Sermon, December 21, 2003
4 Advent, Year C
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Sermon, December 21, 2003
4 Advent, Year C
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Three Sentences
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold says that he relies on three sentences to help keep him grounded during the difficulties of his days. And, you can imagine how complex and contradictory the days are for the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. How do you keep grounded in the middle of a very tough day? Three sentences, he says.
The first is from Teilhard de Chardin. It is especially helpful during stressful and anxious moments. By means of all created things without exception the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. (from The Divine Milieu) So when all heck is breaking loose, Frank says to himself, "Ah, ha! This too is how I'm being shaped and molded. Everything is part of God's way with me. All things without exception, even this that I wish I could run from, escape from, get out of, is part of God's way with me." By means of all created things without exception the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. That's the first sentence that helps ground him.
The second sentence comes from an old Russian Orthodox monk who lived in the forests of Finland. He was known to be holy and wise, having endured much with great grace. When asked by a layperson what the monk has learned from his many years of prayer and monastic life, he always replies: The very circumstances of your life will show you the way. What have you learned after years of prayer and reflection? If you want to know the way of God, look at the circumstances of your life.
And the third sentence is from a favorite writer of mine, James Finley, a disciple of Thomas Merton. This sentence sounds like something Merton might have said: A simple openness to the next human moment brings us into union with God in Christ. Where's God? How can I know God? How can I be one with God? Be open to the next human moment, in attentive simplicity.
God uses everything in creation to assail and mold us.
Whatever is happening will show you the way.
Openness to the moment brings us to God.
***
Mary was a nice girl. Thirteen years old. Sixteen at most. Her family had arranged for her marriage to an older man, a prospect both exciting and terrifying at once. But everything was thrown into confusion by her awareness that she was pregnant. The word "angel" is the same word we translate "messenger." Somehow, in her vulnerable situation, she sensed a messenger from God. The message was this: "Don't be afraid. God loves you. You are God's blessed child. The child you bear in your womb is God's special gift to all people."
In one of the gospels that did not make it into our canon, the apocryphal gospel of James, it is at the well in Nazareth where Gabriel first approaches her. She is horrified and disconcerted as she receives the message; she rushes home, and grabs a purple thread and begins to spin frantically on the loom. What a poignant image. You've done that, haven't you. You hear confusing or threatening news. You retreat to something familiar, something you can do without thinking, to balance the disconcerting nature of the news. "I've got to get things back to normal. I've got to be able to think. What's going to happen?"
Then, in James' account, it is on the second visit of Gabriel when she says, "Let it be unto me according to your word." It took some time for her to adjust to the shock. But with courage and hope, she is able to respond with that grand "Yes." And in doing so, Mary was not simply agreeing to be used for some particular function; it was not just that God needed her womb. She was saying yes to who she was called to be. God's call had to do with the integrity of her own person. God was saying, "Do not be afraid. I love you. I delight in you. For you to live into the fullness of the mystery of whom you are called to be, this is part of what I ask you to do."
This was a risky yes. She is in a profoundly ambiguous situation. It nearly led her betrothed to put her away gracefully to avoid the embarrassment. How often it is that God enters our lives with such ambiguity and paradox? Most of us long for a God who is much more clear, direct, and neat. Even theologically systematic. Or maybe cleanly contained in a book.
I wonder about Mary's yes. All of us sometimes speak with more certainty than we actually possess. Maybe Gabriel sensed some unease in her when he said in passing, just before departing, "Oh, by the way, your kinswoman Elizabeth, as old as she is and barren, is just three months from delivery." Underneath was the implication -- Maybe you ought to go see her.
That's where we begin today in our Gospel. Mary is rushing in haste to be with Elizabeth. As she is walking she has time to think. She has time to worry. What if Joseph leaves me? What if my family throws me out? Nazareth is such a small town. Scandal plays there fiercely. It's good to get away from there for a while to clear the mind. Elizabeth. She's one of those people you can count on. She knows how to give acceptance and wisdom. She'll help me think through this.
Arriving, Mary cries out her greeting from the entrance; Elizabeth's child leaps, and in one of those intuitive moments Elizabeth knows something wonderful and cries out to Mary, "Bless you child! And blessed is the fruit of your womb. And bless you for believing it could come true."
Hearing those words, Mary said, "I do believe." An even deeper surrender occurred at that moment. She uttered a more complete yes. Now, Mary was able to sing: "My soul magnifies the Lord. and my spirit rejoices in God my savior."
Presiding Bishop Griswold comments: "The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth teaches us... we need human friends who are companions along the way. They are not always friends, for sometimes critics speak the word more deeply than friends -- but they are fellow travelers. They show up to confirm the word we think we are hearing, which invites us to a deeper fidelity."
***
Back to Bishop Griswold's three sentences for being grounded. "By means of all created things without exception the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us." God assails, penetrates and molds Mary by means of an inconvenient pregnancy. "The very circumstances of your life will show you the way." Your kinswoman Elizabeth, old and barren, is now in her sixth month. "A simple openness to the next human moment brings us into union with God in Christ." Bless you child! And blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Mary's heart overflows in a song which rings through the ages.
God uses everything in creation to assail and mold us.
Whatever is happening will show you the way.
Openness to the moment brings us to God.
What will God use today, this week to assail and penetrate and mold you? Ask yourself that
the next time you are challenged. Then move into the circumstances with confidence. Whatever is happening will show you the way. With awakened simplicity, be open to the possibility that God is as real within you as within Mary. A simple openness to the next human moment brings us into union with God in Christ.
Let it be with me according to your word.
[With gratitude, and without permission, this sermon quotes freely from Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. An adaptation of his May, 1998 presentation for the Trinity Institute, "Listening With the Ear of the Heart" is found at www.crosscurrents.org/griswold.htm If my plagiarism will lead you to read the entire article, I'll feel thoroughly forgiven.]