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Meredith Summers
Meredith Summers, minister to women at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene, admitted she has a hard time relating to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The circumstances of Mary’s pregnancy and life are so unlike the usual experience, she said. Even so, Summers hoped her hearers would be able to see themselves in Mary’s story.
Summers wondered what Mary would say to her hearers and what Mary would want them to see. She painted a possible picture by delivering a passionate first-person reflection on Jesus’ life from Mary’s perspective. Summers wove Mary’s personal story with Scripture foretelling and then describing Jesus’ life and ministry.
A major point of Mary’s story is, “No word from our God will ever fail.” Summers’ Marian monologue brought this point into fine focus. This same God transformed Mary from a peasant girl into the carrier of God’s Son, she noted.
“Mary and us, we are not that different,” Summers said. “God’s redemptive work through Mary is replicated in God’s church,” she added. Just as God lived, grew and entered the world in and through Mary, he wants to do the same through us, Summers contended.
What kind of character are we in God’s story? Are we “advancing the plotline of God’s redemptive story,” are we off to the side not doing anything, or are we advancing our own story, Summers challenged.
This sermon was delivered Dec. 18, 2022, for the 10:30 a.m. Gathering worship service at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene. It is part of a series titled “The Characters of Christmas.”
A sermon script is available here.
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