Sermon for Sunday, December 11, 2005CHRISTMAS JUST TURNS THINGS UPSIDE DOWN!byRev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz Third Sunday In Advent |
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Scripture: Luke 1:39-56 39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." 46 And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever." 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. In our staff meeting this week Christy Boyle, our children’s ministry director, reported that in Sunday school last week the class was discussing what is happening this month as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. The teacher asked if anyone knew what season of the church year that we are in right now. One child raised his hand enthusiastically and said, “Yes, I know: we are in the season of Advil!” He was close. That is true if we don’t take time to focus on the reason for the season and take time to be in worship and to listen to the incredible music of Advent and Christmas and open our hearts and minds so Christ can be born again in us. We are in the season of Advent, which is Latin for the coming of Christ, and on these Sundays before Christmas we read some familiar stories from the Bible to help us get ready. We often read about John the Baptizer during Advent whose message to people coming to be baptized is to turn their lives around, to change direction, to get on a new path so that they can move closer to God, so they can get some of the clutter out of their lives and begin to see God. This season I have chosen to read parts of the Christmas story from the only two of the four gospels that tell us anything about Jesus’ birth: the earliest gospel, Mark, tells us nothing about the birth of Christ. The latest gospel tells us nothing about the birth of Christ–the gospel of John – but it does give us a lasting message in the first verses about the meaning of Christ and we will read those words on Christmas Eve in all of our seven services here: what has come to us through Christ is LIFE and that life is the light now for all people and that light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has not put it out—and will not put it out. There are birth stories about Jesus in the other two gospels and they are different stories: in Matthew we hear about an angel coming in a dream not to Mary but to Joseph telling him that he will be the father of the messiah and that Mary is pregnant by the holy spirit. In Matthew the couple is visited, not by shepherds, but by people of much higher status – astrologers, wise men from the east who come bearing gifts. And they find the couple not in a stable but in a house. Incidentally, in Luke’s gospel Luke dose not mention a stable at all in his story but only tells us that the child was laid in a manger, a feeding trough, after he was born, and the manger was not made of wood because there was not much wood in Israel but made of stone like this one. The stories in Luke are different because the picture of Jesus in Luke is different: Jesus is more concerned in the gospel about people who are the least and the left out and the poor and the vulnerable. Jesus tells us here that God is on the side of the vulnerable and the underdog and God is very suspicious of people who think they have it made and who have become self-absorbed and self-centered and who forget that of those to whom much is given, much will also be expected. Those words are from Jesus and that saying only shows up in one gospel, the gospel of Luke. And in the beatitudes, Jesus sayings that begin “Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the humble….” There is a difference between what Jesus says in Matthew’s version and Luke’s version. In Matthew Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God” in Luke Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor.” Have you ever noticed how the teachings of Jesus are so different from what our culture tells us is important? One author phrases our cultures message this way: You’ll be happy when you reach the top of your game because then you will command respect and demand attention. You’ll be happy when you’ve collected the most stuff because then you will be constantly entertained and will be the envy of all. You’ll be happy if you live like a celebrity, consuming and displaying and then discarding everything you can get your hands on; that’s when you will feel like a star. The same author contrasts that value system with this paraphrase of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
What Jesus stands for and teaches us about is subversive, it is counter-cultural— it is directly opposite of what we hear from the values of our world that are based on affluence and appearance and achievement. Jesus message is disturbing and threatening to people who worship power and greed in place of God and that is what the poem on the top of your bulletin is about: who Jesus is and what he teaches is upsetting to people who worship power and status and greed and Herod is not the only one who is going to try and stop his mouth! Let’s go back a second to the story of Mary—this 14 year old girl whose humility and strength we can see in the gospel of Luke. Girls in first century Judaism were usually betrothed/engaged by the time they were 14. An angel appears to her and tells her she will become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and will give birth to the Son of God. First of all Mary, is deeply troubled and disturbed by this, and then she questions the angel: What are you talking about, man?? She actually says, how is this possible? She has some backbone. The angel explains more and then she says, “Let it be so. Let it happen with me just as you have said.” She goes off to be with her cousin Elizabeth who is also pregnant and will be the mother of John the Baptizer and when she sees Elizabeth, she sings this protest song which tells about God turning things upside down: I praise God because God has remembered me, God’s lowly servant. What God has done in this upcoming birth will scatter the proud and arrogant. God has brought down the mighty and lifted up the lowly. God has filled the hungry with good things and has sent the rich away empty.
Whose side is God on according to this song?
God is more concerned for the have-nots than the haves. God is most interested in the weak and the lowly because they have been forgotten and even mistreated by the smug and the arrogant.
If it comes to making a choice, God is on the side of the vulnerable and the forgotten and God tells us that we who have much are to be just as concerned about the vulnerable and the poor as God is. Of those to whom much is given, much will also be required.
One more example from the Christmas story in Luke before we make an application. After Jesus has been born, whom does God choose to send the first birth announcements to? Some scraggly, smelly, low life shepherds outside the town of Bethlehem. Shepherds were low class; they were nobodies in ancient time. They were on the bottom rung of the social ladder. But they were the first people to hear the angels sing about Jesus and they rush to the manger to see the newborn king. The gospel of Luke is telling us something very important about what the messiah will do. The messiah is about to turn things upside down.
If God is more concerned about the weak and the underdog and the vulnerable and the outsider, if God really means those words about loving our neighbor in the same way we love ourselves, how are we doing at living God’s concern? Our congregation has been very responsive this month to the needs we have identified: seventy-five families who were identified by the interfaith community service network are being cared for by St Andrew members. Thirty-five children who have a parent in prison were spoken for after just half a morning last week through the Angel Tree project.
Many of the needs that have been placed on the tree for our family from Liberia have been spoken for though there are still some opportunities available this morning. This is a very good thing that we have begun and it must continue if we are to follow—not just sing carols about but follow this subversive Jesus fellow who says that we are blessed when we imitate him and not the distorted gods of consumerism and greed, the same fellow who says in the gospel of Luke of course, of those to whom much is given, much will be expected.
Judy and I made time last week to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special again which we had not seen for many years. The TV special is forty years old this year and when Charles Schulz proposed it, it was very controversial: children are going to read from the gospel of Luke on a secular national TV network??
It has been a solid favorite for all these years because Schulz helps us get past the gimme, gimme, gimme attitude surrounding us and gets us to the heart of things. Lucy is asking Santa for gifts of real estate and Charlie Brown’s sister is asking Santa for tens and twenties. One parent who watched the show again last Tuesday with her 13 year old said, “This TV special provides a balance for us and it is a balance that we as a society have forgotten about.” At the end of the show, you remember, after Charlie Brown has been asking people about the true meaning of Christmas, Linus reads part of the Christmas story from which gospel? The gospel of Luke!
There is a poem that we will read again on Christmas morning that helps us keep the balance that the mom told us was missing; the hectic pace of parties and presents and shopping and baking and four page Christmas letters from old friends. The poem is by Howard Thurman and it prepares us for how to keep celebrating Christmas after we get through the next two weeks of Advil; it tells us how to follow the One who Mary sings about in her song:
When the song of the angels is stilled When the star in the sky is gone When the kings and princes are home When the shepherds are back with their flocks The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost To heal the broken To feed the hungry To release the prisoner To rebuild the nations To bring peace among brothers and sisters To make music in the heart.
We don’t have to wait ‘til after December 25 to do that. Christ is calling us to do that now. Amen. |
