sermons and notes posted on this blog are not necessarily what came out of my mouth during the services,
but they'll offer a sense my dance with the Holy Spirit while preparing to preach

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Blessed be our visitations (with God nothing will be impossible)



An older couple in the hill country prepares for a visit from a younger person, a relative traveling from another rural area.  It’s been an interesting year for them and they’re still not sure what to make of it.  They had grown used to living with the stigma and shame of the wife’s inability to bear a child (something that people often assumed was a sign of God’s judgment against her).  They were too old to expect that this would ever change.  The husband is also suffering from unexplainable medical issues, having been struck mute for a period of time.  Perhaps you know a couple like this as well – good people, wise and ripened with age, convinced that God has already finished with them… that they’ve served their purpose and are now just living out their remaining years faithful in wait for their final days. Her name is Elizabeth, a Greek transliteration of a Elisheba, a name that means “my god has sworn an oath.”  Her husband’s name is from a word that means “the Lord remembers.”  God, in fact, has more plans for them.

A younger person prepares to make the journey to visit distant relatives.  She might be traveling alone, at considerable risk to herself.  Her fiancé has recently had to cope with unsettling news and is still discerning what to do about it – he says he has seen things and heard voices… he’s still trying to decide what it all means for them. Carrying with her she has a mix of emotions.  How will she be received? What will this older couple think of her life choices, her present circumstances?  She also has unbelievable news to share about what she has seen and heard – will they believe her?  She’s been told that her relatives, too, have been touched in some special way.  What will she discover in their company?  Perhaps you know a young person like this – innocent and perhaps a bit naïve, yet full of faith and hope, who has come into unusual circumstances and finds themselves in a challenging situation.  Where is God in this person’s life?  Even the origins of her name, Mary, reflect a mix of emotions, said to have meanings ranging from ‘bitterness’ and ‘rebelliousness’ to ‘wished for child’ and ‘beloved lady.’  The origins of her fiancé’s name mean ‘God will enlarge/grow/increase.’  Indeed, God has plans for this couple also.

Something unexpected has happened to all the people in our story – something they’re still trying to make sense of and something they don’t quite know how to explain to others. Their miraculous babies are about to change everything.  Both couples know that their live will be different – perhaps for the better, but they’re not always so sure about that.  They can’t yet imagine what difference their children will really make in the world.  What will others think when this older couple, Liz and Zach, shows up with a newborn child at their age?  What will the community do to Mary and Joe if they find out that Mary’s pregnant before they’ve been married… and that the child is not Joe’s?

We’ve heard stories like this before – stories of God enabling the birth of new life into challenging situations in order to bring in a new generation of prophetic leadership – E.g., in the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, and Elkanah and Hannah.

What about us right now?  Can any of us relate to what it feels like to have God touched our lives in some unusual way that has us ambivalent… perhaps thankful in some ways and yet also freaked out.  Are any of us feeling a little isolated and yearning for a visitation?

Like embers separated from their fiery source, we want others to see and appreciate our light which we know will continue to glow with some warmth for a time… and we can become haunted by the knowing of what it means to be apart from… to be separated and alone.  How long can our light continue to shine on its own out here in the cold dark?

We know there’s potential for new life in community with others.  And, yet, if we re-join the fire, we might be subsumed and lost.  Perhaps it’s better to just quietly smoulder than to risk catching on fire again.  Yet, we’re drawn to greater light… we yearn to be part of something bigger and warmer than we can experience on our own.

Profound about this morning’s Gospel story (Luke 1:39-55) is what is called out of each of the people during their visitation with each other.  Though they’ve each been touched by the Holy Spirit in a unique way and have much to ponder on their own, it’s only when they come together in God’s name as a family that the meaning and power of the love that has touched them breaks forth from their hearts. 

It’s only when the glowing embers are brought back together that a new fire with greater light and warmth is possible.  

Yes, we know what is rekindled won’t last forever.   And, yet, there’s something deeply good and right about the power of reconnecting as a family in Christ, being embraced wholly as who you are, being recognized an appreciated for what you have inside you.  In the new light that is generated when we come together in God’s name, not matter how temporal, we can see more clearly the meaning of our lives.  Isn’t that what brings us back to this gathering each week?  Shouldn’t this be the focus of our Christmas gatherings?

Here we each are on this final Sunday of Advent.  We’re coming from all sorts of places, literally and figuratively.  Some of us older; some of us younger.  Perhaps like the people in this morning’s story, some among us have concerns about what others will think of the news they have to share... about our current circumstances and situations.  Perhaps some of us worry and wonder about all that will change in our lives in the next six to nine months.  Perhaps we want to know if God is still with us.

Oh, that when we greet each other we would be so moved with divine reassurance that God is with us that we’d burst forth in such faithful song toward each other.  Oh, to hear from each other, “you are blessed” and to be affirmed for our faith and favor in God’s eyes.  Oh, to be so overcome with the Holy Spirit that we can’t help but proclaim the good news that God will bring down those bloated with pride and arrogance while building up the meek and the mild; that God shows great mercy on those who remain awe-struck and humble before God; that God remains faithful to our wellbeing even we misbehave; that God fills the hungry and lifts up the lowly; that God is good and keeps the promises, like to be with us always!

Ok, so perhaps when we greet each other around our holiday hearths in these next days, we might not burst into song like Hannah or Mary… but we can, with God’s help, make our visitations holy with healing and the celebration of new life.

Each of us is pregnant with holy gifts from God.  And, if we’re honest, we each yearn for these gifts to be recognized, seen, and understood as having God-given potential to bring good into the world.  As we prepare ourselves to travel through these the final hours of darkness to a cold and dirty barn/cave to encounter a young rural couple who have been denied hospitality and shelter from others, a faithful young couple huddled near a feeding trough surrounded by curious animals, let their story remind us that we’re not alone in our wondering about the meaning and purpose of God’s actions in our lives.  Let us remember, from the intimate and personal inter-generational encounter between the people in this morning’s story, that if we’re open to it, when we approach each other with godly love, we can feel our hearts fill and leap, our souls magnified, when we encounter God’s presence in each other. 

We are to prepare ourselves in these final hours of Advent for Christ to be born in us again this year… and to remember that no matter how alone we might feel at times, the Good News of Christ is a communal / family affair – it’s about two or three or more gathering in Jesus’ name and experiencing Christ in our midst.

While we are not literally pregnant with God’s son as Mary was, we are nonetheless full of God’s Word and Spirit, and are called to give birth continually to new life and hope here in our church family for the sake of a world hungry for the Good News of redemption and restoration through Christ our Lord.

Let’s pray to God and consider anew what has been planted within us, individually and collectively that is to be born with God’s help in due time. 

As we prepare to celebrate the miracle of Christmas, let’s re-fuel our hearts with the promises perceived through the encounter between these pregnant women Elizabeth and Mary, and later in the nativity scene with Mary and Joseph – God comes to us amid a holy mess, in ways and at times that don’t initially appear to make good sense, in order to redeem, restore, and rebuild by bringing us back together. 

Let us remember that God has never left us, nor will our Lord ever abandon us.  This doesn’t mean that the road ahead will always be easy.  And, we can move forward assured that God is forever in our common lives and in our mission as a people gathered in Christ’s name.  As we move forward in faith, personally and as a church community, let’s expect some birthing pains in the process of bearing the Good News together as a holy family.

[insert for the baptism of Landon Alexander Elam, b. 6/13/2012 --- at Grace, Winfield]

It was six months after Elizabeth and Zacharias conceived that Mary received that blessed visit from the same angel Gabriel with news that she, too, was to be with child… and not just any child, but a son to be named Jesus who shall be the Son of the Highest and who will reign in His kingdom without end (Luke 1:26-33).  Three months later, John the Baptist was born from Elizabeth.  About thirty-three years later, the fruit of Elizabeth’s womb would again encounter the one born of his mother’s cousin Mary – Jesus – at the River Jordan for the rite of baptism.

Here we are this morning, about six month after the birth of Landon Alexander Elam, born to Caleb and Kendal.  What promises are in store for the life of little Landon?  Only God knows.  What we do know today is that we’re all about to proclaim our communal support of this young couple in their endeavor to raise and form this child in Christ’s name.  Specifically, as Landon’s godparents, Katie and Ryan are about to make profound promises and take sacred vows on behalf of little Landon.

As we join with this family in initiating by water and the Holy Spirit little Landon into Christ’s Body the Church, let’s remember that the bond which God establishes in Holy Baptism is indissoluble… and that our Lord himself sought baptism by John and was subsequently named as God’s beloved and equipped by the Holy Spirit with power and authority for ministry.

As we all join with this family this morning, renewing our own Baptismal Covenant with God and each other, let’s hear the words we say through the perspective of preparing for birth of Christ in our lives at Christmas. 

God chose to come to us as a vulnerable child in less than ideal circumstances, fulfilling a promise to us to redeem a broken world.  God trusts that we will care for, nurture and help develop the Son and share in His work.

At heart – this is the nature of our relationship with our creator God. We’re in this together – God’s promises to us are never failing.  May we each live into the commitments we’re making to God and to each other to use our hearts, heads, and hands for healing… to participate, with God’s help, in the reconciling of all as God’s own family.

May our souls magnify the Lord and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior.

AMEN.

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