What song is in your heart?

     Chances are, you have heard a wonderful rendition of the Magnificat over the course of your life.  It is one of those songs that many non-Christians have heard that have made an imprint on their knowledge of the Christian faith.  Usually, the song is sung by a soprano, reminding us of the voice we like to think young Mary the mother of Jesus likely had.  Why we think her a soprano rather than an alto is a question for another time, but I see the nods.  It is a well-known and well-loved song.  Have you, though, paid close attention to the song?  Have you ever considered how the song should be echoed in our own voices, even if a bit off key?  Have you ever thought that your and my voice ought to be raised in that same song making a joyful noise unto the Lord?

     Luke’s reading today ends with the Magnificat, so it is right that we take a moment this Sunday, when we remember the significance of Mary His mother, and consider her hymn.  Mary, as it turns out, is cousin to Elizabeth.  She heads over to the home village of Elizabeth and Zechariah.  We are not told why she goes there.  I would like to think that maybe she goes to talk to Zechariah about the strange greeting from the strange man she just received.  Who better to speak with unusual events than a priest, especially when the unusual event is that you have just agreed to give birth to God’s Anointed?  Maybe Mary liked Zechariah.  Maybe she felt safe speaking with him about this encounter than she did her own parents or her betrothed.  We just are not told.  Of course, given Zechariah’s muteness, which must have begun working its way around the family, I find it doubtful she went to talk to Zechariah.  I imagine her real target was Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was already dealing with the fallout of strange encounters.  I’m sure she enjoyed the enforced silence of her husband, but I am also equally sure that it made communication a bit more difficult than it needed to be.  To refresh your memories, Zechariah had scoffed at the idea that his wife would conceive the voice of one crying in the wilderness.  For his lack of faith in the message of the angel and of the One who sent the message, Zechariah was muted for the entire pregnancy of his wife!  Whatever the reason that drove Mary to Elizabeth, we have this incredible encounter between these two important, if normal, women.

     Upon Mary entering and greeting Elizabeth, we are told that the baby within her leapt for joy.  To us men, such a description may seem farfetched.  Just how far was he going to leap inside her womb?  How could she tell the difference?  I cannot claim to understand how women can feel what is happening within them, and I have watched my wife go through seven pregnancies and deliveries.  Sometimes, Karen would describe the babies’ actions as stretches or turning over.  At other times, she would complain about a baby’s elbow or foot hitting an organ uncomfortably often or even in a painful jolt.  Sometimes, my wife would laugh at the hiccups of the baby, at least until the little spasms got annoying.  Every now and again, Karen would wonder if the baby within her was having a dance party of some sort within her.  I see the nods and the laughter on ladies’ faces today, and the same stupid look we men tend to get around such things.  Ladies know and we are clueless, right?  But Elizabeth recognizes that the movement of the boy within her is one of excitement and joy.  More importantly to us, she is filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaims that wonderful blessing upon her younger cousin Mary.  Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.  Elizabeth understands the risk that Mary took, perhaps better than anyone.  They share many of the same family members.  They do not seem to live too far apart, so they likely shared some of the same friends.  Mary would be at a big disadvantage in her life relating her tale because of her youth.  The older women would think she was crazy or covering up an affair with someone.  Elizabeth at least has a reputation to which she can point in her own defense, that and a husband who cannot speak.  And she rightly recognizes the some of the potential cost that Mary will bear as a result of accepting the Lord’s invitation.  How will Joseph treat her and the baby?  Will people ever forget her story?  Will the Romans target her if her son grows up to be the military leader for whom they have all longed.  No doubt you can think of other thoughts.

     Mary’s response is amazing, too.  We might be tempted to respond with false modesty (aw, shucks, it’s no big deal), were we in the same place.  Mary simply acknowledges the truth of Elizabeth’s words and, far more importantly, gives us insight as to how we should respond to the knowledge that God is not only real, alive and sustaining us, but that He cares for us and has worked to restore the chasm of sin we created between us and Him.  Her words are well known.  I will not this morning spend much time discussing the nuances of the Magnificat.  I want us, instead, to focus how all of God’s acts, both in the world and in our own lives, ought to cause a Magnificat to spring up in our own hearts.

     In many ways, Mary’s hymn captures the essence of the Gospel that will be told by Luke.  Knowing God in the Jewish culture was considered an honor, and it was treated with a deep sense of respect by those who truly knew and feared Him.  The priests mirrored Moses in that they approached God only by reciting certain prayers and hymns and by stepping in certain places.  Forgetting a prayer, forgetting a line in a hymn, and mis-stepping were considered disrespectful.  Those who have participated in the Bible Study at Advent led by Larry and Tom know this even better.  High priests wore ropes and bells to let the others priests know if they were still alive or to pull them out if they were smited by God for dishonor or blasphemy.  By contrast, we think nothing of taking God’s name in vain.  How many Christian leaders make a mockery of God by ignoring His teachings?  How many Christians make a mockery of His love or His mercy by telling those less fortunate, by example if not word, that they deserve what they have received?  How many people today are quick to eschew the God who revealed Himself in Scripture for the idol they call “my god”?

     Ask many people why they fell away from the Church and you will often hear versions of “they were hypocrites.”  When people complain we are hypocrites, they are not often complaining we are sinners.  No, more often than not, they are complaining that we do not repent when we sin or, worse, we celebrate our sins as if they are acceptable to God.  Knowing God, of course, should cause humility to rise in our hearts.  Instead, familiarity seems almost to breed contempt of or for God in our hearts rather than fear.  It’s crazy.  But it is true.  Jesus warns us elsewhere to fear the one who can destroy our soul, and yet we treat Him as a good luck charm or, if you will pardon the pun, a Hail Mary.  My favorite meme on Facebook this week is the criticism that faith healers only work on television and not in hospitals.  Think about that for a second.  It’s a deep criticism.

     So many of us, though, take the idea that God acted to save us, that God wanted us to know Him for granted that we find ourselves unable to get out of a warm bed occasionally to thank Him.  We find ourselves so unimpressed with what He has done for us and for all humanity that we actively neglect to tell our children, or the next generation, of His saving works.  As a somewhat priestly father of seven (my kids can speak against ontological change!), I can tell you that one drives me the most nuts.  If I had a dime for every I want my child to choose for him/her self when he/she grows up whether to worship God or not?  If I had a dollar for every time I heard a version of that, we’d need no stewardship campaign.  Ever.  Our endowments would be flush with cash.  Think of the hubris such an idea conveys in opposition to Mary’s hymn.  You know what.  I don’t think I want to raise my child to believe that the Creator of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen, wants to be known intimately by my child.  I would rather he/she grope about in the darkness.  We find ourselves so ungrateful for the saving works He has done in the world and in our lives that we cannot be bothered to feed the hungry in His name, to clothe the poor in His name, to put our talents, given by Him, to His use.  We go through life as if He is lucky we choose to give Him any of our valuable time.  We go through life as if He is lucky we chose to worship Him at all, rather than reminding ourselves He owes us nothing.  In this relationship, we are the debtor.  I see the squirms.  I seem to have touched a nerve or maybe, maybe, the Holy Spirit is among us giving us a much needed wedgie?

     Consider our own thoughts and actions and words in light of Mary’s.  Luke will spend much of his book explaining to us, teach us, reminding us that we must take God at His word and that the proper response to His word of salvation and redemption in the world around us and in our lives is amazement and joy.  As faithful Episcopalians, we might say our response is a joyful thanksgiving!  In many ways, Mary’s hymn describes us in worship.  In one sense, her willingness to accept God at His word has incredible potential consequence for her.  She has not slept with her husband or any other man, yet now she is pregnant.  How will Joseph respond?  Her family?  The neighbors?  More importantly, we often speak of God’s faithfulness, mercy, love, justice, and whatever other characteristics as abstract attributes.  But now Mary knows God relationally.  He has asked her to bear His child.  His has come upon her in the power of the Holy Spirit and caused her to become pregnant.  More incredible, He has promised that all that He promised to her ancestors will be fulfilled in her child.  Can you imagine?

     In truth, we all should.  We should all be singing a Magnificat with Mary every day of our lives.  We do not worship an abstract truth or collection of attributes, brothers and sisters.  We worship a God who wishes to be known, who wants us to love Him, who wants nothing less for us than a great Father wants for His children.  Mary’s hymn reflects that incredible understanding.  She starts off by wondering who she is, that God should notice her, but she moves quickly to singing her understanding of that same relationship that was offered to Abram & Sarai, to Jacob & Rachel, Moses, to Hannah, to David, to Solomon, to Elizabeth her cousin, and to countless others, including you and me!  Mary’s hymn of praise testifies to the fact that the she sees God for who He is, and she rejoices that He has been mindful of her!

     Mary’s song, though in the beginning quite personal, is also universal.  Everyone we encounter is noticed by God.  Everyone.  He knows their names; He knows their situations; He knows their hurts, their hopes, and their fears.  And across the chasm He calls to them.  He may send you and me instead of an angel, but He calls them and us all the same.  Put in modern language, He changes the world by transforming our souls and equipping us for ministry in His name.

      Brothers and sisters, how is your heart in your breast this morning?  Did you drag yourself to church only because you had to?  Did you come to church because you were working or because you needed to see some people or because you only wanted to watch the youth put on their presentation?  Or did you come, echoing Mary, praising Him who noticed you, called to you, and promised to redeem you, through the work and person of that baby whose birth we celebrate later this week?  Did you come, a recipient of His tender mercy, led to Him by the Son whom Mary bore, whom Pilate killed, and whom God raised from the dead?  Or did you come merely because you were dragged?  In the end, brothers and sisters, He wants us to know Him fully.  The beginning of the end of His plan of salvation for all of us began with that little girl’s assent to His request.  If He can save the world through the faithful and joyful obedience of a young girl, imagine what He could do through a congregation of believers, a congregation that includes you and me!

Peace,

Brian†

Making the ordinary extraordinary . . .

     We continue our journey in Advent with some good old fashioned hellfire and brimstone preaching.  Not really.  I’ve been called a lot worse than a viper in my life, and I imagine most of you have, too.  I have found my stroll through the commentaries interesting, though.  There is a serious discussion, almost a back and forth in the commentaries, between those who think that naming sins and calling people to repentance is anything but good news and those who think the age of overly permissiveness has caused us to forget our real Gospel news.  Put in English language, some experts wonder how John’s preaching could ever be considered good news by Luke and the people.  The struggle for them, of course, is that the crowds flocked to John to hear his message.  I’ve only been doing this a dozen years or so, and my sense is that I really don’t have to beat people up with their sins.  They know them all too well.  But, neither can we let them pass unaddressed.  When we fail to call sins sins, people begin to think that some of their activities and thoughts are no big deals.  Who really gets hurt if I watch online pornography?  My company makes so much money anyway, it is never going to miss the reams of paper/boxes of pens/tape dispensers and other stuff I took, is it?  If we both agree we should divorce, it is not really a bad thing, right?  It does not really matter if I give the middle finger to those idiots who cut me off on the highway or at traffic lights, does it? 

     I hear chuckling, but my guess is that most of the chuckling is rueful.  We have become experts at rationalizing our behavior, have we not?  And we like to think most of our behavior is ok in God’s eyes.  Yet it is precisely those everyday sins as well as the “biggies” that caused Him to come down from heaven.  It was precisely those “no big deals” that separated us from our Father in Heaven every bit as much as the big ones like murder and rape.  People need to know that the secret sins, the horrible sins that make them unlovable, have been paid in full by our Lord Christ.  But people also need to know that those little sins matter every bit as much to God and that our Lord died as much for them as the big ones in our lives.  In many ways, we are much like the Jews who came to hear John preach.  We understand righteous behavior; what we don’t really understand is this idea of forgiveness.

     Our reading from Luke picks up right where it left off last week.  John’s activity has been placed alongside the emperor’s, the governor, and the tetrarchs.  This nobody by worldly standards, John, comes from the wrong family and the wrong town, has been given the responsibility of serving as the last of the Old Testament prophets, this after God has been silent for a few centuries!  He has strolled out of the wilderness and has begun preaching his message of repentance.  Amazingly, the people have heard his message.  In a day when social media, television, and cell phones did not exist, John’s message was enough to get the folks in the city to head down to the river to hear him preach.  Many, we are told by Luke, were baptized by him.  Some wanted to place their salvation in their family tree or in their location; John reminded them that God was having none of that.

     As they approach, as they hear his message of repentance, they wonder.  What does a repentant life look like?  What are the fruits of repentance?  As people ask, John answers.  John’s answers, of course, do not sound so new to our ears.  We know that the second great commandment is to love one’s neighbor as one’s self, but we have the hindsight of Jesus’ teaching and the red letters of His words to direct us.  John simply has the torah and Holy Spirit upon which to base his answers.  Those who are wealthy, having two cloaks or plenty of food, ought to share with those who have none.  Even traitorous IRS agents, tax collectors, can bear fruit worthy of repentance simply by collecting only what is owed.  Soldiers, too, come to John and ask if they can bear worthy fruit, and John instructs them that they must not allow themselves to be used to extort people and that they should be satisfied with their wages.  Presumably other professions were in the crowd also asking how they might bear fruit, but these would be two groups many would think outside God’s love and one group that must clearly be loved by God based on outward appearances.  John, of course, reminds them and us that God has little concern for outward appearances.  It is the repentant heart and the accompanying fruits which God desires.

     John’s answers are simple yet profound.  The crowds, we are told, began to wonder whether John is the Messiah.  John answered them all, Luke tells us, by reminding them that he baptizes only with water for repentance.  The Anointed, the Christ, will baptize with the Holy Spirit, empowering them for incredible work and ministry.  Luke ends our passage today with this amazing little snippet.  “And with many other words, John exhorted and preached the good news to them.”  Those who reject sin and those who have become too permissive about sin reject John’s preaching as good news, Gospel.  Similarly, those who want to believe that there is no accounting before God, that there is no threshing floor, cannot accept that the people in the crowds are exhorted and filled with good news.  I suppose the difficulty comes from being an academic versus being a pastor.  How can calling sin a sin be good news?  How can a reminder about judgment be good news?  How can a critique of one’s profession be good news?

     Notice anything remarkable about those coming to see John?

     Boy, if I called on people in the pews this morning, there would be a panic, wouldn’t there?  Who are the people in the crowd?  They are normal people like you and like me, are they not?  Luke highlights the tax collectors, soldiers, and rich, I think, because of their perceived standing by those in the crowd.  The Jews often thought themselves unassailable because of their chosen status by God.  Some really believed that those living in Jerusalem could never be conquered because God had to protect His Temple.  God could never allow His people to be subjugated because that meant He would be subjugated in the heavens.  They really believed this despite the testimony of the Exile and the warning of the prophets.  What is the saying?  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Clearly, many of those who come to hear John speak think their birthright protects them from God’s wrath or ensures them of God’s promises.  John reminds them that their ancestry guarantees them nothing from God.  What forges the relationship with God is a repentant heart.

     We see this attitude of the people alive and well in the modern church, don’t we?  I encounter it all the time.  “Are you a Christian?”  “Of course.”  “Great!  How has Jesus worked in your life?”  “Well, I’m not that kind of Christian?”  “What do you mean, that kind of Christian?”  Then follows a list of excuses.  I’m just a Christian because mom and dad took me to church as a kid.  I’m just a Christian because mom and dad and grandma and grandpa are Christians.  I’m a Christian because I’m an American.

     You all are chuckling, but we hear these excuses all the time.  In my short time among you I have met a number of people in the real world of Target or the mall or Publix or other sites who proudly tell me they are Adventers.  When I ask how they support Advent, either through worship, prayers, or financial contributions, I get a litany of excuses.  God knows I need sleep, so I sleep in on Sundays.  Why don’t you come to worship on Monday mornings, Tuesday evenings, or Wednesday noondays?  Well, I’m really busy so I don’t have time to pray.  Not even at night before bed or at mornings when waking?  How about in the car?  I can barely pay my bills as it is, or my favorite, that’s all you priests care about is money.  Well, you do know there is a cost associated with worship and with ministry?  It costs money to let sex addicts meet in our church.  It costs money to let a refugee community worship in our church.  It costs money to be there when you finally decide you need to talk to someone about God.  But you can also give in ways than financial.  People today, like people in John’s time, act as if Peter is going to ask for a membership card when we reach the pearly gates and not question our allegiance to His Lord our God.

     John’s rebuke of the selfish or miserly rich should prompt them to live lives that feed, water, and clothe the Lazaruses in their lives.

     Sitting here today, though, I have also heard some of your arguments against John’s teaching.  I’m not sure what caused the conversation dam to break, but over the course of the last six weeks or so, we have had a lot of conversations, so many that I am now usually running a couple weeks behind on getting my sermons typed up and put up for those absent to follow along.  I have heard until I am ready to scream what I call the excuse of ordinariness.  God needs someone better than me for that ministry, Father.  I can’t possibly do that, Father, I’m just . . . me.  That would take someone more holy than me.  What we often forget is that, in God’s eyes and under His tutelage, the ordinary become extraordinary.

     Think of John from our passage today.  Does he come from the right family?  Is he from the right town?  Does he have the right career choice?  Does he wear the right clothes?  Heck, does he say the right words?  John reeks of ordinariness.  His father serves in a town outside of Jerusalem.  He is located at the parish and not the cathedral, to use our language!  His clothes are rough, to say nothing of his diet.  Yet, how does God view John?  He caused us to remember his name.  The world might be fascinated by Augustus, Quirinius, Pilate, and the Tetrarchs, but God loves those who fear him and follow His teaching.  This unremarkable man, by worldly standards, is well known by all Christians today and many non-Christians.  More importantly, He was and is well known by God, who gave him the honor and privilege of being the one crying in the wilderness for the Anointed One!

     And lest we think John is an exception, let’s talk some of our recent stories.  Ruth?  A Moabitess widow!  Neither her heritage nor her condition cause the world to notice her, yet God and Boaz does.  And what about Boaz?  A seemingly ordinary guy of middle age!  Yet both become the parents of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, you know, that famous shepherd with a heart after God’s own.  Peter?  A fisherman.  James and John?  Fishermen or net-minders?  Matthew?  An old fashioned IRS collector!  In reality, if we pay close attention to Scripture, there are very few extraordinary men and women, at least by worldly standards, who choose to follow and obey God.  Most are normal John’s and Jane’s, right up until that moment they decide to do as God asks!  Then, and only after their faithful, obedient response, does God truly bless them.  What if Ruth would have followed the footsteps of her sister Orpah?  What if Boaz had been more like his kinsman closer to Ruth or a wicked man who ignore God’s torah?  What makes the people special, what makes the people extraordinary in our eyes is the One that they serve.  There is nothing in them that causes the world to go “Wow.  We could totally see that in her/him.”  It is their faith in God, who promises to redeem all things and who promises to indwell in all His people, who makes them the giants we think they are.

     All of that, of course, brings us to Nashville in the year 2015.  Look around for a moment.  Consider prayerfully what you think God is calling us to do and to be at Church of the Advent.  What do we really lack?  We have tons of skills seated around you.  Tons.  And now think back to that face staring back at you as you dressed this morning.  What role is He asking you to play in His wonderful plan of salvation?  You can bet that if He is asking, you will have the skills necessary to accomplish His will.  Either they are already within you, or He will give them to you at just the appropriate time.  Best of all, that plan He has for your life and for salvation is dependent only upon Him.  True, He asks us to respond obediently in faith.  But the real execution of His plan, the real working out of His plan, is up to Him.  If His enemy, who is diametrically opposed to His plan cannot thwart Him, what makes you think you are powerful enough to really screw things up?

     Brothers and sisters, you and I serve a God who excels at taking the ordinary and making them extraordinary, who takes the common and makes them sacred, and that truly is good news to those of who hear and believe!  As John reminds us, our Lord takes faithful obedient behavior and uses it to His glory and His honor and the welfare of His people.  Rather than fight Him in your life or argue with your inner demons that you are incapable of incredible work in His name, why not join yourself to His will?  Why not do as He asks and look expectantly for the result?  In the end, He has promised to share His honor and His glory with all who follow Him.  Should we really be surprised that we remember and honor men and women like John, like Peter, like Mary, like Ruth, like Boaz, like Martha?  Should we really be surprised that one day men and women born again of our Father’s Spirit remember you or this parish in the same prayers of thanksgiving?

Peace,

Brian†