Worship Preview 12.14.25 "The babe, the Son of Mary"

Wednesday, December 17th, Feeding Families in His Name: A free, no obligation meal is served “to-go” style from underneath our portico from 5:30-6:30pm each Wednesday. With our community partners, we aim to provide 400 meals per week. If you would like to support this ministry feeding our neighbors, you can make donations online at: www.firstumcfortscott.org/feedingfamiliesdonation. Thank you.

Next Sunday Dec. 21^st - Bake Sale / Holiday Treats – we will be holding a Bake Sale to raise funds for our “Good Sam” ministry projects from 11:30 until 1pm or until sold out. We hope you’ll stop by and pick up some tasty treats for your Christmas and holiday gatherings!

Christmas Eve, Wednesday Dec. 24th -  7pm “Traditional Candlelight, Carols, and Communion.”  You are invited to experience the wonder of Christ’s birth anew this Holy Night!

Worship This Sunday: 10:30am –  “The Son of Mary…” Scriptures: Isaiah 7:10-17 and Luke 1: 26-56. Rev. Christopher Eshelman preaching.

Last week, we read from Luke 1, focused on Zechariah, Elizabeth, and the birth of John the Baptist. This week we will pick up the verses we skipped over, hearing the story of the Annunciation to Mary and her subsequent joyful and prophetic visit to Elizabeth. In telling these stories, Luke draws on Isaiah 7 and a prophecy given to King Ahaz in the 8^th Century BC. The setting is about 200 years after David and Solomon’s kingdom had been split. A northern Kingdom, initially known as Ephraim, formed from 10 tribes with its capital in Samaria, and a southern Kingdom known as Judah with its capital remaining in Jerusalem and claiming the lineage of David). You might note that while the majority -  10 tribes split off - most of the Hebrew Scriptures are written from the perspective of the Southern Kingdom.

It was a complicated geopolitical time, with the northern Kingdom and nearby Syria feeling pressure from the rapidly growing Assyrian Empire. Together, they seek to force King Ahaz (or someone they replace him with) to join them in war against the Assyrians. Ahaz is resisting but also having a crisis of faith – does he trust God or does he trust earthly powers. The prophet Isaiah visits. Ahaz seems to say the right thing – that he does not ask for a sign – “I will not put the Lord God to the test.”  But the prophet realizes rather than piety, Ahaz is avoiding accountability.

Sometimes God disapproves of people who want signs, but sometimes God grants signs. Maybe there’s a difference between people who want to believe but need help, and people who don’t want to believe and want an excuse for avoiding doing so. Ahaz comes in the latter category. Isaiah responds with a prophecy we know well: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.”  The point is that by the time a few months have passed, and the unnamed woman’s baby is one or two, the crisis that preoccupies Ahaz will already be over. It will have been proven that “God is with us.” Ahaz is called to stand firm in faith. Sadly, the sign will do Ahaz no good because of the attitude he brings to it, and his lack of faith will actually deepen the crisis Judah faces.

Hundreds of years later, Jesus is born of a young woman, yet unmarried when she conceives, and whose baby turned out to be “God is with us” in a more personal sense Matthew and Luke both use the words in Isaiah to help their Christian readers understand something of the wonder of that event. What Child is this? This is Emmanuel – God with us!

The role of Mary, Elizabeth, and other women in the Gospels is crucial to my understanding of faith. Still today, many denominations forbid women from the pulpit – as if those capable of bearing God’s good news could not also proclaim it. As you may know, I recently became a grandfather. Watching my son and especially my daughter-in-law cope with the difficulty and danger of pregnancy and giving birth, even with all our modern supports, has shaped my experience of Advent and Christmas this year. There were complications, initially my grandson had difficulty latching, many tears were shed. All is well now, but I am reminded of how fragile newborns are and how difficult Mary would have had it. We overlook the realities of this in our comfortable nativity scenes. Sunday I’ll share a wonderful, somewhat provocative poem by Kaitlin Shetler. It is entitled “sometimes I wonder.”  In the opening stanza, she writes: sometimes I wonder if Mary breastfed Jesus / if she cried out when he bit her /or if she sobbed when he would not latch / and sometimes I wonder if this is all too vulgar to ask  in a church full of men / without milk stains on their shirts or coconut oil on their breasts / preaching from pulpits off limits to the mother of God.

In her book "In Search of Belief," Sr. Joan Chittister reminds us: "Mary was not used. Mary was not made a pawn. Mary was asked a question to which she had the right to say no. Mary was made a participant in the initiatives of God, but God did not impose on Mary. Mary was not treated by God, as women generations after her have been, as a means to someone else's ends. Until we can say, "I believe that Jesus ... was born of the Virgin Mary," and mean that a woman was spiritual partner to the greatest spiritual event of all time, then the devotion we have… can only be partial and the pain that comes from that bent and biased preconception will strike at the root of the faith, make it lesser, and limit its growth."

We often hear Jesus referred to as the “Son of God” and the “Son of Man.” Those names are important and true - But the carol “What Child Is This” points out his identity over and over as the “Son of Mary.” This equally powerful description points to his being reared by a woman who, upon hearing she would bear a child, said “yes” to one of the most difficult and precarious situations she could face. Unlike Ahaz, Mary stands firm on faith – she understands “nothing is impossible with God” and then she sings with joy a song of transformative justice for the ages. We are called to hear her words and echo her response to God.

No matter where you are on your faith journey, we invite you to experience the love and presence of Christ, together with us at 10:30am each Sunday and explore your next steps! 301 S. National here in Fort Scott.  Find your path, share your journey!