“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it!” - Mary, Teenager, Mother of God

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
December 20, 2020
4 Advent, B
Canticle 15 (Luke 1:46-55)
Luke 1:26-38

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it!” - Mary, Teenager, Mother of God

Christmas Card Design by Parker Fitzgerald

https://www.cleansingfire.org/.../a-contemporary.../

“Do not be afraid,” Gabriel said to Mary.  He said this in response to Mary’s rather non-plussed reaction to his initial salutation, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you,” to which Mary seems to have responded about how you might expect a young teenager to respond.  “Huh.  That’s a rather odd way of greeting me, but ok, let’s see what this guy has to say.”

“Do not be afraid,” Gabriel said to Mary, but Mary doesn’t seem to have been all that afraid.  Maybe she was a particularly brave and trusting young woman.  Maybe she particularly devout in her faith, and she does seem to have been pretty devout.  Maybe it was also a good thing that she was a teenager and still invincible like all teenagers are.  Had she been in her mid 20s, it might have been more of a cautious response.  “Ok, so what’s this gonna mean for me, and how’s this all gonna go?

“Well kiddo,” Gabriel would’ve responded, “not long from now, your ankles will swell, you’re gonna have a hard time sleeping and getting comfortable in general, you’re going to be in a lot of pain during the birth, and you’ll pee just a little bit every time you cough for the rest of your life.  Oh, and most of your family will at least initially thing you’ve cheated on Joseph and brought shame upon them, but hey this child is gonna be hugely important, so your parenting of him has to be…not perfect, but at least better than sub par.  So, hey, hey, it’s ok, don’t be afraid.”  

See, Mary didn’t seem to be afraid.  All the reasons why following God’s plan would be rather troublesome for Mary, those things didn’t get in her way.  The plan was pretty much for Joseph and her to get married and have some kids anyway, so Mary seemed rather thrilled at the whole idea.  Once Gabriel left, she sang a song about how great it was not only for her, but for all people, that the Holy Spirit was going to conceive a son in her womb.  Her response to Gabriel was not a timid, “Let it be with me according to your word,” but an enthusiastic, “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word.  This is fantastic.”  

See, teenager:  idealistic, trusting, ready to take on the world and know that is messed up, beautiful, and worth saving.  Mary understood that she was part of God’s kingdom on Earth.  She was part of God’s story of redemption, part of God’s story of restoration.  She was like Princess Leah in Star Wars, ready to take on the whole Empire, stand up to Darth Vader, and lie to his face because she believed in something greater than herself and saw herself as part of a larger story of justice, of ending oppression, of lifting up the lowly, and casting down the mighty.  

[God] has shown the strength of his arm, (Mary sang). He has scattered the proud in their conceit.  He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.  He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.  He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.

All of these things, God has done, Mary sang, in joy and excitement.  She knew, and trusted, and loved the God whom she served, and she couldn’t wait to be a part of God’s story and to see what God had in store for Israel and the world through her and her son.  She didn’t know exactly what was coming, but she knew redemption was coming.  She knew restoration was coming.  She knew wrongs were going to be righted.  She knew that God’s kingdom was coming.

She knew that God’s kingdom is a kingdom of love, a kingdom where God’s power is used to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  God’s kingdom is a kingdom of love in which our power and our wealth are used not to gain even more power and wealth for ourselves.  In God’s kingdom, our power and our wealth, whatever power and wealth we have, are used to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  

At Emmanuel, we are using what we have to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  We are helping to provide food for mothers and their children who are getting on their feet at Gracewood.  We got to help a couple of families this Advent through Angel Tree.  We are helping to provide food and shelter for people experiencing homelessness through Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church.  We’re helping children through our support of MAM’s back to school program.  We’re providing prayers and prayer quilts through the Daughters of the King and our sewing ministry.  We’re helping people recover and rebuild after disasters have destroyed people’s homes.  These are some of the many ways we get to be a part of God’s kingdom through our life at Emmanuel.  

At Emmanuel, in the year of COVID and social distancing, God is also proclaiming the good news of Jesus in twice daily online prayer, in weekly online worship, and in a live Nativity to a neighborhood who just had a new church move in.  In the crazy of the COVID, Emmanuel has chosen not to be afraid, but instead to be like the teenage Mary saying, “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word.”  

Do not be afraid, God tells us, for fear leads to turning away from God’s kingdom.  Fear keeps us small.  Fear keeps us focused on ourselves.  Fear tells us that we aren’t enough, that we don’t have enough, that we can’t do the right thing, that we won’t be ok. Now, we all have fears, and we all are afraid in various ways.  The key is not to let those fears rule our lives.  

Mary may well have had some fears of losing her family, of losing her husband, but her teenage brain saw the beauty of God’s kingdom, saw the light of God’s presence burning throughout creation and said to her fears, “Nah, it’ll be ok.”  So how do we get past our fears and keep that teenage brain gloriously excited about living God’s kingdom and saying, “Nah, it’ll be ok,” to our fears?

One way is to follow the advice of Jedi Master Yoda, to “Train [ourselves] to let go of everything [we] fear to lose.” Imagine living without those things that we fear to lose, and feel God’s presence with us even in that loss.  Jesus had the same advice for a young man who, like Mary, wanted to live God’s kingdom, but who also many possessions and was afraid to give them up.  “Go and sell all that you have, and then come, and follow me,” Jesus said, and the man walked away sad because he didn’t want to give up what he had.  His stuff, and fear of living without his stuff, kept him from living God’s kingdom.  He could not let go of that which he feared to lose, so he no longer had the teenage brain to see the beauty of God’s kingdom and say to his fears, “Nah, it’ll be ok.”

In this time of Advent, of preparation for Jesus always coming into the world, we are reminded to train ourselves to let go of everything we fear to lose.  We are reminded of Jesus’ teaching to let go of whatever is keeping us small and focused on ourselves.  We get to hear again the Angel Gabriel’s words, “Do not be afraid.”  

Do not be afraid of losing what you have in the service of others.  Do not be afraid of losing what you have in the service of God’s kingdom, for God lifts up the lowly.  Train yourself to let go of everything that keeps you from living God’s kingdom.  Spend time each day in prayer, seeking God’s will and way.  Pray over what you have and what you fear to lose, and pray that all of it may be used for God’s kingdom, whether by you or by someone else.  Talk and pray with others, your family and friends, seeking together how to follow God’s will and way, how to live God’s love, redemption, restoration, justice, and mercy.   

That is the way of God’s kingdom and the way of Mary who knew, and trusted, and loved the God whom she served and couldn’t wait to be a part of God’s story.  She saw the light of God’s fire throughout creation, loved God’s plan and was excited to be a part of it.  

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it.”  In addition to being a quote from Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, that is the response God is looking for when we catch a glimpse of God’s kingdom and our part to play in it.  Fear schmear.  “How is God calling me to be a part of God’s story of love, redemption, restoration, justice, and mercy?”  What makes my non-fearful Mary-like teenage brain say, “I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it,” and “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word?”

Faded Away as Grass Into Mother Earth: Where New Life and New Possibility Await

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
December 6, 2020
2 Advent, B
Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

Faded Away as Grass Into Mother Earth:

Where New Life and New Possibility Await

When I hear of John preaching a baptism of repentance, images often come to my mind of a Hollywood version of someone shouting, “repent” to unsuspecting and rather baffled passersby.  The shouting is kinda lame, usually overacted, and is basically just some forced tone-setting for the film.  As for he crazed “repent” shouter, he’s kinda ridiculous, as if people changing their ways would somehow end the alien invasion which had just begun with space ships arriving and lasers firing.  So much for Hollywood’s version of repentance.  

Now, when John was in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism for repentance, he wasn’t trying to end an alien invasion.  Israel had been invaded, more or less, by Rome, but John wasn’t trying to end invasion with his calls to repentance.  He was also far less creepy than the Hollywood guy.  Rather than frighten unsuspecting people on the streets of New York, John was out in the wilderness, and people came to see him.  They actually liked and wanted to hear what he had to say. 

Rather than ending an invasion or scaring people, John’s call for repentance was less crazy, Hollywood, weirdo guy, and more “Comfort, O comfort my people…Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term…”  John was calling people into a life freed from the worst of themselves and into a life of hope, mercy, and love.  That is what the people went out into the wilderness to hear. 

A voice says, “Cry out!”  And I said, “What shall I cry?”

All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. (Isaiah 40)

Those are words of comfort.  In the great struggle and hectic nature of our lives, striving for so much, weighed down by the great importance of all we have to do, we are reminded that we are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.

Our efforts and striving are important to us and to those we love.  Our lives are important, but eventually, we will all fade as the grass.  We will become one with the earth once again, and someone else, some new grass, will grow in our place.  They will take the place on the earth that we once had. 

They will do their own striving while we rest, faded away as grass into mother earth, where all kinds of new life and new possibility await with the God of hope, mercy, and love who calls, “Comfort, O comfort my people.”  That is the kind of repentance that John calls for.  Rest.  Breathe.  Trust.  Let go the weight of your struggles.  Remember that you are grass, and be at peace.  

Repentance is not a call of anger and fear.  Repentance is a call of hope, mercy, and love which helps lead us to a place of peace.  

I heard the radio show, On Being, with Krista Tippett where she interviewed Bryan Stevenson an attorney who is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.  Mr. Stevenson began working for justice for people on death row, many of whom were incarcerated unjustly.  You may have seen the movie about him and his work called, Just Mercy, based on his book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

In the interview with Krista Tippett, Mr. Stevenson talked about his work for justice and his way of viewing the world with hope, and mercy, and love.  Without hope, he said, we’re trapped where we are, unable to move beyond whatever has us stuck.  Without hope, we’re unable to move beyond injustice.  Without hope, we’re unable to move beyond the worst of who we are as people and as a society.

So hope is how we can begin to move beyond the worst of ourselves.  Then we need, mercy.  With mercy then, we can understand people as being more than the bad parts of ourselves.  Mr. Stevenson says, “Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done.”  That’s the view of God towards us as well.  God offers us hope, sees us with mercy, and tells us that we are so much more than the worst thing we have ever done.  That’s the baptism of repentance to which John called people in the wilderness.  

Repentance means that with that hope and mercy, we then get to reckon with those worst parts of ourselves.  We have to reckon with the worst of ourselves because we can’t be free of those things, free of the worst parts of ourselves, if we don’t bring them with us when we come seeking mercy and redemption.  When we do bring those worst parts of ourselves with us on our journey of repentance, then we find God saying, those worst parts of you are grass.  “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.”  

With John’s hopeful and merciful calls to repentance, we find that we are loved and that we are lovable.  Repentance is not a scary, angry call from a lunatic.  Repentance is a call of love, calling us to turn from and let go of the ways that keep us down.  Repentance is a call of love to turn from and let go of the ways that keep us selfish (and therefore fearful).  Repentance is a call of love to turn away from and let go of the ways that keep us callous and unconcerned for others (and therefore fearful and contemptuous).  

Repentance acknowledges the fear and anger within us, and then repentance turns and lets go of that fear and anger.  Repentance frees us from the hopelessness which keeps us bound and stuck where we are, so that we then we find mercy and love from a God who does not define us by the worst things we have done.  We find instead a God who says, “Comfort, O comfort my people…” Rest.  Breathe.  Trust.  Let go the weight of your struggles.  Remember that you are grass, and be at peace.  

Then, we can live that peace.  Freed from that which binds us, freed from our shame, freed from the anxieties and fears of this life, we can look at this world through the eyes of hope.  See, there is anger, injustice, greed, exploitation, all sorts of terrible things in this world.  With hope, we can see that the world doesn’t have to stay that way, and we can see that there is so much beauty and light in the world as well.

Through repentance and hope, we can view ourselves, and others, and the world with mercy.  Mercy to see that those who do terrible, thoughtless, and callous things are also so much more than the worst things they have done.  Those we view with the most contempt need mercy and hope just like we do.

Then, with hope and mercy in our hearts, repentance leads us to love.  Having been loved by a just and merciful God, we are freed to love with justice and mercy.  We are freed to strive for justice and mercy.  Those places and people in our society in need of justice and mercy, the ones that grab our hearts and call to us, we are freed to strive for justice and mercy through God’s love.

That is the repentance to which John calls us, a repentance which allows us to strive for justice and mercy because we have been loved by a God who sees all of the crud and horribleness of our lives and deeds and says, “You are so much more than the worst things you have done.”  Through the repentance to which John calls us, we find a God who says,“Comfort, O comfort my people…”  Remember that you are grass.  “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.”  Rest.  Breathe.  Trust.  Let go the weight of your struggles.  Remember that you are grass, and be at peace.