The Plot Thickens

 Third Sunday of Advent, 

and we are now at Episode 3 in this first chapter of Luke – 

         we could entitle this episode “The Plot Thickens.”

 

In today’s episode Mary skips town.

         There is no word as to how she managed to do that.

         Maybe the reason she gave was the idea of helping

                  her older cousin Elizabeth 

                  during her third trimester of pregnancy and with the birth.

At any rate, I speculate that Mary needed to get away to ponder

                  what had happened to her.

         Three months with Elizabeth 

                  and she would then know for sure that she was pregnant.

And she would be with her cousin and Zechariah,

         who was, you remember, a high ranking priest at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Surely within such a household of the religious establishment

         they might have some words of wisdom for her, some faith insights.

 

And here is where the story focuses in on an extraordinary scene.

         First remember this was during the time of the Roman Empire,

                  when military rule exerted great power over many smaller nations.

The Empire was extracting resources and wealth from these subjugated countries.

         They were strip mining them: 

                  taking the forests, large percentages of their crops,

                  and whatever else there was of value that could be taxed.

And historically in countries being exploited,

         the women were the oppressed of the oppressed.

 

So in today’s episode – what have we here?

         Two women at the focus of the action

         and upon whom the rest of the Gospel of Luke depends.

 

Luke’s Gospel put a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit,

         and this episode is electrified by Holy Spirit presence.

 

In this passage there is a tremendous expression of the Holy Spirit,

         the prophetic utterance given through the  Spirit

                  to both of these women

and not just to them,

         the unborn child in Elizabeth’s womb, 

                  is also very energetically enlivened

all by the presence of the One whom Mary is carrying

                                             within her own womb.

 

This is all extremely significant in telling us something about Jesus:

         Here just a very short time after Gabriel’s announcement to Mary

                  and her willingness to participate in what was being asked of her 

         while still in the first trimester of pregnancy

         when the developing fetus was yet just barely taking form,

Jesus is already revealing divine presence,

         a divine presence so strong that it energizes 

                  the unborn John the Baptist

                  and his mother Elizabeth

                  and Mary, his own mother.

 

Even from the womb Jesus’ very presence is revealing 

                           the Kingdom of God breaking forth in human awareness.

The Greek words in this passage emphasize a huge bursting forth of energy:

         Elizabeth doesn’t just daintily say to Mary,

                  “Blessed are you among women;”

                  she explodes with a loud shout.

         The baby John doesn’t just give a little kick there in the womb;

                  he leaps in joy, in ecstasy. 

Jesus shows up – even as hardly more than a zygote, fresh from conception –

         and this is sufficient to fill those around him with Holy Spirit. 

 

And like the OT prophets,

         Elizabeth and Mary both speak prophetically

         words that will be repeated through the centuries 

                  in prayer and devotion

         as the Hail Mary/Ave Maria of the rosary

         and the Magnificat,

                  the Song of Mary set to countless pieces of music.

 

Now I want you to notice who the key players are in this passage

         who bring us such devotional and liturgical texts

- two women.

Again this is the great reversal – 

         how power in the world view gets turned upside down 

         and is revealed through those whom the world sees as weak.

 

Looking first at Elizabeth, she follows in a lineage of significant women:

         Sarah, the mother of Isaac,

         Hannah, the mother of Samuel,

         the wife of Manoah, mother of Samson

but their significance is first that they were barren

                  a sign of disfavor, rather than of being favored or blessed

                  an indication in that culture of shame and rejection.

 

But as is the witness of so much of the scriptures

         God then specially favors those who are marginalized, 

who are not the brightest and best, but the more humble,

         such as David, 8^th son of Jesse of a small tribe, 

from a small town, not the big city, 

whose lineage includes foreigners and questionable women like 

Tamar and Rahab and Ruth.

 

Elizabeth, like Sarah, supposedly post-menopausal, 

now has her reproach taken away, 

through the son to be born to her in her old age.

 

But Mary, now this is a different matter,

         a young woman pregnant with new life,

                  and who would believe her if she were to tell

                           that this child is self-generated, 

has come into being by the word spoken by God.

But to such as these, the power of God is exhibited.

                  A reversal of what one might expect.

 

Now Mary may have been a person without status,

         a female in a patriarchal world,

         without equal rights, indeed, not much more than chattel,

but she was no wimp.

 

The words that come from her through the Magnificat

         are strong words to the core, revolutionary words,

         words that have been considered so revolutionary and dangerous

                  that they were labeled as subversive

                           in certain Central American countries in recent decades.

 

In the Magnificat one can see the whole teaching of Jesus in capsule form.

There is a strong parallel here

         between the Magnificat and the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.

 

So this episode of Luke 1 is a powerful expression of hope and joy,

         but how does that relate to us today in our current circumstances?

What is the hope we can take from this?

 

First we need to ask ourselves what do we mean by hope?

Try this definition on for size.  It comes from Constance FitzGerald,

         a Carmelite nun and theologian.

Hope is the “dynamic of being able to yield unconditionally to God’s future…

         hope that exists without the signature of our life and works…”

 

Another author, Victoria Loorz, refers to the gift of hope

         as a “post-doom” spirituality,                   a “post-doom” spirituality

which is large enough to face climate crises (or pandemic)

                           and not be driven to despair…

Grounded in the Gospel, such hope affirms that love is stronger than death.”

Post-doom spirituality . . . accepts the fullness of our reality: 

          the tragedy as well as the beauty.

Facing the reality that we’re standing on a precipice right now, 

         as a species and as a whole planet, is sobering, to say the least. But facing what is real opens the heart to grief, 

         which somehow opens the heart to love even more deeply. . . .

looking toward how we can all live our highest quality of life together          as beloved community, no matter what.

We do not need to minimize or overlook the pain and tragedy 

         we encounter as we live in this time of interwoven crises. Eventually, when we recognize that the pain 

         is directly connected with our love, we can embrace it. 

We can move into actions of restoration that are firmly planted in love.”

 

The words of Victoria Loorz,  writer, a pastor of indoor and [outdoor or] 

                  wild churches, as she calls them.

 

And Mary, bearing within her the energetic Source of all Life,

         as her legacy for all generations, gave us the Magnificat,

in which God declared the year of Jubilee,

         the time of great reversal

         when the powerful and rich are brought down

         and the hungry poor are vindicated.

Mary may have been poor and without any status of power and privilege,

         but she was one powerful young woman,

                  May she be a role model for us all.

 

Hail Mary, full of grace.  The Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.

God's Marriage with the Feminine in Each of Us

 Oh, how we need to hear words of comfort right now.

            The world at the moment seems full of COVID and climate problems,

                                                violence and strife, and endless human suffering.

 

And here we are again, another Advent, another liturgical year begun,

            and you and I are still here together

                        praying mightily for applicants for your next priest

in the midst of a troubled world as full of troubles 

            as the world was 2,000 year ago 

                        when our Lord came to be born among us.

 

This Advent we are doing something different.

            For the Gospel lessons for each Sunday in Advent 

                        we are reading our way through the first chapter of Luke.

This shifts the emphasis in our Advent liturgies 

            from a heavier, penitential message from the Prophets of old

                        and a fiery John the Baptist

            to a building week by week of realistic hope 

                        weaving through Luke, chapter 1, to Luke, chapter 2, 

                                    on Christmas Day

            making this truly a Feast of the Holy Nativity, our namesake Day,

                        as the Church of the Holy Nativity.

Despite all the concerns around us – in the face of all that

we know that nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus,

            and we are going to celebrate that.

 

Now today in the Gospel story, 

            after hearing last week about Zechariah’s encounter with the angel Gabriel,

                        and a message stretching belief, countering reality,

            and how Zechariah responded,

we now see how Mary, a mere girl as many think, 

                                    responded to an even more challenging angelic message.

 

Now what I want to share with you this morning 

            will use a lot of feminine imagery,

and I’m thinking of the guys here now, 

                        who may think this doesn’t really speak to them.

Through the ages the soul, our innermost being, our place of primary identity,

            has been considered feminine.

This has deep Old Testament roots.

 

The Prophet used this imagery when they spoke about the relationship             

    between God and the children of Israel.

They used the metaphor of marriage between God and the people,

            so that when they talked about idolatry, 

                        the people abandoning God for worshipping idols,

            they called it adultery,

                        the violation of that intimate marital relationship 

                                    between God and the people.

They remembered the Creation story 

            and how “what God has joined together, let no one put asunder,”

                        as we declare in every marriage ceremony in church.

And in the New Testament the Church is the Bride of Christ.

 

We even have one book in the Bible which is totally a love song,

            the Song of Solomon, also known as the Song of Songs.

The entire book is a deeply intimate and even erotic expression of love

            which, because it made it into the Bible, 

                        describes God’s love for us and our response of love to God.

 

So as we hear the story of Mary and the angel’s message to her,

            each one of us can take that personally

                        as to how we would respond to the same message.

 

And I will tell you right now that what I say next 

            is borrowed directly from what I preached to you last year,

but I believe whole heartedly that it bears repeating.

 

The focus of today’s Gospel is on Mary,

                          who opens the door to the Angel Gabriel.

The angel messenger was not sent to just any woman of child-bearing years.

            There was an openness in Mary to God, 

to receive what God was saying to her.

She was fertile ground 

where the seed of God’s Word could sprout and flourish 

and produce 30-, 60-, 100-fold,

                        or just one, but the One who would give life to all.

 

Where there is openness to God, 

then transformation and healing comes.

This is a spiritual principle I see at work all the time. 

 

But what is it that brings the openness to God?

because as logical and as practical as that may seem, 

I encounter great reluctance for opening the door to God.

 

For good reason, I think.

If you open the door to God, then watch out.

Things are going to change!  

            And probably not in the way you want or expect.

If things are going okay in our lives

            I may not want that disruptive change

But it’s when things aren’t so fine 

then one is more likely to open the door for divine intervention.

So consider the spiritual opportunity we have here now amidst difficulties.

 

Now, you need to realize 

that Mary was not just some sweet, innocent, pious girl

                        disconnected from the realities of the world around her.

She lived during a time of despair for her people,

            stuggling under foreign rule, 

                        oppressed and without the freedom of self governance.

 

So where could Mary go for any sense of hope?

Perhaps the only appeal she could make was to God.

After all the message of the prophets emphasized 

God’s preferential favor for the disadvantaged, 

the widow, the orphan, the poor, the alien living among us.

And so her heart was open.

 

So when the angel came to Mary,

            the greeting it gave changed everything in her life

            - and not just everything in her life,

                        but everything was changed for the whole world.

Mary, and what she would do, was key to all that would follow.

 

She would give her body, her whole being to be at God’s disposal, 

and within her the very Word of God, 

the One who was in the beginning with God and who was God, 

through whom all things were created, 

including Mary herself, 

this very Word of God would become himself subject to creation.

 

And so the Spirit of God, who brooded over the waters of the deep at creation

now came to Mary and enveloped her in the same creative brooding. 

And the waters of Mary’s womb welcomed their own Creator.

 

Mary looked at what the angel was offering her,

            and we do not know how long she pondered the situation

                        before she said, "Here am I, the servant, the slave of the Lord;

                                    let it be with me according to your word."

 

She looked at the risks and the danger, the potential and promise, 

            and she said yes - with an obedience to match Abraham

                                                poised with his knife raised at Mount Moriah;

 

Mary's agreement to being a partner with God

            is our perfect example of obedience in faith,

            and, of course, this kind of faith is what God is asking of each of us.

 

For Mary from that moment of conception 

the Holy Spirit was hovering over her, and her life was graced.

And so it is with us.

 

Mary opened the door and her body became a mansion,

            and what emerged from that open door in Mary 

                        was the Light of the world.

 

The Holy Spirit, the Resurrection Presence of Jesus, the Holy Divine

            whispers to us, “Open the door.”

And we too become a dwelling place for the Divine

            and our humble bodies too can grow into mansions.

 

And from our open doors Light pours in 

            AND Light can stream forth.

 

I will end with the new diocesan prayer

            that Andrea Farley, our Canon for Discipleship and Formation, has written.

I think it will be a good one for us to pray through the coming year.

 

God of the way, in whom all journeys begin and end, spark longing and adventure in our heart for where you are leading. Open our eyes to the joys and sorrows along the path, to recognize them as sacred, and grant us courage to persevere in our walk together. Orient our steps in love, so that in experiencing and extending your love we are drawn deeper into your transforming life. We pray this through the one who calls us to follow, Jesus the Christ, together with the Holy Spirit who guides as we continue on this sacred journey. Amen.

The recognition of Truth is a matter of awareness, not information

Today is the last Sunday in the Church Year, 

            commonly referred to as Christ the King Sunday.

 

Our devotion wants to honor Jesus as King,

            ascribe to him power and majesty,

            elevate him where before he had been lowly,

            reflect our gratitude and love 

                        for the way he gave himself for us

 

Now, honestly, I just plain don’t like this title of king.

            It’s just not the Jesus I know 

                        either in my own experience or from the witness of scripture.

 

It was only a few Sundays ago, in fact, that we had the story

                                                                        of the disciples James and John,

            asking Jesus about sitting on his right and on his left 

                        when he ascended to that throne as the Messiah King.

And Jesus put them in their places very clearly and firmly,

            letting them know that if they wanted to be on his right and his left,

            then that would put them on their knees with him 

                                                serving everybody else.

 

King is certainly not a title that Jesus ever applied to himself.

Not even when asked directly, 

            such as when Pilate, in today’s gospel reading, asked,

                        “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”

 

Pilate is questioning Jesus to find out if he is making a claim to be king

He asks, “What have you done?”

            meaning what have you done to get yourself arrested,

                        to get into this situation – on trial for your life.

 

Jesus points to two different ways of looking at kingship:

            as the world does, as a political-military ruler,

                        and if so, he would have had attendants/servants/bodyguards

            acting to protect him,

            but that is not where this kingdom is from.

This kingdom is something very different.

 

For an earthly kingdom

            we can think of characteristics of it such as

                        a king ruling autonomously,

                        an up-down power differential,

                        servants waiting on him,

                        and the king having all the wealth.

Jesus then doesn’t look like a king.

            He has no wealth,

            no servants, but instead he acted himself as a servant 

                                    – such as in washing feet.

He had no need for a special status so as to have power.

Instead he expressed a natural, spontaneous authority

            that was far more powerful 

                        than any title or position can give.

 

Jesus’ Kingdom was not an artificial political construct

            with borders drawn on a map,

but kingdom as the reality of God’s creation operating as it naturally does

            without the warped overlay of

                        the imaginations and ambitions of the human heart

 

Kingdom of God/Heaven can be defined as 

“that array of life where the way of being is righteousness 

and is everywhere exhibited, 

it is where everything is living utterly spontaneously.”  

If you live this way, 

then life will respond because you are so ecologically integrated. 

See Isaiah 11, about the Peaceable Kingdom to get what I mean.  

 

Think also of all those parables about the Kingdom of Heaven/God 

            that start with the words: “the Kingdom of God is like…”

 

See how in those parables there are no borders, boundaries, 

            but a limitless expansion of life.

 

AND the kingdom and the King are the same

 

Remember Luke 17:21

“The kingdom of God is not here or there, but within/among you.

 

-       God’s all pervasive self-revelation

-       creation born from the beginning, continuing ongoing creation

 

When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom, 

                                    it is not his own kingdom he is talking about.

It is his Father’s Kingdom, where God reigns,

            and what Jesus perfectly reflects and witnesses to with his whole being.

See the Kingdom of God as all divine, omnipresent self-revelation.

Jesus is a walking parable of the Kingdom of God and how it works.

            

Remember Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying to his Father,

                        “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Jesus as the revelation of the Kingdom, which is liberating love.

 

In Jesus the full will of God is expressed transparently.

 

But Pilate doesn’t get it.  He says,

            “So you are a king?”

And Jesus answered, “You are the one saying that I am a king.”

            BUT for this I was born, and for this I came into the world,

                        not to be a king,

            but to testify to the truth, to be a witness to the truth, to what is real.

Everyone who is of the truth is able to hear my voice, to hear my witness.

            And Jesus puts his life on the line for the sake of testifying to the truth.

Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, 

            as he is described in the reading from the Book of Revelation for today.

                                    Did you notice that?

 

But Pilate, having been put on the spot

            and needing something to pin on Jesus to justify a crucifixion,

isn’t able to hear his witness or recognize the Truth standing right in front of him.

                        You know how Pilate responded to what Jesus said

                        about testifying to the truth -- 

 

                                                Pilate said, “What is truth?” 

 

And that is the main question of the whole Gospel of John:  What is Truth?

 

What is Truth?

 

The answer to this question 

                        will not be found in any academic pursuit,

            because truth is not captured in a grand unified theory

                        or any intellectual understanding,

            but in knowing, in experiencing, in encountering 

                        what is REAL in our lives.

It is a matter of consciousness, awareness, 

            and the realization that comes out of lived experience.

The recognition of truth is a matter of awareness, not information.

 

Jesus said, “You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free,”

and Jesus, pointing to himself in terms of full realized union with the Father, 

            could then say, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

 

“Everyone being of the truth hears my voice.”              John, chapter 5

            being of the truth – that is, reality

            hears my voice – experiences that inner recognition

 

Our ideas about the coming kingdom may be very limited!

So we need to look at King Jesus who embodies the Kingdom –

                        which is freedom, abundance,  and life itself.

 

For us when hemmed in by our own frustrations

            over political systems

                        when we see injustice or abuse or exploitation

                        and we feel powerless to change

                                    the human system of government

                                    into something under the Reign of God

            or in our family systems

                        when we would yearn to see greater compassion            

                                    or love or forgiveness or healing or reconciliation

knowing the Kingdom hasn’t come there yet,

then surrender in trust to Jesus,

            the Truth of the Kingdom of God,

            the Living Revelation of the Kingdom.

 

Looking to Jesus putting all things right – shifting our perspective

            until we can see the Kingdom come.

 

Stick with Jesus,

because failure to trust him with your woundedness 

            limits the coming of the kingdom within your awareness

 

So let us praise the King of Glory,

            the Uncreated Light,

            the Word through whom all was created.

 

Let us offer him our hearts and minds and strength and all our being,

and let him work within us

            the healing of our inner deafness

                        so that we may have ears to hear,

            the opening of our eyes

                        so that we may recognize 

            and the expansion of our awareness

                        so that, as the collect for today says, 

“we may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule.”