12/23/18 4 Advent C, Luke 1: 39-55; ICCM; Songs of Blessing; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson
Today we heard the prophetic blessing songs of Elizabeth and Mary as they share their outrageous pregnancy experiences together.
Who would you run to if you, like Mary, had exciting, unexpected, life-altering, potentially world-changing news? Mary ran to Elizabeth, a cousin of sorts, a mentor-like figure at least a generation older than herself. In addition to providing a refuge and a comfort to Mary, Elizabeth functioned as a prophet who proclaimed a benediction, a blessing over Mary, over her child, and over Mary’s trusting faith. The minute Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice she sings out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! As soon as I heard the sound of your greeting the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill God’s promises to her!” Elizabeth foretells with joy that Mary will bring liberation in God’s name.
Biblically speaking, blessing goes all the way back to the creation stories. God created life and blessed it. We see blessing in the stories of Abraham and Sarah with the establishment of their family in order to be a blessing to others. Rebekah’s family blessed her as she left her homeland to marry Isaac. Jacob cheated his brother to get a blessing and later wrestled with the angel to be blessed again. We can trace blessing throughout the scriptural stories, songs and prophecies.
There are two basic meanings of blessing in the scriptures. Blessing can be a proclamation, a statement of goodness to or for another. It can also be the condition that results from a right relationship with God. God’s intention for all creation is to experience blessing: wholeness, peace, and fulfillment. But of course, that blessed condition is broken by sin. So, a blessing is a declaration of that inherent goodness. New life and forgiveness through Christ is the ultimate blessing. We use the word so lightly in ordinary speech, count your blessings, we say. But the material ease and happiness we enjoy from day to day are temporary. Spiritual blessings available to us in Christ reach a different level.
In Jewish households, at sundown on Friday nights, in celebration of the sabbath, parents embrace the custom of blessing their children. There are many variations on how the blessing is made. Often the bless-or places one or both hands on the child’s head and concludes with a blessing from scripture; “May God bless you and watch over you, may God’s face shine toward you and grant you peace.” The parents might whisper a word of praise for something they have done or a word of encouragement or love, even a recognition of something good in their character or identity. It is concluded with a hug or a kiss.
When we bless someone, or are blessed by them, we honor our connection with them and with God. We affirm God’s presence and intention for blessing among us. The poet, Vaclav Havel, said it this way: Speaking a word of blessing “is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced and it is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.”
Elizabeth’s announced God’s blessing for Mary, that she would live into God’s plan for her in the world. It’s a powerful thing, to be blessed.
Who would you run to, if you, like Mary were overwhelmed by what was ahead of you? I’ve had several older, wiser, mentor-like women in my life. There’s Norma, and Barb, and Pam, women who have really seen me, deeply; women I trusted who knew my strengths and challenges and who encouraged and blessed me. They were each a refuge for me at a time when I needed it.
But, my big sister Betsy, has always been there for me. She’s the one I’d run to. Betsy was here visiting two weeks ago. It was the first time in our adult lives that we’ve spent a whole week together without our parents or children there too. We walked and talked and laughed ‘til we cried and held our stomachs. It was a blessing for both of us.
Betsy happened to be here on December 12th, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Having been raised Lutherans, neither of us knew much about the traditions associated with the day. Evidently on December 12th ,1531 a poor young Indian named Juan Diego from Tepeyac, near Mexico City, experienced the presence of a woman who identified herself as the Mother of God and instructed the boy to get the bishop to build a church on the site of her appearance. She left an image of herself imprinted miraculously on his tilma, a poor-quality cactus-cloth. It is said that the tilma should have deteriorated within 20 years but shows no sign of decay after over almost 500 years.
I showed Betsy the cathedral on that day, with the hundreds of families making their procession to the booths set up around the outside of the building, small children dressed up in peasant attire for their annual holiday photos. I also showed her the backside of Icebox hill, just a few blocks from our apartment, where there is a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe as Mary is called in Mexico.
Even though Mary has never played a significant role in my faith development I enjoy walking past the shrine, looking at the blinking and flashing light display, the fresh flower arrangements, the many manger scenes complete with every imaginable figurine, and the recorded music that jingles into the December air, I wonder how the story from 1531 has shaped the lives and spirituality of the people of Mexico. Guadalupe is also called La Virgen Morena, the Brown Virgen and her image has been emblazoned on the banners of revolutionary groups throughout Mexico’s history. She appeared to a humble peasant boy, she looked like the indigenous people. She is experienced as a blessing for many.
For Roman Catholics, Mary functions as a go-between with sinners on earth and God in heaven. During the Middle Ages, as the church’s leadership became more and more distant from the people, Mary became important in the prayer lives of the common folk, as one who could empathize with their plight and mediate forgiveness.
In the councils of the Church through the centuries, Mary gradually gained supernatural qualities and Protestants see Roman Catholics as overemphasizing Mary’s role to the point that she is venerated almost on par with her son. We don’t have to worship Mary though to see her as a person of faith, called by God, struggling with the daily demands of her life.
Our gospel today shows us her startling role. For Luke, Mary is first a prophet. Every painting or statue or tilma I’ve ever seen of Mary shows her as quiet and passive. But Luke shows us a bold singer of justice who has gone through all the classic steps of the call of prophets familiar in the Old Testament: God’s initial call, God’s task, prophet’s objection, God’s reassurance, prophet’s acceptance of call.
The angel called and commissioned Mary to her prophetic task in the annunciation: “Hail, favored one . . . you will conceive in your womb.” Like Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah God sent a messenger to tell her that she has been chosen. It’s not a proposal, it’s a pronouncement. The angel doesn’t say, “Your mission, Mary, should you choose to accept it.” The angel says to her, “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” Like other prophets, Mary is informed, not consulted, about what she is going to do.
The prophet always objects to the call by protesting their inadequacy or pointing to some factor that makes it impossible. Jeremiah said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” Moses said, “Lord, I am not a very good public speaker. Here am I, send Aaron.” So, it’s quite expected that Mary would object with the highly practical question: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
But, God never pays any attention to prophetic objections and says, “You’re right. There probably is someone better temperamentally suited for this and with a better resume. I’ll keep looking until I find them.”
Then comes the next step: God’s reassurance that God is committed to the prophet: God reassures the Old Testament prophets that the divine presence will abide with them in carrying out the call. The prophet’s job description is not to speak out of his (or her) own wisdom or eloquence, but to be a messenger for God, to do and speak what is commanded. In fulfilling this task, God promises to be with the prophet as deliverer. In Mary’s prophetic call, the angel Gabriel is the mouthpiece for this divine reassurance: “Nothing will be impossible with God”
Call, task, objection, reassurance, acceptance: these are the five stages of the prophet’s call. They may sound quite familiar to you from your knowledge of the Bible and its prophets. They may sound quite familiar to you from your knowledge of your own past and present struggles with God.
This Christmas season, we have much to learn from Mary and Elizabeth, the prophets. Their individual tasks were unique to each of them but the prophetic call extends to us all. We, like them, and like all those named in the stories of our faith, are blessed, to be a blessing with the reassurance that God will carry us through. Amen.