4th Sunday of
Advent MARY DECEMBER 23, 2012
According to the Bible, Mary,
the mother of Christ was a brave and faithful woman. God asked her to serve Him. God is always asking people to serve
Him. Mary, like millions and millions of
other faithful people, agreed to embrace God’s purpose for her life. Albeit,
her ministry was unique—but frankly, your individual ministry, and mine, is all
uniquely different, too. And on God’s
part, he led Mary through fearful and hard times, just as he does for all who
let Him do so. So Mary, like many heroes
of the past and present, is a wonderful model for being a human disciple of
Christ.
However, there is massive
confusion about Mary in our popular culture and within many denominations who
worship Christ. I am afraid that I may
offend some of you now, but I have to tell you the truth. Roman Catholic and some other small
‘catholic’ denominations have erroneously elevated St. Mary above
humanity—making her one step above us, and one step below the Trinity. In so doing, for all intents and purposes, they
have portrayed her as a demi-god. Many
catholic doctrines and teachings about Mary are not based in the Bible, but
come for the imaginations and opinions of Popes, cardinals, bishops,
theologians & philosophers; such teachings totally contradict the biblical
teaching.
One such doctrine is the
Immaculate Conception, which teaches that Mary was totally born and lived her
entire life without sin. The Bible says
that all people have sinned and are in need of the forgiveness of God.
Another teaching claims that
Mary remained a virgin her entire life.
However, the bible talks about Jesus siblings, who sometimes got on his
nerves. Also, James, Jesus’ younger brother
not only wrote a Book of the Bible, but he led the apostolic church in
Jerusalem until he was martyred for his Faith.
One the doctrine of Mary
being the Co-Redeemer/ Co-Redemptress with Christ is confusing, misleading, and
UN biblical. The implication here is
that Mary gets credit for our salvation.
Mary should get the credit she is due; but Jesus is the only one to
receive the credit as our one and only redeemer. Would you please open your bulletins to page
4, as we look at today’s reading from the first letter of John? Would you please join me in reading the first
two lines in cap print,
So, Christ alone is our redeemer.
He gets the full honor for absorbing all the evil of the world and, that we
might be forgiven through his amazing grace.
Next section:
You see, bible believing
Christians do not need to pray to Mary, because we do not need a middle men, or
a middle woman, between us and Jesus Christ.
Our prayers go straight up to the top, by passing the clergy, by passing
the saints, and even by passing his own mother, because through Christ, we have
direct access to the fullness of God almighty. God’s word says this, which I
also would like for you to repeat:
You will cry for help, and I, Jesus, will hear your prayer. Cast your burdens upon me (Jesus), because I care for you and will help you.”
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not down on Mary. Indeed, there is one aspect of her heroic
life which is especially pertinent at this time in our lives. The Bible tells us about the wicked,
tyrannical, Herod, King of Judea, including Bethlehem and Jerusalem. When Herod learned from the three wise men
about the birth of the new born King, Herod felt threatened and his paranoia
reached a new low. Three days after Jesus
was born, Herod ordered the massacre of all male children, ages 2 and under,
throughout Bethlehem. (PAUSE) I find this hard to believe, and you may be
surprised to hear this too. Scholarly research, conducted several years ago,
concludes that the number of babies massacred by Herod was 20, which as you
know, is the same number of children murdered at Sandy Hook.
Mary, Joseph, & Jesus just narrowly
escaped, and went into hiding until Herod’s death.
The Bible describes the
wailing and the inconsolable sorrow of the mothers of the infant victims, which,
likewise, is all too similar to that we have all witnessed and shared in over
the past 10 days. And I imagine that
Mary and Joseph must have felt the same survivors’ guilt being experienced now
by the Sandy Hook families, whose children also escaped with their lives.
God repaid Herod for his evil
by taking his life. However, he suffered
a prolonged & agonizing death. Biblical scientists, historians, and
archeologists have studied this by using 21st forensics on the villain’s
2 thousand year old remains. They have
some evidence to believe that Herod’s long drawn out death involved chronic
massive pain as a result of scabies, chronic kidney disease, and gangrene.
Shortly thereafter, Mary took
her baby to be blessed at the temple in Jerusalem. However, she received a word of prophecy from
a of prophecy from the Prophet Simenon, who told her that Jesus would bring salvation to the world, but that in
the process, a sword would pierce her heart.
So, some 30 years later, the sword pierced her heart as she witnessed
her son being tortured and executed. But despite her sorrows, she remained
faithful to the promise of the angels, that Jesus was, and is, and will bring
“Peace of earth and good will among all people.”
Christ was born for
this. Christ died and rose from the dead
for this. Christ sent and sends now His Holy Spirit to empower us all in the work
of peacemaking. And we have the
opportunity to do that now, beginning today.
Various local groups are encouraging us all to make a positive
contribution to support Sandy Hook by
doing 26 acts of random kindness.
Actually, I think I know who is behind this idea…the one who was born at
Christmas, incarnating God's greatest act of kindness for all people. To help inspire us, in this regard, today we
are being led by children. Today our 7th
& 8th grade Sunday School Class have prepared the green &
white lapel ribbons for us to wear to show our support for the bereaved and the
village. They will pass these out after you receive communion. That’s nice. PAUSE Here’s how you can pay them
back. Open your eyes today, and be kind to someone. Jesus said, “Blessed are
you when you extend the peace, compassion, and kindness of the of the Prince of
peace to others, for then you will be called children of God. Amen.
The Rev. John Donnelly
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