The God who bypassed every qualified candidate and chose a teenage noob from redneck country to raise his Son is still sending impossible missions — and the only question is whether you'll answer the way she did.
Central Image
The Mission Impossible tape — handed to you, played once, then gone. Accept it or don't. The whole sermon turned on that frame: what God assigns is impossible by design, it comes with no safety net, and somebody has to say yes anyway.
The Turn
The sermon exposed the assumption that God works through the qualified, the established, the righteous, and the powerful — then showed he sent Gabriel straight past the temple in Jerusalem, past the righteous old priest in the center of power, all the way to a teenage girl in Galilee, which was where the redneck Jews lived, and where nobody important was paying attention.
Outline
The Mission: What the Job Actually Required
Toby opened with the Mission Impossible setup — tie, the reel-to-reel tape, your mission should you choose to accept it. Then he laid out what the actual assignment was: raise the incarnate Son of God. Not symbolically. Practically. Teach him the scriptures, teach him to think, teach him to handle difficult people. Jesus didn't cheat his way through a human childhood — he did it the hard way, which meant somebody had to do the parenting. Toby played out the team he'd have assembled if he were running it: bodyguards, a strong man, a team of prophets, James Bond for social situations, someone from law enforcement because they were going to come after the Messiah eventually. The point of the comedy was to set up the contrast.
Zechariah: Where God Started
God had already gone to Zechariah. Old righteous priest, Jerusalem, the temple, doing his appointed service — everything about the scene looks like what you'd expect. The angel Gabriel shows up and announces that Elizabeth, who is barren and well past the normal word for "old" (the word we get "gerontology" from), is going to have a son who will be the forerunner of the Messiah. Zechariah asks: how am I supposed to know this is going to happen? Gabriel, much like Michael Jordan, took that personally. He shut Zechariah up for the duration of the pregnancy. The center of religious power, the best of the best, failed. So God went somewhere else.
Galilee: The Actual Choice
In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Gabriel is sent to Galilee — which Luke makes sure to name because his readers knew what that meant. Galilee was where the redneck Jews lived. Less educated, different customs, looked down on by the people in Judah. Gabriel goes to Nazareth, in Galilee, to find a teenage girl named Miriam, probably 14 or 15 years old. Toby called teenagers "noobs at being human" — not fully baked, vulnerable to everything. She's betrothed to Joseph, who is of the house of David, which by the first century was just a stump — not much left of it, and what was left was living in redneck country. Toby flagged that nothing in Gabriel's words commends Mary's righteousness. The whole speech is about what God decided to do for her, not about what she earned. This is grace, not reward.
Two Questions
Zechariah asked how he would know. Mary asked how this would be. The sermon pressed that gap hard: Zechariah wanted proof; Mary wanted instructions. She was already sold before Gabriel finished the announcement — her question was a process question. She believed it was happening; she just wanted to know if there was something she was supposed to do next. Gabriel's answer: no, the Holy Spirit is going to handle it. Then he tells her about Elizabeth — for nothing will be impossible with God. Literally in the Greek: "not impossible with God any word." Mary picked up the mirror in her response.
Mary's Answer and Her Walk
Mary's final words matched Gabriel's language deliberately: he said "behold," she said "behold." He announced; she received. "Behold, the servant of the Lord. May it be to me according to your word." And then, that same day, she packed up and hiked somewhere between 50 and 80 miles south through hill country to find Elizabeth. Alone. Toby held that up against the picture of a timid, mild Mary and said: this is a girl on fire. She bought everything the angel said, hook, line, and sinker — and her feet proved it before the day was out.
The Landing
The mission God handed to the world through Mary is the same one he hands to this room: your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to say what she said — "Behold, the servant of the Lord. May it be to me as you have said."
Questions to Think About
- The Mission Impossible tape self-destructs after it plays — no record, no going back. When has someone handed you something that felt that big and irreversible, and how did you respond?
- The sermon drew a sharp line between Zechariah's question and Mary's question. What was actually different about what each of them asked the angel?
- Toby made a point that nothing Gabriel says to Mary is about how righteous she was — the angel's words are entirely about what God decided to do for her. Why does that distinction change the story?
- The sermon called teenagers "noobs at being human." Where in your own life have you held back from something because you figured you weren't seasoned enough, qualified enough, or ready enough?
- Mary was already in before Gabriel finished talking — she was asking process questions before he was done. What's the actual difference between believing something and moving on it that same day?
- The angel told Mary this was God's grace toward her, not a reward for her quality. Most of us have something we're trying to get sorted before we give God full access to it. What would it actually cost you to say what Mary said with things the way they are right now?
- God sent Gabriel past Jerusalem, past the temple, past the righteous old priest, all the way to a small town in redneck country. Where does this church tend to look for what God is doing — and where might we be missing it because it doesn't look important enough?
- Mary's answer was specific: "Behold, the servant of the Lord. May it be to me as you have said." What's one thing in your life right now that you've been negotiating with instead of just saying that?