of the very last days of pregnancy it is a journey not to be contemplated. Personally I am convinced that Mary did not walk it. I think the story of the donkey, although apocryphal, is close to the truth. What husband in his right mind would let his pregnant wife endure that distress if there were any way to alleviate it?

And then, of course, there was the return journey to anticipate. I am quite sure that after giving birth Mary longed to be back home in Nazareth, where she could establish a routine for feeding and caring for the new baby, and coping with the exhaustion and sleep deprivation of those first days of motherhood. But the prospect of the journey back would not have filled her with joy – quite the opposite. Imagine, then, her shock and dismay when Joseph quietly shared with her the news that, instead of going home, they were about to embark on an arduous and dangerous journey to Egypt, for an indefinite period, in order to escape the mass infanticide that Herod was about to unleash.

These aspects of the Christmas story, fill me with astonishment and wonder, at the sheer vulnerability of that couple and of the baby Mary brought into the world. O, of course, there have been many through the centuries that have had to endure similar vulnerability. But what makes this story so different is this. If the teaching of the Bible is true, and I believe with all my heart that it is, then the birth of this child was the most important and pivotal event in the entire history of the human race. The eternal destiny of us all depended on this child surviving to fulfil God’s plan of salvation. So how come God placed so much responsibility in the hands of such a frail and insignificant couple? How come He didn’t provide the kind of resources and protection and security that our own royal family, for example, would expect?

The answer is, of course, that God did provide cast-iron protection and security for that little family, but not in ways understood by the rich and powerful of this world. In spite of all the challenges they faced and difficulties they encountered, nobody was in a safer place than Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus during the events that took place that first Christmas. And in this we see demonstrated one of the wonderful ways that God works with us, in us and through us. For the Bible teaches us that when we are at our most weak God is pleased to make His power most evident. And He does this in such a way that we can be in no doubt that it was His power that accomplished His purpose, and not our strength.

This truth caused the Apostle Paul to make the most startling statement. “So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak in human strength, then am I truly strong, able, powerful in divine strength.” (2 Cor 12: 10 Amp) This runs entirely counter to our natural way of thinking. We are well pleased when we feel capable of doing something, and are disappointed and frustrated when we feel incapable. But Paul turns that completely on its head. I’m well pleased, he said, when I’m incapable of doing something, for this opens the door wide for God’s power to be released. And that means, of course, that we should take no particular pleasure in being capable of doing something, because nothing particularly momentous will ever be accomplished by our extremely limited strength and ability, no matter how impressed we may be by it. At present I am capable of lifting and moving a table, provided it’s not too large and preferably if someone else helps me. That’s about the biggest thing I can move in my own strength. But Jesus calls his followers to move mountains, not tables.

This does not mean that we should treat lightly what we are capable of doing, or fail to use our abilities in God’s service. The Virgin Mary gave what she had – herself. She knew what she was not capable of – that in her own power she could not conceive and give birth to the Son of God. At best she could be intimate with Joseph, and give birth to another sinful man to join the millions of other sinful men in the world. Only God was able to fertilise her with divine seed in order for her to give birth to the sinless Son of God. And by submitting herself to God she opened the door for His divine power to accomplish what she and countless generations before her had never been able to do.

Similarly the young lad who gave his packed lunch to Jesus’ disciples knew what he was not capable of. His lunch would never feed 5000 people. The disciples knew it too. They said to Jesus, “We know this is totally inadequate.” I wonder how they would have summed it up afterwards though, perhaps Peter sharing with his wife later that evening. “I’m over the moon about that lad’s gift. It was totally inadequate, of course, but the wonderful thing is it opened the door for God’s great power to be demonstrated.”

So here is the challenge. Do you only do for God what you think you’re good at doing? I’ve got money, so I’ll give that. I’m reasonably good at speaking, so I’ll do that. And do you view your limitations and inadequacies as reasons to say “No” when God puts an opportunity in your way? Or do you express great joy in the fact that your inability opens the door for God to demonstrate His unsurpassed power and ability as He provides you with opportunities. I must confess that this is a lesson that has taken me more than 60 years to even begin to grasp. Too often my prayer to God has been, “Lord I’m not capable of that, so please don’t ask me to do it.”

Of course I’m in good company when praying that prayer, although I should take no consolation from that, because it is one of the prayers that may provoke God to serious anger. Moses was a great leader - one of the greatest this world has ever seen. He secured the release of an entire nation from slavery in Egypt, and then led them for forty years through the Arabian Desert. When he said move they moved. When he said stop they stopped. Recall, then, his conversation with God at the start of the entire enterprise.

Moses said to the Lord, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’ The Lord said to him, ‘Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’ But Moses said, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.’ Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses. (Ex 4: 10-14)

Listen carefully. I suspect – I may be wrong – but I suspect that this prayer, or something like it, is the biggest reason why the Church in the UK has been shrinking rather than growing for more than a century. “Pardon your servant Lord, but I’m not capable. Please send someone else.” It is not God’s way to choose the smooth talker, the eloquent speaker, the orator to stir the hearts of a nation. God chooses the inarticulate, the hesitant speaker, the stammerer, and accomplishes through them what even the most persuasive orator would never accomplish. He does not choose wise people to confound philosophers, or clever people to devise strategies to advance His kingdom. He chooses the incapable! And through their simple faith and obedience He moves mountains.

There is another prayer recorded in Scripture, expressed by someone who, like Moses, had just bemoaned his own weakness and unsuitability. It is the prayer of Isaiah.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ (Isaiah 6: 8)

This was the response of Jesus to the cry of his Father’s heart. This, too, was the response of Mary, and of Joseph when God called them. Let this also be our response, that we may see once again God’s kingdom advancing and His will being done in this land in which He has placed us.

Steve Townsend