the most disturbing thing about christmas...

this is a summary of the amazing sermon that Karl Martin, pastor at Morningside Baptist, where i've been attending for the last few months, gave this morning... he's got such a gift, and this is such an amazing message, i have to recap for ya'lls...

Christmas is one of the most disturbing holidays of the year... aside from fruitcake, ridiculous relatives, and presents that break in two minutes/don't fit/are completely useless/look exactly like what you gave that person last year... from the beginning, it was meant to disturb people, and the first to be rocked : Mary.

So picture being a teenage chica, in the ghetto of Nazareth, doing your thing, when a FREAKIN' ANGEL OF THE LORD steps into your kitchen, says "greetings, oh blessed one" -- dude, i would've cried or fainted or thrown a frying pan at the glowing warrior with wings and swords of fire... and that's just the first impression... THEN he goes on to say, "God is with you, and you will be the bearer of the Savior of the world. He will fulfill prophecies and is the chosen one, the Messiah, the one all ya'lls have been waiting for" (of course, this is my own words and interpretation, but i spose the angels could've said ya'lls...)at this point, i would've checked the quality of my water or tried to remember what i ate the night before... i'm impressed with Mary's reaction, cuz all she asks is, "how could that be, i'm a virgin?" forget the giving birth to the SAVIOR OF HUMANITY, she's concerned with just having a kid, which fair enough, when you're 14 and betrothed to the hottest carpenter in town (which i would imagine she was), the details of having a kid probably takes priority... but all in all, in the end, she just says, "if its God will, so be it" -- basically, BRING IT ON!!!!

she's about to give birth to Jesus Christ... she has now been marked in her society as a slut (having a kid before marriage and now Joseph is stuck with her, tsk tsk) or crazy (cuz the HOLY SPIRIT got her pregnant? right, and i'm Elvis Presley), she has to raise a kid before that came up in the family planning conversation, she has to deal with 9 months of cravings and morning sickness, and THEN there's that whole dealing with motherhood thing, which granted i know nothing about, but it can't be easy... and she doesn't have any idea she's going to have to run away from people who want to kill her child, accept the times when Jesus goes on huge walking missions with his disciples and doesn't call home for weeks on end, all the while doing miracles, and then watch her first-born be tortured and crucified and have to deal with that! God just threw a whole big wrench in her clock of life, and she says bring it on... wow... and she's just the first... Christ is about to rock everyone's world.. he messes with the religious legalities of everyone, challenges the rich, the righteous, the rebellious, and reaches out to the lepers, the poor, the children, the prostitutes...

Christmas is just the beginning of that disturbance... and I have to say, in the last year, God has disturbed my life, definitely... makes me wonder how i've reacted? i don't think it's exactly been "bring it on" with joy and acceptance...but God isn't a luxury god... He's my God, my Creator, my Savior, and just as he's accepted me, how will i accept Him? Will i take the divine disturbances in my life and do God's will and quit trying to fight Him? Will i carry my cross in pride and stand up for Him like Mary did?

Christians are all pregnant with the Savior of the world (funny analogy, and all Karl's, but bear with me) and we are going to stand out... you always notice when someone is pregnant... the question is, are we glowing with the love and pride that we should be?

How has Christ shaken your world, whether you're a believer or not? are you running away from this child? Mary couldn't run. She glowed.
This year, this party's for her. Three cheers to the biggest disturbing event the world has ever seen, and three more for the teenager that accepted it with grace and God's will in mind.

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." - Luke 1:38