2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Luke 1:26-38

"Do you hear voices?"

That was a question I was asked during a full day of psychological testing that I undertook when I first entered the seminary. This testing was required by the presbytery as part of the examination process to see if I am a good candidate to be a minister of Word and Sacrament.

"Do you hear voices?"

Well..., I knew that the preferable answer is "No." But I wondered if maybe it wasn't a trick question. I mean, here I was in my first year of seminary where there was a big emphasis on hearing God's call for my life. This step I was taking was not to been seen as a way to get a job at some church; it was to be understood as living into God's desires for my life. And how would I know what God desired for my life if I didn't hear God speaking to me in some way?

"Do you hear voices?"

Ultimately, I answered the question, "No." But I did pause to consider before doing so. I feel that God did speak to me in the concrete voice of my pastor who asked me if I had ever considered going to seminary. I also heard God speaking through the voices of my husband and friends who said, "Of course!" when they heard I was indeed considering it.

I am not alone in feeling that God speaks to us to make God's will made known. I am joined by Christians throughout the ages in understanding that God works in this way. Presbyterians believe that this is such an important concept that they have included it in both parts of the constitution on which the church is founded - the Book of Order and the Book of Confessions.

The Book of Order, which seeks to establish how the church governs itself, begins with very clear statements about who God is and how God works. It affirms with believers from throughout the centuries that:

God alone is the Lord of the conscience, and that left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith and worship. Therefore we consider the rights of private judgment, in all matters that respect religion, as universal and unalienable....

"God alone is the Lord of the conscience." God speaks to each person and convicts them of what they should do. This is a founding tenet of how we understand God to work in and through creation.

And, likewise, the Book of Confessions, a gathering of eleven creeds and confessions from the universal Church at different times in its history and in different situations, affirms that God speaks to God's people. The most recent addition to this book, "A Brief Statement of Faith", which was written upon the occasion of the reunification of two major branches of the Presbyterian church in 1983, explains in more modern wording how we understand God to speak. In the section on the Holy Spirit it says:

The same Spirit
who inspired the prophets and apostles
rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture,
engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism,
feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation,
and calls women and men to all ministries of the Church.

God speaks through the work of the Holy Spirit when we read the Bible, when we hear a sermon, when we are baptized or witness a baptism, when we partake of the Lord's Supper. And all of this speaking calls us to ministry in the Church.

Allowing God to truly be the Lord of our conscience requires a lot of listening on our part. This isn't something that comes easily to most of us. We need to develop practices that will help us to be more attentive to God: practices like Bible study - whether with a group, individually, or both; regular participation in worship; meditation and prayer times where we allow ourselves to sit quietly and really listen to what God is trying to say.

When we do these things, we open ourselves to the possibility of hearing God speak - of understanding what it is that God would have us do with our lives.

Now here's the tricky part: How do we know that what we are hearing (or feeling moved to do) is really what God wants of us? How can we be certain that we are really following God's will for our lives?

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees. But if we are faithful in our practices of opening ourselves to hear God speaking to us, we will be more likely to hear what God is saying and not what we want God to be saying.

Presbyterian Christians are strong believers in the idea that we can hear God more clearly in groups. When several people all believe that they are hearing the same message, then it is understood to be closer to what God would have us do than if just one person hears that message.

One example of this way of thinking is the process that I went through (and continue to go through) with the presbytery as I decided to seek ordination as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA). Once I decided that I felt called by God to go into this ministry, I had to seek the affirmation and support of my church who sponsored me before the presbytery. And then I had to submit many written statements, the results of the psychological tests that I was speaking about earlier, and I had to meet with members of the Committee on Preparation for Ministry so that they could affirm and support me in this call.

I heard the call, but that was not sufficient for the church to know for sure it was God's will. By having a church as well as the presbytery representatives agree and back my decision, we all could be more assured that this truly is what God would have me to do with my life. And throughout the four years that I have been engaged in this process, I have had to go back to both my church and the presbytery to update them on my progress and to be reaffirmed in my call to be an ordained pastor.

Can you imagine if the people in our Scripture lessons had been required to go through a similar process before they began their ministries? Can you imagine them being asked if they heard voices? The stories might have turned out quite differently.

Nathan the prophet made his living by listening to the voice of God and passing along what he heard to his boss, King David. If he had not listened to God's voice speaking to him, he would not have been able to advise the king and help him to understand God's will for his life - in this instance, whether or not to build a temple for the Lord.

And what about Mary? If she hadn't heard the angel of the Lord speaking to her, she would not have had the opportunity to take part in God's plan of salvation for all of creation. How would our faith be different if she hadn't heard that call?!

We live in a rational world. Our thinking has been shaped by the changes that the Enlightenment brought. While this is a wonderful thing that has allowed for great innovation and learning, it has also made it harder for us to trust the Spirit of God to move in and among us. We have to explain everything to make it fit with our understanding of reality.

In a way, we are like King David - we want to box God in.

In our passage for today, David is firmly established as the king over the united kingdoms of Judah and Israel. He has finally gained physical and financial security for himself and for the people. He has a royal house with a throne. And he can finally relax a little because his enemies have been put down and are not chasing him about any more.

Now that his attention is not solely focused on the needs of survival, David turns his thoughts to honoring the Lord God who has seen him and the people through all the difficult times. He thinks to himself that it doesn't seem right for him to be comfortable in his house while God does not have a proper house, or temple.

So David seeks advice from a court prophet to verify that what he is thinking is really what God would have him do. He finds Nathan and states his idea. And Nathan gives the go ahead saying, "the Lord is with you."

But later that night Nathan hears the Lord speaking to him telling him to stop David. God doesn't want to be boxed in by the walls of a temple. During all the years that God has been with the Hebrew people, God has always dwelt in a tent or a tabernacle. These are dwellings intended to be moved about. God likes these as symbols for how God moves in and among the people - coming and going freely, working where God will.

All God wants of David is for him to remember that it was God who made it possible for him to have all that he has. And God promises to do even more for David - to establish his house and his throne forever. It is God who builds the houses, not David. God calls David to remember that.

Maybe God is calling to us to remember that too. Maybe we are busy building God a temple that God doesn't want. Maybe we are trying to tie God down and make God fit our own understanding.

God calls us to tear down the walls of the temples we have built. Tear down the walls that hold people out. God does not want anyone to be stopped from hearing the good news of Christmas: that God comes in the form of a baby to all of creation. God wants to move freely to meet each and every person who is looking for God. So tear down the walls.

Tear down the walls of discrimination, walls of judgment, and walls of self-righteousness. Tear down the walls of doubt, walls of unworthiness, and walls of belittlement. Whatever walls hold up your temple for God, tear them all down.

God wants to surprise us, like God surprised Mary. But God can't do that when we have those walls up. Those walls make it hard for us to hear God's voice calling to us. They make it impossible for us to say as Mary did, "let it be with me according to your word."

You can bet there were a few walls that Mary had to tear down to be able to say that after hearing the message from that angel. She had to tear down the wall that told her she was just a common person who couldn't be used by God.

We see Mary run into that wall when she hears the words "Greetings, favored one!" The text tells us that she was perplexed by these words. How could she be favored. What did that mean? She was just a regular country girl going about her life. How could she be favored by God - wasn't that something that happened to the ruling elite? She certainly wasn't that.

So Mary had to tear that wall of self-doubt down.

Next, she had to tear down the wall of human understanding. She was being told that she would bear a child, but she she was still a virgin. How could that be possible? She might not know all the ins and outs of pregnancy, but she did know that she needed to be with a man first before she would become pregnant.

But the angel told her to tear down that wall! Elizabeth, her cousin, was in her sixth month of pregnancy even though everyone knew she was barren and too old to have a child. God wasn't held in by those walls, and God would not be held in by the walls of Mary's virginity either.

So Mary had to tear down the wall of her limited human knowledge.

And Mary also had to tear down the wall of social convention that would look down on her for being pregnant outside of marriage. She was engaged to be married, but Joseph, her fiance, would know that this child was not his. This would bring shame not only to him and his household but also to hers. What would she do when everyone shunned her because of this pregnancy?

So Mary had to tear down the wall of shame.

Mary had to tear all these walls down so that she could hear God speaking to her. And when she did, she responded, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." She allowed God to work in a surprising and wonderful way in her life. And all of creation benefited from that.

God wants to work in surprising and wonderful ways in our lives too. We need to tear down the walls that we have built up and listen for God's voice speaking to us - through the Bible, through a sermon, through prayer, through the voice of a friend.

Listen. God is calling. God wants us to share the good news of Christmas: Jesus Christ came to live and dwell among us. Through this act, Christ showed that God claims us as God's own and walks among us.

Do you hear voices? I hope you hear just one - the voice of God calling to you, claiming you as God's own, and asking you to join in sharing the good news that Jesus Christ is born.

Amen.

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