Today marks the beginning of Advent, a season of endings and beginnings. As the calendar year draws to a close, a new church year begins, inviting us to reorient our lives around the birth of Christ—a birth that ushers in new ways of living, loving, and hoping.
Yet, as we know, even as we prepare for this sacred new chapter, the world around us continues to spin madly on. And for so many of us here in our country and across the world, some days it is a dark, sad, terrifying world.
But the Advent season is filled with paradoxes: light in the midst of darkness, hope in the midst of despair, beginnings in the midst of endings.
Mary, pregnant with Christ, embodies this tension. She lived in a world marked by oppression and uncertainty, yet her response to God’s calling was a proclamation of hope—a song of trust in a God making all things new.
Can you imagine what Mary would have thought to herself that night following the Angel’s visit?
An angel appeared and said that Mary a young unwed girl would bear the Son of God. A girl from Nazareth; a girl from Galilee! How? Why? Why would God choose someone like her? Her heart must have been racing. Her fear probably felt like it might take over. But deep within, she heard the angel’s words: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you… Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus” She probably still didn’t understand how or why, but I’m sure she felt the truth of those words. God saw her, God called her, and God named her favored.
Mary’s story reminds us of the radical nature of God’s love. The Gospel of Luke tells us that God’s angel Gabriel goes to a girl in Galilee. In her book, The First Advent in Palestine, Kelley Nikondeha writes: “Jewish ears must have burned when they heard Luke’s Gospel mention a girl from Galilee.”[1] She explains that the northern region was known for uprisings and protests, and they were considered “lesser Jews” because many were uncircumcised, they did not worship in the temple, and some married non-Jewish people.[2]
Nikondeha continues, “. . . the God who goes to unexpected places—to the north, when all expect south; to lowly priests with no sons—this God can go to an unlikely girl in an unlikely place shaped by resistance and maybe even trauma. God shows favor, demonstrating again and again in infinite reversals that human taboo and stigma don’t limit the Spirit.”[3]
God’s Spirit is not constrained by what society makes us feel about ourselves. God’s angel bypassed the powerful and wealthy, traveling instead to a humble girl in an overlooked village. And Gabriel’s words to Mary—“Greetings, favored one!”—cut through centuries of shame and exclusion.
God has a history of working in unexpected ways through unexpected people.
Think of Abraham and Sarah—an elderly couple without children—called to be the ancestors of a great nation. Or Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute who had faith in the God of Israel and became part of the lineage of Christ. Then there’s David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons, a shepherd overlooked by everyone but God, yet God chose him to defeat Goliath and later become Israel’s leader.
At Jesus’ birth, the first witnesses were the lowly shepherds in the fields. The Samaritan woman at the well—an outcast—became one of the first to proclaim Jesus as Messiah. The apostle Peter, impulsive and flawed, was chosen to be the rock of the church. And let’s not forget the young unnamed boy with five loaves and two fish—an offering that Jesus used to feed thousands.
Each of these people may have seemed unqualified, ordinary, or unworthy in the world’s eyes, but God saw something different. God called them beloved, chosen, and capable of transforming the world.
So what makes you any different?! What makes you unqualified or unworthy?! Nothing! You are a blessing!
It’s easy to hear words like these and dismiss them as sentimental or naïve. The world often tells us otherwise. We are bombarded by messages that equate our worth with our productivity, our achievements, or our social status. For some, life’s struggles—poverty, injustice, rejection, fear, mental health—whisper the lie that we are burdens rather than blessings.
But God’s declarations to ordinary people—people throughout scripture, people like you and me—cut through those lies. God’s love does not depend on what we do but on who we are—creations of the divine and children of the holy. This love is not earned or transactional; it is freely given.
Hear the words of Isaiah 43:1-7, from The Message Translation. Hear it as a love letter from God to you, God’s chosen and beloved:
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!
That’s how much you mean to me!
That’s how much I love you!
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,
trade the creation just for you.
“So don’t be afraid: I’m with you.
I’ll round up all your scattered children,
pull them in from east and west.
I’ll send orders north and south:
‘Send them back.
Return my sons from distant lands,
my daughters from faraway places.
I want them back, every last one who bears my name,
every man, woman, and child
Whom I created for my glory,
yes, personally formed and made each one.’”
God’s love is not passive. It is a love that accompanies us through fire and flood, through seasons of uncertainty and trial, as the world spins on. God does not promise any of us an easy path, but God does promise to be with us through every path. And God really does want the very best for us. Every day with every breath, God wants us to know what a blessing we are.
And so, today, I want you to hear these truths with your whole heart:
- You may feel small and unseen, but God sees you and calls you by name.
- You may think your past defines you, but God is making all things new.
- You may feel weak, but God’s power is made perfect in weakness.
- You may think you have no voice, but God speaks through even the silence.
- You may feel you’re walking in darkness, but God’s light is guiding your way.
- You may feel like you’ve failed, but God’s mercy is new every morning.
- You may think your contribution is too small, but God can multiply it beyond measure.
- You may feel broken, but God is the potter who reshapes and restores.
- You may feel like you’re not enough, but God has called you “good”.
Take these words to heart. Let them be a balm for your spirit and a reminder of your worth. You are a blessing—not because of what you do, but because you are God’s.
Today, as we gather at the Communion table, we encounter one of the clearest signs of God’s love. This table is an open, constant, and repetitive invitation back to grace. Here, we remember that Christ came into the world not to condemn but to redeem; not to burden us but to bless us. This bread and cup remind us that we are called by name, nourished by God’s love, and sent into this world as blessings.
Advent reminds us as we begin again, we must start by first seeing ourselves as beloved.
The Angel’s words to Mary are the words God speaks to each of us time and time again: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you… Do not be afraid for you have found favor with God. And now, you carry within you my love for you and you will bring that love into this world.”
You are enough. Not because you are perfect, not because you are powerful, but because God’s favor rests on you. You are a part of God’s unfolding story of love and redemption. Hold onto this truth when the road is hard, when others doubt you, and when you doubt yourself. You are a blessing. And through you, God’s love will bless the world.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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[1] The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and The Ongoing Complexity of Hope, by (Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2022). 39.
[2] Ibid, 40-41.
[3] Ibid, 48.
