Making Choices

Sermon for September 4, 2016

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Our gospel reading today is not an easy one.  I have to admit I took a serious look at the other lessons to see if I could get out of preaching on Luke today.   I like the text from Jeremiah and it was very tempting to craft an entire sermon around the potters wheel with, what for me, are wonderful images of how people and whole nations are formed, deformed, and reformed.  And that we have choices that influence what our pot will look like in the end.

But that quickly got me to the reading from Luke.  The reading from Luke is about identity.  It is about the choices we make that influence how we are perceived and how we love our God.  But I will tell you this reading from Luke is not one that I would want to put on a sign outside our doors with the hope that it would pull in people.  It is a little piece of Luke that needs to be explored and wrestled with not used as a slogan.

Thankfully you will be happy to know that Jesus really is not asking you to hate your family.  Jesus never asks us to hate one another.  It is – as happens from time to time – an issue in translating into english.  It is hyperbole that is meant to get our attention but it really is more about who do you love more rather than who do you hate.  The transliteration of the bible by Eugene Peterson – The Message – translated it “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters – yes, even one’s own self! – can’t be my disciple.” Still not an easy passage but it gets us closer to the point.

The point is who are we.  What are our identities?  Ones identity was very much wrapped up into family -  particularly in the first century when Jesus walked around Israel.  The family unit is how you survived.  It is how you were known.  Family was a key element of your identity.  Perhaps for some of us it still is.  Certainly when we attend large familial gatherings you will here people say things like “Oh- that is Rik – son of Ron and Ruth.”  But in this post-modern world I wonder how true this notion of family being the key to ones identity still rings true.

But certainly what is still true is that our choices certainly define who we are.  And Jesus is asking the crowd that is following him around to make a hard choice – And to be clear the crowd is following him because he is doing amazing healings and saying amazing things – they are not necessarily because they are ready to do the really hard work that ushering in God’s reign of love will take.  SO Jesus is telling them they need to make a choice.

They need to make an informed choice because when the world as one knows it is turned upside down people get angry.  People like to be in charge –as we certainly hear right now in this crazy presidential election season.  But a prudent person Jesus says – will sit down and figure out the cost.  What does it cost to follow Jesus?  What does is cost to help usher in God’s loving reign.

Jesus tells us it is going to be expensive.  It can cost us everything.  There is a cost and it needs to be weighed.   It's  hard for us to understand the need to make one choice these days.  We all have multiples identities, multiple networks.  Many of us have jobs that take sacrifices, or families that take sacrifices.  Most of us would say that we don’t have to pick just one thing.  We can do it all.  We can have the prestigious job, do sports, go to the gym, belong to the men or woman’s chorus.  We can arrange our schedules around soccer, golf, or bike riding – to name just a few.  We don’t get this choose one thing that Jesus is asking us to do in this reading.

And we can decide when to go to church.  Unlike back in the 1950’s church attendance is no longer the expected thing.  Probably Sunday morning soccer with the kids is more of the expected thing.  And if we look around we can see that.  You all made the choice on this holiday weekend to come here.  You could be rafting down the American River or attending Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento – or perhaps close by attending the Sacramento Anime festival next door.  But you are here.

Church is no longer seen as a necessary step towards getting into the right club.  For most of us and for most of society Church is no longer the expected norm.  And maybe that is ok.  We really don’t need a bunch of country club members who come to be seen.  We need people who will count the cost.  Who will make sacrifices to help usher in God’s loving reign.

We don’t need people to attend church.  We instead need people to follow Jesus.  We need people to let go of the American Ideal of the rugged individual.  We don’t need any more “me” people who don’t see the poverty and hunger at their very doorsteps.  We need people who can see the hungry and the hurting and offer them something. 

We need people who are willing to turn society right-side-up again.  We need to build a society that embraces the other.  Where the great command to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, to visit the sick and those in prison is at least as important as the Sunday soccer game or the Sunday brunch group.  And that takes sacrifice and will cost us. 

Jesus is asking us to recognize that following Christ is expensive.  We need to make our choices based on following him.  Not on which is the best soccer club or the best place to eat lunch. 

Oh…and I can tell you the best place to eat lunch in this town.  It is right here on Wednesdays.  It starts with the gathered saints for a noon Eucharist where all are welcomed and continues with a wonderful meal served in the parish hall.

You will be sure to meet Christ if you come to lunch here on Wednesdays – that I can promise you.  I can also promise you that the Christ you meet will not look like the Christ portrayed in the stained glass windows.  No the Christ you will meet will be hungry.  Hungry for food and hungry to have someone to sit down with in community.  You will get a glimpse of the hunger and the hurt that is in the shadows of our world.  A hunger that we are called to feed.  A hurt we are called to mend.

And you can really find those who hunger and thirst any day of the week on just about any street corner.  I see it all the time.  I see homeless youth walking past my house with their bedrolls at 5:30 in the morning.  Surprised that I greet them with a “good morning”.  I see it when I walk to church from my office on Wednesdays.  There is a hunger that needs to be fed.  And we are called to do the feeding.

The reason to come to church is not to be saved.  That has already happened. Getting into heaven is not about doing good works and coming here.   That is not what the Gospel reading is talking about.  That is not what Jesus is saying. 

The Gospel reading is about discipleship.  It is about following Jesus and helping to bring in the reign of God’s love.  And if we are really going to follow Jesus that we need to be prepared to make some sacrifices.  We need to be prepared to make feeding the other a priority rather than a nice charity.  We need to work in the systems that keep people oppressed – both actively  and when we decide who we will elect to represent and lead us. 

Being a disciple is not easy.  But the rewards are great.  When we see the light shine in someone’s eyes when they are served a home cooked meal by members of the Altar Guild and their helpers we get a glimpse of God.  When we listen to the hardships and offer a place of refuge to the homeless we will hear and see God. 

And I will repeat that you don’t have to do any of this go earn salvation.  Salvation has already been offered freely by God and is there for us.  What you will get is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.  What you will get is the Joy of helping turn society right-side up where people are loved and cared for.  The cost may be great but the reward is great as well.  That reward is – in short – seeing God’s reign come to fruition in our own time.

Amen.

This Season is about Incarnation!

Second Sunday after Christmas

All Years

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Psalm 84 or 84:1-8

Matthew 2:13-15,19-23

After the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean."

Merry Christmas!  Today is the 10^th day in our Christmas Season and the second Sunday of Christmas.  You will by now have noticed that we are still singing Christmas carols and hymns even when our secular society has moved on – and as a comic strip I read in yesterdays paper reminded me that the next big shopping season is already on us – Valentines day.  But we are still remembering the birth of God as a small baby.  We are still reveling in the incarnation.  My Christmas decorations are still up at my house and will stay up until we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany – the coming of the wise men on January 6^th. 

And in the midst of it we have this strange Gospel reading!

What is this doing here?  We hear about God warning Joseph in a dream – not once but twice.  Once to flee and again when it was safe – well sort of safe – to go back to Israel.  I struggled about how to preach on this lesson.  What is the good news?  Because frankly this reading contains a lot of danger and bad news – but you did not hear the bad news when I read the Gospel.  The assigned reading leaves out the worst part – it leaves out the slaughtering of all male children under the age of two in and around Bethlehem by the order of King Herod.  It leaves put the reason for the warning.

There was a real danger and Joseph was warned that King Herod was so weak and unsure of holding on to his kingship that he was willing to slaughter all the male children of a certain age after the wise men – also having been warned in a dream – did not go back and tell him where they can find the infant king.  The coming of Jesus into the world was turning society on its head. 

There is a lot of danger here.  But the danger is not from God.  It is from power-crazed humans.  God intervenes by sending an Angel to Joseph in a dream to get up and flee Bethlehem.  Flee Israel.  Go to Egypt.  So the Holy Family are once again refugees.  A difficult journey back into the land that their ancestors escaped from slavery many years before. 

Unfortunately not a lot has changed in 2000 years in people’s hearts.  We still have power hungry groups willing to slaughter innocents to gain control.  There are stories after stories of Syrian’s fleeing the multiple civil wars that are going on in their country.  We read of Isis fighting to create a caliphate – a holy state – warring against everyone in Syria.  We read of awful killings by awful means of people caught by Isis who do not fit their brand of religion.  We have rebels – not affiliated with Isis trying to overthrow the president of Syria. Because of this violence thousands – perhaps millions – are fleeing Syria.

Like the Holy Family over two thousand years ago they are fleeing the violence.  They are trying to find peace.  But they are not finding much peace.  The open borders in Europe – where until very recently one could travel between European countries without border controls – are starting to close.  Germany is being criticized for it’s welcoming of refugees.  There is fear that some of these refugees might be terrorists.  There is fear of the stranger.

Closer to home there is another influx of unaccompanied children and mothers with children crossing our southern borders.  Children fleeing the violence in South and Central America.  Young people fleeing the violence that the drug lords are inflicting in trying to control and take power.  Killing anyone who gets in their way and putting young people to work. And we too are worried that some of the people crossing our borders might cause violence.  That they too might be terrorists.   So some in our country want to fortify our borders and to send any one who crosses back to their own countries – no matter the violence and possible death that might wait for them.

And for some of us the Christmas season might not be all that joy filled.  It can be a reminder that we are not all able to have a feast.  We are not all able to afford the kind of Christmas that we see on TV or in advertisements.  We might be refugees in our own homes.  We might be feeling the loss of loved ones due to death or estrangements.  There is not always joy in our own lives.

But there is good news in this reading.  This season is not about the feast.  This season is not about how many parties we attend.  This season is about Incarnation.  The coming of God into our world.  The coming of God into a real world.  A world that is fraught with hunger, violence, fear and death.  And while God does not cause the violence the promise of the Incarnation is that God is with us when we are hurt.  God is with us when we are refugees.  As the trite saying goes – God has “been there and done that”.

One of the preachers I follow said this about our readings today: “So while the story Matthew tells may be dark and difficult, it isn’t even a little bit far-fetched.

Which is why, of course, he tells it. To let us know that in Jesus, Emmanuel, God did indeed draw near to us, took on our lot and our life, and experienced and endured all that we did -- disappointment, fear, violence, even death. All so that we would know that we are not alone -- that we do not suffer alone, fear alone, live and die alone. ”^[1]

And our call as followers of an incarnate God is to be there too.  We are called to accompany each other on our paths through life.  We are called to be there in the good times and to celebrate the joys that come into each of our lives.  But perhaps more importantly we are called to accompany people during the difficult times of life.  To be there with them when it is not easy.

One of the requirements for ordination is to do a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education.  I did my unit as a Hospice Chaplain.  Many of my friends and relatives said that it must be hard accompanying people on their last stages on earth.  To know that most of the people I was serving would likely be dead in six months or less. But while there were sad moments and moments that I was in tears there was also joy.

Joy that I was able to reach people who had advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s disease through prayer and hymns.  There was joy in hearing a woman speak who had not spoken more than a word or two of gibberish for months. There was joy in working with a family to plan a celebration of life for their mother.  To hear the pain and disconnections that were being healed in a difficult time.  To hear of siblings that had been disconnected for years starting to be reconnected. 

That is our call.  That is the promise of incarnation.  To remember that God was willing to come into a violent world not to bring more violence but to bring peace.  To behave not as the people expected the messiah to act but to turn those expectations on their heads.  To remember that this baby grows up to challenge conventional wisdom. 

David Lose from Luther seminary sums it up beautifully: “The Christmas story begins with the birth of a child. But it doesn’t end until this child has grown up, preached God’s mercy, been crucified and died and then raised again. Actually, it doesn’t end until Jesus draws all of us into that same story, raising us up to new life even amid the very real challenges that face each of us here and now.

This story matters because it tells us the truth: the sometimes difficult truth of unjust rulers and violence and private grief and personal pain and all the rest. But also the always hopeful truth that God has not stood back at a distance, but in Jesus has joined God’s own self to our story and is working -- even now, even here -- to grant us new life that we may not just endure but flourish, experiencing resurrection joy and courage in our daily lives and sharing our hope with others.”^[2]

That is our call.  That is the promise of incarnation.  To remember that God was willing to come into a violent world not to bring more violence but to bring peace.  To behave not as the people expected the messiah to act but to turn those expectations on their heads.

On this second Sunday of Christmas I give thanks for all of you who live out the incarnation.  I see the good people of St. Matthew’s walk with each other and walk with the community that surrounds them.  To be God’s hands, feet and heart in our world.  Even as the discernment on what form the ministry to the community at St.Matthews is going to look like going forward is moving too slowly you reach out.  You are opening the campus for winter sanctuary this week. A week that promises to be wet and cold.  You, in the midst of uncertainty, are living the incarnation!   I give thanks for that in each and every one of you.

---

^[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2973

^[2] ibid.

Parable of the weeds among the wheat.

I preached this at the final Eucharist for our two week Anglican Immersion Program as part of the HyCAS Program  at Church Divinity School of the Pacific.  This was done as part of my preaching class.  

Homily For Friday July 27, 2012

Matthew 13:24-30 Parable of the weeds among the Wheat 

What kind of crazy farming manual did we just hear in the gospel?

Its crazy  At least to our modern sensibilities.  In our time we want to do everything to maximize our yield.  With todays technology we do things differently.  As a botanist who spent some time in my life working on genetic engineering of crop plants I would look for round-up resistant seeds to plant so I could use round-up to kill the weeds.  Or I would look at better living through chemistry to find a selective herbicide to kill the weeds.  After all if we let them grow along with the wheat they will compete for space, nutrients and water and reduce our yield.  Thankfully this parable is not a guide to modern farming practices!  But more importantly God’s farming practices and God’s economy is upside down compared to ours. 

How many of us as leaders in our congregations or in our denominations look out and see the weeds growing with the wheat? How many of us see the evil in the world and want to do something to eradicate it?  We ask ourselves what could we have done as a society to prevent the shootings in Colorado last week?  How can we prevent murderous dictators from creating genocide?  We really do want to help God and help Society.  But how?  Surely it must be ok to lock away evil.  To go about our societies and make sure that we are safe.  The problem is that evil – like the tares in the parable – look an awful lot like the wheat before it is ripe.  Who and how do we judge?

In addition to looking at societal evils, or weeds, we sometimes look into ourselves and see that perhaps there are parts of us that we should excise and burn.  Am I too impatient with those around me who read scripture literally when in comes to same gender blessing.  Or do I, as a gay man, not pay enough attention to what scripture says in regards to relationships – so much so that I don’t look to see what good news might be part of that scripture?

As we all gathered here these past two weeks we have learned about scripture, congregational leadership tools, liturgy and preaching.  We have set at the feet of some of the leaders of the church to hear what they have to teach us and we have sat with each other to hear what our different contexts can teach each other.  There have been some wonderful discussions in classes and over an adult beverage or two!  We are probably all zealous to go back and put into practice the things we have learned this week.  To tell our fellow worship leaders what they are doing wrong.  Or to use some of the practical theology tools to fix our dysfunctional congregational systems.  As Susanna is fond of saying “Do try this at home”  and I agree with that with one little caveat.  That what we are called to do is sow good seeds in our endeavors to fix the church. Not to go home and rip out the tares and to throw them in the fire. 

Elizabeth Johnson , a preacher from Luther Seminary , said “Jesus' parable makes clear that any attempt to root out the weeds will only do more damage to the crop. This has played out far too many times in congregations and denominations, with some determined to root out anyone who does not agree with the "right" interpretation of Scripture, liturgical practice, or stand on a particular issue. There are also those who pronounce judgment on people outside the church -- on people of other faiths, for instance -- declaring them to be destined for eternal damnation. Whether judgment is focused within the church or without, it does serious damage to the church and its mission.” (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=7/17/2011&tab=4)

 It is our job to plant the good seeds not pull up the tares!  It is, however,  our job to occasionally shake up the system.  To jolt ourselves and our congregations or other systems out of the status quo.

When the slaves asked about pulling up the tares the farmer told them to let them be lest they also destroy the wheat.  You see the weeds that are translated as tares look very much like wheat until they are mature.  It would be easy to mistake a stalk of wheat for a tare before it is ripe.  Likewise I think it is very hard to judge who or what is evil in our midst or even sometimes what is evil in ourselves before it is ripe.  It is not that is does not matter.  It is important to call out evil and dysfunction when we see it.  But it is not our jobs ultimately to judge.  That is for God.  God in the fullness of time, as our liturgy says, will be the ultimate judge.  That annoying cranky person sitting in the pew may look a lot to our eyes as a tare that needs to be plucked out of our congregation but perhaps we are wrong.  They may well have a good reason to be cranky.  If we wait for the harvest at the end we may discover that they have characteristics that actually help bring God’s reign of justice and peace to the earth.  Even if they are annoying to us.  Likewise we should take care of suppressing too soon the parts of our own selves that we want to excise.  What looks like weeds now may indeed be a skill or a characteristic that will ultimate help in our leadership. 

What a strange farmer our God is.  So unlike ourselves especially in the 21st century.  We want to use all of our tools, especially the ones we have learned about this week, to help bring in the kingdom of God.  We want to rip up the tares and grow our church.  But that is not our job.  Our job is to sow good seeds and to try and not worry too much about the weeds that inevitably sprout up with the good.

 As we return to our local contexts I hope there is one tool especially that we will continue to use.  That we will continue to have conversations with each other.  To bounce ideas off our fellow classmates – the new friends that we have made and the friendships that we have strengthened over these past two weeks.  Let us use our technologies not to find ways to rip up what we perceive as weeds but to reach out to each other.  To find ways to plant good seeds.  To help each other with the tools and patience to leave it to God to make the ultimate decision as to what is a weed in our congregations, our denominations and in our own lives.  We may just be surprised that the weed is actually wheat once it ripens.

 

I preached this Homily for my course on "Preaching the Bible" at Church Divinity School of the Pacific on July 17, 2003.  The homily was preached for the HyCAS Class.

Homily using the Proper’s for Advent 4 – for Preaching the Bible

Micah 5:2-5a
 Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

For some of us the story of Mary and her song – the magnifcat- is so familiar that we perhaps glaze over or have an emotional reaction to the story without really hearing it.   When trying to look at the story with fresh eyes a couple of things strike me about Mary’s story.   Why did Mary run in haste to see her Cousin Elizabeth?  Did she want to confirm what the angel told her a few verses earlier  - that Elizabeth was pregnant?  Or did she want to share her news with the one person on earth who she thought would understand her.  Or as a friend suggested perhaps she ran to help Elizabeth with her pregnancy.  We don’t get the motivation for the trip.  We just get the result.  The result is wonderful but the why still tugs at me.  The other thing that interests me is Mary’s Song – the magnificat and what can it say to us.  When we really look at Mary’s song what does it say to us today?  What does it say to us about God?

First – why did Mary travel?  After all it was not a safe thing to do in Mary’s time for a young women to travel in the hill country alone.  It was a dangerous place. Just like today it can be dangerous to travel to some areas alone.  But that did not matter to Mary.  She went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth.   When Mary said yes to the angel she agreed to do a dangerous thing.  She agreed to become pregnant as an unwed mother.  An act that would have easily been interpreted as adultery.  An act that could result in her death.

I think that any of these or other motives that we might think of for Mary’s trip would be reasonable for us to ponder.  As startling as it may be for some to question Mary’s motives I think it is ok to consider the motive that she wanted to see this other miracle – the pregnancy of her older barren cousin or that she wanted to share.  I think we all have similar times in our lives when we have had such motivations.  I think it is human nature to want proof.  At least it is for those of us who have been trained in the scientific method. Richard Hamm, an author on church renewal,  said that “We who are late-moderns were raised to dissect everything.  It is a powerful approach to observation and discovery.  It got us to the moon and back.  However it must be admitted in the end that most things are more than the sum of their parts.” I would want to see the proof.  I would want to see Elizabeth as pregnant.  But what was Mary’s motive?[1]

Perhaps Mary really did just want to share her experience of the Angel Gabriel with the only other person who would truly understand.  The person that the angel told was also experiencing the miracle of an unexpected pregnancy – Elizabeth.  The sheer joy of the encounter with the Angel would certainly have been enough to get Mary to hasten through the hill country to see her cousin.

I’m sure we have all had experiences that have made us want to run and tell the one person, or persons,  who would truly under stand.   I know that I have had experiences that I have wanted to share as soon as they happened.   I needed to share them with someone who would understand.  I  wanted to reach out as soon as possible because the experience was a wonderful one.  For example when – on my second time with our Diocesan Discernment weekend the commission on ministry and standing committee recommended that I go forward as a postulant for Holy orders I could not wait to tell the people who would understand.  I could not wait to tell my priest, spiritual director and family.  So in haste I did that very modern thing and instead of traveling down from the hills I quickly texted the message to all the people who where waiting for the answer.  How very different that was than 3 years earlier when the message to me was “we hear a call to the priest hood but our Diocese is not ready to have a Gay man go forward in the process.  The timing is not right.”  In that case I waited until I got home to tell most people.  I only immediately told my closest family.  But when the news is wonderful – when we are visited – perhaps unaware – by an angel we want to share the good news.  We go in haste, perhaps oblivius to the risks, to share our news.

So perhaps a clue as to why Mary went to Elizabeth is in the result.  The wonderful song that is recorded in response to her visit with Elizabeth and the leaping of the embryonic John the Baptist.  For even if the motivation for the visit was to confirm the words of the Angel Gabriel the result of the visit was wonderful.  Mary’s reaction to her cousin’s greeting of , "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”  Gives us some clue.  Mary sings.  She sings about the works of God and how they are opposite of what society would expect.  Mary’s song – the Magnificat is a song sung out of joy and wonder. 

It is also a song of reversal.  It is a radical song that goes against the power structure.  It is a song that tries to describe an indescribable God.  And how can we describe God?  In the case of the magnificat God is described through reversals.  Mary describes a God who does the unexpected.  A God who values the poor over the rich.  A God who values the lowley and the hungry.  A God who is revolutionary.  A God who entrusts a single young, powerless women to bear His son. 

Walter Breuggeman said “[Mary] sings about “the hungry,” the ones cut out of the food chain and denied access to the world’s great granaries. Mary knew what Micah knew, what Israel always knew, and what the church knows in Advent. The weak and vulnerable will be “lifted up.” The poetry and the song invite us to move out beyond the world given us by “the hard men,” and into a new, different world. We may, in anticipation, already act in and for that new age…. Folk around Mary can hope and sing.” (http://sojo.net/magazine/2009/12/getting-ready-unexpected)
Now I have to admit that my response to God’s call has not been very much like Mary.  It takes me a little while to both recognize that God is speaking to me and to respond.  And even when I do respond I’m afraid I have been a little like some of the prophets in the Old Testament.  My responses have been reasons why God certainly could not be calling me..  I don’t speak well…I’m gay….I’m not perfect enough.  But God persisted and so here I am.  I wish I could say that when I first heard God’s call I responded with Be it unto me according to thy will.  But it was not.  The good news is that I believe that our individual responses to a call do not lessen the impact that Mary’s response can have on our future responses. 
As I see it Mary can be a role model for our ministries.  It really does not matter why we are here.  Whether we got to this place through a dramatic invitation from an Angel – perhaps named Gabriel – or that we got here after years of hearing a nagging voice nudging us to say yes to our call to ministry – whatever that call may entail.  What matters is that we are here.  We are here and I bet all of us have a song in our hearts.  – Even when we are struggling on what to preach about on a given Sunday or in this class! – Mary invites us to sing.  To see that God’s reign is different.  It is a reign of peace and love where there is war and hatred.  A kingdom where the hungry are fed and the lowly are lifted up. 
Our invitation its to sing.  To sing our magnificats to God and to the world.  To sing the unexpected song in the unexpected place.  It really doesn’t matter if it is Advent or Christmas or any other time of the year. When we say yes to God we too will hasten to visit with those who will understand.  But more we will be over flowing with songs to share with the world.  Songs of reversal. We are invited to sing songs and to join in God’s activities to bring God’s unexpected reign of love and peace to our world.

Resources used:

Breuer, Sarah Dylan. Dylan's Lectionary Blog. 12 20, 2006. http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/2006/12/fourth_sunday_o.html (accessed 6 26, 2012).

Brueggemann, Walter. Sojourners. 12 2009. http://sojo.net/magazine/2009/12/getting-ready-unexpected (accessed 6 26, 2012).

Hamm, Richard L. ,  Recreating the Church – Leadership for the Post Modern Age, 78 St. Louis, MO Chalice Press, 2007

International Bible Society. Holy Bible New International Version . Grand Rapid, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973.

Luther Seminary. Preaching this Week. 12 20, 2009. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=12/20/2009 (accessed 6 27, 2012).

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[1] Hamm, Richard L. , 2007 Recreating the Church – Leadership for the Post Modern Age, 78 St. Louis, MO Chalice Press