Ecclesiastes 3
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRg9NkIdjVs
The book of Ecclesiastes is part of a genre of writing in the Hebrew Scripture known as Wisdom Literature. Job, Proverbs, Psalms are other examples. This particular passage is most often read at funerals, but the more I hear it the more I wonder if we are hearing it with the right pair of ears. We tend to hear it as if everything is preceded by “God has ordained........”, as if everything is out of our hands - and I am not convinced that’s what the passage means.
The question I have, always, is “Is this something God will do without us? Or is this something God will do together with us, when we have the will to do it.” Does planting just happen by itself, and harvesting? Or is it something we have to work at? Does loving and hating happen by itself?
Does peace just happen? Is it just absence of violence? Or is it a choice? I think peace will only happen when people have such a collective desire for war to be ended that there will be no other option, and there will be the will to make it happen. It is not that the differences between nations cannot be overcome - it is that we make choices, and get so attached to believing in the rightness of our way, that we cannot see beyond those things to a different way of being and doing.
It seems to me that this passage is a perfect description of the human condition. Yes, for each of us there is a time to be born and a time to die - and there are times between birth and death where we have a life to live; when there is death we mourn and where there is new life we celebrate. But we also make choices in the life we are given. Remember the words from Deuteronomy - “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Choose life!
So re-read Ecclesiastes now - but read it this way -
*we* choose the time to plant and a time to uproot,
*we* choose a time to kill and a time to heal,
*we* choose to tear down or to build up
*we* choose to weep and to laugh,
*we* choose to search and to give up
*we* choose to embrace and to refrain from embracing
*we* choose to keep or to throw away,
*we* choose to love or to hate
*we* choose to be silent or to speak
*we* choose war, and *we* choose peace
Between birth and death, our life is a journey. We are travelling a road, whether we like it or not. At Christmas God brought us life and light, and through the Christmas season and Epiphany, the light shines on the road. Every Christmas, God sets before us life and death, blessings and curses - but the *choices* are ours.
As I wrote this I had in the back of my mind the phrase “history repeats itself”, and a kind of niggling memory that it has its roots in Ecclesiastes. Sure enough, in the very opening passage of the book, we read Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new?’ It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who come after them.”
In Viet Nam I saw enough of war to believe that if we spent as much time and effort on making peace as we do on making war, we would have had real peace a long time ago. As I watch the news, and people who have become so obsessed by power and control that they will crush others, it becomes almost too much to bear. It seems as if people never change, and the possibility for change is not there.
And yet, the Revelation of John tells us that God creates a new thing, God can do something new, and will bring about a time when there is no more suffering or sorrow, no more pain, only peace and fulfillment for humanity. The question for me is, again, does God it alone? Or are we the ones who make choices to work for those things, with God’s help. As human beings there are lessons we need to learn, and choices which only we can make. As long as we choose hatred, or tearing down, we will not find love, or the building up. The new heavens and the new earth cannot come, so long as we make the wrong choices.
The birth of Jesus, and the life and teaching of Jesus, were a statement that it *is* possible to choose love over hate; it *is* possible to choose peace instead of war; it *is* possible to speak out instead of choosing to remain silent. So in this time, as we step off into a new year, another season in the life of faith, we have to ask what it means to us, individually and as a congregation. Do we take Christmas seriously? Do we take the birth, life and death of Jesus seriously? If we do, we have to believe that life and death, blessings and curses - are ours to choose - and that God wants us to make the right choices - but make no mistake, the choices *are* ours. And we want to make sure that the generations which follow will remember those lessons, instead of repeating the cycle, as we have been doing. Doing nothing is also a choice we make. Trying to hang on to things and keep them from moving is a choice - and with every choice there are consequences.
In his teachings, the Dalai Lama talks about basic steps for everyday living. Here is a smapling of them - what would happen if we all worked at these things?
Great love and great achievements involve great risk.
When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
Follow the three R’s: Respect for self. Respect for others. Responsibility for all your actions.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
Be gentle with the earth.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
There is no other person on this planet exactly like you.
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
May it be so.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Angels and Stars a sermon based on Luke 1:26-38 Fourth Sunday of Advent Humber United Church
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. He came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." She was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now, you will conceive and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. Now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
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How many people here believe in angels? There are, of course, many kinds of angels. Have you noticed that there is a lot of interest in angels today? There is some question as to whether or not belief in angels is a sign of spiritual confusion, or spiritual awakening. Believing in angels is not part of the articles of belief of Christianity. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament had to contend with the beliefs of a cult devoted to angels as the superior divine beings.
Angels are mentioned several times in the Christmas narratives of Luke and Matthew - an angel coming to Zechariah, to Mary, to Joseph - and then again when Jesus is about two years old and Joseph takes them into Egypt. Obviously this was important enough to mention.
Angels are depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible, and the Quran. Both the Hebrew and Greek words originally mean messenger; they can refer to a human messenger such as a prophet or priest, or to a supernatural messenger, the "Mal'akh YHWH," who is either a messenger from God, an aspect of God (such as the Logos), or God as the messenger.
There are also the cherubim and seraphim (the chayot in Ezekiel's vision and the Seraphim of Isaiah). However, while cherubim and seraphim have wings in the Bible, no angel is mentioned as having wings.
The original word from which all the others come is “angello” which means "to bear a message, announce, bring news of". The Greek philosopher Philo identifies the angel as the immaterial voice of God. According to Aristotle, just as there is a First Mover, God, so, too, must there be spiritual secondary movers
The Bible uses the terms “mal'akh Elohim; messenger of God”, “mal'akh YHWH; messenger of the Lord”.
Gabriel (translation: the strength of God), performs acts of justice and power
Raphael (translation: God Heals), God's healing force
Uriel (translation: God is my light), leads us to destiny
Satan (translation: the adversary), brings people's sins before them in the heavenly court
Chayot HaKodesh (translation: living beings)
I have never seen an angel, to the best of my knowledge, although I believe I have encountered one. What I do know about angels is the mention in Scripture, pictures and drawings, literary depictions of angels, movies. Up until recently, there was little talk about angels, except at Christmas where they suddenly proliferate in scripture and hymn and Christmas card art. I really do not like the way angels are depicted.
C.S. Lewis, who wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia”, was one of the foremost Christian authors, and critics of the church. Lewis said that angels, along with much of Christian thought and symbol have been made sweet and unoffensive, soft and comfortable, so we don’t have to really grapple with what they actually were.
I believe angels are messengers of God, not Santa's elves here to help us attain our wishes. Nor do I believe they are around to protect us or watch over us somehow. I believe angels are messengers of God who bring both the mystery and meaning of God's power, presence, and purpose into the actuality and reality of our limited dimension of existence and being. Angels bring messages of great things to come - they are not soft, fluffy and white. They mean there is something of earth-shattering change about to happen.
Then there’s the star. Whatever it was - a comet, or an exploding or imploding body deep in space, it was seen as a portent of something great. We don’t know for sure if it was even there. Biblical scholarship tells us that if there were Magi, they came along a couple of years later, when Jesus and is family were living in Egypt, waiting for Herod to die. Yet in our Christmas narrative the star has been put in there right with the angels. Well, the star wasn’t an angel - but it was certainly something cosmic. The event of whatever caused it was violent and cosmic. It was not a sweetly shining, twinkling star that just kind of sat there serenely every night. This was another event big enough to make people afraid - and I am sure some of the more superstitious people were. The star - a cosmic ball of gas - or a comet of ice and rock - was a huge event which caused a whole number of people to leave their homes and their comforts, and go looking, no matter how long it took.
There is an old saying, "After the ecstasy is the dishes." What happened afterwards seemed so ordinary. There was a birth. There was a child to be raised. There was cleaning and meals and washing, and all the needs of life and work. Angels are not mentioned much after the shepherds returned to the fields. They went back to being shepherds; back in their ordinary fields. The magi had to go back home, back to their ordinary lives. And It was into such a world of ordinary needs and deeds that the most extraordinary event occurred. Jesus was born into an ordinary world, ate the same ordinary food as everyone else around him - yet the birth was important enough that it was announced by a cosmic event of some kind, and a being which started off saying “Don’t be afraid.”
So let’s put the angels and the stars back into Christmas. Because that’s how life is, isn’t it? There are these great cosmic events, and then we go back to being ordinary people living in an ordinary world. Let’s see the angels for exactly what they were - beings which commanded fear at the sight of them - which brought messages of life-changing events.. Let’s look again at what we call a star - a violent and frightening cosmic event in the universe which served as a portent of a birth which would change the lives of people everywhere. Amen.
Sources:
1. Angels and Stars - a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota December 2005
2. The Messenger, the Mystery, and the Meaning by DG Bradley, 1996.
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How many people here believe in angels? There are, of course, many kinds of angels. Have you noticed that there is a lot of interest in angels today? There is some question as to whether or not belief in angels is a sign of spiritual confusion, or spiritual awakening. Believing in angels is not part of the articles of belief of Christianity. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament had to contend with the beliefs of a cult devoted to angels as the superior divine beings.
Angels are mentioned several times in the Christmas narratives of Luke and Matthew - an angel coming to Zechariah, to Mary, to Joseph - and then again when Jesus is about two years old and Joseph takes them into Egypt. Obviously this was important enough to mention.
Angels are depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible, and the Quran. Both the Hebrew and Greek words originally mean messenger; they can refer to a human messenger such as a prophet or priest, or to a supernatural messenger, the "Mal'akh YHWH," who is either a messenger from God, an aspect of God (such as the Logos), or God as the messenger.
There are also the cherubim and seraphim (the chayot in Ezekiel's vision and the Seraphim of Isaiah). However, while cherubim and seraphim have wings in the Bible, no angel is mentioned as having wings.
The original word from which all the others come is “angello” which means "to bear a message, announce, bring news of". The Greek philosopher Philo identifies the angel as the immaterial voice of God. According to Aristotle, just as there is a First Mover, God, so, too, must there be spiritual secondary movers
The Bible uses the terms “mal'akh Elohim; messenger of God”, “mal'akh YHWH; messenger of the Lord”.
Gabriel (translation: the strength of God), performs acts of justice and power
Raphael (translation: God Heals), God's healing force
Uriel (translation: God is my light), leads us to destiny
Satan (translation: the adversary), brings people's sins before them in the heavenly court
Chayot HaKodesh (translation: living beings)
I have never seen an angel, to the best of my knowledge, although I believe I have encountered one. What I do know about angels is the mention in Scripture, pictures and drawings, literary depictions of angels, movies. Up until recently, there was little talk about angels, except at Christmas where they suddenly proliferate in scripture and hymn and Christmas card art. I really do not like the way angels are depicted.
C.S. Lewis, who wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia”, was one of the foremost Christian authors, and critics of the church. Lewis said that angels, along with much of Christian thought and symbol have been made sweet and unoffensive, soft and comfortable, so we don’t have to really grapple with what they actually were.
I believe angels are messengers of God, not Santa's elves here to help us attain our wishes. Nor do I believe they are around to protect us or watch over us somehow. I believe angels are messengers of God who bring both the mystery and meaning of God's power, presence, and purpose into the actuality and reality of our limited dimension of existence and being. Angels bring messages of great things to come - they are not soft, fluffy and white. They mean there is something of earth-shattering change about to happen.
Then there’s the star. Whatever it was - a comet, or an exploding or imploding body deep in space, it was seen as a portent of something great. We don’t know for sure if it was even there. Biblical scholarship tells us that if there were Magi, they came along a couple of years later, when Jesus and is family were living in Egypt, waiting for Herod to die. Yet in our Christmas narrative the star has been put in there right with the angels. Well, the star wasn’t an angel - but it was certainly something cosmic. The event of whatever caused it was violent and cosmic. It was not a sweetly shining, twinkling star that just kind of sat there serenely every night. This was another event big enough to make people afraid - and I am sure some of the more superstitious people were. The star - a cosmic ball of gas - or a comet of ice and rock - was a huge event which caused a whole number of people to leave their homes and their comforts, and go looking, no matter how long it took.
There is an old saying, "After the ecstasy is the dishes." What happened afterwards seemed so ordinary. There was a birth. There was a child to be raised. There was cleaning and meals and washing, and all the needs of life and work. Angels are not mentioned much after the shepherds returned to the fields. They went back to being shepherds; back in their ordinary fields. The magi had to go back home, back to their ordinary lives. And It was into such a world of ordinary needs and deeds that the most extraordinary event occurred. Jesus was born into an ordinary world, ate the same ordinary food as everyone else around him - yet the birth was important enough that it was announced by a cosmic event of some kind, and a being which started off saying “Don’t be afraid.”
So let’s put the angels and the stars back into Christmas. Because that’s how life is, isn’t it? There are these great cosmic events, and then we go back to being ordinary people living in an ordinary world. Let’s see the angels for exactly what they were - beings which commanded fear at the sight of them - which brought messages of life-changing events.. Let’s look again at what we call a star - a violent and frightening cosmic event in the universe which served as a portent of a birth which would change the lives of people everywhere. Amen.
Sources:
1. Angels and Stars - a sermon by Rev. Fran Ota December 2005
2. The Messenger, the Mystery, and the Meaning by DG Bradley, 1996.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
“The Words of the Prophets” December 11, 2011 Third Sunday of Advent Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Luke 1:47-55
The spirit of God is upon me, because God has anointed me, and sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion-- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom God has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in God, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Luke 1:47-55
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is his name. God’s compassion extends to those who are filled with awe, from generation to generation. God has performed mighty deeds with his arm, and has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. Rulers have been brought down from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. The hungry have been filled with good things, but the rich have been sent away empty. God has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as our ancestors were promised.”
Play “The Sound of Silence”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsX03LOMhI
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls nd tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence.”
The prophecy, according to Simon and Garfunkel.
In the third section of the Book of Isaiah, the prophet says these words: “The Spirit of God is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners.” In today’s language, that would be those people who pack the subways, who live in tenements, who are held captive by failing economic systems, by corrupt systems, by war or famine.
What does it mean, to preach good news? Is it only salvation? Is it that getting into heaven is the most important thing. That's not what Isaiah said. This is not about some kind of future salivation where we will inherit some wonderful experience in the sweet by and by. The words of the prophet Isaiah are stark and different. The words of the prophet Mary are equally stark.
Think for a moment; the poor, the heartbroken, captives and prisoners. These are real people in the here and now, not folks who are looking for something way ahead in the future. Salvation, according to Isaiah, is not about getting to heaven, but about a quality of life in the here and now.
And what would that look like?
Isaiah says “God sent me to announce the year of jubilee - to comfort all who mourn, to care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Isaiah says God called HIM. So I we read those words now, what do they mean or us? Don’t they mean God calls US? Yes, God calls US to mission. Mission happens when we turn our attention to those who are named as recipients of the Good News: the poor, the oppressed, the broken, the captives, the poor in spirit. But when we are called to turn our attention to those God names, we are also called to engage with them, not only through donations or overseas relief or the food bank - those are part of engagement - but we are also called to engage right in the here and now, in Corner Brook, with those on the streets, or living below the poverty line but out of direct sight.
Each time I read Luke, I am always amazed by the revolutionary words that spring from Mary’s mouth. The hungry are filled with good things, and the rich are sent away empty. Mary, even as a young woman of about fourteen, already understands the radical nature of these words.
As we look at the book of Luke, we see that the perspective of the participants in the birth of Jesus was always from the underside. These were not the movers and shakers of their society. These were not the people that all the world was watching. No, indeed, in this story, the good news comes to those who live on the fringes of society, to the poor and obscure, to the oppressed.
But if we want to see what God is up to, we need to look, and listen to those who are on the margins. And that is one of reasons that many of us have chosen this group of people as our faith community. Because through this community, we are able to connect with those who live on the margins, to hear those songs of the underside.
I want to tell you a story of a friend of mine rom Iran, who at 15 was married to her high school English teacher, a man twice her age. He and her parents came to an agreement, and she agreed - as she said she was happy with him as a choice. So she was married at 15 and had her first child at 16. Shortly after her daughter was born her husband decided to go to school in the US, to get a PhD, and she went with him. She was terrified, having to leave her country, go to a new place with a baby, not speaking English, not knowing anything about the culture.
In fact, this is a very old practice. Mary was betrothed to Joseph in an agreement made between him and her parents - she likely could have refused, but it would not have been wise. I don’t visualise Mary as thrilled about the marriage; I don’t visualise her as thrilled by the angel’s announcement. I see her as sullen, and somewhat argumentative. In the movie “Nativity”, Mary asks why she has to get stuck with a man she doesn’t know and doesn’t love. Not long after the engagement, she becomes pregnant, and goes to her cousin Elizabeth, to spend time thinking.
When Mary returns from visiting Elizabeth, and it is clear she is pregnant, her parents are angry, Joseph considers cancelling the agreement; in Hebrew culture, she could be stoned to death. Yet Mary is also a rebel, in my mind, and I see her refusing to be put down or put aside. She is going to wear her pregnancy and wear it openly. She believes that she is meant to have this child - knowing that she could be disowned by her family, cut off by Joseph, and even stoned for committing adultery, she still somehow finds faith to be open to the unprecedented event, and trust that God knows what will happen.
Perhaps she recognised that regardless of how it happened, the child is not at fault. Perhaps her acceptance was a way of stating again the sanctity of life. While the commandments said “No killing”, stoning was allowable for adultery; sending a woman into prostitution, or to beg was considered appropriate. The religious “laws” which supported the cultural ethos were man-made, not God-given. Yet from somewhere she gets the strength to trust God, and have the baby. She moves from a sullen girl in a snit, to a strong woman of faith.
Into the text comes a song - lifted from the Hebrew Scriptures, the song of Hannah - words inserted 75 years after Jesus’ death when Luke was writing the text. Luke who states right at the beginning that he is writing down what he has been told. So *he* doesn’t know whether or not Mary was happy - it’s a story, handed down by word of mouth and embellished along the way.
Yet many of us would take offense at these words, if they were not written down as Mary’s words. We tolerate them because Mary said them. But they are harsh nonetheless, and make us a little uncomfortable. They are the words of a prophet.
Mary’s story is one of turning the recognised way of things upside down. God has given a gift, not a king to the wealthy, but to a young peasant girl in a backwater village in a tiny country under occupation. Her family are labourers - not quite the bottom o the social heap, because carpenters were in demand, but they were close enough. So the one who is to free Israel from its oppression is being born to a nobody, nowhere. Mary recognises that to God, that’s exactly the idea - to turn everyone’s preconceived notions upside down, and do something no one expects. In this turnabout, the rich are sent home with nothing, while the poor are fed; the proud are scattered, the mighty are taken down from their thrones. - and the most stunning part of all, God comes to a simple young girl - a child by our standards - who is to be married off by her parents against her will - a piece of property, a good trade for having a strong man like Joseph look after the whole family.
The great Reformers in the church didn’t give a lot of attention to Mary, and given that God’s grace was central to their faith, Mary probably should have had more attention. She illustrated that every one of us is, in a sense, a virgin recipient of God’s calling. Christianity is a religion of what God has done for us and to us, and then calls us to do. God has given this gift to the poorest on our streets, to the captives of economic insecurity, of wars for profit. God has given this gift to those who struggle to eat, and ind a place to sleep, whose children die of hunger.
So to preach good news means we cannot remain passive recipients of God’s grace. Mary received the gift, but then took an active role. God graces us so that we will be active and creative, but at the root of everything is God’s initiative and grace. Everything that is comes from God; every hope for the redemption of all things comes from God. If we think in these terms, how can we fail to realise that we are all Mary, made pregnant with the gifts of God’s grace.
Isaiah says “God has anointed me, and sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor....”
Mary sings prophetic words - the hungry will be filled with good things, and the rich will be sent away empty.
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls.....
And so I hold up Mary, the humble servant - a young woman at the bottom of the social scale, receiving a great gift. Each of us at Humber is called to be a humble servant, and we are individually, and collectively, the humble, barefoot recipients of a grace and a call that are the foundation of all we can ever hope to accomplish. Maybe God needs us to continue to sing the song of the prophets, which came down through the ages, through Isaiah, through Mary, and more like her.
Sources:
1. Sermon “The Words of the Prophet”, by Rev. David Shearman, December 11, 2011.
2. Song From the Underside, a sermon based on Luke 1:47-55 by Rev. Cindy Weber
3. Singing of Joy , a sermon based upon Luke 1:47-55 December 14, 2008 Rev. Fran Ota
For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom God has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in God, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Luke 1:47-55
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is his name. God’s compassion extends to those who are filled with awe, from generation to generation. God has performed mighty deeds with his arm, and has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. Rulers have been brought down from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. The hungry have been filled with good things, but the rich have been sent away empty. God has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as our ancestors were promised.”
Play “The Sound of Silence”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsX03LOMhI
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls nd tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence.”
The prophecy, according to Simon and Garfunkel.
In the third section of the Book of Isaiah, the prophet says these words: “The Spirit of God is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners.” In today’s language, that would be those people who pack the subways, who live in tenements, who are held captive by failing economic systems, by corrupt systems, by war or famine.
What does it mean, to preach good news? Is it only salvation? Is it that getting into heaven is the most important thing. That's not what Isaiah said. This is not about some kind of future salivation where we will inherit some wonderful experience in the sweet by and by. The words of the prophet Isaiah are stark and different. The words of the prophet Mary are equally stark.
Think for a moment; the poor, the heartbroken, captives and prisoners. These are real people in the here and now, not folks who are looking for something way ahead in the future. Salvation, according to Isaiah, is not about getting to heaven, but about a quality of life in the here and now.
And what would that look like?
Isaiah says “God sent me to announce the year of jubilee - to comfort all who mourn, to care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Isaiah says God called HIM. So I we read those words now, what do they mean or us? Don’t they mean God calls US? Yes, God calls US to mission. Mission happens when we turn our attention to those who are named as recipients of the Good News: the poor, the oppressed, the broken, the captives, the poor in spirit. But when we are called to turn our attention to those God names, we are also called to engage with them, not only through donations or overseas relief or the food bank - those are part of engagement - but we are also called to engage right in the here and now, in Corner Brook, with those on the streets, or living below the poverty line but out of direct sight.
Each time I read Luke, I am always amazed by the revolutionary words that spring from Mary’s mouth. The hungry are filled with good things, and the rich are sent away empty. Mary, even as a young woman of about fourteen, already understands the radical nature of these words.
As we look at the book of Luke, we see that the perspective of the participants in the birth of Jesus was always from the underside. These were not the movers and shakers of their society. These were not the people that all the world was watching. No, indeed, in this story, the good news comes to those who live on the fringes of society, to the poor and obscure, to the oppressed.
But if we want to see what God is up to, we need to look, and listen to those who are on the margins. And that is one of reasons that many of us have chosen this group of people as our faith community. Because through this community, we are able to connect with those who live on the margins, to hear those songs of the underside.
I want to tell you a story of a friend of mine rom Iran, who at 15 was married to her high school English teacher, a man twice her age. He and her parents came to an agreement, and she agreed - as she said she was happy with him as a choice. So she was married at 15 and had her first child at 16. Shortly after her daughter was born her husband decided to go to school in the US, to get a PhD, and she went with him. She was terrified, having to leave her country, go to a new place with a baby, not speaking English, not knowing anything about the culture.
In fact, this is a very old practice. Mary was betrothed to Joseph in an agreement made between him and her parents - she likely could have refused, but it would not have been wise. I don’t visualise Mary as thrilled about the marriage; I don’t visualise her as thrilled by the angel’s announcement. I see her as sullen, and somewhat argumentative. In the movie “Nativity”, Mary asks why she has to get stuck with a man she doesn’t know and doesn’t love. Not long after the engagement, she becomes pregnant, and goes to her cousin Elizabeth, to spend time thinking.
When Mary returns from visiting Elizabeth, and it is clear she is pregnant, her parents are angry, Joseph considers cancelling the agreement; in Hebrew culture, she could be stoned to death. Yet Mary is also a rebel, in my mind, and I see her refusing to be put down or put aside. She is going to wear her pregnancy and wear it openly. She believes that she is meant to have this child - knowing that she could be disowned by her family, cut off by Joseph, and even stoned for committing adultery, she still somehow finds faith to be open to the unprecedented event, and trust that God knows what will happen.
Perhaps she recognised that regardless of how it happened, the child is not at fault. Perhaps her acceptance was a way of stating again the sanctity of life. While the commandments said “No killing”, stoning was allowable for adultery; sending a woman into prostitution, or to beg was considered appropriate. The religious “laws” which supported the cultural ethos were man-made, not God-given. Yet from somewhere she gets the strength to trust God, and have the baby. She moves from a sullen girl in a snit, to a strong woman of faith.
Into the text comes a song - lifted from the Hebrew Scriptures, the song of Hannah - words inserted 75 years after Jesus’ death when Luke was writing the text. Luke who states right at the beginning that he is writing down what he has been told. So *he* doesn’t know whether or not Mary was happy - it’s a story, handed down by word of mouth and embellished along the way.
Yet many of us would take offense at these words, if they were not written down as Mary’s words. We tolerate them because Mary said them. But they are harsh nonetheless, and make us a little uncomfortable. They are the words of a prophet.
Mary’s story is one of turning the recognised way of things upside down. God has given a gift, not a king to the wealthy, but to a young peasant girl in a backwater village in a tiny country under occupation. Her family are labourers - not quite the bottom o the social heap, because carpenters were in demand, but they were close enough. So the one who is to free Israel from its oppression is being born to a nobody, nowhere. Mary recognises that to God, that’s exactly the idea - to turn everyone’s preconceived notions upside down, and do something no one expects. In this turnabout, the rich are sent home with nothing, while the poor are fed; the proud are scattered, the mighty are taken down from their thrones. - and the most stunning part of all, God comes to a simple young girl - a child by our standards - who is to be married off by her parents against her will - a piece of property, a good trade for having a strong man like Joseph look after the whole family.
The great Reformers in the church didn’t give a lot of attention to Mary, and given that God’s grace was central to their faith, Mary probably should have had more attention. She illustrated that every one of us is, in a sense, a virgin recipient of God’s calling. Christianity is a religion of what God has done for us and to us, and then calls us to do. God has given this gift to the poorest on our streets, to the captives of economic insecurity, of wars for profit. God has given this gift to those who struggle to eat, and ind a place to sleep, whose children die of hunger.
So to preach good news means we cannot remain passive recipients of God’s grace. Mary received the gift, but then took an active role. God graces us so that we will be active and creative, but at the root of everything is God’s initiative and grace. Everything that is comes from God; every hope for the redemption of all things comes from God. If we think in these terms, how can we fail to realise that we are all Mary, made pregnant with the gifts of God’s grace.
Isaiah says “God has anointed me, and sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor....”
Mary sings prophetic words - the hungry will be filled with good things, and the rich will be sent away empty.
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls.....
And so I hold up Mary, the humble servant - a young woman at the bottom of the social scale, receiving a great gift. Each of us at Humber is called to be a humble servant, and we are individually, and collectively, the humble, barefoot recipients of a grace and a call that are the foundation of all we can ever hope to accomplish. Maybe God needs us to continue to sing the song of the prophets, which came down through the ages, through Isaiah, through Mary, and more like her.
Sources:
1. Sermon “The Words of the Prophet”, by Rev. David Shearman, December 11, 2011.
2. Song From the Underside, a sermon based on Luke 1:47-55 by Rev. Cindy Weber
3. Singing of Joy , a sermon based upon Luke 1:47-55 December 14, 2008 Rev. Fran Ota
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