Here I am the Servant of the Lord! And the World turned Upside Down!

Here I am the Servant of the Lord! And the World turned Upside Down!

Earlier this week, on the morning of December 24, as some were already into Christmas Eve, we Episcopalians were jumping into the fourth Sunday of Advent with both feet as we read the Gospel from Luke 1 that stopped the world in its tracks, and then, through Mary’s proclamation, turned the world upside down!

            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. . .  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. (from Luke 1:26-38)

After saying yes to the Lord, which she did not have to do, Mary states God’s dream for the world in some of the clearest words recorded in the Bible, while at the same time laying out Jesus’ mission and plan for all of us.

        My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: *the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him *in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, *he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, *and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, *to Abraham and his children for ever.

Truly the angel’s proclamation to Mary and Mary’s response turns the world upside down. Even though we proclaim “love your neighbor as yourself,” and “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” the world teaches us, ‘I’ve got mine, you get yours,’ if you are poor you are just lazy,’ if you work hard you will have what I have.’

The evening news and our experience teach us that ‘the rich will be filled with good things and the hungry will be sent away empty.’ But, Mary and God teach us:

             “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly; He

             has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.”

As the angel’s message convinced and convicted Mary of who she was, this season that lead us up to Christmas convinces and convicts us of who we are and of what is expected of us.

Mary’s song of praise will make most of us very uncomfortable. It will make us long for the birth of the Baby Jesus. A birth that is fun and exciting to celebrate and will not demand much of us. Yet!

But before we can get to that birth, we have to talk about turning the world upside down! We have to talk about the poor being feed and the rich sent away empty. We have to talk about what we see on the evening news, and about what is the world’s reality, and then we need to walk into God’s dream, which turns the world upside down. We, like Mary, are invited to respond, “behold, the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.”

Mary understood that her son was not sent into the world just to get us into heaven, but that he was sent to change the story of life on Earth; that he came into the world to ask the questions, sometimes through us: who deserves to eat? Who deserves to have health insurance? Who deserves safe housing and a good education? We may not find simple answers, but with God’s help we may well find intelligent solutions.

Being a child of God is not easy. Life gets complicated, but we all have our dreams. If our dreams can be merged with God’s dream, if with Mary, we can proclaim, ‘here I am the servant of the Lord,’ then we might just be like Mary, we might just bring Jesus into our world, we might just do what Jesus did.

God has a dream and we are part of that dream!

Prophetic Imagination

Over the past few weeks, we prepared for the coming of our Lord in many ways. One of the most important to our faith in God and our understanding of Jesus’ mission to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth as well as in Heaven is the work of the prophets. Remember that Biblical Prophets were not so much about predicting the future as they were about proclaiming God’s opposition to oppression and desire for justice for all people. The fifth century B.C. prophet we call Second Isaiah describes God’s passion quite well.

        The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has 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; (from Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11)

Remember, this was the text for Jesus’ first sermon, so let’s pay attention!

Some six hundred years after Isaiah, St. John the Evangelist records the words of another prophet, a man who became one of the first to testify to Jesus as “the light,” John the Baptizer.

            There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a

witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He

himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. . . He said,

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way

 of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said. (from John 1:6-8,19-28)

As we prepare for and live into Christmas, the Nativity of our Lord, I see us as John the Baptist and Isaiah all rolled into one. “The Lord has anointed us, God has sent us to testify to the light, and sometimes as we do this we are truly voices crying in the wilderness. And yet, cry we must: “prepare the way of the Lord, bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance (to the oppressors) of our God.”

As we do this, we often learn one other truth about prophets: they are not usually the most loved people in the community. And yet, because of our baptism, and our covenant with God through that baptism, we do it anyway. “We proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ. We seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves. We strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. (Baptismal Covenant, Book of Common Prayer, pages 305-305)

We proclaim this in all that we say and do, both as individuals and as a faith community. We proclaim it through our faith, our politics and our personal actions. We remind our elected representatives of God’s call to strive for justice and peace among all people. We remind those with whom we come into contact to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21)  And then we remind them that it all belongs to God!

The Season of Advent calls us to talk the talk, to speak truth to power. Advent calls us to walk the walk, to be prophecy in action. As God’s people we are called in our preaching, teaching, music and protesting to bring about the year of the Lord’s favor.

This is the work to which we have all been commissioned: to name God and to voice God’s enduring concern about human suffering and despair and to proclaim what God has done through Jesus Christ. To prepare the way of the Lord!

Advent: Mystery, Time out of Time, Take a Deep Breath

In our fast paced lives most of us need a reason or an excuse to slow down; to stop, look and listen; to put down our phone, turn off our computer and hide our iPad. For many of us that reason, excuse, opportunity, is the season of Advent. At this time of year, the world is preparing for Santa Clause, parties and dinners, and shopping. Did I mention shopping? At the same time, Christians, when at our best, are taking a deep breath, opening our hearts and souls to mystery and preparing for the coming of Christ. Yes, we do prepare for the coming of a baby, the Christ Child, but it is more than that. In our slowing down we prepare for the mystery of the coming of the Cosmic Christ at the end of time, and for the coming Christ into our hearts to change how we live and move and have our being.

As we breathe deeply and delve into the Advent Scriptures, the mystery of life, love and God envelopes us. Bible Scholars call these readings Apocalyptic; readings filled with mystery, hope and symbolism which say much more to us than mere words can ever say.

Isaiah (64:1-9) prays that “God would rend (tear open) the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at his presence. . . For you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.”

Isaiah envisions a Cosmic God, a God shrouded in mystery, whose power over creation will catch out attention, whose love will overcome God’s own anger. In powerful, symbolic language, Isaiah reminds us, and God, that we are the created and God is the Creator, and that no matter what, no matter what, we are all God’s people, and thus one with each other.

The Gospel of Mark 13:24-37, in what scholars call the “Little Apocalypse” adds to Isaiah’s proclamation with the mystery and the power of Christ’s coming: “In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. . . But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert for you do not know when the time will come.

Thus the New Year, the Christian New Year, begins! Advent is the epilogue and the prologue, moving from the end toward the beginning: Cosmic Christ, to John the Baptist preparing the way, to Mary agreeing to God’s call to be the mother of the Messiah, the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Mighty God the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

So slow down, treasure the mystery, live into the ambiguity, and keep awake!