This sermon was preached to my congregation last Sunday Dec. 14, 2008. I am part of a preaching cohort of Covenant pastors and as part of the cohort assignment I met with a group of six church members for a meeting a week before the sermon. We looked at the text together. They gave me their questions and opinions about what they would bring out of this text. I decided to try a first person narrative to bring out Mary's joy, fear, and sacrifice.

The main point of the sermon is that God uses ordinary people when we are willing to say "yes" to him. In the conversation about the text I also realized many members did not understand the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth or why it was so scandalous for Mary to be pregnant during her engagement year. I wanted to answer some of their questions on the culture of that day as well in the sermon.

The congregation is mainly older, working class, many people in their 70's and 80's, a few are college educated. The service is traditional and somewhat formal. As a younger woman speaking to generations my grandparents and parents ages I stand behind the pulpit and wear the alb and stole to give me some pastoral authority.

The video is 18 minutes long. Services usually last one hour with about 20 minutes of preaching.