Courage in a Complicated World
Luke 1:26–38 (NRSV)
Quick Summary
When Gabriel came to Mary, he didn’t offer a plan that made sense—he offered a promise that required trust. Her “yes” was not quiet submission but bold courage in a complicated world. God’s favor rarely feels comfortable, but it always leads somewhere holy.
Introduction
Courage doesn’t always look like charging into battle. Sometimes it looks like saying yes when everything in you wants to say wait.
When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he didn’t find her in a palace or a temple, but in Nazareth—a small, forgettable place. God’s great interruptions often begin that way: unannounced, inconvenient, and unbelievable.
Luke’s story of the Annunciation isn’t gentle sentiment. It’s a collision between divine purpose and human vulnerability. A teenage girl from a nowhere town is asked to carry the Son of God. No safety net. No blueprint. No guarantee that anyone will believe her.
And yet, she says yes.
Big Idea
God’s favor often looks less like comfort and more like calling.
Reasoning
Mary’s story reminds us that calling and clarity don’t always arrive together. Gabriel’s message—“You have found favor with God”—sounds reassuring until you realize what that favor means. It means gossip. It means risk. It means surrendering the life you expected for the one God is unfolding.
That’s what divine favor really is: not a reward, but an invitation. God doesn’t pick people because they’re strong; He makes them strong through the call.
Mary isn’t chosen because she’s ready. She’s chosen because she’s willing.
As preacher, you could summarize how the congregation showed up and said yes in our complicated world: raising awareness or funds for hunger or another issue, taking care of one another across political divides, etc. This gives visitors a better, more well-rounded view of you and the congregation, and it tells the congregation that their work matters.
The Sermon
When Gabriel first greets her, Mary is perplexed. The text says she pondered what sort of greeting this might be. That’s the space between fear and faith—the moment of wondering whether this message is a blessing or a burden.
Gabriel tells her not to be afraid. But angels only say that when there’s plenty to be afraid of.
Mary is told she will bear a child, the Son of the Most High. Her question—“How can this be?”—isn’t doubt; it’s honesty. She’s not resisting. She’s reckoning.
Faith doesn’t mean we stop asking questions. It means we trust God enough to bring them to Him.
1. God Calls Ordinary People from Ordinary Places
Nazareth wasn’t known for much. It was a village of maybe a few hundred. It didn’t appear on maps. It wasn’t a place of power or prestige. Yet that’s where heaven sent its messenger.
The world measures potential by location and status; God measures it by openness.
When God interrupts our lives, we often look around and think, Surely there’s someone better qualified. But God delights in using the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary.
2. God’s Favor Doesn’t Always Feel Like Favor
We talk about being “blessed” as if it always means things are going our way. But divine favor is not the same as human ease.
Mary’s favor meant whispers behind her back. It meant a fiancé who almost left. It meant giving birth far from home.
And yet, in that difficult obedience, God’s promise came to life.
Sometimes the clearest sign that God is working in our lives is not peace and simplicity but disruption and dependence.
3. Courage Is Saying Yes When You Don’t Have All the Answers
Mary ends the conversation with words that echo across the centuries:
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
(Luke 1:38, NRSV)
It’s one of the purest prayers in Scripture—short, costly, and complete.
She doesn’t say, Show me the plan. She says, Let it be.
That’s not resignation. It’s courage.
Her yes changes everything—not because it was loud, but because it was faithful.
Meaning for Today
The world still needs Mary’s kind of courage. The courage to believe that God can be at work in the ordinary, in the confusing, in the moments that don’t make sense yet.
When we say yes to God’s calling, we rarely know what we’re signing up for. But we do know Who we’re saying yes to.
And that makes all the difference.
So perhaps tonight, or this season, our prayer could be as simple as hers:
“Here am I. Let it be.”
