No Word from God Will Ever Fail!

There are viral videos going around of people holding a blanket, throwing it up in front of them and then disappearing when the blanket falls. The videos have drawn many likes and shares because of the baffled looks of people and even pets when the person behind the blanket disappears. A scenario like this is comical, but in life when you are depending on someone to be there and they do not show up, no one is laughing.

Fear fills your heart when someone who promised to bet there for you does not show up. When you expect someone to pick you up from school or if you are away at college to pick you up at the airport or in front of your dorm, and that person does not show up, those moments fill us with fear that they were in an accident. When someone does not return our calls or texts, we fear the relationship may be on the rocks. When some who told you growing up that they would always be there for you has the white sheet pulled over their face at the hospital or in the hospice bed, fear fills your heart as you look to the future without your loved one.

Mary expected God to keep his promise but not through her. In our Gospel reading from Luke 1, we read, 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. Mary and Joseph were not living as King and Queen in the palace in Jerusalem in Judea, where King David had lived a thousand years earlier. They were not even prince and princess of Israel, but two average citizens living north of Judea, past Samaria in Galilee. They were promised to be married and expected to live out married life with children in an average home on a carpenter’s salary. But God had other plans as we hear in Luke 1,

28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Understandably, Mary was surprised, troubled, afraid and wondering what was happening. She knew God had made many promises about his Son to many people throughout history but did not expect to play a role in his coming. And the message the angel Gabriel gave to her referenced the promise God gave to David almost one thousand years earlier in our Old Testament reading from 2 Samuel 7,

11 … The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

It was time for God to establish his kingdom not because of Mary, but for the sake of his Name. Through the establishment of his kingdom, God maintained his reputation for keeping his promises. He also established the path to citizenship in that kingdom through his offspring, Jesus.

Some things are out of your control when someone else makes you a promise. No matter how hard you might try in a situation or relationship with another person, there will always be things out of your control and there is some fear attached to that. When someone else does not show up, communicate, keep their wedding vows or passes away, you are faced with things out of your control. At the same time, we make promises that we hope to keep, but come up short on making things happen just how we promised. This is true among people, but not God. God keeps his promises. Without God, we have no part in his eternal kingdom. Fear and doubt about God’s ability to keep his promises to us separate us from him and his kingdom.

Mary trusted God had the plan to establish his kingdom. After Gabriel calmed Mary’s fears and shared the good news that she would be the mother of Jesus, Mary had a question. We read in Luke 1, 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” Mary’s question did not come from doubt, but faith. Gabriel did not scold Mary for her question, but without hesitation we read in Luke 1,

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.”

Gabriel assured Mary that God would miraculously allow her to conceive. So, her child would be holy and without sin as the Son of God. As a further assurance, Gabriel shared the miraculous news that Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth who was baren and beyond childbearing years was six months pregnant. Then Gabriel said, 37 “For no word from God will ever fail.” God’s promise to establish the eternal heavenly kingdom of his Son was as certain as Elizabeth’s pregnancy and the sickness, bump and kicks the virgin Mary would soon feel. A thousand years before Gabriel’s announcement, God revealed to King David how his Offspring would establish his kingdom in Psalm 22, 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These are the words Jesus spoke on the cross as he sacrificed himself taking the punishment for the sins of the world.Three days later, he rose triumphant from the grave and forty days later ascended into heaven where he rules over all things. Psalm 22 ends with the words,

27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations… 31 They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!

The Bible remains as the testaments to God keeping his promises. The Bible records repeatedly, “He has done it!” When you have questions like Mary, God answers them with his Word. When Paul wrote his letter to the Christians in Rome, he concluded his letter with the encouragement that God established them as citizens of his eternal kingdom thought the gospel, as we read in our New Testament reading from Romans 16,

25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith.

Paul as missionary and pastor pointed the people under his care to the gospel, the message of Jesus, the prophetic writings, so that the Gentiles, people outside of King David’s physical lineage would know they are part of the eternal kingdom.

The baby wrapped in cloths, eventually mocked in a scarlet robe, wrapped up in burial cloths and now robed in righteousness kept his promise to you. His kingdom has been established and you are his citizens. Mary’s prayer in Luke 1 is ours as well, 38 …. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” We pray this with confidence because Gabriel’s words apply to all of us, “For no word from God will ever fail!” Amen.