Blessings and Joy
Sermon for Advent 3B, 12-14-08
Scripture: Psalm 126, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22, Luke 1:45-56
I hope all of you will be with us tonight at Vespers when we will be reading many of the Advent and Christmas scriptures. Rather than repeating those scripture, this morning I have chosen to go with an alternate Gospel lesson, the Magnificat or Mary’s Song. I love this scripture. It comes after Mary has gone to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Have you ever thought about how long it must have taken Mary to walk the 85 miles from her home in Nazareth to Elizabeth and Zechariah’s place in Judea near Jerusalem? (And then back again.) Elizabeth is overjoyed at seeing Mary and she shouts out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” She continues to bless her as her baby jumped in her womb. “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (In Luke 1: 41-45)
No wonder Mary stayed for three months with Elizabeth. Remember she is a pregnant teenager, between ages 12 and 14 most sources say, without a husband. Can you imagine what Mary might have been concerned about in terms of a scandal with her being an unwed mother? Who would ever believe her that she had never been with a man? That God was the Father of her baby? Her humility and faithfulness made her assent when the angel asked her to carry the son of God. She responded,, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (1:38a) All good and well, but what will her parents say? How will Joseph, her fiancé, respond? Will he reject her? In the gospel of Luke, Joseph is only mentioned in the beginning, Gabriel comes “to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.” And as she arrives at Zechariah’s house, Elizabeth begins joyously blessing her. What a relief! We are told that Mary stays with Elizabeth three months and then returns home. I believe she stays because she needs her older cousins’ reassurance and affirmation. We all need someone who affirms us in difficult times. Other than Elizabeth, at this point, Mary only has the memory of an angel’s visit.
The next voice in Luke is Mary’s proclaiming what has been called one of the most revolutionary speeches in the entire Bible, also one filled with great joy. She starts off with saying that her soul magnifies the Lord and her Spirit rejoices in God because God has chosen her in spite of her heretofore lowly position in life and from then on generations now and to come will call her blessed.
She than expands this thought to say that:
The words can be so mesmerizing until we don’t really listen to how radical they are. The words turn things upside down. Instead of God being impressed with money, power, status, the poor and the vulnerable are lifted up. During this season of love personified, I have continued to preach about having compassion and doing unto others as Jesus has commanded us. I hope that our hearts have been turned upside down also and that we will not be focusing so much on material things for our friends and relatives that already have so much, but instead focus on meeting all with kindness and compassion and sharing with others who are in need. The Good News of Christmas is news that must be shared, celebrated, and then lived!
In today’s Psalm we are told how the people rejoiced as God restored their fortunes. I love the words, “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy. (126:3-6) This reversal of fortune is raised up in the Magnificat. We are also told in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, to rejoice always, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. The joy that Jesus talked about in his final days was this joy that comes from deep inside. It’s joy that takes into account all the sufferings and cruelty of the world and still can say Yes to God, yes to being partners in bringing light to the dark places. It’s a reminder of triumph, that kind of triumph that Jesus talked about in John 16:33 …in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But be of good cheer; I have conquered or overcome the world.” This promise of Jesus always makes me think of our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe, those that pray and shout for joy despite how bad things are all around them. That joy and faithfulness I believe is one of the greatest things we can learn from our Ukama partnership.
For me blessings and joy go together. When I feel joy I feel blessed and I want to bless others, even God. One of my favourite blessings is in Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name. Yes, it is good for us to give blessings to God as well as letting God bless us. Elizabeth, who had waited so long for a child, was already filled by joy at her own pregnancy when Mary appeared at her door. No wonder she was so quick to bless Mary. Elizabeth seems to have been the only person that knew Mary was pregnant with the Messiah. She seems to have been the first person to publicly confirm what the angel told Mary. Luke says after the child leaps in Elizabeth’s womb that she was filled with the Holy Spirit. All of this was quite mind boggling to Elizabeth. She says, “and why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” It’s pretty amazing when we realize that God has come to us, that God has chosen us. When I was getting ready to do volunteer work and live in community in Washington, DC, one of my friends gave me a bookmark with a quotation from John 15:16: “You did not choose me but I chose you.” I saw that quote almost daily right up to the point of deciding to go to seminary and become an ordained minister. I often would marvel about being chosen. If any of you were like me, always picked last for team sports, you know how wonderful it feels when you are chosen, It was wonderful and amazing to me that Jesus would choose me to become a minister..
It is equally amazing to feel that you have been blessed. There’s a wonderful blessing benediction that goes like this: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” One of the favorite expressions I often heard from my mother was “Bless your heart, Barbie. I’m so glad to see you.” It meant a lot to me, so much that on the first anniversary of my mother’s death, I sat at her grave and wrote a poem with that title. You may have noticed that I quite often sign my emails and letters with “Blessings” or “Bless you”. It’s not an unconscious, random sign-off. I really want to affirm you and let you know that you are special to God and to me. Just as God came to Mary, God comes to ordinary people to let them know they are special. God comes to us in those people that bless you in your life, whether or not the word blessing is used. I also believe that God comes through us when we bless each other. It is in God’s coming to us through Jesus, the Christ child, that we are blessed and filled with joy in this wonderful season of Love. Thanks be to God for coming and living amongst us. Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 126, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22, Luke 1:45-56
I hope all of you will be with us tonight at Vespers when we will be reading many of the Advent and Christmas scriptures. Rather than repeating those scripture, this morning I have chosen to go with an alternate Gospel lesson, the Magnificat or Mary’s Song. I love this scripture. It comes after Mary has gone to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Have you ever thought about how long it must have taken Mary to walk the 85 miles from her home in Nazareth to Elizabeth and Zechariah’s place in Judea near Jerusalem? (And then back again.) Elizabeth is overjoyed at seeing Mary and she shouts out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” She continues to bless her as her baby jumped in her womb. “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” (In Luke 1: 41-45)
No wonder Mary stayed for three months with Elizabeth. Remember she is a pregnant teenager, between ages 12 and 14 most sources say, without a husband. Can you imagine what Mary might have been concerned about in terms of a scandal with her being an unwed mother? Who would ever believe her that she had never been with a man? That God was the Father of her baby? Her humility and faithfulness made her assent when the angel asked her to carry the son of God. She responded,, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (1:38a) All good and well, but what will her parents say? How will Joseph, her fiancé, respond? Will he reject her? In the gospel of Luke, Joseph is only mentioned in the beginning, Gabriel comes “to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.” And as she arrives at Zechariah’s house, Elizabeth begins joyously blessing her. What a relief! We are told that Mary stays with Elizabeth three months and then returns home. I believe she stays because she needs her older cousins’ reassurance and affirmation. We all need someone who affirms us in difficult times. Other than Elizabeth, at this point, Mary only has the memory of an angel’s visit.
The next voice in Luke is Mary’s proclaiming what has been called one of the most revolutionary speeches in the entire Bible, also one filled with great joy. She starts off with saying that her soul magnifies the Lord and her Spirit rejoices in God because God has chosen her in spite of her heretofore lowly position in life and from then on generations now and to come will call her blessed.
She than expands this thought to say that:
Mary’s song is good news for the homeless on the streets of our nation’s Capitol, the hungry and oppressed in Zimbabwe; the refugees from Congo and Sudan; for the street children in Calcutta, for the AIDS orphans in Africa, to just name a few of our suffering poor. These words would be painful and shocking for those who wield power, the leaders of the Empire then and now, who live affluent lives while either perpetuating, or permitting, grave injustices to happen to vulnerable people.
You have put down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of the lowest status.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
but the rich you have sent away empty
The words can be so mesmerizing until we don’t really listen to how radical they are. The words turn things upside down. Instead of God being impressed with money, power, status, the poor and the vulnerable are lifted up. During this season of love personified, I have continued to preach about having compassion and doing unto others as Jesus has commanded us. I hope that our hearts have been turned upside down also and that we will not be focusing so much on material things for our friends and relatives that already have so much, but instead focus on meeting all with kindness and compassion and sharing with others who are in need. The Good News of Christmas is news that must be shared, celebrated, and then lived!
In today’s Psalm we are told how the people rejoiced as God restored their fortunes. I love the words, “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy. (126:3-6) This reversal of fortune is raised up in the Magnificat. We are also told in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, to rejoice always, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. The joy that Jesus talked about in his final days was this joy that comes from deep inside. It’s joy that takes into account all the sufferings and cruelty of the world and still can say Yes to God, yes to being partners in bringing light to the dark places. It’s a reminder of triumph, that kind of triumph that Jesus talked about in John 16:33 …in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But be of good cheer; I have conquered or overcome the world.” This promise of Jesus always makes me think of our sisters and brothers in Zimbabwe, those that pray and shout for joy despite how bad things are all around them. That joy and faithfulness I believe is one of the greatest things we can learn from our Ukama partnership.
For me blessings and joy go together. When I feel joy I feel blessed and I want to bless others, even God. One of my favourite blessings is in Psalm 103: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name. Yes, it is good for us to give blessings to God as well as letting God bless us. Elizabeth, who had waited so long for a child, was already filled by joy at her own pregnancy when Mary appeared at her door. No wonder she was so quick to bless Mary. Elizabeth seems to have been the only person that knew Mary was pregnant with the Messiah. She seems to have been the first person to publicly confirm what the angel told Mary. Luke says after the child leaps in Elizabeth’s womb that she was filled with the Holy Spirit. All of this was quite mind boggling to Elizabeth. She says, “and why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” It’s pretty amazing when we realize that God has come to us, that God has chosen us. When I was getting ready to do volunteer work and live in community in Washington, DC, one of my friends gave me a bookmark with a quotation from John 15:16: “You did not choose me but I chose you.” I saw that quote almost daily right up to the point of deciding to go to seminary and become an ordained minister. I often would marvel about being chosen. If any of you were like me, always picked last for team sports, you know how wonderful it feels when you are chosen, It was wonderful and amazing to me that Jesus would choose me to become a minister..
It is equally amazing to feel that you have been blessed. There’s a wonderful blessing benediction that goes like this: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” One of the favorite expressions I often heard from my mother was “Bless your heart, Barbie. I’m so glad to see you.” It meant a lot to me, so much that on the first anniversary of my mother’s death, I sat at her grave and wrote a poem with that title. You may have noticed that I quite often sign my emails and letters with “Blessings” or “Bless you”. It’s not an unconscious, random sign-off. I really want to affirm you and let you know that you are special to God and to me. Just as God came to Mary, God comes to ordinary people to let them know they are special. God comes to us in those people that bless you in your life, whether or not the word blessing is used. I also believe that God comes through us when we bless each other. It is in God’s coming to us through Jesus, the Christ child, that we are blessed and filled with joy in this wonderful season of Love. Thanks be to God for coming and living amongst us. Amen.
posted by Sermons given at Deering Community Church @ 10:00 AM
<< Home