Sermons: Advent 4, 2009
I’m wondering if God wants us to try to be like Mary.Think of Mary’s generosity . . .when given the greatest gift, she runs to Elizabeth to congratulate her . . . The Angel told her that both of them were to bear children and she goes to share this with her.
But more than generous, Mary is vulnerable, she is perplexed / she is happy, she is threatened. All of these at once.
Isn’t it just like God to come to a person who does not have it all together yet. To come to the lowly.
Both of these women fit that bill.
Elizabeth is old. Well, it says that Zechariah is old, and she is getting on in years . . .
BUt the people around her would be saying “Barren sterile parched!” . “Beyond your years.” Everybody had counted her out. But God counted her back in.
Mary is young.
Teenager. Unmarried, no real standing her society. The religious law of the time would have her stoned for betting pregnant when she did. Not to mention how she did. Blasphemy.
What was God thinking when he chose her? ___ God was thinking, “ah perfect” “She might just receive this and respond.” She does, and she delights in the Lord.
She is generous. She is vulnerable. She is perplexed. She is happy. She is threatened. All of these at once. And she breaks into song.
Maybe God wants us to be like Mary.
We sang her song just a few minutes ago. It is lovely isn’t it?
. . . Wait a minute . . . this is good song for some people! It’s not so good for those who have "achieved something". Not everyone wants to sing this sing. It could be that none of us like it.
Maybe the biggest trouble we have in this society, is that no one is trying to be like Mary. Who would want to be vulnerable. perplexed. threatened? Who asks to have everything turned upside down? We try NOT to be lowly.
Joe and I were talking about this passage of scripture this week, and he helped me see it in a new way. It’s still about God overturning the tyrants of the world . . . and all that, but Mary’s song also reveals that the powerful parts of us need to be overturned.
We are almost certain – that we must be successful, we must get ahead, we must be important, we must gain influence. > Think of what we could do!
Then we internalize these demands and believe that if we fulfill this mission, we will be safe. Success, influence, strength, power – will make us safe.
I think . . . Ok . . . I’ll be OK once I become a full professor, once I have titles flowing outward from each end of my name, once I have a nice house, and universal respect, and your undying love. Then, then I will be fulfilled with God’s grace and heavenly benediction. Then I will be fulfilled. Fool! Says the Lord.
I don’t know. It is like that for you?
I think women have it even worse. Every ad I see encourages you to deny your age. – whether it’s too old or too young. -- What is the perfect age for a woman?
God doesn’t seem to know, because here in one story he chooses one too-old and one too-young.
Maybe God doesn’t know what God is doing.
Maybe God does. Deep down . . . God knows, and we probably know too, that we really are vulnerable, we are lowly, we are anxious, we are nervous. It is a nerve-racking time in which to live.
But God knows what God is doing. And God is drawn to those who need him.
Jesus, this child born of Mary, Jesus could not stay away . . .from the one who was vulnerable. He was hard to follow, because he kept going off the path to reach out to someone who needed him. Down this way to bump into some lepers. Down that way to happen past those who were tossed aside. Stopped the whole parade to talk to Zaccheus. Stopped himself when the woman reached out to touch him for healing.
God has a weakness for those who are weak. Keeps stopping for them, and raising them up.
The powerful don’t need to be lifted up, the lowly do. So God lifts up Mary, just as part of his plan.
The vibrant don’t need to be given life, the worn out do. So God gives life to Elizabeth, as part of his plan.
Forget for a moment that the life given to them is pregnancy . . . And we know that this is not exactly easy
Forget for a moment that the life given to them is someone else’s life. Namely John the Baptist in Elizabeth and Jesus Christ in Mary.
Forget them for a moment, because God doesn’t just USE Mary and Elizabeth to PRODUCE John and Jesus. God lifts them up - and has them encounter one another, and brings them to delight and to song. They become two of the most important women who ever lives. Sorry, there I go again, not important, not successful, not powerful – Blessed. All generations have call them blessed.
God looked favourably on the lowliest of his servants
- generations shall call me blessed!
God has done great things for me
- and holy is his name!
God doesn’t count them out.
And for those who would count them out . . . God scatters the proud in their hearts, so that they cannot find it in there. God brings down the powerful.
God doesn’t just raise up the lowly and poor people around us. God does that, but God also raises up our hidden, forgotten, needy selves.
How? By scattering the hateful pride in us. The “I’m better than the others” stuff that simply isn’t true. Or worse, the “I’m not as good as everybody else” stuff. Also false.
God might just bring forth a baby Jesus from that loser girl you saw taunted in high school. Even if she is you.
God might just heal the crushed people, feed the starving people, raise up the low people. And we just might be saved by them.
Or by the very weakness that we despise about ourselves. God might heal it, redeem it, and make the only place of strength we’ve really got. Brining down the impulses to power in us all.
T. Townshend
