Tag Archives: Mary

Building a New World

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A Sermon for 15 December 2019 – Third Advent

A reading from the gospel of Luke 1:46-55. Listen to God’s word to us through a reading of words coming from the lips of a young girl when she found out that God intended to do amazing things through her. Enlisting her to bear a child in the middle of a world taken over by an oppressive empire. The young girl consents proclaiming words known throughout history as the Magnificat. Listen.

“And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the LORD, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name. God’s mercy is for those who fear God from generation to generation. God has shown strength with his arm; God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. God has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise God made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

 

Have you heard the news? God is building a new world!

Listen to the promise of the prophet. One named Isaiah who it’s believe gave voice to God’s plans when the people found themselves still in Babylonian exile – or possibly just back home in the land of Judah, scholars aren’t sure of the writing’s date so that it’s possible the people not long before Isaiah’s words had walked upon a seemingly miraculous highway of the LORD running far off in the East right back to the crumbled doorposts of Jerusalem. Whichever side of exile, the prophet proclaims: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly. . . . (For) the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6  . . . the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. . . . Waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes” (Isaiah 35:1-2a, 5-7). No one expects deserts to burst with beautiful blossoms of wildflowers for as far as the eye can see. Blind eyes don’t become open again, do they? Do ears unable to hear suddenly find release? People unable to walk all at once hopping and leaping and bounding all about? Those silenced, tongues unable to speak, don’t all of a sudden sing for joy, do they?

Listen to another prophet who finds herself at her aunt’s house shortly after a messenger of God interrupts her typical teenage afternoon. Gabriel, the one known by her people as God’s messenger – one standing in for God’s presence. This angel appears in a way in which she actually can communion, and the young girl known as Mary – the one already engaged, though not yet living with the man to whom she’d been given. Mary receives world-shaking news. A life-altering message that despite appearances, God is with her and her people. It wasn’t the first time such notice had been given in the most unlikely of ways to ones who traced their history through the likes of the great King David – who didn’t exactly come from the proper lineage what with his foreign great-grandmother Ruth uniting herself to Boaz. Don’t forget Moses, a salvific figure for the people, whose dicey past as a murderer, after being raised in the palace of the Pharaoh due to his mother’s shrewdness, drives him away into hiding only at last to return to a nation in need when a voice amid a flaming bush set his life upon a different path. And what about Abram and Sarai – the father and mother of them all –who doubted promises given – even laughed at God’s audacious plan? In a long line of questionable ancestors such as these; legend says, a young girl went forth one ordinary day to draw water at Nazareth’s well. She came home a completely different woman. Perplexed by how it all could be but willing to open her life and her womb to how God was building a new world.

The prophet Mary proclaims: “My soul magnifies the LORD! For God has done great things! God has scattered the proud. And brought down the powerful. God has lifted up the lowly and filled the hungry. God has helped servant Israel,” (paraphrase of Luke 1:46-55, various verses) the ones classically known as wrestlers with God – as was their namesake Jacob who would not relent until a blessing was given and his name, at dawn, turned to Israel, or: he who wrestles with God. So we can too! Make no mistake about it. For eons, God has been busy building a new world! One biblical commentator, brilliantly puts it like this: Mary’s “song is not a halfhearted praise; this is more than ‘my soul thanks the LORD and I trust that (God’ll) get me through this mess and things will turn out okay’” (Connections, Yr. A, Vol. 1, Marci Auld Glass, p. 40). Mary does, after all, find herself in quite a pickle as a pregnant, yet-unwed mother who could not only get turned away by the man to whom she had been promised for marriage. But also, according to their nation’s laws, Joseph could have her stoned for such a presumed betrayal of the bridal bed. Nonetheless, the biblical commentator reminds that Mary’s “song is much bigger” than a simple thank you, God. Her proclamation “shows that she, correctly, connects the details of her life to God’s bigger plan for the world” (Ibid.). ‘Cuz let’s face it: “If God can use a teenaged girl from a backwater town, then surely God will fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away hungry. Surely God will bring down the mighty and lift up the lowly” (Ibid.). Mary’s song, it is written: “becomes not a prophesy or prediction, but a description of reality” (Ibid.). And you know how we know: because in her singing, Mary “does not even bother to use future tense. She does not sing, ‘God will . . .’ She sings, ‘God HAS . . .’” (Ibid.). Thus, with the mother-to-be we too can proclaim: God is building a new world!

You know how else we can know? We can look to see all around us. While the national news continues to show leaders at each other’s throats. While they want us again and again to see divisions between people and nations and those perceived to be so very different from one another. You know what I’ve seen? Let’s just start with last Sunday when children of a father whose mind slipped far away came back here. Believing they would find solace in their loss – welcome in their grief and proclamation of God’s work even over death no matter that it had been a while since their family had been able to be a part of this church. Monday all sorts of interesting conversations began! I saw leaders of this congregation meet with young people to see how their gifts might undergird our own efforts in community renewal. I heard leaders among our community partners tell how new efforts could bring greater good! Tuesday – well, so many of you were here then! I saw a parlor transformed to a banquet where all could sit down to feast! Women whose wounds seem obvious and others who more easily have been able to keep things together. Felons laughing with new friends – some struggling still from the effects of addiction and the pain the disease has caused in their families – and others able just to listen. Hearts open wide because we know we need each other. And while it got a bit chaotic when about a dozen high schooler girls and boys descended upon the doorstep, did you see how God was building a new world when Trina Frierson, the founder of Mending Hearts, spoke? She told her cautionary story so they might now make positive decisions. All the while, even some macho teenage boys listened. Which reminds that we cannot know how something as simple as stories shared and encouragement given and hope of a different way allows God to build anew. When Thursday rolled round, this place was packed! Every pew full of parents and grandparents and family friends – cameras on the ready – as little children of every shade stood up here. Absolutely adorable! Have you ever heard about 80 wee voices sing things like “Up on the rooftop, click, click, click!” From Frosty the magically-come-to-life snowman to holiday songs about dreidels to joyous little mouths belting out: “We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!” At such young age the gift of music and art and play is a part of the lives of Playcare’s children. So maybe when they are older, they’ll recognize creativity keeps them connected to the Source, who Creates us all! Another way I’ve been noticing that same One at work is through this Trader Joe’s pick-up and delivery process we’ve gotten ourselves into! Every time others hear about these Neighborhood Shares efforts, it’s like hope in humanity’s kindness gets restored. Trust in generosity and abundance and the simple gift of caring no matter the circumstance or age. So many new relationships are being forged through simple things like flowers – lives are getting impacted positively and other opportunities for connection are unfolding! It’s so cool! Yes, God is busy building a new world – re-weaving the fabric of community every time a flower is passed along, or a random stalk of brussels sprouts shows up in our narthex. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the joy of such grace – such gift is making a deep impact this Advent.

Mother-to-be Mary knew it was so. Some might say she sang it out ahead of time because she could see. It is through every act of compassion. Every courageous step. Each YES to Spirit’s invitation adds one more brick to the new world God is building! Don’t you ever doubt it; for the work is still the same. Through ordinary folks like Mary and Joseph and us, God is building a new world!

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

© Copyright JMN – 2019 (All rights reserved.)

Waiting

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A Sermon for 11 December 2016 – 3rd Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35:1-10 and Luke 1:46-55

A reading from the prophet Isaiah 35:1-10. Listen for God’s word to us.

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” 5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 8A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. 9No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

 

It comes as no surprise: that we live in a culture of instant gratification. Messages that used to take an ocean vessel months to deliver from one side of the world to the other, now are received in a moment. We can pull up to a drive-through today to be eating within minutes instead of heading out to a garden or field or barn to gather our own harvests after months of tending and toiling followed by all the time and effort it takes before finally sitting down to feast. Though our chances might be a zillion-to-one, one of us could strike it rich in a snap in the lottery. Wanna know what the weather’s supposed to be like later this week? Open an app on your smart phone to find right out. Wanna read the latest release by your favorite author? No need to mess with jammed parking lots at the mall, download the title in an instant and start reading right away. Fast, fast, fast. For a price, today we can get almost anything we want the moment it enters our minds.

Maybe that’s why more and more of us pitch a fit whenever we have to wait. Wait for the customer in the line ahead of us. Wait for the car that turned illegally into the intersection and now holds up all the traffic. Wait for an appointment regarding a medical condition. Wait for a loved one to come home. Wait for an apology or the end of a bitter divide. Wait for things to change the way we hope they will. Wait – truly wait during Advent – stalling premature celebrations before the December 24th arrival of the most holy of nights. Fewer and fewer of us seem to welcome a wait. Nonetheless, life is full of waiting. No matter how fast we’ve been able to speed up so many things in this world, we still can’t get an answer any quicker to an earnest prayer. We can’t make the night end so that the warmth of daylight will return. We can’t short circuit the time it takes to heal a broken heart. We can’t more deeply know God and see what God’s up to in our lives any faster than the slow passing of each day. In all these circumstances, we can’t do much of anything else except wait. Wait. Wait. Patiently wait.

It helps when we keep our focus on what we are waiting for. The prophet Isaiah knew this. In the 35th chapter of this intriguing book, it is believed that God’s people were waiting yet. According to biblical scholars, this portion of Isaiah is considered a part of Second Isaiah – the prophesy to the exiles who still are living in Babylon (Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 1; Bruce C. Birch, p. 51). Whereas First Isaiah warns that it could happen and Third Isaiah is for those who finally had returned to begin rebuilding life; Second Isaiah comes in between. While the people of God still exist outside their beloved homeland. When the Southern kingdom fell, little ones were carted off to Babylon along with their mothers and fathers and grandparents. As far as is known, they weren’t totally enslaved. Just taken away without the option to return. Though the deportation was filled with destructive violence, when they arrive in Babylon; they had homes and livelihoods – though they were surrounded daily by people whose ways they could not understand. The worst was that they no longer had the Temple in which to carry out religious practices. Even if things sometimes got distorted back home in Jerusalem, there they at least had the freedom to know God as they had known God for centuries. Babylon meant the start of something new with God – though they couldn’t yet imagine what that would be. . . . Many of them would die there waiting in that foreign land – dreaming of home but never again crossing over the Jordan into their beautiful promised paradise. A few patiently lived the seven decades in Babylon before returning to Judah forever. Most that came home were born exiles in a faraway land wondering if they’d ever make back to see for themselves the places for which their parents pined. The prophet’s voice encourages the people while they wait and wait and wait so far from their native home. No one wants them to give up hope. And they cannot be left to wonder if God was destroyed forever in the ashes of the glorious Temple. . . . And so: the prophet proclaims a time when the desert-like land their ancestors knew forty-long years will blossom like a fertile garden. For any growing old and for those about to give up hope on ever returning home, the prophet booms: “Be strong. Do not fear!” (Isaiah 35:4). God has not forgotten. Just as the tears in Egypt made their way into Heaven’s ear, the LORD is with them still. The day of salvation draws near. . . . It can be difficult to wait for eyes to be opened and ears to hear. For those whose bodies are frail to bound again with youthful energy. For deep silences at last to give way to songs of never-ending joy! They must wait. Patiently wait in Babylon, for at last a way shall unfold – a Holy Way in which all God’s people will walk. No harm shall surround so that nothing but joy, joy, joy shall remain! Wait. Wait for the Way – God’s Way – surely is coming.

Waiting is risky business. It reminds us that we are not in control. Waiting in hope challenges us not to doubt. Waiting patiently teaches that all things, in their own time, must unfold. . . . The first scripture reading for today reminds us of another one who allowed herself to wait. From the start, something inexplicable was taking place inside. Though she was given the opportunity to say no or yes, young Mary certainly was learning that things were not one bit in her control. She was swept up in something so much bigger than she ever could imagine for her life. The words of her brilliant song ring out: “My soul magnifies the LORD and my spirit rejoices in my Savior!” (Luke 1:47). We never hear what other tunes vied for her attention during those nine long months. Was it possible she did what so many of us do during times of waiting? Did she doubt? Did she worry that no one would ever believe the crazy story? Did she wonder that if she did something wrong God might change God’s mind? She couldn’t rush the process along – no matter how awful the sickness of the first trimester or how annoying the uncomfortable final weeks. It’s not recorded in Scripture that she ever tried every trick in the book to get Joseph to believe her quicker or went into an all-out temper tantrum when he said, that near her end, that they had to travel ninety miles to Bethlehem. She knew her people’s history and how long they had to wait. In Egypt. In the wilderness. In exile. Even back home, waiting for the bread of freedom. Was she willing to wait because somewhere inside she knew it was worth it? Because she trusted the God who always makes a way – no matter how long the wait? . . . Waiting. Waiting. Waiting for the day at last when all things are new.

I’m grateful for all the conveniences of our lives that really do make lots easier. But we’ve got to find a way to learn again how to wait. In patience. In hope. Like Mary and our exiled ancestors too. For some things are better left un-rushed. Even if we can’t see the bigger picture of why. Some things need to take time . . . time to unfold slowly that we might be prepared for what will come. Time for space to be opened in our hearts to receive whatever will be. . . . Rest assured: we’re waiting for something good! Something very, very good! Something as beautiful as transformed deserts, with cool springs satiating parched places and crocuses blooming abundantly. We’re waiting for the day when our own blinded eyes shall see and at last we hear whispered in our ear the sweet words of God: “Do not fear. I AM with you. Together we are home!” Then we shall leap like when we were young on Christmas morning and could not contain our excitement. Then we shall sing . . . sing for joy – even if we think we can’t carry much of a tune. We shall rejoice and be merry forever for everlasting joy shall remain in us. A Way. The Way is being made!

Wait, people of God. Wait. Patiently wait.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

© Copyright JMN – 2016  (All rights reserved.)