"LET IT HAPPEN!” (ADVENT FOUR)

Readings: 2 Sam. 7:1-11, 16, Ps. 89:1-4, 19-26, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-31,38.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on December 18th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

As we have been traveling towards Advent a prophet called John the Baptist came out of an unexpected place and foreshadowed the coming of Jesus in unexpected ways. Last week we saw how the ‘Wind’ of the Holy Spirit was crying out the name of Mary; the poor peasant girl chosen by God to be mother of the Savior.

This week’s bible reading gave us an account that’s known as the ‘Annunciation’. An angel, in fact one who was regarded as a chief amongst angels called Gabriel, addresses Mary with terrifying news (and I use the word terrifying here in the sense that it was news that had such an element of awe within it that the only correct response was to quake with wonder)… “And behold” announces Gabriel “Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.”

More details are offered concerning His destiny and identity until, in a moment of beautiful resignation Mary responds, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Eugene Petersen in the Message pictures it this way “And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.” Mary says, “Let it happen!”

Christmas is coming. Next Sunday will be Christmas Day. It will happen, whether we are ready for it or not. Ready or not, here comes ‘What?’ Here comes Christmas. And here’s Mary saying “Let it happen!”

What makes these gentle words of Mary all the more spectacular is that there was a history behind the coming of the Messiah that spanned centuries of prophetic visions and expectations. The child that she was to bear in her womb was not simply one in a number of remarkable events, but this child, the one to be called Jesus, was the climax and the culmination of all that the prophets had hoped and prayed for.

As other biblical writers such as John and Paul would seek to explain, this child was the culmination of God’s plans. He was the Creative Word made flesh, the one in whom Creation itself would find its ultimate meaning.

One bible commentator writes; “Consider this: From the beginning of time God
has been at work in bringing forth Jesus Christ so He could be one with His people.
Now, in this final annunciation story in the Bible, God’s purpose will be fulfilled.
God will act to save the people. This child is to be born to this woman for the saving of the world.”

And here’s little Mary saying “Let it happen!”

At the heart of Christmas is a startling thought. God wants to do extraordinary things in the midst of our everyday world. As people who are in this world; as every one of us here is a part of the world that God made, the world God saw and God declared ‘Good’; the implication of the Incarnation is that God wants to do extraordinary things in our lives. In your life, in my life, in the lives of our families, in the lives of our churches!

So are we ready for a ‘Mary Christmas’? That is are we ready to say to God, as did Mary, “Listen, whatever you want to happen in my life, whatever You have in store for me, however You want to do it… Let It Happen!”

If you recall our reading, when the angel first proposes such an idea to Mary, her attitude is not one of acceptance but of perplexity. ‘God; You don’t want to be getting mixed up in a life like mine! I’m not the sort of person who welcomes holy interventions. There’s got to be a catch here, there has to be some kind of miscalculation, can I get back to You on this?”

When you have the angel Gabriel standing in your front room, telling you not to be afraid and saying that you have found favor with God, it’s a little to late in the day to take a rain check. Some might suggest that ‘let it happen’ was the only response that Mary felt she could make!

But to me the really gritty part of this account is this. Mary’s decision to let God do what God wanted to do in her life, meant she would have to abandon her hopes and dreams about how she wanted her life to turn out.

She was a young woman of respectable family who had made a good marriage. She was to be the wife of a skilled craftsman, which would make her a part of the tiny middle-class of Palestine. Her hopes and plans no doubt included a quiet life, children, good health, some economic security, a little comfort, not much pain. God almost certainly had a place in her plans; doubtless she would keep the Commandments, make the sacrifices, follow the rules, pay the tithes and do all the usual stuff.

The story of the Annunciation is God saying "No" to all of Mary's plans. God saying that Mary will have very little of what she had hoped for and expected. God saying that, instead of Mary's plans for herself, God has plans for Mary, and these plans are unexpected, a bit scandalous, and change everything. Saying “Let it happen” when it’s obvious that to do so is going to mess with your game plan is tough.

Mary had tremendous faith and courage. It meant standing up to whatever gossip or rejection might come her way because she was pregnant and not yet married. She was willing to suffer a mother’s worst fate, bearing a son who would necessarily be taken from her all too soon.

She was willing to give Him away so the whole world could have Him. Later, she would watch her son walk the rocky road of a religious leader, see her son receive threats and abuse. Then, Mary would stand at the foot of a cross, helplessly watching Him die a humiliating death.

She would also witness many moments which bore witness to the glory of the Lord and the truth of the angel’s announcement. Jesus turning water to wine. Healings and miracles that were hard to put into words. And the greatest miracle of them all, the resurrection.

We no doubt have plans for Christmas and for our families and for our lives. Hopefully those plans include figuring out how God fits in. As Advent comes to an end, we need to realize that God has plans for us. We need to remember that, very often, it has been those times in our lives when things did not go as we had planned that God was the most present, and the most real.

This account of the Annunciation challenges us to give up the absolute authority of our own plans. We are asked to promise to listen, listen in such a manner that we are prepared to let God say "No" to our best plans for ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong here! Plans for the future, for our lives and for the direction of our lives are very important. We are to use our freedom responsibly and carefully. And part of doing that is making plans, and making decisions, and following through with them. There is nothing wrong with plans. There was nothing wrong with Mary’s plans.

At the same time, Christmas is here to tell us that God's business quite often turns out rather different from "business as usual." The challenge of this last Sunday in Advent is whether we can say to God, “Let it happen!” Whether we can truly be open to and accept what God has in store for us, especially when it is not part of our hopes or dreams.

What will Christmas be like for us this year? What would it look like for the Lord to be born and be reborn within us? How do we deal with the reality that God has kept God's promises and come to God’s world? Dare we believe that God really does work through ordinary lives like mine and yours and Mary’s?

Such a thought may initially fill us with alarm. But by faith, even without an angel in our front room, we will come to see that God’s way really is the best way. Not the easiest or the most comfortable, but the deepest and richest, the only way that has eternal benefits and the right way to truly celebrate Christmas.

My prayer for us this morning is simple. “Let it happen!”

Work in people’s lives in such a way that they see Lord, that Your way is the best way. Let it happen!

Lord through Your Holy Spirit work through us as a church here in this place. Help us reach out to the community with Your love, even if it means we have to change the way we do things. Let it happen!

Lord help us to reach those who desperately need a touch of heavenly light in the midst of the dark times they are going through. Let it happen!

Lord, we know that change has to begin in each of us before it can flow through us to touch others. May new hopes and new dreams be born into our lives as we celebrate the wonder of Christmas.

Let it happen!
Let it happen!
Let it happen!

Amen!

Rev Adrian Pratt

THE WIND CRIES MARY(ADVENT THREE)

Readings: Psalm 126, Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, 1 Thess. 5:16-24, Luke 1:46-56
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on December 11th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

I was chatting with a musician friend the other day and asked him a question. “Who” I said, “Do you think is the greatest guitarist that ever lived?” For me that’s a hard question to answer. There are so many different styles of music and guitar playing that it’s hard to narrow it down.

Eric Clapton always been a favorite – he just manages to transcend so many different styles and never seems to miss a note. I saw a guy play in Liverpool once, called Gary Potter – he was amazing – but what happened to him? Django Rhienhart – the jazz guitarist – awesome in his particular style. Likewise “The Edge” the guitarist with U2 – talk about innovation and using just a few notes to create a wall of sound.

I think in the realm of heavy rock music I’d have to say Jimi Hendrix, because although he died tragically young, and in technical terms and in terms of speed of playing there’s been some who could run rings around him, he was a true original and did things with the guitar’s sound that had never been thought of before.

Now I realize that to some of you the question of who the greatest guitarist may be is really not a burning issue, and some of you may well have an intense dislike of rock music, and that’s O.K. We’re all different. Me... no matter how wonderfully it’s explained and how much I appreciate the talent of those involved... I don’t think I am ever going to really be able to say, “I love opera”.

And to a British guy brought up on the game of cricket, I will never be able to fully comprehend the excitement that baseball generates in some of you. But... you know it’s a big world and there is room in it for all the variety and eccentricity that our likes and dislikes reveal about us. So, indulge me just for a moment as I return to Jimi Hendrix.

Although he is always remembered for his guitar playing, less is said about his song-writing. He also crafted some remarkable songs that complemented the imagery he created through his playing. Admittedly, some of it was out there somewhere and we may never know what was really going through his mind, but that’s the artist’s privilege.

One of his early songs was titled “The Wind Cries Mary”. Some of the words of that song fit in really well with the themes we explore during Advent.

Last week we were thinking about John the Baptist – a voice in the Wilderness – a voice that the religious folk of his day completely failed to hear – but which struck a chord in the hearts of many others, causing them to re-evaluate there lives and ‘get ready’ – for something new that God was going to do.

John spoke to the midst of a world that just wasn’t fun any more. A world where hope had died and laughter had ceased. A world where everything seemed set in stone. The rich would get richer and the poor would get sickness, redemption was unlikely and deliverance from evil a dream.

The Israelites were after all, a conquered and vanquished people who knew that time was not on their side. They were losing their identity. They were losing their faith. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. It was just a case of sitting it out.

God had other plans. The plans that we celebrate as Christmas. God was about to get up close and personal with the world He had fashioned and formed. God was about to turn everything on its head. God would come in Christ and nothing would ever be quite what it seemed again.

How would this be? What was God going to do? When would it happen? Who would it involve? It’s here the evocative words of Jimi’s song, which I’m pretty sure he didn’t write about Christmas, nevertheless fit so well to this defining moment in history.

“After all the jacks are in their boxes,
And the clowns have all gone to bed.
And you can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in Red,
And the wind whispers.. Mary”
(© “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix)

Way back in Bethlehem, in that dim and long ago time, there was a new song about to be sung and a new light about to appear. And the Holy Spirit, the Wind of God, was carrying one word on the breath of God… the wind whispered … Mary.

To young Mary, a peasant girl betrothed in marriage to a working man, in a tiny little village that would have been forever forgotten were it not for the acts of God that took place there, came an angel that told Mary that in her life would be birthed a Savior for all the world, that for all time afterwards, from generation to generation, people would call her, Mary, the Blessed One of God, favored above all women, past, present or to come.

Isaiah painted a bleak picture of a world abandoned by God. John spoke from the wilderness of a hope that was to come. The wind whispered Mary and Mary’s heart burst forth into a glorious song that is recorded for us in Luke’s gospel. A song sometimes called the ‘Magnificat’ or the ‘Great Rejoicing’ and that transforms Isaiah’s words.

It’s very different song to the one that Jimi Hendrix would later write. This one is a song of hope and expectation. This is a song about a turn around of cosmic proportions. This is a song that laughs in the face of the way things were, for God was to do a reversal of fortunes that would leave the downtrodden leaping for joy and those who had been brought low, crying with tears of laughter.

Dr. Conrad Hyers, professor of Mythology and Religious history at Gustavux Adolphus College in Minnesota, once preached a marvelous sermon entitled “The Nativity as a Divine Comedy”. Drawing on the images of reversal that are throughout the gospels, he reminds us of the radical nature of Scriptures message, something he suggests that the church has often sought to suppress and control, because it appears so disarmingly new and disturbingly spontaneous.

He speaks of how Jesus is ascribed images more appropriate to a jester or a clown than to the Son of God. He is, as we have seen, heralded by a wilderness prophet wearing animal skins, eating locusts and honey and throwing people in a river. He chooses a bunch of misfits and unknowns to be his followers, amongst them one whom he knows will eventually betray Him.

Although He is given a host of titles such as ‘Son of David’ and ‘Prince of Peace’ and ‘Lord of Lord’s’ He appears to belong to the common man, incite violent opposition from religious leaders anxious to maintain the status quo and expresses His royal position by the preposterous act of washing His disciples feet.

He is born to a carpenter’s wife in an animal shelter, has a vagabond ministry amongst peasants, publicans and sinners, enters the holiest city on a donkey, and dies as a mock king with thorns for a crown and a cross for a throne.

His ministry attracts neither poets or philosophers, emperors nor priests, generals nor politicians, but is a parade of children, shepherds, gypsies, prostitutes, tax-swindlers, foreign soldiers, slaves, and refugees, a parade of the maimed, the blind and the lame, a procession of lepers and demon tortured nobodies, a carnival of fools.

These appear as the chosen of God, chosen not because they have the most to offer, but because they have nothing to offer but themselves. And the reward for their ‘chosen-ness’ is often that of being the clown, the scapegoat, the ‘Fool for Christ’s sake”.

The wind cried Mary and this little girl, Mary, this peasant in the midst of nowheresville, responds with a song of joy in which she proclaims this divine foolishness. “He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name…… He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.”

Dr. Hyers concluded his sermon with these words:-

“In this divine comedy a poor woman’s farthing cast inconspicuously in the temple chest may be worth more than all the benefactions of the rich. Sinners unworthy to set foot in holy places, may be justified over those faithful and comfortable in their righteousness. Children may be closer to the Kingdom of God than the learned or pious. Illiterates and fools may see what scribes and philosophers do not. And the most godforsaken places may be precisely where God is found. Emmanuel. God with us.”
(© ‘Christian Century’, December 1974, pp 1168-1172)

Where will we find God in our Christmas celebrations this year? As always it will be in the unexpected places. In the generosity of our giving rather than the wealth of our receiving. In the laughter of children rather than the compliments of strangers. In the fellowship of those others refuse to welcome.

Maybe around the T.V. set or in the midst of a shopping trip, God will catch us unaware. Maybe around a table laid with the best we can afford, or possibly around a table laid with little more than bread and wine, we will sense something of the divine foolishness that calls people like us to discipleship.

Could be the wind, the wind of the Spirit will not be crying Mary, but calling our name.

“Christian, follow Me.
Christian, worship Me,
Christian, serve Me.”

May God help us to respond with joy to the unlikely Good News of Christmas, to respond with a foolish heart that declares, “I have nothing to offer but myself”. But be careful! Do that and God might just start working out that crazy turn around Kingdom stuff in our lives.

To God’s name be the Glory.

Rev. Adrian Pratt