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
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