“A Pregnant Pause” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, December 21, 2025, Year A / Advent 4 – Luke 1:26-33. ¨ Luke 1:46 - 55
THEME: Prepare for Christ’s birth and return through faith, discernment and discipleship.
I will never forget the morning in the late fall of 1994 when Beth came into the kitchen waving something in her hand. It was shaped like a thermometer with a display at one end. The display had two pink lines on it. She did not say a word, but she was smiling from ear to ear. At first, I was baffled. Then, all of a sudden, I got it. She was pregnant. WE were pregnant.
As much as we both had been hoping and praying for this, it rocked our world. My life – our lives – were going to change. That much we knew. But we had no idea how much. I wondered, were we really ready to be parents? The truth was this was going to happen whether we were ready or not. There was so much to do in order to prepare. Doctor’s appointments, diet changes, work accommodation, childcare, creating a budget, setting up the baby’s room, baby-proofing the house, choosing the right car seat and stroller, reading parenting books. Thank you, Dr. Spock. It was a lot. The mix of feelings was overwhelming. On the one hand, we were overcome with joy, anticipating our new life. On the other hand, we were anxious and apprehensive about the massive changes needed to be ready for the baby’s arrival.
I imagine most first-time prospective parents feel that way. That is exactly how Mary is feeling in our gospel reading. When Mary learns from the Angel Gabriel that she is to bear God’s Messiah, she is overwhelmed, first with fear, then with awe, and finally with joy. The life that she knows will be turned upside down. That sounds ominous, but for Mary, and everyone she know, this reversal of fortune is a very good thing. Everywhere in Mary’s world, there is poverty, oppression, and violence. The vast majority of people barely scratch out a living, while a tiny handful of elites live the good life.
Things are no better for the nation as a whole. Judea is at the lowest ebb of its existence. The Romans control every aspect of life through their puppet king, Herod the Great. Any who dare to confront the Roman authorities pay with their lives. Crosses line the roadways, warning signs of what happens to those who resist Rome’s power.
It has been half a millennium since Israel has known independence. That’s 500 years without a king on Israel’s throne. It's been an equally long time since God spoke to the people through the prophets. But according to the Angel Gabriel, all of that has now changed. He promises that the little child whom Mary will call Jesus, the world will one day call Messiah. His birth will be proof that God will finally redeem his people. He will fulfill the promises of blessing and abundance that he made to Abraham and the Patriarchs all those years ago. That is why Mary is singing a song of joy. It is a prayer of praise for the mighty blessings bestowed on her – and on all peoples – by a loving, merciful, and beneficent God.
But hang on a minute. Aren’t we getting just a little bit ahead of ourselves here? Think about it. What exactly in Mary’s world has changed? Rome is still in control. Local elites still collude with Roman occupiers to maintain their own power and wealth. Meanwhile, people like Mary are still slowly starving. In all of this, the justice and righteousness of God and his Kingdom are hard to see. That is because Mary is living between God’s promise and its fulfillment.
Friends, that is where you and I live, too. We, too, have heard God’s promise of the Messiah. We, too, have heard his promise that Jesus will return with his father’s Kingdom, ruling for all eternity. Yet, like Mary, when we look around, we still see a world riven by conflict, violence, and oppression. Political, cultural and social division at home, endless wars abroad. Violence in our streets and even in our families. So, the question for you and me is the same question that Mary faced. How are we supposed to live in these awkward, in-between times, this pregnant pause between God’s promise of a savior and his return as King of Kings?
Friends, this is what Advent is all about. This is the time to train ourselves to live faithfully in the reality of this world, while we anticipate the coming of the next. It is the time to cultivate hope, peace, joy, and love. Lord knows the world needs it. But how exactly do we do that? That is the question for you and me.
The answer comes in three parts. We believe, then we see, and then we act. In other words, Advent living requires faith, discernment, and discipleship. First, just because we do not readily see the hallmarks of the Kingdom in the world around us, it does not mean that God and his Kingdom are not present. God is with us whether we recognize his presence or not. This is the great challenge of faith. Faith is the foundation and stepping-stone to everything that follows in the Christian life.
A thousand years ago, St. Anselm of Canterbury famously wrote, “I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe. I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe: that unless I believe, I shall not understand.” In other words, nothing is going to make sense to us if we do not first start from a position of faith. This is where so many folks get lost. They expect events to make sense. When they inevitably do not, they lose faith in God. They become cynical. This is especially true of those who are new to the faith. What people of mature faith learn to do is to trust that, no matter what happens, God is still there, even if we do not see the evidence.
Mature Christians understand that only when we start from the premise of faith, can we hope to understand what God is up to in our lives and in our world. And they recognize that it is usually only in hindsight that we get to see what God is up to.
So, Advent living starts, first and foremost, with faith.
Second, we need to sharpen our gaze. We need to get better at recognizing God’s hand, especially in the little things. In our daily lives, God gives us reminders of his grace and goodness. In the midst of doing ordinary things, there are always unexpected moments of God’s extraordinary grace. It is easy to miss them, especially when we are busy. But if we slow down and take the time to look with the eyes of faith, we will perceive the footprints and fingerprints of God. We see them in moments of beauty, meaning, and spiritual connection in everyday, mundane activities.
A decade ago, the author William Kent Kruger wrote an award-winning book called Ordinary Grace. His main character is the son of a Methodist Minister in a small Minnesota town. He reflects back on his life, especially the summer of 1961. That summer, he and his family endured a series of tragic events that challenged his faith. Now, 40 years later, he expresses how these events have shaped his faith. He says, “Whether you believe in miracles or not, I can guarantee that you will experience one. It may not be the miracle you’ve prayed for. God probably will not undo what’s been done. The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning, and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day.” Being able to see these ordinary graces as the miracles they are is one of the hallmarks of mature Christian faith. So, if we are going to learn to live in these in-between times, we start from a position of faith. Then we learn to pick out God’s little graces and blessings in our day to day living.
Finally, Advent living means allowing God to reconfigure our hearts, to reorient them outward toward our neighbors. This means becoming better at finding joy in circumstances beyond our own lives. The surest and most powerful way to do this is to become an agent of joy for others. To become God’s instrument of love that causes someone else to rejoice. John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach and devout Christian, famously said, “Your greatest joy definitely comes from doing something for another, especially when it is done with no thought of something in return.”
So friends, let’s trust that God is with us whether we see evidence of his presence or not. With the eyes of faith, let’s seek out God’s ordinary graces in the mundane places of life. Above all, let’s put love into action to create joy for others. This is how we prepare for the arrival of the Christ child. That is how we prepare for his return.
May it be so.
