Relentless - Blue Christmas

John 1:1-5, 10-14, 16-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

---

“Relentless” is the word that kept coming to mind – about these days and as I wondered about tonight. “Relentless” because the list and litany of things that I know are weighing on some of you … and on me … and that I thought might bring us here for worship, just kept piling up and piling on in recent days. Of course there’s the news – the wars and rumors of wars, the natural disasters and pending storms, the politics, the politics, and the politics. I’m going to let that all of that “news” stuff speak for itself.

Mostly it’s been the dying, though. So much dying. People losing parents and friends and family and children, even – sometimes after long, lingering sickness and disease. Sometimes quickly, though not unexpectedly. Sometimes in surprising, shocking, unsettling ways – surrounded by circumstances no one could have seen coming. Of course the grief of death shows up in particularly painful ways at this time of year, whether it happened last week or a lifetime ago.

But it’s not just that dying that’s relentless these days. There is the struggle of parenting that’s overwhelming for some, I know. There are kids struggling with what it means to be a kid – or to become an adult – in this world. There are people whose jobs have been on the line – and some who’ve lost what they were counting on in that regard. There are sick and aging parents and friends. There are failing marriages. There are broken relationships of all kinds that would, could, should be something so much more and better and different than they’ve turned out to be.

There are burdens of anxiety and mental illness too numerous and nebulous to name or itemize but that somehow have a very real weight and heft to them, nonetheless.

There are people carrying secrets too hard and too heavy to carry on their own or to say out loud from here.

And I’m sorry/not sorry for those of you with whom I’ve already shared this little video. It added something to our Bethel Bible Study class a couple of weeks ago where I used it to talk theology … and about the nature of God.

Then it came up again in our Stephen Ministry discussion last week where I used it, thinking clinically, about how we deal with each other in caring relationships.

And when something like this won’t leave my mind – or keeps popping up in relevant, meaningful, surprising ways – I feel like I’m supposed to take notice and pay more attention and maybe keep learning from whatever it might be.

So I want to share it with those of you who haven’t seen it – and again with those of you who have – and wonder about it, together, in light of whatever brings us here, for a service like this, at Christmas.

All you need to know about the video is that it’s Brene Brown’s voice you’re hearing. (If you’ve never heard of Brene Brown, she’s a professor, author, podcaster and social worker.) And someone has taken one of her lectures and turned it into a cartoon for some extra effect and added meaning.

So much of the truth about Christmas – which so often gets lost in the mix of everything we’ve done to the “most wonderful time of the year” – so much of the TRUTH about Christmas is acknowledgement of the fact that life in this world is relentless. And the story of our faith never suggests otherwise. God never suggests otherwise. In fact, a friend of mine once said that the Bible itself – the story of our faith in Scripture – reads like some kind of trauma response narrative when you think about it.

From Adam and Eve, to Cain and Abel, to the Tower of Babel, the Exodus from slavery in Egypt, the exile in Babylon, through to the life, crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus, our faith’s story is one tragedy after another tragedy after another, after another, after another when you think about it – some cosmic in scope and scale, some more personal and close to home.

Whatever the case, even Scripture is a reminder that life in this world is relentless – even for people of faith, maybe especially for people of faith – who have their hearts and minds and lives attuned to the music of someone and of something greater than ourselves.

But the other hard truth is, faith doesn’t and will not take away our grief in one fell swoop – nor should it. Faith can’t reverse our deepest darkest thoughts, all on its own, all of the time. Faith won’t fix your anxiety or ease your depression, if you can muster whatever “enough” of that sort of faith is supposed to look like. Faith won’t keep your problems at bay or make your life easier at every turn.

No matter what some preach, teach or post on social media – or have tried to make you believe in one way or another – loving God and having faith is not a prescription against suffering or struggle.

But the promise of Christmas – and the point of that little video about empathy, for my money – is a reminder about the kind of God we’re dealing with, in Jesus. It’s not a God like so many other false gods (drugs, alcohol, self-reliance, our own boot-straps, our own best intentions, our own busy schedules, or whatever else we use to fix ourselves);

The promise of Christmas is not about a god or gods who stand up there and out there, far and away from what hurts us most…offering us a sandwich or a simple solution or a sweet supplication to fix whatever is the matter…

The promise of Christmas is not of a God who doesn’t – who has not – lived and experienced and felt just exactly what we live and experience and feel as a people…

Ours is a God who shows up in the midst of whatever mess we find ourselves and sits with us there and shows us that it is endurable, doable, and able to be overcome…

Ours is a God who shows up in ways as tangible as one of these prayer shawls you are invited to take and wrap yourself in when you leave here tonight…

Ours is a God who comes down as surely as this bread and wine that we’ll eat, drink, taste, smell and share in a moment…

Ours is a God who is sitting next to you now, in this worship, in the presence of someone who has struggled and suffered, too; who is struggling and suffering, beside you even now…

Ours is a God who is even more relentless – more patient and persistent and vulnerable – than whatever brings us here and that we’ll carry with us even after we leave.

Our is a God who comes down, in Jesus, to remind us that there is grace and love and mercy and hope, embodied and emboldened in the world around us, by faithful, loving, kind people and pastors and parents; friends and family and strangers, even.

So, I hope some of you came here tonight selfishly looking and longing for something … even if you aren’t sure what it could be.

I hope others of you came here tonight – whether you knew it or not – looking and longing to enter into this sacred space, to simply sit with and be alongside the others …

I hope each of us sees our potential to be both of these things at any given moment in the days to come…

And I hope we see it all as a picture of the promise and great hope of Christmas – that wild, miraculous notion of the Word and ways of God, making the vulnerable, loving choice to become flesh and to live among us;

…the love of God putting on skin and bones – not just in the person of Jesus, born in a manger long, long ago – but alive and well in God’s children, people just like you and me;

…the love of God born to give and to receive the kind of grace, mercy and peace that is ours because we are God’s – for each other and for the sake of the world into which he comes...

…sharing love, hope and connection that promises the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting – on this side of heaven and the next.

Amen. Merry Christmas.

That's What She Said: Mary

Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

---

When Mark and I talked about this Advent sermon series and he asked me to preach, he said, by the way, you get Mary.

You see, all sorts of theological conundrum surround Mary: the virgin birth; the catholic doctrines of her perpetual sinlessness and her bodily assumption into heaven. Myths have sprung up about her which Martin Luther said cannot be validated by scripture. But so, it is and has been.

We will focus on what she said and what she did in the high calling that God, through the angel Gabriel, laid on her. There are but a very few references to Mary and what she said in each of the Gospels.

Who in the Christian church and beyond, has not heard of Mary? I discovered that she is also mentioned in the Quran. Mary is central to the life of Jesus and to our remembrance of her in the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Lent. She even has a place in our Lutheran worship book on page 57 -- a commemoration prayer for Mary, mother of our Lord.

What did this young Mary say about being chosen to be the mother of the Messiah and what did she say during his life that can shed light on her faithfulness, courage, and discipleship—and how can that inform our own faithfulness, courage, and discipleship?

To put it into the vernacular of today, I am guessing that after Gabriel told her she was favored, would conceive, and have a son and that she would name him Jesus, I think Mary said, “WAIT, WHAT?!!”

After all, she was a teenager living in the small, no count village of Nazareth. What and why was an angel of the almighty God appearing to her there with such startling news? According to St. Luke she did ask, how can this be since I am a virgin? Gabriel simply begged off saying that the Holy Spirit will take care of it and that the power of the Most High God will handle it. Could you, as a woman, have lived with that? Looking at Joseph’s response to stay with Mary, could I have lived with that?

Amazingly Mary simply said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Wow.

And the angel departed leaving Mary and Joseph with their shock, their questions, their amazement…and their decision to follow God’s plan going forward.

We learned last week that Mary traveled to have a conversation with Aunt Elizabeth about all of this and received good counsel and comfort. And then unexpectedly comes Mary’s beautiful song that we know as the Magnificat. It is such a soaring poetic proclamation recognizing the greatness of God who is strong in love and justice. This great song comes from the voice and heart of a teenager! We marvel at it still to this day.

We are told that Mary pondered all these things and kept them in her heart. That is a good place to keep the things we ponder regarding the mysteries of God.

So finally, the time came for Jesus to be born, and to fulfill the ancient prophecy of the birth to happen in the city of David, Joseph and Mary made the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem – ninety-three miles so that Jesus could be born in the city of David. A long ride on a donkey. Mary was tough and Joseph was faithful and loyal.

In Bethlehem they found only a stable for the birth. (There is a Facebook meme showing up that has Mary saying, “Joe, I told you to make a reservation!”) I am not sure if that’s what Mary said or not.

But the birth took place with animals looking on…shepherds showing up and eventually Wise Men bringing gifts. I assume Mary greeted them with awe and maybe with suspicion, but her words are lost to antiquity.

But another dream came to the couple and told them that they had to make another difficult trip—this time to Egypt to protect the young Jesus from the wrath of Herod. Surely Mary was worried, but we don’t know what she said about it. Maybe only saying, “Joe, we must do it, we have to go.”

The trip to Egypt was again around ninety miles—walking and carrying a young boy...and perhaps sharing time on a donkey. Feeding him, changing him, protecting him—Mary did it all, again exhibiting great trust and faithfulness. We don’t know what Mary and Joseph talked about, but I’m sure she was pondering and keeping all these things in her heart. It seems that she had made up her mind to protect Jesus to witness to the tumultuous future of her son.

We that Jesus grew up in a family with siblings and parents who, even knowing that he was different, treated him like the others with care and love.

We do have some words that Mary spoke within the context of raising Jesus. When he was twelve years old and he took off on his own while in Jerusalem, Mary expressed her care and displeasure saying, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look your father and I have been looking for you in great anxiety.” What parent today has not parroted that rebuke while raising our children? But Jesus simply said he was about God’s business and so Mary went home and again treasured all those things in her heart. She trusted God’s plan. Perhaps a lesson for us?

We hear what Mary said again at a wedding in Cana. The wine ran out, and exhibiting motherly sternness, she asked him to do something about it, but he pushed back just a bit asking her what that had to do with him, and she said with a flip of her head (my imagination) to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” We know the rest of the story and it was Jesus’ first miracle.

Later in the narrative, we get this scene from John’s Gospel: Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is our son.” I imagine that Mary’s heart was too broken for her to blubber a word. She would only have been about 43 years old. Can we imagine?

So, we are left with only a few things that Mary said, and yet we get a vivid example of a simple, profoundly faithful, strongly courageous young woman who trusted God and who therefore is worthy of our emulation and remembrance as the mother of our Lord who is on the way. Amen, Come Lord Jesus.

Amen.