UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in
Simi Valley
Fourth Sunday of Advent - December 22, 2002 - JOY
Anne G. Cohen
Luke 1:5-25, 26-38
FOR OUR REFLECTION:
There is, above all, the laughter that comes from the eternal joy of creation,
the joy of making the world new, the joy of expressing the inner riches of the
soul - laughter from triumphs over pain and hardship in the passion for an
enduring ideal, the joy of bringing the light of happiness, of truth and beauty
into a dark world. This is divine laughter par excellence.
- John
Elof Boodin, God: A Cosmic Philosophy of Religion (1934)
[Mattie] did not believe
she would ever stop hating - until her pastor told her that when God was going
to do something wonderful, it started with something hard, and when God was
going to do something exquisite, He or She started with an impossibility.
- Anne
Lamott, Blue Shoe, p.41 (2002)
Nothing Will Be Impossible
Surrender.
I come from a race and
class of humans - where surrender is only one of several options - and usually
the last. Until recently, surrender was a dirty word in my lexicon. Surrender
indicated weakness and lack of conviction, giving up and losing. Until
recently, I believed that surrender was a word only used in competition or war
- neither of which I approved of - preferring partnership and mutual agreement
to win/lose propositions.
Recently, I have had some
experiences that have led to a new understanding of surrender - changing
beliefs and assumptions that I have held all of my life. For you see,
nothing will be impossible with God - even a new world view.
Surrender.
There are some things in
life that are outside of my control - over which I have little or no
influence. There are some things in this world that are going to happen
no matter what. And the only choice that I have is how I am going to
respond to them. I can fight like hell and go kicking, screaming and bleeding
into the inevitable - which I've done any number of times and have the scars to
show for it. I can passively resist, growing more cynical and bitter by the
year. Or I can receive graciously and find ways to allow the experience to open
my heart and mind to new ways of understanding the world. In this sense,
surrender becomes an expression of hospitality.
I need to be careful when I
say these things. I am not talking about surrender to tyranny or
oppression or injustice. In the face of anything that divides, excludes,
dismembers, degrades or kills - surrender is only an option if it preserves
life and provides an opportunity for resistance in another way and time.
Fighting to the death against tyranny, oppression or injustice is ALWAYS an
honorable option.
But there are times when we
are resisting change (our constant companion) - or resisting the inevitable
consequences of our previous choices - or resisting the persistent feeling that
there is something larger than ourselves at work in our lives. There are times
when fighting back is not only useless but counter -productive, even
destructive. And if we are wise enough to know the difference between tyranny
and parental or spousal concern, we will find ways to graciously surrender to
these overtures from God - and do what our reason tells us is impossible.
I learned in my last church
that there are different forms of surrender - described in different Japanese
words. For those who are familiar with the language, I am not
talking about the concept of "gaman" - meaning "to endure it,
grin and bear it, or put up with it." What I am trying to describe is more
like "o yuzu-ri-wata-su koto" or "mi o
maka-seru" - surrender of control. It is more like
"Kami ni shin-rai" or Trust in God.
Our biblical text for this
morning chooses it’s meaning carefully. Regardless of what church tradition has
taught us over two millennia, the story is clear: Elizabeth and Mary were
not given a choice. Their pregnancies were announced to them and they
could only decide how to respond. For Elizabeth, of course, this was a
great event. For a barren woman to conceive was an affirmation of her
womanhood and a removal of shame for her and her husband. It was not
difficult - probably - for Elizabeth to say YES!!! and to bear a child for
God's purposes.
But for her cousin, Mary,
this was a prime opportunity for her to be shamed. She was young, a
virgin, engaged to be married. It is likely that she would be shunned by
her community, especially her religious community, rejected by her fiance, left
in poverty to raise a child that only she knew was the son of God. What a
mess. I suppose Mary COULD have chosen an attitude of
"gaman." But she does not. Mary, we are told, chooses to
surrender, in the sense of "Kami ni shinrai" -
Trust in God. She chooses to allow an impossible level of intimacy to
occur with God. She accepts the probability of hardship, she risks
everything in order to "smuggle God into the world through her own
body." (Barbara Brown Taylor)
I was taught by a colleague who spent 35 years as a missionary in Japan - that
Japanese translations of this text use at least two words to describe what has
happened to Elizabeth and to Mary. For Elizabeth, the word used in the
traditional translation is "yadosu" - meaning to conceive a
child or to be pregnant. "Yadosu" also means to give shelter
to, to offer hospitality to. The word "yado" itself means
lodging, home, dwelling, inn, shelter, and so on.
However, Mary's conception
in the traditional translation - as well as in the modern versions of the Bible
for both Elizabeth and Mary - Mary's experience is referred to as
"migomoru" - which emphasizes that the new life is in the
person's own body - "mi" being the body of the person herself.
Either one of these words - "yadosu" or "migomoru" could be
used to illustrate the meaning of the person herself offering her own resources
to house and nurture another, a new life, and possibilities.
Mary's gracious hospitality
is surprisingly supported by her fiance, Joseph (after a long talk with the
baby's father), celebrated by her cousin Elizabeth, noted with enthusiasm by
Elizabeth's son, John (still in the womb), and, as can be expected, generally
unrewarded by the world.
The hospitality shown to
Mary by the world ends up being - not a yado or a room in the inn - but a barn
warmed by the breath of a bunch of animals - a death threat from the current
power wielder and subsequent massacres of male children - exile - a hard,
working-class upbringing for her children - and, later on, the criminal
execution of her first-born. But that is another story.
In the midst of the worst,
Mary offers her best. And God is born among us - the impossible comes to
be.
Christmas, in addition to
being our annual Christian celebration of unwed motherhood, is the time of year
when we take the time to recognize that God is already making overtures and
entering our lives - through every open heart in the world - through the
body of the church - through our individual bodies. God has already
decided that we are IT - we are God's "yado" and we are already
"yadosu" - partners in the creative endeavor of "smuggling God
into the world" in our own bodies - an endeavor often viewed by society as
a crime.
Our only choice is how to
respond. What attitude shall we adopt - personally and as a church - for
this adventure of a lifetime? Will it be "gaman" - as we grit
our teeth and bear it until it is over? Will it be a bloody battle to the
death? Or will it be "yadosu" or "migomoru" -
hospitality of the most intimate kind - offering our own resources to house and
nurture others, to surrender ourselves to the promise of new life and all the
possibilities God has to offer?
I offer an answer that
echoes through time to us from the Christian mystics. Mechtild of
Magdeburg in the 13th century said "Hospitality is an essential spiritual
practice." (Brussat p.196)
Meister Eckhart elaborated
in this way:
It
is good for a person
to receive God into himself
or herself
and I call this receptivity the
work of a virgin.
But it is better
when God becomes fruitful
within a person.
For becoming fruitful as a result
of a gift is the only gratitude
for a gift.
I call such person a wife
and in this sense the term
wife is the noblest term
we can give the soul,
it is far nobler than virgin.
Every day
such a person
bears fruit a hundred times
or a thousand times
or countless times,
giving birth and becoming
fruitful out of the most noble
foundation of all.
- Meditations with Meister Eckhart, Matthew Fox, Ed. p.77 (1983)
Eckhart continues:
We
are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if
this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not
take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of
grace and if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the
Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time
and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God
is begotten in us. (Ibid pp.74,81)
"Hospitality,"
writes Benedictine sister Joan Chittister, "is the way we come out of
ourselves. It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers of the
world. Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around one heart
at a time." (Brussat p.197)
Listen! Can you hear
the angel at the door of your heart? "Greetings, favored ones! God
is with you. Do not be afraid. For nothing will be impossible with
God."
Pastoral
Prayer
God who is lover and
friend, who comes to us with quiet overtures and gifts of grace,
we pray that we might Trust in You so
that You might live in us.
We pray for the wisdom to recognize Your touch, Your voice, Your desire.
We pray for the opening of our hearts and the ability to surrender with
gracious hospitality to Your arrival in our lives.
We pray for the humility to welcome every person into the body of this church -
knowing that You reside in every
thing that breathes, in every heart that beats.
We pray for the courage to fight against the judgment and harassment,
the injustice and the exclusion with
which our society greets those who surrender to the Divine,
who smuggle God into the world in
their own bodies - and proceed to accomplish the impossible.
We pray these things with gratitude as we welcome once again the birth of
Jesus, born of Mary,
the rebirth of Christ, born of all
who allow You to enter in. Amen.
*****
This sermon is a collaborative effort derived from conversation and mutual
insight gained in partnership with Barbara Mensendiek, U.C.C. missionary to
Japan for 35 years. I'm also indebted to Barbara Brown Taylor and her
sermon meditation on the "Annunciation" in a December issue of Pulpit
Resource and to the Rev. Dana Cagle who brought my attention to the
article.