Unexpected Gifts, Luke 1:26-38

Unexpected Gifts
Luke 1:26-38


Zack had served God his entire life. At this point he was what some would call an old man. He and his wife, Liz, had wanted children but it just didn't seem to be in the plans. They had prayed, they had dreamed, they had cried, but they didn't have any children. I guess at some point you finally give up. You finally accept your lot in life. You love your nieces and nephews, you love the kids in the neighborhood, you pour love into the children around.
Imagine the surprise when one day as Zack was at the altar performing his ministerial duties he heard the voice of an angel. Now that would be enough for me, I'd be passed out on the floor. Somehow Zack maintained his composure and heard the words of the angel Gabriel, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.”
They had their child. John was a gift to them, a surprise gift, an unexpected gift. But John was more than that, he was the cousin to our Savior. Sometimes the greatest gifts are more than we could ever expect.
In reading today’s Scripture, I began to think of what makes a good gift. What qualities are in a gift that make it special? What are the characteristics of a gift that make it particularly endearing to the one who receives it? Here’s what today’s Scripture taught me, and maybe it will teach you something as well.

A good gift is unconditional. There are no strings attached - nothing is expected in return.
Did you know that when a man asks a woman to marry him and gives an engagement ring, the ring is a gift? The ring is not given in exchange for actually marrying the man. If the wedding is called off the woman is under no legal obligation to give the ring back. There might be an ethical responsibility, depending on the circumstances, but there is no legal one because it is a gift with no strings attached.
The government likes to define words, and it defines “gifts” as well. When you give to the church, you can’t receive anything in return or it’s not a gift, and therefore not tax deductible. Even the law recognizes that a gift is given without strings attached.
So, a good gift is one that is given without any conditions. Once the gift is given, it is wholly that person’s—to do with as they wish.
When you look at the Scripture for this morning, you see that Gabriel gives no conditions for rearing Jesus other than what to name him. Gabriel’s announcement doesn’t come with a long list of items that must happen or God will take Jesus back. There’s nothing like, “Ok, Mary, if you are going to be the one who raises the Son of God, you will have to make sure he wears sunscreen when he goes outside, childproof your home by putting a gate around your fireplace, and be certain that he says his prayers every night.”
You would think with the salvation of the world on the line that the Son of God would come with some kind of Divine Instruction Manual like, “Dieties in Diapers,” “How to Raise a Know-it-all,” or “How to Hide Birthday Gifts from Your Omniscient Child,” or “How to Discipline the Son of God.”
God is trusting Mary and Joseph to raise Jesus in such a way as to shape him into the kind of man who will understand that God will call him to sacrifice his life for the world. What a precious gift and awesome responsibility that is!


Another characteristic of a good gift is that it is surprising. The best gifts are those where you think to yourself, “I can’t believe they got that for me” or “I had no idea they knew I wanted that” or “I didn’t even know anyone made these things!”
I remember not long after Renee and I met, she knew I wanted a new bedspread. I lived in a rat hole with 4 other guys but I wanted my room to look nice. We both worked at Wal-Mart and there was a manly comforter set on clearance at the back of the store. I had no idea that she would get it for me, that is until she asked me to put something in the trunk of her car and there it was, my birthday gift a week before she planned to give it to me. Oops! Needless to say the surprise was ruined for my birthday but it was definitely unexpected and it was a great gift. Sometime the best gift is the one that is unexpected and unpredictable.

Listen again to Mary’s response to the news that she would bear the Son of God.
“How will this be…since I am a virgin?” There could be no greater surprise than being pregnant while still being a virgin! I would imagine that she would be on the verge of shock.
Think for a minute about Mary. She is just a few years older than my daughter Reagan.
She is just at that age when her whole life seems to be before her.
She is sitting at a small desk in her room, and she is staring blankly ahead at the wall.
She is stunned. She sits in disbelief.
She is going to have a baby.
Since she was old enough to talk, she has been waiting and dreaming. She has dreamed of what her life would be like. She has waited for the right man. She prayed for God to send her the right one.
Someone kind. Maybe even someone rich! Certainly someone who had a trade, who could provide.
She had dreamed of the wedding.

She waited for this man, the one selected for her, to respond to her father’s overture…
She dreamed of her friends celebrating with her.
…dreamed of all of the joy of that wedding day.
She must confess she had even dreamed of that wedding night…
In this moment, as she sits staring at the wall, all of those dreams are gone. She cannot avoid the reality. Surprise! She is going to have a baby.

What do you do when what you have prayed for, when what you have been waiting for, isn’t what comes your way at all? But instead, what comes your way is something altogether different, something outside your plans, something that you would never has asked for, never have waited for, never have prayed for. That must be you… You have been there somehow, sometime.
You prayed that the biopsy would come back negative, but it came back positive.
You prayed that your husband would be able to save your marriage, but he seems bent on leaving.
You prayed that the job offer would come, but instead the mailbox was empty.
Surely you’ve had those moments when you just wondered if God was even listening to you.

You see, the question, “how can this be, since I am a virgin,” is not simply a biological question of the angel, but rather a social one. The angel has described a scene in which Mary is a special one, to bear a special child… God is going to use her to do something magnificent.
Mary’s question is “If I turn up pregnant, and unmarried, how can that mean I have found favor with God? How can something magnificent and good and wonderful come out of this?”
And the angel replies: Nothing is impossible with God.

Now that is the real miracle of this story, is it not? Not just that God used a virgin; God used something that seemed like a tragedy and turned it into a victory. That is the way that God works.
Sometimes, our plan for our lives doesn’t work out. What comes down the pike is not just a surprise, but a gut wrenching surprise.
We have to recognize that maybe God can take our lives and work something else out with them…. Something altogether different than we had in mind.

The last thing that makes a really good gift is its value to the giver. The more the giver values the gift, the more the giver values the one he or she is giving it to.
Gift's don't have to be expensive to be valuable. A child takes the time to make a card or a coupon book or A father passes on a special pocket knife that belonged to his dad. Sometimes they can be expensive like a special ring given for a special reason. The point is, the value is not tied to the price, the value is about what it means to the giver and the receiver.

To put that in the context of our Scripture today, God’s greatest gift to us was what? Sure! His Son, which as Christians, we believe was the incarnation of God himself. That means that God values his relationship with us so much that he gave his very self to suffer and die on a cross for us. Does that put things in perspective?

Let me tell you about another Mary and Joseph…. Their names were Patrick and Ellen. They were no longer young; in fact, they were in their forties. But one day, Ellen turned up pregnant. They already had two children at home, and had resolved not to have any others, but they decided that this would be a great gift, this third child. You see, they had hit a rough spot in their marriage and maybe a new baby was just what they needed to smooth it out.
Sometime around the fourth month of the pregnancy, the doctors informed them that the baby was to be a boy, but there was a problem. This boy’s genetic material contained an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. He would have Down’s Syndrome.
Patrick and Ellen were heartbroken. How would they survive? How could their marriage survive?
Ellen traveled a lot for work, and it was difficult enough caring for their two children. What kind of effect would it have on them? What about her career? They argued a lot with God. They cried. They shouted out in anger. They refused to talk to anyone around them, because everything those friends said seemed like shallow platitudes.

By the time Jonathan was born, they had come to the decision that “it is what it is.” They would do their very best for Jonathan.

The family dynamic changed dramatically. Ellen quit her job, so that she could provide full time care for Jonathan. Patrick scaled back his hours so he could help out more. The family began some family counseling; they figured they were going to need it. Ellen became an advocate in the church and the school for children with special needs, helping to start a Sunday school program for Jonathan. The whole family discovered a new sense of focus, a new sense of direction, a new sense of purpose.
Later Patrick would say, “Jonathan is the best thing that ever happened to us. We thank God for him every single day.”

What a gift Jonathan was. A surprising gift, an Unexpected Gift. Yes, and sometimes a heartbreaking gift. Who would have thought that such a tragedy might become such a blessing...

But then again, nothing is impossible is God.

(Parts of this sermon came from sermon curriculum for the "Given" series put out by The Loft Church - The Woodlands UMC. Tom Pace and Tom Teekell of the Texas Annual Conference are to be credited with some of the stories of this sermon.)