Just Not There Today

"...a man’s reach should exceed his grasp..."

Words from a poem by Robert Browning, suggesting that, to achieve anything worthwhile, a person should attempt even those things that may turn out to be impossible.

Well, today's sermon might have been my attempt to do the impossible.

It started with the idea of walking through the Scriptures that lead to the incarnation by using the genealogy in Matthew 1. What I thought I would do is go back to the fall of Adam and Eve and walk forward through the list of people, showcasing their flaws and failures and God's faithfulness to His people and constant sense of purpose and timing. each of those people had only a portion of an understanding of what God was up to. They lived their lives and were part of God's plan. Some were remembered as heroes, some as villains, but they are all included.

"In the fullness of time, God sent His son, born of a woman..." was to bring the journey to a close with Mary.

I was hoping to go from wide angle to sharp focus as we saw how Mary - ordinary, common peasant teenager that she was, completely unremarkable in so many ways, that her life was prepared for the coming of Messiah just as were bigger events in the world. Nations were prepared. Languages were prepared. God even enlisted a tax program that enrolled 60 million people just so two of them would be in Bethlehem at just the right time.

Wide focus >>>>>> sharp focus
Big picture>>>>>> personal

So if God was at work then, if God was preparing people, places and things now, could He be at work right now through otherwise unremarkable people... like us.

The congregation probably went out knowing a bit more about the overall plan of the Incarnation. Maybe they even thought, "huh, I never realized that."

But the sermon never really got to "so what?" and "now what?" in any satisfactory way.

I bit off way more than I could chew.

hate that. my bad.