This morning's Gospel from Luke recounts God's announcement to Mary that she was to become the Mother of the Savior. It describes Mary's initial reaction of fear and confusion, and Joseph's reaction to the fact that his fiancée was about to have a child that wasn't his. Then Luke records Mary's song of praise (called the "Magnificat") which she sang in response to this announcement. You see, God's announcement to Mary was in reality a promise to her that she would become the mother of the Christ child.

That's what I want to talk about this morning -- promises. How does that phrase go? "Promises, promises, promises!" Promises are an integral part of life. They are easy to make, even easier to break, and, once broken, bring untold pain and anguish. In fact, without promises it would be impossible to live together with other people. And yet, the "broken promise" is an all too common experience ... one that for many folks is most difficult to recover from.

I can't think of one human relationship that doesn't depend on the making and keeping of promises -- whether it's the relationship between husband and wife, or between parents and children, or between business associates, or simply between friends. This morning, however, I want to talk about God's promises -- for if we depend on human promises, we are far more dependant upon the promises of God ... even though we sometimes take God's promises for granted or twist God's promises into something God did not intend them to be.

I want to digress a moment. Have you ever noticed that when you and I read passages of scripture, we tend to put halos on the events we read about? Because we consider the Bible "holy," we somehow mentally conclude that the events had a "holy aura" about them -- that they were somehow different than events which happen to us today.

The problem comes when you and I look for the presence of God in our lives today. I have a hunch that we secretly look for that "holy aura" in the things that happen to us, and when it doesn't appear, we mistakenly conclude that God is "avoiding us." What I'm trying to describe is actually the subject for an entire sermon in itself, but I mention it today because I suspect it is a factor in how we today expect God's promises to be fulfilled.

You see, it's easy to get God and "Santa Claus" confused when it comes to the matter of our expectations of God and God's promises. Why? Because when we in the twenty-first century think of having a promise fulfilled, I suspect we usually associate it with getting what we want. Or at least we associate it with a happy and uplifting atmosphere -- or with what I call the "Hollywood ending."

Think carefully. What I am suggesting is that you and I look to the promises of God to transform our difficult situations into situations of complete joy and happiness. And, when such an expectation does not happen -- when we do not "get what we want" -- we conclude that God has not acted or has not been present in our lives.

Think about that. We generally teach our children (and that means we were taught that way, too) that Santa Claus will bring them the presents that they want ... perhaps not all, but at least one or two of the big ones. I am sure that we have all had the experience of what happens when some really "hoped for" present didn't appear under the Christmas tree -- even when the other presents were nice ones.

Let me bring this all back to the story of God's promise to Mary that she was to be the mother of the savior. Folks, there was no "halo" on this event! Mary was pregnant out of wedlock, and back in those days that was a major catastrophe. The shame and humiliation was far more than we in the twenty-first century can comprehend.

That's what Mary was wrestling with when the angel announced to her that her baby was to be the Messiah. And Joseph ... well, not only was there an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, the baby wasn't his. And that compounded the grim situation in which he and Mary found themselves. If that had happened to us today, I'm positive that we would not see this as a situation in which the promise of God was unfolding. I think we'd try to get out of it. I think we'd get angry at God for allowing such a mess to take place.

My point is that the promises of God most often unfold in life as trials and problems, not as glowing halos and singing angels. You see, if we are expecting those "halos and angels" in our lives, we can easily become disappointed and bitter towards God for not fulfilling God's promises to us. But what is worse, if we are expecting those promises to come to us with "halos and angels," I suspect we will completely miss those situations in which God is fulfilling a promise to us!

I think Mary's reaction to her situation is worth noticing. Pregnant out of wedlock and facing the wrath of her friends in the community, she still responds to the grimness of her situation with a song of praise to God: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior...."

I often wonder if we could respond like Mary did when we find ourselves in the middle of life's seamier situations. I wonder if we can see that even the "messy side of life" can be the opportunity that God is using to fulfill a promise to us. I'll go out on a limb: If we can continue to praise and thank God, even in the face of adversity, life will be different. Problems will be different, and we will be more open to being able to see the promises of God unfold in our own lives!

Yes, even our Christmas expectations of God will be different! What about you this Christmas? When you will sing "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight," what shape will you be expecting God's promise to take for you this year?