Presented to Swift Current Corps, 21 Dec. 2014. Based on
the 20 Dec. 2009 sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay
Based on the 20 Dec. 2009 homily available here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/12/luke-146-56-christmas-is-coming.html
Wayne Cormier told
me a story the other day. He is currently the director of ECIP (Early Childhood
Intervention Program); he used to work for the government. A few years ago he
found himself driving around one of the cabinet ministers and his assistant was
sitting in the back with his tape recorder taping everything the minister said
as per protocol at that time in that situation. They were driving around sizing
up the damage from all of the forest fires in the north when all of a sudden
their vision became impaired. It became more and more impaired. Wayne was
chauffeur and he could barely see anything in front of him and it wasn’t winter
so it wasn’t snow – it was smoke from the fire. The fire was so close you could
almost feel it. The politician asked Wayne, ‘what do we do now’?
Wayne said,
‘Pray’. Wayne is a solid Christian and he has been for a quite a long time. ‘Pray’,
he says, ‘we can’t see anything but we can’t stop driving or its game over; we
can’t do anything else but drive and pray - so pray!’
The assistant with
the tape recorder in the back begins to pray quite a bit when Wayne hears the
cabinet minister, the politician, start to pray. He prays, ‘God if you save us,
I will go to church on Sunday.’ They wait patiently as Wayne drives slowly
through the fire. They wait and they pray as they await their salvation from
the fire.
When they get out
of the fire and they start to relax a bit and get ready for their next tour,
Wayne approaches the politician, the cabinet minister, and he asks him, ‘So
you’re going to church on Sunday?”
“Oh, you heard
that, did you?”
“Yes, and so will
everyone; your assistant has it on tape”
“Oh, well maybe I
should go to church then…”
Now Wayne doesn’t
know whether or not the politician was true to his word. He doesn’t know
whether he did go to church or not but while he was waiting for his salvation,
in that moment he approached God, he encountered God and we can only hope that
once that waiting was over he continued to wait on God.
This is the Advent season and waiting is what
Advent is all about. We are waiting for Christmas to come. Advent is when we
remember the first coming of Christ as we are awaiting His second coming.
Who here like to
wait? One of the keys to waiting is faith (see Matthew 17:20 and Hebrews 11:6).
Faith is a key element of Advent; so what is faith?
There is the
classic definition of faith, of course, from Hebrews 11: 1 “Now faith is being
sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Martin Luther
says: “Faith is God's work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God
(John 1:13)… It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our
powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative,
active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works
constantly.”
Faith is a belief
in the seemingly impossible. Faith is a belief that you will come home and find
that your children have cleaned their rooms or done the dishes all on their
own.
The Greek word
translated variously as ‘faith’ or ‘believe’ is pistis (noun) and this
comes from pistevo (verb)[1]
meaning ‘to have faith in, extend credit to; to commit, to adhere to, to trust
in, and to rely on.’
Prominent
theologians James Dunn and Tom Wright drive home the point in many articles and
books that faith isn’t just a vague belief in something. Faith is an action
word. Faith and faithfulness are forever intertwined.[2]
One cannot say they love God and not love their neighbour (Matthew 25:31-46;
Luke 10:27, 18:18-29). If you have faith in Christ, you will be faithful and
even when we are unfaithful, Christ’s faithfulness makes our faith(fullness)
possible (Romans 3:3,4, see also Genesis Romans 1:16-17, Romans 2:1-16, Hebrews
11). It is the faithfulness of Christ that leads to humanity’s salvation. Faith
is an action and the action of faith during Advent is waiting. Christmas is
coming.
In our story today
something very interesting is happening: Mary an unwed teenager finds out that
she is pregnant and goes to her aunt’s or a much older relative’s; she goes to
Elisabeth’s house and this is Mary’s greeting (vv. 46-49):
And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for He has been mindful of the humble
state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the
Mighty One has done great things for me— Holy is His name.
Mary speaks about
how good the Lord has been to her. She talks about how greatly she has been
blessed by the Lord. She speaks about how He has been mindful of someone such
as her. Mary here is praising God.
Mary, the
mother-to-be of Jesus, is a teenager in the occupied territory in Palestine.
Mary isn’t married when she finds out she is going to be with child. Mary’s
partner in today’s vernacular, her husband-to-be, had never been with her in
that way:[3]
they have never consummated their relationship.[4]
Can you imagine what people in that day and age would think of Mary who is
pregnant without being married? If you were her husband-to-be or if you were
her parents what would you think if your teenage daughter came home and told
you she was about to have a baby? In those days she could have received the
death penalty for that.[5]
Mary is vulnerable and Mary is on the margins of society.
Mary isn’t a
wealthy woman and months from now, right when Mary is to have this baby, she
and Joseph are supposed to load up a pack animal and walk all the way from
Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea to enrol in a census for the purpose
of paying their taxes. They are to walk and/or ride on the back of this pack
animal this whole distance when Mary is very, very pregnant (Luke 2:1-7). I
don’t know how many women here when they are nine months pregnant would like to
hike from here down to Moose Jaw or Regina either by foot or ride there on the
back of a donkey.
Mary is a poor,
humble girl who isn’t yet married but is already with child in a time when she could
be executed for this and Mary is anticipating a very long journey by foot or on
the back of a donkey right around the time she is supposed to give birth, Luke
1:46-49, “And Mary said: ‘My soul
glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for He has been
mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will
call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— Holy is His
name.’” Mary - in this state - finds herself blessed.
Now, I have spoken
to many people in the last few days and weeks and there are quite a few people
around here who have very real troubles around this time of year. As Christmas
is coming; how blessed do we feel? The lead up to Christmas is often a very
stressful time. Do we, when our life seems challenging, almost overwhelming, do
we –like Mary- consider ourselves blessed?
I know that there
are people in this city and I know that there are people in this congregation
who are going through some really difficult times. I have heard stories
recently in our city of eviction notices, of addiction struggles, of custody
battles, of illness, and of life and death battles. I have heard of direct
demonic attack. There are families that have been torn apart who because of
restraining orders can’t even see each other when they transfer their children
from one home to another – they have a tragically but aptly called ‘broken
family’ and Christmas is coming. There are so many people in the hospital.
There is injury. There is illness. There is even death. Many have even lost
almost everything but Christmas is coming. Mary is in her circumstance with all
that is involved in it and Mary is praising God.
Today is the
fourth Sunday of Advent and Advent is a time of waiting for Christmas. As the
smoke from the forest fires of troubles, of depression, of oppression, of
adversity, of sin, of circumstance surround us so much so that we cannot see
anything through the life around us, Christmas is still coming. The lead up to
Christmas is often a very stressful time. Do we, when our life seems
challenging, almost overwhelming, do we –like Mary – praise the Lord,
considering ourselves blessed?
Mary continues her
greeting to Elisabeth praising God. She says of God, Luke 1: 50-55:
His mercy extends to those
who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."
Mary in the midst of
all that she is in the midst of, Mary speaks about God’s mercy to all who fear
Him (Luke 1:50); she remembers that He performs mighty deeds with His arm (Luke
1:51). She praises God for remaining faithful to His covenant with Abraham,
blessing all the nations of the earth (Luke 1:55, see Genesis 12:3). She
praises God, Who faithfully fulfils His covenant with Abraham and his
descendants even though they – even though we – were faithless over and over
again (Romans 3:3,4). Mary’s life is not easy. And Christmas is coming. Her son
will be born after a long way from home and placed in an animal’s feeding
trough. Her son will grow up and eventually suffer a state execution at the
hands of her country’s occupiers and at the urging or her own religious leaders
– Christmas is coming.
Mary is singing
her song of praise to God in this circumstance. There is another interesting
part of Mary’s song of praise that I think merits attention here in that it
refers to either just before, just after, or at the very moment when Jesus
returns. We have spoken about Christmas and waiting for the birth of the
Messiah, the incarnation of Christ, but we are also waiting for Jesus to come
back. Mary says that at that time – when he returns the rulers of this age will
be brought down (Luke 1:52). There will be no more corrupt politicians. There
will be no more election fraud scandals; there will be no more bribery
scandals. There will be no more handing people over to be tortured. We will not
have Prime Ministers who hate the poor or Presidents in our world inventing
weapons of mass destruction or picking up peace prizes en route to escalating
wars against some of the poorest people on earth. The rulers of our age – it
says in verse 52 – the rulers of our age will be brought down from their
thrones. Corrupt Presidents and dishonest Prime Ministers will be replaced by
the King of Kings and the Prince of Peace whose government will never stop
ruling and being peaceful (Isaiah 9:6-7).
We will no longer
be subservient to brutal economic systems in which one man get rich as over 25
000 children die every day and where today nearly 1 billion people have not
even been taught how to read a book when the Lord has provided more than enough
recourses for the whole world to be fed and clothed and otherwise taken care of
many, many, many times over.[6]
These systems of oppression will end. Mary and the Bible says the rulers of
this world will be brought low. We will no longer see a situation where people
become millionaires for appearing on a screen or playing baseball while others
cannot afford to clothe themselves. In our world today there is pornography,
which horribly is North America’s most lucrative pastime. In the United States,
pornography revenue is more than all money made from professional football,
baseball and basketball combined. The money made by US pornography exceeds the
revenues of all their major TV networks combined. Child pornography alone
generates in excess of $3 billion annually:[7]
all while thousands upon thousands of people are dying of malnutrition. The
systems and rulers who oversee all of this will be brought down. This will come
to an end.
The greatest in
this world shall become the least and the least shall become the greatest.
Jesus is the great equalizer. When he comes back those in power and luxury
(which may be many of us here) will experience His justice and those who are
hungry and humbled here will be lifted up and be fed.
Advent is about
waiting and this is what we are waiting for and this is what we are praying for
as we drive through the smoke of the forest fires of corrupt leaders and their
world and all of the trials and tribulations that accompany it. And as we are
waiting, as we act in faith doing our part like the sheep in Matthew’s parable
of the sheep and the goats by giving the hungry something to eat, giving the
thirsty something to drink, inviting in the stranger, clothing the naked,
looking after the sick and visiting those in prison (Matthew 25:31-40); we look
forward to the day when Christ returns and all of the injustice is finally set
right. Jesus’ Advent 2000 years ago was a foretaste of the justice and mercy
that lies ahead when he returns. And as we show mercy to our neighbours, we
show that we belong to His world that is to come rather than to this present
evil age – and this is important because as sure as Christmas is coming, Christ
is coming back – so as bad as things may seem as we are driving through the
smoke of the forest fires of our troubles that make it so dark that maybe we
cannot even see, we must remember that just as Jesus was dwelling in Mary’s
womb as they were eagerly waiting for him to come, so too now as the Holy
Spirit is indwelling in us as we are eagerly waiting for Jesus to come again;
the world is in its ninth month, the smoke is clearing, Jesus is coming and
Jesus is coming soon and when He does, everything will be alright. I promise.
Christmas is coming.
Let us pray.
---
[1] Cf. Strong's Greek Dictionary
[2] Cf. NT Wright and James Dunn. An Evening Conversation on Paul with
James D.G. Dunn and N.T. Wright Available online at:
http://www.thepaulpage.com/an-evening-conversation-on-paul-with-james-d-g-dunn-and-n-t-wright/
[3] Cf. Culpepper, 51. Lenski, 69, Ellis, 75.
[4] Now betrothal is not quite like engagements of today. In those days
a man and his wife were committed to each other at the engagement ceremony.
They did have a public ceremony with witnesses and the more. They did each gain
a marital status, complete with rights and responsibilities and if Joseph had
died after their engagement ceremony but prior to their marriage ceremony, Mary
would still be considered a widow with all the responsibilities and rights (or
lack thereof) of a widow. The betrothal was very different then anything we
have today and even though Mary would be Joseph’s legal wife, after this
engagement ceremony rather than going off to live with one’s husband, the wife
usually returned to her father’s household for a period of up to a year. Cf. E.
Earle Ellis, 71 and R. Alan Culpepper, 51. See also Captain Michael Ramsay,
Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe? Presented to the Nipawin Corps 14 December 2008.
Available on-line at
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/luke-126-37-do-you-believe.html
[5] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Matthew 1:18-25: Do you believe?
Presented to each Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 24 December 2007 and CFOT chapel
in Winnipeg, December 2006. Available on-line at
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/matthew-118-25-do-you-believe.html
[6] Global Issues: Social, Political, Economic and Environmental Issues
That Affect Us All. Cited December 15, 2009. Available on-line:
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
[7] Christian Technology Solutions, Pornography Industry Statistics.
Cited 21 November, 2009. Available on line: http://christiantechnologysolutions.com/content/view/18/24/
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