{"id":5102,"date":"2019-12-08T17:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T00:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=5102"},"modified":"2019-12-08T17:00:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T00:00:49","slug":"a-sermon-for-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=5102","title":{"rendered":"A sermon for the season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please click here for a pdf version of this document<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The angel Gabriel said\nto Mary: “You will conceive and bear a son.”  Luke 1:31a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don’t know, when\nMary first heard the announcement, whether she heard it as good news, or not.\nBut that is what it was. It was the announcement of what was happening to her.\nWe have come to call this good news, “the gospel”. In this case, the\nGospel according to Luke, as announced by the messenger Gabriel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay close attention to\nwhat the gospel is not. It is not a description, commentary, invitation or\ncommand to do something. The message includes those things but they are not the\nmain thing. The main thing is the news that God is doing something good to you\nand for you. This news always comes out of the blue, just as it did to Mary. It\nis new every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The angel did not say\nto Mary: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and all you have\nto do is accept it.” That would have been terrible, although some preachers\ndo exactly that. Another thing the angel did not say to Mary: “You have to\nmake a decision for Jesus.” That would have put the young woman in a\nterrible predicament.  “Let’s see,\ndo I accept him or not? How do I know if I am really sincere in accepting him?”\nThat would have thrown Mary back onto herself, an impossible situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing the angel\ndid not say to Mary was: “Open your mind to God’s word,” or: “Open\nyour heart to Jesus.”  These are not\nthe kinds of operations we are capable of performing on ourselves, nor could\nMary.  But some preachers say things like\nthat. They remind one of Red Skelton, who said he had written a book entitled,\n“Brain Surgery Self Taught.” It’s impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With God, all things\nare possible. The gospel is the good news of what God has done for you and is\ndoing to you right now. He opens your ears to hear his word, just as Jesus\nopened the ears of the deaf man. If he did not, we would be deaf to his word.\nHe is changing your heart, too. As he rolled the stone away from the tomb, he\nis changing your heart of stone into a heart that can love and praise him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The miracle of the\ngospel breaks through to us. It is new every day. It does not change, but it\nchanges us, in a way known by faith, not sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Mary said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘My soul magnifies the\nLord,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and my spirit rejoices\nin God my Savior.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke 1:46<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merry\nChristmas to you and yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The angel Gabriel said to Mary: “You will conceive and bear a son.” Luke 1:31a<\/p>\n

We don’t know, when Mary first heard the announcement, whether she heard it as good news, or not. But that is what it was. It was the announcement of what was happening to her. We have come to call this good news, “the gospel”. In this case, the Gospel according to Luke, as announced by the messenger Gabriel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5102"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5112,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5102\/revisions\/5112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}