Advent Day 12--From generation to generation

My great-great-grandfather was a circuit riding Methodist preacher in the hills of North Carolina.  I don't know much about him except his daughter (my great-grandmother Daisy) eloped with a young man attending a worship service.  (And a good match it was, I'm told.)  Daisy's daughter, my grandmother Josephine,  was a bible teacher in a large city church.  Her daughter, my mother, has led small groups of Christians in bible study for years.  And then there's me (and my two brothers).

My mother reminded me of my great-great grandfather when I was down visiting her a couple of weeks ago.  We are told that great-great-grandfather Preacher Hubbard made it a practice of praying for his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and his descendants yet unborn (including me), etc. etc.  Although we do not know specifically what he prayed, we are told that he prayed for us to come to faith in Christ.

So when Mary sings that that God's mercy is for those who fear God from generation to generation, I think of my great-great-grandfather's prayers and am grateful that, although he never saw me, he prayed for me.  Thus, knowing God's mercy from generation to generation is true in our family.  So now it is time for me to start praying for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, etc., etc.

And Mary sang:  "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.  Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name.  His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

Advent Day 11- If a punch bowl were holy

And Mary sang:  "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.  Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name."

When I was growing up there was a china closet in the dining room.  In the china closet was a punch bowl that had been handed down in the family.  Actually, the punch bowl still has a special place on the closet's shelf.  It is made of beautiful cut glass and reflects colors in the light.  Our family has only used it on special occasions.  The rest of the time it sits apart safely on the shelf where I admire it every time I go visit my parents.

What does it mean for Mary to say God's name is holy?  One definition for "holy" is set apart.  Is God and God's name like the punch bowl sitting on the shelf, set apart and brought out only for special occasions?  Well, some folks may view God that way, but I don't think that is what Mary is talking about. In fact, I think the opposite is true.

Martin Luther reminds us in the shorter catechism that to make God's name holy, one is offering in prayer that God may become holy in us.  This does NOT mean we are going to become perfect little holier-than-thou creatures.  We will always be flawed on this earth.  And it does NOT mean that we withdraw from the everyday and sit on a shelf apart, so to speak.  Rather, to make God's name holy means that we give God priority in our lives by what we say and by what we do.  We give God room in our ordinary lives to live and love and work and share through us.

Where would a punch bowl be if it were holy?  What if we brought the punch bowl out of the china closet and gave it a space of prominence on the table?  What if it held our ordinary milk for breakfast cereal and later in the day our root beer for a  pizza supper?  Maybe even our popcorn when it was time to watch a movie. Then it becomes a treasure that participates in our ordinary meals and ordinary lives.

In advent we think of pregnant Mary having the treasure of the Word of God, the messiah Jesus, physically growing inside her. Meanwhile, we too let God's name be holy when God's treasured Word is growing in us...all the time, all the very ordinary time.

And holy is God's name!

Advent Day 10- How do you see things?

It's all in how you see things...I mean, how you really see things.  The kind of seeing that is not just through your physical eyes, but, instead, how you see things with your soul paying attention to what God's doing. This "soul seeing"  sees more clearly when praying is happening.  What this soul seeing sees is often invisible to others unless they too are praying with you.

A few weeks ago, a long-term project came to an overwhelming obstacle.  I was ready to quit.  I didn't know how to continue it anymore.  As I often do when discouraged, I retreated into a good book, licking my wounds, feeling rather abandoned by God.  That good book, however, gave me surprisingly creative ideas about a new project.  A project, I thought, that would distract me from the first disappointing one.  My energy began to pour into planning the new project.

But then, a few mornings later in my devotions, it suddenly hit me while praying: this new project wasn't an escape from the first.  It was not a timely coincidence that happened to get me out of my doldrums and self-pity.  It actually was a gift of God doing a great thing. God had not left me high and dry after all.  The new project had everything to do with the first.  God was offering a creative remedy for doing the first project in a different way.  It was all in the matter of "soul seeing."   The turn of events and new opportunity was not a random coincidence, but was God's direct, redeeming answer in an overwhelming situation.

And so Mary sings: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior who has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me......

As I wrote yesterday, Mary could have kept count of all the difficult situations she was facing and, heaven knows, there would be many more painful challenges to come. She could have seen her visit to Elizabeth as an escape from all the hardship she was facing.  But instead, with her soul-seeing heart, she identified what most others could not yet see, how God was doing mighty things in her life...in her body, in fact.  Elizabeth, a woman of prayer, also recognized God's great work in Mary.   With her soul eyes, Elizabeth identified the baby Mary was carrying as the Messiah, not a youthful mistake of passion.  Joseph, a godly man, eventually came to understand the "soul seeing"' truth as well; he would adopt the Messiah as his own son to help raise.  Why?  A mighty God was doing a great thing, not just in terms of their personal lives and little family, but in terms of a larger whole for a greater good.  (The larger whole was the  the world; the greater good was the world's salvation) .  It took the way of soul'seeing for Joseph, Mary and Elizabeth to acknowledge what others could not yet see..

So how do we get our soul-sight working?  How do we see beyond the everyday discouragements that weigh us down?

I don't pretend to have the answers.  God works so differently in different people.  But I can say what helps me, in spite of the fact I must be "blind" more often than not.  I try to take quiet time to listen to God's word in scripture and pray about it....for me that is in the morning, writing in my journal and walking the dogs before I go into the office.  And then, either in the morning or at night, I try to take time to look (and sometimes hunt) for what God has done in the day (or the day before).  Sometimes, in the most difficult things of my life, there is at least something, even if quiet and subtle, for which I can be grateful.  Upon more reflection, that one thing may actually be a mighty act of God that almost got away without me recognizing it.  Most of the time, the lack of recognition is my own fault for not paying attention.  On the other hand, and please forgive me, there are times I really do wonder if God relishes playing hide-and-seek.  If so, why do I need to be so serious?!   God might be inviting us to take a playful delight in hunting out and discovering what and where God has been up to.  So go hunting with your special set of eyes today.

While others thought she was in a serious predicament, Mary, with soul-seeing eyes, joyfully, and maybe playfully, laughed:  The Mighty One has done great things for me!

Advent Day 9- Difficult Blessing

Mary sang: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.  Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed....(Luke 1:46-48)

Yesterday I  attended the worship service where three young adults were ordained to be pastors in the Lutheran church.  I had had the privilege of working with one of the young women when she was a counselor at confirmation camp.  It was obvious then, more than eight years ago, that she was gifted in ministry and a person of faith.

In his sermon yesterday, the bishop reminded the three ordinands of all that they had been through to get to ordination (a college degree, three academic years of seminary, a semester of clinical pastoral education, a year of internship, endless interviews and questioning by candidacy committees and congregations).  On one hand they must be proud of their accomplishments, the bishop said.  But from this day forward, their accomplishments were not the point anymore.  It was no longer about them, but Christ.  They would need the help of others.  They would absolutely need to trust Christ. They would disappoint many.  Their calling would be hard.

And yet, after their vows were said, there were many tears of absolute joy and gratitude to God for calling these people and giving them the strength to serve the church in this difficult time.  And I, as an older pastor, who can count the years on one hand until I retire (maybe), felt such gratitude for their young voices to speak to a searching generation in a way that I can't.  How I pray a blessing for them!

From now on all generations will call me blessed.  Mary said that , not because of her accomplishments.  Not because this mother of Jesus role was about her any more than it is for any follower of Jesus.  Mary is called blessed because of what God is doing through her, just as the Church called the three newly ordained pastors blessed because of what God would do through them.

The "blessing" was difficult for Mary too.  At the time of her song in Luke's gospel, it is unsure whether Joseph or her immediate family had signed on to stand by her pregnancy.  Later she and Joseph would have to leave the country and flee to Egypt to save the child's life from a jealous ruler. For Mary, there would be  years of baking bread, cleaning house, washing Jesus' clothes and hunting him when, after visiting Jerusalem, he stayed behind in the temple without telling her.  Then there was the time she watched him die at the foot of the cross where he hung.  Blessing?  There was nothing rosy colored about that blessing.  Mary's life could be called a blessing only because God was using her life to bring blessing to the world.

Pray with me for all those---whether bus drivers, news reporters, physical therapists, teachers, insurance agents---who by what they do bring God's blessing to others.  Being blessed by God isn't about us at all, but about the blessing we, with God's Spirit guiding, bring to others.  God's blessing will bring, as it did Mary, many inevitable challenges.  So challenging, in fact, that we will only be able to trust God to see the next step.

A Sabbath Advent Day 8

As I write this, it is still Saturday.  Tomorrow, Sunday, I will take a sabbath from writing. (Not from work:  two worship services, a congregational meeting, a mission project in the city and an ordination.)  By the end of the day, I will sit still and listen to this beautiful anthem written by Christine McIntosh that a friend posted.

I can imagine these words being whispered by pregnant Mary that first night in Elizabeth's home.  Full of Elizabeth's warm welcome and blessing, drained by the exuberance and intensity of her own singing (Luke 1:46-55), but still too restless to shut her eyes, Mary steps out of the home of her sleeping friends and stares into the moonless sky.  I may do the same by the time I get home after tomorrow.

Advent Song

by Christine McIntosh

Look, God look

in the vastness of your dark

hear the song

in the chorus of the world

where I sing

for the glory of your coming

held by love

as the music pours from me

a flame within

as the night falls around me

hear my prayer

and come through the darkness

hold me waiting

as you wait to be born.

You can listen to it here.  Blessings on your sabbath and 8th day of advent waiting.

Advent day 7- What do you want to be when you grow up?

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.  (Luke 1:46-48)

Were you ever asked what you wanted to be when you grew up?  Did any of you answer a servant?  What about a slave? I'm guessing not.  It might have been an actor, a baseball player, a train engineer, a teacher....

Even if you are not a Downton Abbey fan, you are probably familiar through books or movies with the British butler, the lady's maid, the housekeeper, the cook, the chauffeur, etc.  The servants on the estate were not enslaved by any means, but they were certainly expected to serve with impeccable obedience to the will of the lord, lady, earl, duchess, etc.

The Greek word for servant that is used in Luke is "doulos," meaning a servant or slave.  In the Christian scriptures, servant/slave is a common term the early Christians used to describe their position in relation to Jesus Christ. For example, the apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans wrote, "Paul, a servant (slave) of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God...."  And Peter, preaching to the crowds, quotes a scripture, "Even upon my slaves (servants), both men and women, in those days I (God) will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy."

Mary says she is the servant of the Lord.  She unmistakably has had God's spirit poured out on her as she carries this Son.  In her song, which I am reflecting on this advent, she certainly prophesies (in the biblical sense) about what God is doing.  She has been obedient to Gabriel's message from God that she will bear the messiah:  "Here am I, the servant of the Lord.  Let it be with me according to your word." Luke 1:38.  And now Mary has gone to visit Elizabeth for awhile at Gabriel's request.  So far she is serving with obedience the will of the Lord and setting the standard for all future servants of Christ, including Paul and Peter, and down to us.

What am I going to be when I grow up?  A servant?  A slave of Christ?

My answer at this late stage of my life is that I hope so.  I am certain, however, that I have not nor ever will serve impeccably.  But then, neither did Paul or Peter.......or the Downton Abbey crew for that matter.

Advent Day 6- Long way from Lord to lowliness

And Mary said:  My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.  (Luke 1:46-48)

There's a long way from Lord to lowliness.  A long way from the Mighty One, the Holy One, Creator of the Universe, God of Israel and all the famous personages of the scriptures, to a teen-age peasant girl whose parents (Jesus' maternal grandparents) are not even named in the gospels.  A long way, and Mary knew it.

This song (dig out your bibles and keep reading on) reflects how she found the whole thing amazing, humbling, and a great reversal of the way things are run in the world.  That the God of Israel should choose to keep the centuries old promise through her was mind blowing.  Heart stopping.  It's a long way from Lord to lowliness.

But there is one thing that Mary may not have grasped quite yet.  Even the gospel writers and we ourselves are confounded with the mystery.  The Lord of the universe is not simply looking "down" with favor on a "lowly" Mary.  The Lord of the Universe is becoming "lowly" in order to serve Mary and all of us.

In her book, Fragments of Your Ancient Name, Joyce Rupp writes:

"Lord."  That word sounds extremely patriarchal.
Definite.  No compromising.  Heavy-handed.
"Lording it over," so the phrase goes,
Implying one who wields power callously.
But your coming to dwell among us
Expressed the very opposite of this.
You, Lord, washed feet, touched lepers,
Wept with the grieving, forgave sinners.
You did not over-power.  You empowered.
Restoring dignity and self-confidence.

And the apostle Paul writes in Philippians 2 that Christ

"...though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death---even death on a cross.

Yes, Mary, it is a long way from Lord to lowliness, but a greater mystery how the Lord becomes the epitome of lowliness itself.