Preached at Urban Abbey on December 2, 2018
Dear Abbey Friends,
Mary’s story is about having a baby, so we wrap it up in pastels. We make her story sweet and soothing; more lullaby than power-ballad, more pregnant than prophet, more mommy than badass - like she can’t be both.
Mary’s story is a birth story but it is not just any birth story. And I don’t say that because her baby is Jesus, I say that because her story is the story of a prophet. Her story follows all of the makings and markings, all of the patterns and struggles of every other prophet in the Bible. She is called, it is a call story just like Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah and Isaiah. All of them have this same pattern.
Encounter God - sometimes in a burning bush or by angelic messengers
Asked to do something - usually hard, like toppling an empire
Object to call, like Jonah not wanting to go to Nineveh
Be reassured and then given an assignment - saying yes like Mary
MOSES
Take a look at Moses. He is tending flocks when he encounters a bush burning but not consumed. It seems like this bush had been going for a while; like God had the phone on speaker with hold music playing, just waiting for Moses to pick up.
“When the Lord saw that he (Moses) had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” (Exodus 3: 1-6)
This is the encounter portion of the call story.
Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ (Exodus 3: 7-10)
This is the big ask…a really big ask: go free people from the most powerful empire around.
But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ (Exodus 3: 11)
Moses gets the call and he dissents with God. Moses names his insecurities. He actually goes on debating God for another chapter - it may be the longest anyone debates God in the Bible. At one point God has Moses put his hand inside his cloak and then pull it out and it's leprous. God really has to win Moses over. It goes on and on, Moses turns a staff into a snake with God’s help and still he pushes back saying, I am not a great public speaker, “I have never been eloquent, slow of speech and slow of tongue.” God responds, I have your brother Aaron lined up. P.S. I got this, I’m God, the Creator of the Universe, just go (well that’s not the exact translation but you get the point). So eventually Moses goes and the work is hard. His enslaved people topple the most powerful empire around but that is really just the beginning of the quest.
Moses spends 40 years wandering in the wilderness, often with disgruntled people complaining about their freedom, wanting to turn back, getting mad at God and Moses, worshiping idols, and wanting different food. They are difficult until they arrive at the land of Milk and Honey, the Promised Land, which Moses never gets to see.
JEREMIAH
The same thing happens to Jeremiah, when he encounters God. God says I created you…
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’ (Jer 1:4-5)
Then Jeremiah objects
Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ (Jer 1:6)
Jeremiah does not meet the minimum age requirement for prophet. Then God responds.
But the Lord said to me,
‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”;
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the Lord.’
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.’ (Jer 1: 7-10)
Jeremiah objects only once to God’s call and then with a touch, Jeremiah takes on the sacred words and work, he embodies them. He enters a dangerous journey in the risky politics of his day, but God’s words are like fire in his bone and he is weary with keeping them in - so he speaks bold visions for the future that are rooted in the past, in the hope that his community changes in the present.
ISAIAH
Mary’s story seems most like Isaiah's. Mary responds the same way Isaiah responds. “Here am I, send me.” Isaiah experiences not just one angel but a whole team of celestial beings. And he, like Mary, expresses astonishment.
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. (Isaiah 6: 1-2)
Then the angels start singing a song that sounds a lot like our liturgy and a reminder that Christians are borrowers
And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’ (Isaiah 6: 3)
Then Isaiah objects, he names his concerns about the reality of life and community.
And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’ (Isaiah 6:5)
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ (Isaiah 6:7)
God responds to Isaiah's objection and he consents.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ And he said, ‘Go and say to this people. (Isaiah 6:8)
Then God gives Isaiah something to say. Isaiah is the least reluctant prophet. He doesn’t say oh I’m not quite good enough. I didn’t pass my speech class. I’m not old enough. I hate Nineveh. I have my own plan. I have these sheep to tend and these things to take care of before I get to this. Isaiah doesn’t negotiate with God for more vacation time, a different strategy or a different assignment. He says, “Here am I. Send me.” And then he dives right in to the politics of his day. In fact, this first portion of Isaiah shows some of his impact by keeping the country safe from regional conflicts.
This is the work of a prophet, they speak truth to power, they help their community navigate the choices and values and happenings in the present, they work in the now. They do this work by being rooted in the past. Their primary tool is painting a vision for the future but their work is all about the present, the now. Sometimes their vision of the future is grim, violent, and distressing. Sometimes their vision is a wildly hopeful one, like when Isaiah proclaims that God is setting a big table with the fattiest food and the best wine, a table where everyone is welcome. But, even in looking to the future, they are helping their community navigate the choices of the present. Remembering who they are and dreaming into a more hopeful place: a land of milk and honey, a big inclusive table, and a baby born to a poor unwed mother changing the dynamics of power. There are few things more hopeful than bringing a life into the world, deeming the world worthy to live up to the care of a new vulnerable dream.
MARY
That’s what Mary is up to. She gets a call from God, just like the prophets before her. She encounters the Divine in the form of an Angel named Gabriel.
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth….And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."
Then she asks some questions.
29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
And then she is reassured and gets a big assignment.
30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
She given details and the language of “overshadow you” is used. I have often disliked this portion or this term, but this same language appears in Exodus when God provides manna in the wilderness, or chats with Moses on the mountain top, or celebrates the creation of a tabernacle at the end of the Exodus story. This moment of Divine presence is connected with God’s liberation. Mary’s story is connected with Exodus, when slaves toppled empires, without any of the tools. God gives Mary a choice and she says yes. God seeks consent. And when she says yes, she sounds a lot like Isaiah. Here am I. I imagine her learning it, hearing it…over an over growing up dreaming of a different world and now embodying it.
38 Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."
She says yes, with out all of the drama of Moses or disbelief of Zechariah. Here am I. She is confident and humble, with out hesitation she assumes the call of God. Here am I. Mary doesn’t try to manage God’s intrusion into her life or control the process or direct the divine. She doesn’t say, “Sure I’m in but can we do this some other way..like without me having a baby when no one thinks I should be pregnant.” Mary doesn’t believe that the work of God’s love will be easy, if it was God wouldn’t have to show up to ask.
Mary says, “here am I let it be with me according to your word” and the first thing she does is sing a song. She sings an old song reaching into the tradition she loves. The song links joy and justice, thanksgiving and liberation. She sings of God lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry with good things. Mary says, “Here am I” and her life is never the same. And we every year, share her story and probably think: oh good for Mary - glad it's not me.
I never hear God tell me exactly what to do, particularly from a burning bush, and I’m not sure I would know what to do at the sight of a six winged creature bringing a coal to my lips. Perhaps that’s one reason I, myself, have never experienced God that way. We may not see bushes burning or angles with wings, at least many of us, but I suspect you, like I, have felt a nudge. Those moments when you know you have to say something, your whole body tells you too, even if it's risky to speak up. Perhaps you have felt compelled, you intuition and the right moment lining up. Maybe there is something that breaks your heart or keeps you up at night and suddenly you find yourself driven to a new work. Mary’s story is asking us to take the risk. Mary says, “Here am I” and ask us to do the same.
Try it and see what happens….
Here am I, when trans lives are taken.
Here am I, when our systems for mental heath care are so far from adequate.
Here am I, when creation is parceled up and sold off for profit.
Here am I, when the anniversary of Sandy Hook passes once again without legislation for change.
Here am I, when survivors of human trafficking receive more jail time than powerful predators.
Here am I, when a child dies in US custody, away from her family and without the basics of care.
Here am I, when our systems for mental heath care are so far from adequate.
Here am I, may we have the courage to say it, embody it and be ready for where it takes us.
May it be so. amen.
Rev. Debra McKnight
© 2018 Rev. Debra McKnight, Urban Abbey
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