How Do You Raise a Messiah?

A Sermon on Luke 1:38

Dr. Carolyn Gordon revisits the details of Mary’s call as a way of encouraging us to embrace our calling no matter what. Mary was given a surprising, honored, but encumbering commission in bearing the Messiah, though she was a virgin. Her response, captured in 1:38, is, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” Affirming the faith of this response, Dr. Gordon wonders, “how do you raise a Messiah?” Mary faced many difficulties in Christ’s birth, his childhood, and especially in his ministry. He was threatened by homelessness, by persecution, and finally by false charges and crucifixion. So Dr. Gordon poses a final question, how do you raise a Messiah who ends up on a cross?

Biography

Dr. Gordon is the associate professor of communication, and she chairs the Department of Preaching and Communication at Fuller Seminary. Dually ordained by both the Southern and the National Baptist conventions, Gordon has more than a decade of pastoral experience during which she preached regularly. She directed the Ministries in Higher Education department of the Washington D.C. Baptist convention for six years, and has experience as a television producer and host. She has also served on the executive boards of the Center for Urban Church Renewal, United Inner Cities Services, and Baptist Women in Ministry. Her current research interests include communication theology: what God intended for the spoken word, preaching to senior adults, preaching to those with disabilities, and vocal development and the maintenance of the preaching voice.