Welcome to our fourth and final week of our Advent message series, “Your Best Yes.” The busyness of the Advent/Christmas season is entering into the final stretch. Hopefully, most of us have most of our shopping done, gifts wrapped, and Christmas cards out. Well, I haven’t even started my Christmas cards, but I have the other stuff finished.

Now it will be more the visiting – going to visit family and friends. It is all good stuff, but it can also be more than a little stressful, because we still have all our normal activities and responsibilities to do. 

We have been talking throughout this message series the importance of having a strategy, so that our busyness does not become filled with anxiety, anger, and annoyance. The strategy that we have been proposing is discernment. When life presents more than one good option, discernment is about reflecting on the best one, the one that represents the best use of our time and resources, the one that will have the greatest impact or do the most good: the greatest good before God.

We have discussed how we find our best “yes” when we invite God into our decision making process. And it is important to remember that we always do have a choice.

Over the course of this series we have looked at how we can grow to love God, love others, and inspired by that love, make disciples through our very best yes. Two weeks ago we talked about loving God by trusting him. Last week the deacons talked about loving others by sharing with them. Sharing is a basic component of creation. In fact, the whole process of creation, the way in which it was made to work, relies on the concept of sharing. Just as trusting God is the easiest, most efficient way to love Him, sharing is the easiest, most efficient way to love others.

To close out this series, we are going to move closer to the Christmas story. Both St. Matthew and St. Luke present the Christmas story; St. Matthew from St. Joseph’s perspective, and St. Luke from Mary’s perspective. St. Matthew has the Magi, whereas St. Luke includes the shepherds.

Mary is first introduced to us in the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, when the angel Gabriel appears to her. Gabriel tells Mary that God intends to send the long awaited Messiah into the world, and that God has chosen Mary to be his mother. It is important to note, that Gabriel tells Mary not what God is going to do, but what He wants to do. What will happen depends on her; without her cooperation it will not happen.

St. Luke tells us, “Mary was greatly troubled and pondered what sort of greeting this might be” (Luke 1:29). Mary PONDERED. She did not hesitate; there was no indecisiveness or unwillingness. No, instead Mary pondered. She thought about it, contemplated it. She deliberated. She could have said “yes” and she could have said “no.”

“Let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary said, “Yes.” It was not only her best yes, but the best yes in history.

However, as we hear in today’s Gospel passage, the story continues. “Mary set out

and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth” (Luke 1:39-40). Mary immediately thinks about someone else. This was not an easy journey – about 90 miles – into the mountains, while in the first stage of pregnancy, so morning sickness. Yet Mary goes to serve her older cousin who is also pregnant. 

But Mary does more than just goes to help Elizabeth out. She goes to share her faith. Mary is literally carrying the Christ to Elizabeth. Having received Christ through her yes to God, now Mary shares Christ.

Christianity is different from every other religion. Every other religion says that we have to work our way to get to God. Christianity reveals that it is the other way around. God has already done the heavy lifting by coming to us in the most radical way possible – by entering human history as a helpless baby. Christianity says that we do not have to earn our way, nor can we. God does it for us.

That message is not intuitive even for people familiar with the Christmas story. Neither is it necessarily easy to accept, as evidenced by most people’s belief that the way to get to heaven is to be a good person. Though it is certainly one of the goals of Christian living to be a good person, you do not get to heaven by being a good person or doing good. Our good is never good enough for the perfection of God.

Salvation is about accepting Christ into our lives, repeating the same yes Mary did, and receiving Christ into our lives. The corollary to receiving Christ into your life is sharing him with others, just as Mary did with Elizabeth.

Of course we can see a few problems with the idea of sharing our faith. First, many of the people in our lives are not always exactly as open to connecting with Christ as Elizabeth was. Besides, sharing our faith often seems inappropriate and impolite. We are afraid of how people will respond. We are not sure what we should say. What are we suppose to say or do?

Do what Mary did. Be present to people and serve them. Serving others, helping others opens up opportunities to influence them for Christ.

Over the holidays we have a unique opportunity to do both. This week there will be opportunities to simply be present with people. If we go into those situations with the mindset that we want to introduce them to Christ, the opportunity may present itself.

Who is one person who does not have a relationship with God that you can make yourself available for? Invest in that person this week or over the Christmas break with the purpose that you want to introduce them into a relationship with Christ. You never even have to say a word. Invest in the relationship and believe that God will act.

This Christmas celebrate the Good News by sharing it. Make that your best yes.