And God Said No.

A Word in Response to the Sandy Hook tragedy.

CAdv4 12

Micah 5:2-5a

Hebrews 10:5-10

Luke 1:39-55 (Psalm—part of gospel)

The Gospel according to Luke. [Glory to you O Lord]

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." [SING Magnificat from Holden Evening Prayer] 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."

The Gospel of the Lord [Praise to you O Christ].

Grace, Peace and Mercy are yours from our Savior Jesus the baby who is coming.

Boy, the beginning of advent seems like a long time ago.  Remember?  Remember when we were hearing of the end of the world and Jesus coming back?  Remember when we took scraps of paper home with us?  When we wrote down what signs we see in the world of Jesus’ coming?  Remember when we talked about how disordered and disorienting advent can be- slowing us down and helping us to pause, look around, and see what’s coming- kind of like being in love?  Remember talking about how God is deeply in love with us- and we are about to fall in deep with that baby in the manger?  Remember hearing from the kids about how the gifts we have are enough for God?  Remember how we are enough?  There is a lot to recall… a lot has happened in the last three weeks.

As I sat in my office attempting to think out what God is calling me to say to you this morning, I struggled mightily with coming up with any words that seemed worthy of the day, the scripture, the time we are in. 

After the tragedy in Newtown… and all the discussion about the world ending.  All I could think about was how the world DID end for the mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles and grandparents… of 20 first grade children last week.  The world they knew is gone. 

We weep with them, we rage with them… this week as the funerals have begun, we send notes of encouragement and when the children go back to school there will be paper snowflakes from all over the country to welcome them.  We grieve with them and we hold onto hope for them, because they may not be able to.

We struggle to put together any words… but these are the words we have been given for today:

My soul proclaims your greatness O God, and my spirit rejoices in you

You have looked with love on your servant here, and blessed me all my life through.

Great and mighty are you, O Holy One, strong is your kindness evermore.

How you favor the weak and lowly one, humbling the proud of heart.

These words came from the mouth of a young woman about to be a teenage mother.  When that angel showed up on her doorstep, her world ended.  No longer was she just a young woman engaged to be married- with one swift word from God’s messenger she was in a great deal of trouble.  Her innocence was stolen from her- at least in the sense that everyone who saw her saw an unmarried, pregnant girl… and I imagine, much like would happen today, they had their own version of her story.

A young woman at the mercy of Joseph, the man she was to marry.  He had the legal right to throw her out on the street- discarded and abandoned.   His faithfulness to God and to her was all that saved her.

This won’t be the last time Mary’s world will crash down around her. 

In about 30 years, she stands at the execution of her innocent son- watching her first born child wrenched away from this world in the most violent and public display the Romans could think of.  And her world ends. 

Yet her song doesn’t.             

You have cast the mighty down from their thrones and uplifted the humble of heart,

You have filled the hungry with wondrous things, and left the wealthy no part.

Great and mighty are you, O Faithful One, strong is your justice, strong your love,

As you promised to Sarah and Abraham, kindness forevermore.

Mary’s song – is called the Magnificat- it puts a magnifying glass to situations like Sandy Hook- and all the injustices of the world and says

NO. 

This is not what God intends. 

God will put right the world. 

Out of these ashes, out of this dust, God can make a new creation.  God created us from dust to begin with, God will resurrect us again. 

We can remember this every time water splashes on our faces.  Water that reminds us of our baptism.  For when that baptismal water was first splashed upon us, one world ended and a new one began.  You, dusty creature, you were made new again in baptism.  The death that was in you before- the death that you still fear now- the death was put to death in baptism.  For death does not have the last word.  God has the last word.

And so we sing with Mary:

My soul proclaims your greatness O God, and my spirit rejoices in you

You have looked with love on your servant here, and blessed me all my life through.

We sing to put a magnifying glass on the tragedy of Sandy Hook and hear God’s voice saying- “NO.”  No, this is not the way the world was created to be.  No, this is not how we will allow our world to continue.  No, senseless violence will not claim our children.  No, mental health needs will not be ignored.  No!

For Great and mighty is our God!

God is strong and kind and merciful. 

God favors the weak and the lowly.

God humbles the proud and lifts up the humble.

And God calls us along with Mary. God calls us to proclaim his greatness- to magnify it.  To make the whole world know what God intends for the world… and that will mean that the world as we know it will end.  This world will end and out of its ashes, a new creation will arise.  Where the love of God has overcome all evil.  And all of us who are broken and dying now, those of us who are victimized, who are depressed and tortured in our minds, who are lonely, who are filled with a cancer…

We will be reunited as whole, as God’s children in that new creation.

What are my words compared to Mary’s today?  For she knows the hell of our world ending.  And God knows it too… for he sent his son Jesus, and suffered his death, and when Jesus died he went down to hell… to end the world where death reigns.  For God goes to hell and back with us... God goes to hell and back for us!  To find us! And God’s word is resurrection and new life.

And so we can sing with Mary today

My soul proclaims your greatness O God.

We can sing of the promise that this baby she bears brings with him.  Jesus birth is just the beginning, but when our world has ended… sin, violence and death do not have the last word.  There is the hope.  Hope of finding ourselves at the beginning, given new life, as new as this little person coming in the manger.

Amen.

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Preparing to Fall in Love

CAdv2 12

Malachi 3:1-4

Psalm—Luke 1:68-79

Philippians 1:3-11

Luke 3:1-6

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' "

Grace and Peace are yours from our Savior Jesus the baby who is coming.

Jared was an upstanding young man, very likable, a little goofy, which was a perfect qualification for the job of camp counselor.  He was heading to a Lutheran camp for the summer after completing his 3rd year of college.  He had loved camp as a kid and had been a counselor for a couple of years now.  He loved the campers, being with the staff, and it was definitely the place where he felt closest to God.  As Jared was packing his backpack with his hiking gear, sleeping bag, and toothbrush, his mom was puttering around, asking if he needed anything- plainly wishing the young man in front of her was still her little boy, young enough to climb up in her lap.  She paused in his doorway- all set, Jared?  Yep.  Raising his fingers he exclaimed, “Be prepared!”  I knew the years of boy scouts would pay off someday, she smiled.  Jared gave her a hug- I’ll see you when you come for your women’s retreat.  If the ladies will let me steal you away at some point.    I’m going to miss you this summer, Jared.  Life moves so fast, sometimes it’s hard to catch up my heart with reality—soon you’ll be moving out of this room permanently.  Yeah, well, let’s hope I can find a job first.  Ah, Jared, always my practical one… they looked at each other- suddenly stone –faced with three fingers in the air each.  “Be Prepared!” Laughter sparked the air with their good-bye hug. Jared’s dad stuck his head in- hey can I get in on the action?  And with a big hug, he said, “We love you, Jared” and mom added, From the day we laid eyes on you.  We love you and God loves you, she said, making the sign of the cross on his forehead.  Have an awesome summer and know our prayers are with you.

Jared did have an awesome summer.  By the time his mom showed up for her women’s retreat, he was excited, but extremely nervous to see her. Mom, I have someone I want you to meet.  Now don’t freak out, but I think she’s pretty great.  I hope you like her.   Sounds pretty serious, Jared?  She said, raising her eyebrows and smiling.  Yea, well, maybe it is…

I sort of thought I would find someone like this in a few years- after I’d worked for a while.  But, mom, just wait.  She’s incredible.  She’s funny, smart, caring, has a huge passion for animals, loves to hike and camp, would be willing to try skiing, though that’s new for her… I know camp is intense- we live in this camp bubble… but mom, I definitely know she is good for me.  She brings out my good side.   It’s just very weird to even be thinking this way… you know me… I like stuff planned out. …I don’t feel prepared… How would I “be prepared” for this?

Remember that moment?  The moment you realized you had fallen in love? 

For some of us it comes on suddenly and others it’s like a slow dawning.  That’s one reason I think we have the season of Advent.  This time of preparation is set aside in the year for those of us who need time to realize what is happening to us.  Who need time to see that it is the desire of our hearts to be with someone who cares for us more than we care for ourselves… the aching we feel when we are alone is because we need to feel loved… and though it may sound hard to commit to being with the one we love- it’s harder to NOT be with them.  That’s when we know… love has found us.

Whether it is with a partner or one of your own children, falling in love isn’t something we “do”… it’s not something we can really “prepare for”…other than to be open to it coming.  And that’s advent.  Preparing by being open to the coming one- who is madly in love with us and desires us to fall in love with him.  For when in love, we do things- sometimes unthinkable things-  for the one we love.  Without a second thought and out of pure joy.  Being in love changes us.

John the Baptist cries out as was foretold in Isaiah “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight…”

Prepare, prepare… how does one prepare for the coming Christ child?  It’s like trying to prepare for falling in love.  An impossible task, because we don’t know what it will be like.  We don’t know how to be “in love” any more than we know what Christ will ask of us, we just know we will respond in love. 

John the Baptist calls us to repentance, to clear our hearts of selfishness and personal gain… for that isn’t an attitude that allows love to enter in.  John is crying out in the wilderness, our wilderness of our hurting hearts, broken and lonely- where hunger reigns and powers abuse.  Out of that wilderness he proclaims that God is coming.  Coming to make a superhighway, an easy, direct, fast path, a clear shot straight from our hearts to him.  By this straight path, God enters into our human experience so deeply that we are no longer alone, for love has found us.

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.' "

God enters in and sees a clear shot to us and we see a clear shot to God.  This is our salvation: the clear shot made by Jesus.  No more mountains of struggle or valleys of pain, no more crooked ethics or rough patches, no more distractions or misdirected signs.  For “ALL FLESH shall see the salvation of God.”   God is coming, and the world will look different from now on.

It’s much like our synod tagline “go where love leads, serve where love calls.”  For God is love- and God has fallen in love- yes, with you, individually you ‘warts and all’ but more than that- God has fallen in love with us, the whole human race. And that love we are DEEP ‘in’ leads us, calls us, to go and serve—in love. Our hearts beat as one as we see the salvation of God.

During this advent season, we prepare less in the way of the boyscout and more in the way of one open to new possibility.  Like we learned last week, we stand up, raise our heads and look for the clear shot God has created between God’s self and us.  We look, like someone in love, for the arrival of our beloved- Jesus in a manger.  For we are about to fall in love with a God who is already deeply in love with us. 

God who comes in the form of a child to disarm us.  God who comes from immortality to die for us.  God who comes to bring us back into a loving relationship, no matter what we were planning.  How can we “be prepared” for that?

Amen.

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