Monday, December 22, 2014

Blessed

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 12/21/14



Read Luke 1:26-38





Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library




There is a word that has been in the Christian vocabulary for centuries, but recently has seem to become more popular and more frequently used. The word I am talking about is the word blessed. It almost seems as if this word is used on a daily basis by Christians now. We often talk about how blessed we are to have rain, or to not get sick when others around us are. We say we are blessed to have met that special person in our lives or that we have been blessed with children.  Sometimes we say we are blessed when we are just having a good day. There was nurse at a nursing home that whenever you asked her how she was, she would respond, “blessed and highly favored.”  While I love this phrase, and it certainly brought a smile to my face, it also clearly depicts what we think we say we are blessed. In essence we are saying that God has favored us, and chosen to make us happy.
            This type of thinking in our recent culture has spiraled out of control, and now instead of thinking that God has done something good for me, we take it to mean that any success or riches that we have means that God favors us. There is even a movement in Christianity that has been nicknamed the “Prosperity Gospel” that believes God will make us prosperous. If we send in $15 to the televangelist on the screen then God will bless us with even more fortune. There are pastors who have even become wrapped up in this notion of being blessed and instead of humility being the virtue that defines them, prosperity has become what defines them. If they are not driving a Bentley or Jaguar then they are not blessed. If they do not have gold and silver earrings and watches all over their bodies then it show that they are not favored by God.  It’s not just these pastor’s though, so often we look at what we have, how successful we are, and how easy our life is, to judge whether or not we have been blessed by God.
            When I hear people talk about being blessed in this way, it really reminds me of one of my favorite movies The Princess Bride.  In the movie there is a group of bandits,  the muscles played by Andre the Giant, the skilled swordsman named Inigo Montoya, and the short bald little man is supposed to be the “brains” of the operation.  Throughout the movie this mastermind keeps on saying this is inconceivable, that’s inconceivable, and he keeps saying this word over and over again until finally Inigo says to him, “you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.” This is how I feel when many people today use the word blessed. “I do not think it means what you think it means.” Because it has been used over time to mean fortunate, that definition has crept into the dictionary, but it is far down the list. This first two definitions according to dictionary.com are more fitting of the words original intention. The first definition is “consecrated, sacred, holy or sanctified”  and the second definition is “worthy of adoration, reverence, and worship.” Nowhere in those definition do we hear prosperous or successful, or even happy. Instead the first word we here to define blessed is consecrated. Consecrate means to set aside for the use of service to God. In Communion we consecrate the bread and juice as we set something ordinary and mundane aside to become holy and worthy of reverence.  When we start to think about Mary, the blessed virgin, in these terms of consecration and reverence instead of fortune and prosperity; then we begin to understand the true nature of the mother of Christ.   
            Because so often we talk about Mary as being blessed, and in our heads it makes sense because most of the time in which we talk about her is as we prepare for Christmas, and as we anticipate the greatest gift the world ever knew, her son Jesus Christ.  And just Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights we like to think about Jesus as baby, there is something so cute, so special and so innocent about a baby. So in our scripture for today when we hear the angel Gabriel say to Mary, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Or later when Elizabeth says to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear” it makes since to us, if only we were so lucky and so blessed as to the mother of Christ. But once again, “I do not think that word means what you think it means.”
            Is Mary really that fortunate, is she really that lucky? In the first chapter of Luke we actually find that there are two stories of Gabriel announcing the birth of a child. We are all familiar with Gabriel’s visit with Mary that we read earlier, but this visited was actually preceded by another visit, to Mary’s relative Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. Elizabeth was an older woman and like Sarah was past the age where she should be able to have children. Sadly, it was a disgrace for a woman in that time not to produce a child for her husband; so I can imagine there was nothing in the world that she would want more than to have a child. And so when she finds out that she is going to be the mother of John the Baptist you can imagine the joy she has in her heart.  She cries out, “The Lord has done this for me…“In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
            While the Lord took away the Elizabeth’s disgrace of not having a child in her later years of marriage, Mary was in a very different situation.  Mary was not old; in fact she was a young girl. Mary was not married but was engaged to be a carpenter named Joseph.  Whereas not producing a child in marriage was seen as a disgrace for Elizabeth, having a child out of wedlock was an egregious crime. Having a kid before you were married would not just bring shame to you and your family, but it could possibly even cost you your life. So here comes the angel Gabriel coming to her and telling her do not be afraid, for you are going to bear the Son of God. Do not be afraid, yeah right, Mary had ever thing to fear. She had to fear others finding out, she had to fear what Joseph would say, she had to fear what  would happen if she was unable to protect the Son of God.
            When we hear these two announcement stories, Elizabeth’s and Mary’s, who seems to be more fortunate, who seems to be luckier, who seems to be blessed?  The correct answer is both, but over time Mary is the one who has been held up in the Church as one of the most blessed persons in history, but in reality doesn’t it seem like this announcement for Mary is much more of a curse for Mary than it was a blessing?
            Because even after the angel visits Joseph and tells him to stay with Mary, it is not like Mary’s life got any easier. We all know the Christmas story, we have even seen it acted out in plays or live nativities, and some of even have nativities of our own set up depicting the events of Jesus’s birth. Once again though, in the joy of the season we are quick to overlook the difficult circumstances of Mary and Joseph. Mary is pretty far along in her pregnancy when a decree is made that all had to go back to their hometowns to be registered for the census. Joseph is from the lineage of David and so he and Mary now have to travel to Bethlehem. Can you imagine a woman near childbirth having to travel not by car or bus or train, but by walking? I was trying to think about another mode of transportation like horse or camel that they could have taken, but then I thought of a pregnant woman trying to mount a horse, and it just seems unlikely. A pregnant Mary had to travel by foot. And when they get to Bethlehem the time comes for her to deliver, and there is no room in the inn for her to have her child. Mary has to have her child in a manger among the stench and company of the animals. Is this the type of childbirth that we would call blessed?
            As Jesus grows up Mary not only has the stress of taking care of a child, but she is responsible for the son of God. So imagine her panic at the missing twelve year old Jesus who stayed behind at the synagogue while she and her family continued on their journey. And then Jesus grows up, and she has to allow room for this little boy whom she had taken care of for so long, to begin his ministry. This certainly didn’t come without its share of heartbreaks. Jesus first sign of ministry must have been tough for Mary. She, Jesus and some of his followers are at a wedding when Mary informs Jesus the wine is out. She know was Jesus can do, and that he has the power to change it, and yet Jesus’s response to her is, “Woman, Why do you involve me? My hour is not yet come.” These are harsh sounding words to say to your mother, but it is a reminder that Jesus is special, and that he is more than just her son, but is the Son of God. Later in his ministry when Mary and her other sons come and visit Jesus a messenger goes to tell Jesus they had arrived and Jesus replies, “Who is my mother and my brothers?” Being the mother of the Son of God meant giving up a lot of the relationship and control that a mother has with her son. Does this sound like a blessing to us?
            Finally, at the end of it all Mary had to do what no parent should have to do, watch their child die. She and a small group of others stood at the foot of the cross watching as Jesus’s arms and legs were nailed to the cross. She watched as Jesus gasped for breath, as he became faint and thirsty in the heat and how the soldiers taunted him with sour wine. She watched as the soldiers cast lots for his clothing and mocked him as the “King of the Jews.” And she listened as he son said to her and the disciple whom he loved and said, “Woman here is your son” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And then she watched as her son breathed his last breath. Would we consider this blessed?
            None of these things in Mary’s life sound like what we would normally call blessed. There was no prosperity, there was no great fortune, there was even likely more pain than there was happiness. But if we think about blessed not as receive some great fortune but rather being set aside for the use of God,  then Mary’s life was nothing but blessed. What human, just like you or me, has ever been set apart by God to any greater work, to be the mother and protector of the Son of God?  There is a reason that Mary is known as the Blessed Mary, and there is a reason why she has been revered for centuries through poems and songs. Mary was set apart for God’s use, she is indeed blessed.
            The greatest testament to Mary maybe the greatest lesson that we can learn from her is the way in which she responded to the angel’s message. There is a beautiful song that most of us know that is sung at this time of the year called, “Mary did you know?” It is a beautiful song that asks Mary if she knew the joy and heartbreak that would come from bearing the Son of God. As we read our scripture for this morning the stunning answer to the question is yes, she knew. And despite knowing all that she would have to go through by having this child she responds, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  The angel tells Mary of the hardships in which she will endure, and Mary responds here I am, let it be with me according to your word. In fact not only does she accept the responsibility, not only does she freely yield her life to the will of God, she goes on to sing a song of joy, that we now call the Magnifcat, my soul glorifies the Lord.”  Mary was certainly blessed, because through her God was able to do something spectacular and holy.
            Although being blessed does not necessarily mean being rich or having good fortune, when we as Christians say we are blessed we are not wrong. We are all blessed through the power of Holy Spirit and through the waters of baptism. Our lives too have been set apart so that we may be used by God to transform this world. We can follow in the example of Mary, by willing giving our lives to God, even singing for joy that we are able to be used for something holy by the Great I Am. This does not mean an easy life, it does not mean great success, but it does mean as Gabriel reminds Mary, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” So as Christmas fast approaches, as we have our family feasts and open the presents under the tree let us take time to sing for joy for we are blessed. Not because of what gifts we got or because of what we have, but because of Emmanuel, God is with us, and that God will use us to be messengers of peace, hope, joy, and love. We are truly blessed.
           
           




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