“Highly Favored” – Sermon Dec 23, 2012
December 23, 2012
Scripture: Luke 1: 39-55
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Sermon: Highly Favored
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Has anyone read the book, “The Shack?” It’s this very engaging novel that portrays the Trinitarian God in each of its three parts. In this book, not only is Christ incarnated in Jesus, but God and Holy Spirit also take on human form. The book makes it clear that this is just one of any number of ways God can make Godself better known and understood to a human creature, and the author chooses what I consider to be just lovely personifications. God in this story is embodied as a buxomy, cuddly woman who, upon seeing a beloved child wraps him or her in her arms for a fierce hug, all the while exclaiming, “my oh my, I am soooo glad to see you!” Then she holds the person out at arms’ length, looks them in the eye, and says, “Mmm, mm. I am especially fond of you.” Every time I came upon such a greeting in the book, and there are several, I imagined myself in that embrace, imagined what it would be like to feel God’s gaze on my face, to hear God’s voice in my ear, “Mmm, mm, Doreen, I am especially fond of you.” Can you imagine it? Can you hear it… (call out some people). Actually, I want everyone to hear those words. So turn to someone sitting near you and say it to each other, with feeling. And remember, you are speaking for God. …How does it make you feel?
Look at my face, you can tell how it makes me feel, right? Happy, even a little giddy. It is when I think about this that I understand Mary’s joy in this morning’s gospel reading. Because if you think about the rest of what’s been told to Mary – that she, an unmarried girl of a lowly background – is to bear a child – well, it sounds pretty frightening. But in this scene, oh, this encounter is one of unmitigated joy. The more time I spent with this passage this week, the lighter and happier I felt. I can’t think of another bible story that is just about women – no men around at all – and they are pregnant women to boot. And they are prophets – prophetic, pregnant women spilling over with joy and gratitude. Talk about drinking from the cup of blessing. Elizabeth gushes over how blessed Mary is, how blessed Mary’s child is, how blessed Elizabeth is that Mary should visit. Mary acknowledges that she had indeed been blessed, and that all generations will recognize her blessing. She talks about how God has blessed all of Israel through her. And you have to love how she uses the past tense. The child is only just conceived, and the world around her certainly does not look saved, but she steps right into the blessing, steps right into that holy ground of already and not yet that we are all invited to inhabit. The proud have been scattered, the powerful brought down, the lowly have been lifted up. The hungry have been fed, and God has kept God’s promises.
What song can we sing with Mary today on the ground of already and not yet? Perhaps God has made a world where all children are safe. God has filled the hungry with good things and has sent no one away empty. God has opened the eyes of the rich to see the emptiness of accumulation and the joy of sharing. God has beaten the weapons of war into plowshares. God has opened our eyes to see the beauty in each other, especially those who are different from us. What song would you sing?
“Doreen, Doreen, I am especially fond of you.” I must admit I had a little internal conversation with the cynic in me. I argued that if God could say that to all of us, then how special could any of us be? I mean, when does God really mean it? But I know that is just my human limitation kicking in, my mistaken ideas about scarcity, scarcity of resources and scarcity of love and admiration. I heard this wonderful story that illustrates something about this. It was a TED talk by Bryan Stevenson. He tells how his mother was the youngest of 12 children born to a woman of faith and substance. His grandmother’s house was always filled with family, children around all the time. He says when he was quite young, over at his grandmothers, with all kinds of cousins around, mostly older, he noticed his grandmother watching him very intently. Every time he looked her way she was watching him.
Finally she beckoned to him, and they walked to the yard together, and she sat him down and said, “I’ve been watching you. And I have to tell you, I see something special in you. You have a special light. I know you can do anything you set your mind to.” She went on, “Now I want you to promise me three things – 1) always do the right thing, even when it’s the hard thing. 2) always be good to your mother – treat her with respect and listen to her. And 3) never drink alcohol.” Bryan, young child that he was, eagerly made the promise. A few years later he was hanging with his older brother and sister, and his brother got his hands on a few beers and passed them around. Bryan waved it away, saying, “Naw, you go ahead, but I don’t want any.” His brother kept urging him, and Bryan kept refusing. Finally his brother said, “Hey, is this about ‘the talk’ from Grandma? Because you know she said that stuff to all of us.” Bryan pauses at this point and says, you know, I never did touch alcohol. Grandma might have given that talk to all of the children, but I claimed it as part of my identity. Bryan took those words to heart, and his soul – his life, magnified the Lord.
Now I don’t think his grandma loved him any more than the other children, nor did she love the others any less, even if they drank alcohol, did the wrong thing, or were mean to their mothers. We don’t have to do anything to earn God’s love. But we are invited to claim as our identity, that we, like Mary, have found favor with the Lord. We, like Mary, are invited to rejoice in that knowledge, to call ourselves blessed, to let our souls and our lives magnify our Lord. May it be so.
