It’s Not About Age, It’s About Faith

Isaiah 9:2-3b, 6-7a and Luke 1:26-38

Third Sunday in Advent + Youth Communicants + 12 December 2004

Douglas K. Huneke

The God we love, worship, and serve is full of surprises! God often does the opposite of what otherwise seems like good, common sense. God tells us that opposing opposites will no longer be in opposition. And, God calls people we would never expect to be useful to God and who never saw themselves in such a role.

Let me illustrate the points. Around the year 628 B.C. God decided to call a prophet because Israel was getting involved with the gods of other cultures, ignoring their own faith, and about to be attacked and enslaved. The stereotype image of a prophet is someone who is six foot six inches tall with fiery eyes, a voice that sounds like a thunderclap when it speaks, shoulders like a bull, and full of attitude.

Jeremiah was tending sheep in the hill country when God said, “I appoint you a prophet to the nations.” When Jeremiah heard those words he probably shook his head a couple times, pinched himself in case he was dreaming, and then said, “But, God! I don’t know how to speak like a prophet, heck, I’m only a kid.” And he probably was – maybe 16 years old, we don’t really know, but he was very young—about the age of our youth communicants. He was probably a skinny kid, not too tall, and his voice was changing. God did not accept Jeremiah’s excuses: “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a kid’; every time I tell you to speak out, wherever I send you, do not be afraid for I am going to be with you and keep you safe.”

God surprised Jeremiah, and the people of Judah, and all the kings whom the kid-prophet addressed. Jeremiah was the last person in the world most people would choose to be a prophet, but God knew the deep love and faith in Jeremiah’s heart and told him that they would work together to try to get things right again for the Chosen People. Moreover, God promised Jeremiah that he would never be alone or at a loss for words because God would be right there with him – living in his soul.

Yes! A kid-prophet. And God often seemed to get things confused, say things that did not match-up to reality, that messed with the way things were always seen and understood. I think God is quite the poet, very in love with words and images, and liked to mix things up so people would stop and listen. Once when talking with the prophet Isaiah, who, by-the-way, felt that he was exactly the wrong person to be a prophet and politely tried to get out of it when God called on him, but as always, God saw in Isaiah a good and faithful soul, even more than Isaiah knew it about himself.

God was talking with Isaiah about the hope for the future of Israel – they were in trouble again and a great danger loomed over them with the advancing armies of Babylon. So here comes the Divine poet and wordsmith: tell the people that I love them and that they should turn around in their ways. I am going to send a messenger and things are going to be very different: the wolf and the lamb are going to live together – and the wolf will not like lamb stew. The leopard shall sleep next to the baby goat and not have goat chops for dinner. The cow and the bear shall feed together and their babies will sleep side-by-side, but the bears will not be eating fresh hamburger. The lion will eat straw instead of venison, and a small child will lead them all.

You see, when people are ready to listen to God and live peacefully and faithfully in the world; to live as full of the knowledge of God as the waters that cover the sea, then everything will change, enemies will be friends and, as God said, “No one shall hurt or destroy in all of my holy mountain.” It was really hard to think that there could be such a turn around, but God believed in them just as God believes in us. To make it happen God would send a small child to lead the nations. Yeah! Sure, tell me another one! But it turned out to be true.

Much later in history, the Roman Empire had invaded and controlled the Holy Land. Everyone wanted to get rid of the Roman government because they were oppressive, controlling, and brought with them all manner of strange gods and unusual practices. People were tired of all the invasions and hassles so they started giving in to the Gods and practices of Rome. Their faith was slipping away, but they still wanted to be free of Rome so those who remained faithful expected a great warrior God to come and rescue them. They were waiting for God, the mighty warrior, the fierce soldier, to beat up the enemy, knock down their foes, and hammer out their freedom.

The full-of-surprises-God had something else in mind. God knew about the wonderful, open soul and deep faithfulness of this young girl named Mary who was maybe about 16 or 18 years old. God sent a very important angel to talk with the girl and the angel said something like, God needs your help. God wants people to have a deep inner peace. God wants them to live in people’s hearts and, do you remember that “little child to lead them” God talked about with Isaiah, well, God has decided to send the child and wants you to be his mom.

Mary was about the age of our youth communicants when God told her about the plan. She thought hard about it, trying to figure out if this was really real, if she could do it given all the plans that she had for her wedding and her life. But just like with Jeremiah, the promise came again, don’t be afraid, God will be with you always.

Two things stand out in this story: first, God did not pay attention to a person’s chronological age, only to the quality of their souls, their openness of their hearts and minds to God’s love, and their willingness to let God live in union with them. Love and faith, grace and goodness seem to be much more important to God than how old you are, how many big words you know, or how strong and mighty you are. Second, almost everyone wanted war with Rome and they wanted God to send a messenger to fight the war for them. But they completely missed the point. Instead

of a warrior, God sent a baby, to be born in a hay trough behind a bar, in a backwater little town to a young girl. And the baby was to grow up and lead the people back to deep lives of love and prayer, service and compassion, hope and peace.

Now all of this comes back to us. As Jeremiah, Isaiah, Mary, or the baby Jesus, we do not usually think of ourselves as people God can use. The prophets and Jesus have done all the important work so there is not much for us to do. Right? Sorry, no so! We have words that we can speak that can hurt or heal. We have ideas that can dampen or inspire. We can act in ways that make a difference, bring peace, and make our worlds more loving and kind. We have hands that had support and help and make things better. We have minds to use in God’s service, minds that are creative, poetic, artistic, compassionate, or just. We can wake up each morning, find ourselves in situations [choosing a recipe for dinner or closing a merger deal] [studying for finals, building houses in Mexico or Arizona, going to a prom, arguing with a “stubborn” parent], find ourselves in relationships at school, work, on playgrounds and soccer fields, and consciously ask ourselves, How does God want to use me to make my world a better, kinder, more loving place.

Make no mistake; God will call you in some way at some time to use your gifts and talents, your dreams and passions in God’s service. All you need is an open heart, a willing soul, a bit of trust and faith, but God will not “card” you, not ask for your driver’s license. God looks at our hearts and souls, and calls us from there, and there alone. God, how do you want to use my life this day? Go for it!

¹ This teaching was written for the high school youth communicants who were received into church membership on 12 December 2004. This longer version was offered at the 8:30 service.