A
sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 14 December 2014, Third Sunday in Advent, by Abraham
Peterson.
The scripture readings that day were Isaiah
61:1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126 and Luke
1:46-55.
Mary doesn’t
get enough press, you know?! At least not
in the Protestant world. What’s up with that?!
She’s an astonishing Advent figure. As is her nephew, John the Baptiser.
John and Mary - two Advent figures who are
astonishing!
Why is John amazing?
We see in John the Baptiser’s
announcements the idea that the paths are made straight for God. The heights are made low, the low are made
high.
What I’ve
been learning lately is that there is a unity in all things. I think I am starting to see these verses in
terms of that understanding. The image
is that the heights and the depths, to some respect, disappear. There are not such extreme ups or downs. Heights fade away; depths fade away - the
only thing that matters is God. From Top
to Bottom - only God! When we get ready
for God, we find a unity in all things.
John’s message, then, is that these things all change at
the advent of God. Without God, we still
distinguish these extremes in our lives.
With a complete and utter focus on God, we start to lose sight of Good
and Evil, Right and Wrong, Heaven and Hell, Sin and Salvation - these
bifurcations and polarities that take our focus from the presence of God. All we see is God. Our focus should be on God showing up. So John reminds me - hopefully reminds us -
to talk past those things! John reminds us
to go beyond such categories, such highs and lows, and to dwell on God and God
alone.
Last week we heard from John the LeMond, not John the
Baptiser, about the fading of distinction of time, that we live with God in a
holy present, a holy now. John reminded
us that there is no difference, no distinction as we dwell in God’s presence and God’s present.
So,
John and Mary… Or 2 Johns. And
Mary.
Mary. This
woman is absolutely astonishing and we just glaze right over her. Shame on us.
She is who we all should want to be… we
talk about asking Jesus into our heart and homes and lives and all these things… SHE
had Jesus insider her very BODY!
She EMBODIES John’s
understanding of what happens when you remain focused on God and God
alone. Not only in her life, but truly
in. her. body. Her body that bears God.
The question I kept thinking of while writing this
sermon is: “Where
does Mary end and Jesus begin?” Likewise
“Where does Jesus end and Mary begin?”
These questions explain a physical representation of
how I think I have begun to see Advent, a way I think that gives us insight
into the Good News. It’s a questions we
hopefully have for ourselves - “Where does God end and I begin?”
Mary has a wild story of being chosen by God, of being
the vessel for God. Mary, just before
our verses in Luke, goes away from home to visit her cousin. Surely she was getting more ‘pregnant’ and things were getting more tense. So she visits her cousin, whether as an
escape from the pressures in her home town, or for some closeness with a family
member in a similar situation we don’t
know. And the story goes that Elizabeth
is filled with the Spirit and praises Mary and then Mary bursts into song, this
song, this “Magnificat”
based on the first word of the Latin text. “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” “My
soul magnifies the Lord.”
Though scholars agree this is not a verbatim dictation
of the words of Mary, like a South China Morning Post article recording the
details or video feed on the MTR News, it does demonstrate an intention. It demonstrates how the early church viewed
Mary and quite possibly how Mary viewed not only herself but her role and her
Son’s role.
Interestingly, the words are ever so similar to what
we understand from John the Baptiser. We
find John saying to prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight paths, to see
the change in valleys and mountains, to see God showing up. From Top to Bottom, God!
We find something similar in Mary’s
song.
BUT… It’s
no longer nature that is being changed, it is people.
We see the powerful brought down and the lowly lifted
up.
We see the hungry filled and the full empty.
We see the idea that things change when God shows up,
that these distinctions start to disappear.
We see things like wealth and hunger, things like
power and emptiness start to waver.
We see they shift and take on different roles and
meanings.
When our attention turns toward God, things in the
world turn upside down and inside out.
We see differently. We think
differently. Our understanding changes
and our minds change. You know the word “Repent”? Well, the Greek is simply “Change
your mind!”
Your thinking changes when you start to see God, when
you start to see God showing up EVERYWHERE.
That’s when your mind changes. That’s
when your life changes.
Another questions I continue to ask is, “Where
is there that God cannot be?” or “What place exists where
God is not?” It seems we so often
solidify God, make God a being like us, give God a place like “heaven” and
then limit God to there so that He must become human. We push God away from our lives, from the
close places, from our very heart, our very heartbeat - we push God into heaven
and in so doing, we lose a piece of our heart, too. We lose a piece of ourselves.
In this Advent season, perhaps we regain a piece of
ourselves as we realize God is Among Us, when we change our minds, when we
repent!
John reminds us from Top to Bottom is God! Mary reminds us from Creator to Creation, or
Father to Son is God. And later in
Jesus’ life we see from Life to Death, from King to Slave - There is no place
God is not! And the story is that God is
no longer OUTSIDE but INSIDE and OUTSIDE and
SIDE-TO-SIDE and UPSIDE-DOWNSIDE-INSIDE-OUTSIDE Topsy-Turvy…
EVERY SIDE.
EVERY WHERE.
ALL THE TIME.
NOW!
In Advent, we say that God Became Flesh, that God
dwelt among us. But was God more in Jesus
Christ than in our presence right now?
How could God be? Is God more in
the baby in the manger than in the babies that run these aisles? Is God
less in our tea and cake than our communion of bread and wine? Is God less in you than
in the baby of our Mother Mary? You may
think that heretical, but for God to be more or less in a certain place or a
certain time makes God limited, constrained, makes God WELL... not God.
Psalm 139 asks “Where
can I go from your presence, O Lord?” Do
we truly believe this?
God is in all places.
In all time. We hear later in
Colossians 3:11 that all distinctions disappear and that Christ is all and is
in all. There is nowhere where Christ is
not. There is nowhere where God is
not. God is All and in all.
And
THAT is why I love Mary - because she is that very story of God. There was a blurry line between her and
Jesus.
“Where
does Mary end and Jesus begin?”
There was a blurry line between the Baby and the
Mother.
In Advent, it is an important reminder that we are
like Mary and there is a blurry line between us and the Christ born in us. “Where does Christ end and I begin?”
When we imagine the Mother with Child, we hopefully
imagine the same God within us, kicking, moving, living.
When we think of Christ born into turmoil and
political instability then, we think of how Christ in us is surrounded by the
same.
When we think of Christ being inseparable from the
womb of Mary, we are reminded how God in us is similarly inseparable... All and
in all.
Mary, like John, shows us what it means to be focused
on God, to let all distinctions blur in the presence of the Almighty. Mary shows us that God touches all of us -
rich or poor, lowly or mighty, hungry or fed.
Mary shows us the God born in us.
The God present from Top to Bottom.
The God present in all times, in all places.
The God who is all and in all.
The God born in us today!
Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, December 14, 2014
