December 14, 2014: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
It used to be that in Advent the joy of Mary was almost regulated to a single gaudete, or rejoice, Sunday, this third Sunday of Advent, with the rest of Advent being a sort of little-Lent. But thankfully, we are now starting to reclaim the pregnant anticipation and joy of Mary throughout the season. Now, as I have talked about before, in the Episcopal Church, like many other denominations, we use the Revised Common Lectionary to decide what scriptures to use each week. This week, there was a choice of a Psalm or the Canticle – the Magnificat – named from the Latin and Greek for Magnify, the words Mary says in the first line. It is a regular canticle used in the Daily Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, you can find it in the BCPs in your pew racks. It is often chanted when done as part of a choral evensong, and our choir sang it so beautifully this morning. And so, on this gaudete Sunday, it seemed appropriate that we focus on Mary’s song today.
And as I was preparing this sermon on the Magnificat, I thought back to a story a friend of mine, Sharon, related a few months ago about a walk she took with her young son, Carl.
“Carl was telling a story, his arms moving about as he talked, while they took a walk in the woods near their home. When they found a large black feather on the path, he picked it up and said,
“Mom, can you hold it? My hands are full.”
She looked at him and said, “With what? You just have the feather.”
“They’re full of the story,” he replied.
She carried the feather.
Mary is full of the story – her story, our story. Filled with joy she sings this song. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!” Or, in the version many of us heard when we were young, and listed as Canticle 15 in our prayer books, “My soul doth magnify the Lord!”
Magnify! Her soul magnifies!
Her joy is outward. She magnifies God. The God within her is magnified from her very being.
Imagine… have you ever felt so full of joy that it radiates from you, from the depths of your soul? Perhaps it was at the birth of your child, or the day when you fell in love. Children certainly experience this. They have a knack for feeling – unfiltered, just feeling, and sometimes about the simplest, yet most beautiful things, and they are filled with emotion, bursting forth – unable to contain it even if they tried.
This is what it means to be a Christian – to be in joyful anticipation of Christ who was, and is, and is to come, and from our very souls, we should proclaim the greatness of God for all the world to see. But we often don’t, or we save it for a few specific moments in the year, like Christmas. “A provocative French novelist once put on the lips of one of his characters a stinging challenge: ‘You say you are a Christian. Then where the devil is your joy?’”[1]
Yes – what happened to us? What gets in our way?
It’s the clutter.
The clutter of our misplaced expectations.
You know, whenever Advent comes around, I often think back to the time when my sister-in-law, Carla, had decided to host for the first time Christmas dinner for her then prospective in-laws. God love her – such an optimist. Anyway, she was so excited, and had it all planned, even preparing some of our favorite dishes. The only thing my brother had to do was remember to pick up the spiral ham before the stores closed on Christmas Eve. “No problem, my brother said.” Well, there was a problem – she asked my brother to do it, and well… he left for the store late in the day when he finally got around to it, and came home with no ham. Carla had only the ingredients in the house, and what could be found at the local 7-11, to try to come up with an entree – fast! On top of that, their dog decided it was a great time to knock the tree, decorated beautifully, completely off it’s base and onto the living room floor. This was most definitely NOT what she had planned.
I suspect that many of you have similar stories of holiday gatherings with family that didn’t go quite the way it was expected or hoped it would. Advent is for many the start of a holiday season brimming less with pregnant anticipation and expectancy, and more the fear of Uncle Max saying something the whole family wishes he didn’t, or Grandma Jones getting too much cheer out of the cheer. As Johnny Carson once said about the holidays, “People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.”
We too often move through Advent expecting not the coming of Christ into the world, but some sort of idealized version of the “perfect” Christmas.
And as our expectations at this time of year overtake us, we begin a journey of list making that makes Santa look like a slacker. We have lists of things we need to buy, make, mail, package, wrap, see, visit, do… all so that the “perfect” Christmas will unfold before our eyes. And, as if that were not enough, we pack it all into a few short weeks in December. We have made Christmas into something you do.
But see, that’s just it… Christmas isn’t something you do, it is something you are! And despite all our efforts, I don’t think we have lost that entirely. Not really. We just don’t realize it when it happens to us. Or worse, we try to box it in and not let it show, as though Christmas is only for the young.
I see it in those who seem to walk lighter when they hear a favorite carol or stand in front of a decorated store window. There is something magical about the music and decorations that seem to fill the world, if only for a little while, with a sense that there is more to life than cubicles, pagers, grades, or promotions. We become children again, gathering to watch a silly animated Rudolph on TV, or wearing a santa hat to the office. We reconnect with people through cards and calls, wish each other blessings, and a Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas – YES!
Merry Christmas – M-A-R-Y.
We need to be… Mary – the God bearer. Mary, the chosen one who magnifies God for all the world to see.
A Mary Christmas we should be…
And, we can be.
If we open our hearts, minds…our very souls, to the workings of the Holy Spirit in and around us. But, we need to let go of our own ideas about how to do Christmas, and open ourselves to being Christmas.
This won’t be an easy trick for some of us. Seriously, it’s even hard for clergy at this time of year. I told this story last year when I was your supply priest on Christmas Eve, and it goes to exactly this point: See, on one Christmas Eve, as a priest’s young children were preparing to go to church for the candlelight service, their dad was busy finishing up the sermon. One of the children came into the den and asked his father: “Dad, are you going to let us enjoy this Christmas or are you going to try to explain it to everybody?”
While I hope to avoid ruining Advent in much the same way, let me offer this. Stop, Listen, Pray and Be. And if you absolutely must make a list, then remember this from Christmas Friarworks, by Robert Fulghum:
He wrote: “I usually draw up a heavy duty Things-To-Do list about this time of year. I am black belt at lists. I even have lists of lists. Seven pages of expectations that are in themselves enough to permanently destroy the spirit of Christmas. But this year I started from somewhere else in my mind.
New list.
One page.
A Things-To-Be list.
Concentrating on the feelings I wanted to have, the condition of mind and spirit I yearned for, the quality of life I wanted to manifest, the vibrations I wanted to give off to other people.
A Things-To-Be list for Christmas.
Then I boiled the list down into one line. And then I wrote that word on a tiny piece of paper. And then I wrapped that tiny piece of paper around a small candy cane.
And ate it.
List and all.
Shazam! Hark the Herald Angels Sing!
Oh sure, it’s a little crazy.
But since when is Christmas supposed to make sense?
Oh sure, it’s a little early… but since when is Christmas a matter of time?
I mean, who makes the rules and regulations about Christmas anyway? Who says it must be an orderly, organized affair?
…I suppose you want to know what the one word was.
Nope. You got to work it out for yourself. Like Christmas.
‘Cause if it ain’t inside you somewhere, all the lists in the world won’t make it happen.”
Mr. Fulghum is on to something… he is no longer doing Christmas, but being it. And we can too. But like Mary, we have to say YES! We have to let go and let God live in us and through us. We need to stop thinking it, doing it, expecting it…we must be it. Because he is right – it has to come from deep inside of you.
At this time of year, we are being asked to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ into our lives, for the incarnation of God among us. To do this, we need to empty ourselves of all the clutter, and allow our souls to be filled with the story – to become Mary, the Godbearer, the chosen, awaiting the new birth. And we should look at others as bearers of God too. Remembering the words of Mary “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” we are to allow our souls to do the same, and to see God magnified in the souls of all others.
So this Advent, take a moment to write down A Things-To-Be list. Concentrating on the feelings you want to have, the condition of mind and spirit you yearn for, the quality of life you want to manifest, the vibrations you want to give off to other people.
And if your husband forgets to pick up the ham – make the best darned minestrone soup anyone has ever tasted. I guarantee it will become a holiday tradition!
Go out and be Mary!
And slowly, day by day, we will all live into the moment when God entered this world as a poor child.
And, because of that, the blessings of this Advent season may find a home in your heart, the light of Christ may be kindled anew, and the Spirit may work in you, and through you, for all the world to see. Amen.
[1] Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. in The Living Pulpit
[Sermon as written may not be as delivered on any given Sunday]
Diana Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
December 14, 2014
Advent 3 – Year B
1st Reading – Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Canticle 15 – Luke 1:46-55
2nd Reading – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Gospel – John 1:6-8, 19-28
