UNITED
Fourth Sunday of Advent -
Anne G. Cohen
Micah 5:2-5a
Luke 1:39-45
For Our Reflection:
So the shepherds took their guitars and
their skateboards and said to the angel,
"Can we come to the party for baby Jesus?"
- The Christmas Story as interpreted by a 9 year old boy
It's All About the Relatives
Eighth Century Before the Common Era.
The country is split, North and South.
The capital cities - Samaria in the north, Jerusalem in the south - are
hotbeds of corruption - secular and religious.
Isaiah, an aristocrat, is critiquing the socio-political-religious
system from inside the house of power.
Micah, a member of the laboring class, is raging against the machine
from the outside. He focuses on ethical issues - economic injustice,
crimes against shepherds and farmers, the fact that religious worship
without social justice is meaningless. He sees the incursions of the
Assyrians into the Southern Kingdom as punishment from God - Divine
Justice.
Micah's word of hope is that a new ruler will come out of the southern
town of Bethlehem - someone who is merciful and good, like King David.
And he will be a laborer, even a shepherd, like King David - and he will
bring justice and peace to the country - like King David.
But he will not defend Jerusalem for Jerusalem's sake as the holiest of
cities - he will return to the traditions that are rooted in Moses and
Exodus - unlike King David - traditions from the Northern Kingdom,
traditions that are still alive in places like Nazareth - or Galilee.
So it is no accident that the Gospel of Matthew - written eight
centuries later in the First Century of the Common Era - quotes Micah
(2:6) when explaining the circumstances of Jesus' birth -
and that Jesus' genealogy - through Joseph, interestingly enough -
makes King David his ancestor -
and all of the "birth narratives" drag Jesus' parents out of the
Northern Kingdom down to Bethlehem near Jerusalem in the Southern Kingdom
- a trip that would cause any pregnant woman to go into labor -
and then has Jesus grow up and start his "rule" in the context of
Galilee
in the laboring class
with a penchant for quoting, Isaiah, Micah, Amos
and the Moses tradition -
railing against the corruption of Jerusalem
and, in particular, the aristocracy.
The punishment from God, this time, is Roman occupation rather than
Assyrian incursion - but that's beside the point. Eight centuries after
Micah, the people of Israel are still hoping for that divinely anointed
king he went on about. And in the desperation and expectation of the
day, Jesus - a charismatic laborer, a King David kind of mover and
shaker - moves into the spotlight.
The story makes it clear that a person is shaped and interpreted
according to one's context and connections. It matters where you come
from - North or South or Both, what the family stories are, what
political and religious ideas are espoused, what ethical framework one
lives out of. Most of all, it matters who your parents and ancestors
and teachers are. You could say, in so many words, its all about the
relatives.
Jesus, being the kind of person he is in his context, time, place,
family - in the midst of the expectations of the community that come to
know him - Jesus is seen in a particular - rather royal light.
By this time in the life of the North / South split of his nation -
there is also A LOT of influence from other cultures due to merchant
travel, immigration, occupation and increased communication. Greek
mythology is busy intertwining itself with Hebrew and Assyrian and Roman
mythologies. Hero stories are BIG - heroes being men with superhuman
abilities - like Hercules - abilities due to having one parent who was a
god or goddess. As it turns out - Jesus, Anointed King (Messiah) and
Hero, has a divine Father - and that makes a HUGE difference when its
all about the relatives.
Now Mary, Jesus' birth mom, has some difficulties with the idea that her
first born will have God as a birth father. An angel comes to inform
her of this miraculous fact and she is "perplexed" - prone to
"pondering
in her heart."
Being young and from a small town, she has never heard of a virgin
conception and has not heard most of the hero stories that are
circulating in more metropolitan areas - and she asks the angel to
explain this phenomenon - which the obliging angel does. And to support
his case, the angel tells Mary about her aging, barren cousin, Elizabeth
- who is currently six months pregnant due to an act of God. The
pregnancy of a barren, elderly woman, is certainly proof that - "for
God, nothing is impossible."
Mary - being much like my husband - needs tangible proof - not just the
story of some flighty angel. So she travels to the Southern Kingdom in
the hill country to visit her cousin Elizabeth and see for herself. She
stays three months - long enough to prove that the angel was RIGHT about
BOTH pregnancies - and time enough for the women to compare notes on
their respective miracles and wax poetic about the political
implications of this.
Mary then heads home before she is less able to travel - leaving before
John, Jesus' second cousin, is born. The boys don't meet up again, as
far as we know, until thirty years later... which is a story for another
season. But that later meeting tends to confirm that - when it comes to
destiny and life's unfolding - when it comes to the truth of angels and
the proof of miracles - its all about the relatives.
Two stories were big in the news this week that underline for me this
same premise. Both stories took place in countries divided North and
South and occupied by foreign powers. Both stories had to do with the
inescapable interconnectedness of personal identity, destiny and
interpretation of history. And both stories were all about the
relatives.
One was the story of the capture of Sadaam Hussein in his home territory
of T'crete (sp?), Iraq. Hussein had made enemies by the millions among
the Kurds of the North and the Shi'ites of the South. When it came time
to run for his life, he had no place to run except home - and no one to
help him but friends and family. Ultimately, it was friends and family
who cracked under pressure from occupation forces - told the truth in
bits and pieces - and gave him up. Bottom line for Sadaam Hussein - its
all about the relatives - for better and for worse.
The second story to pique our interest this week was the revelation by
Essie Mae Washington- Williams of Los Angeles, California, that she is
the daughter of the late, great segregationist, Senator Strom Thurmond.
She was conceived when he was 22 and her birth mother was a 16 year old
African-American household employee. And Essie Mae was sent away to be
raised by, of course, the relatives. The conception was not so
miraculous in South Carolina in 1925. What IS miraculous is that it has
taken this country so many centuries to be ABLE to ACCEPT the fact that
WE ARE FAMILY.
Essie Mae Wahington-Williams writes:
***
Part of me wonders what is so special about me. Thousands and thousands
of black people born in the South during that time could tell my story.
Many have made a big deal about Sally Hemings and her lover, Thomas
Jefferson - an example of common practice during slavery. But what
makes her special and what makes me special is not that we had white men
in our lives, but who those white men were in American history.
And she concludes:
I am not bitter toward him. Throughout his life, he was very kind and
generous to my family and me. I don't need anything from him now in his
death. I am only finishing the story that will be told when this
chapter in history is written.
(Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2003, p.B13)
***
Brent Staples, in a New York Times editorial Thursday, offers this
perspective:
***
The big lesson for historians in the Hemings-Jefferson case was that the
oral histories passed down by slaves and their descendants were more
reliable than the official written record. This put historians on
notice that they should give the oral tradition more credence,
especially when working on issues of interracial intimacy...
In the 1998 biography, Ol' Strom... Jack Bass and... Marilyn Thompson
went back to the oral stories of black South Carolinians, some of whom
knew the household, as well as the accounts of a black elevator operator
who recalled seeing a light-skinned black woman riding the elevator to
visit Mr. Thurmond when he was governor.
How could Mr. Thurmond, who sought the presidency on a segregationist
platform in 1948, have lived publicly as a racist while secretly helping
to support a black daughter? This was a common practice in the South,
where slaveholders and their descendants
produced mulatto children. While some white fathers treated their
mixed-race children like dirt, others supported and educated them. the
refused to acknowledge them to keep the nonexistent barrier between the races
firmly intact.
Like the Jefferson story, this one seems more sensational because of who
Strom Thurmond was. In truth, it is the story of the entire American
south - and the great secret of race that until just recently dared not
speak its name.
***
These seem like remarkable stories to us - they make the news - they
make the canon - because of the identity of famous Fathers or Mothers.
But the TRUTH of all of these stories is true for all of us:
We are all Children of God.
We are all - literally - siblings and cousins, ancestors and family -
PART of one another in ways we cannot even imagine.
We are each a product of and interpreted by the stories of our
tradition, the stories of our culture and religion, our time and place.
We are extended family in a world more cosmopolitan, more interactive,
more connected and more splintered - North / South / East / West - than
ever before.
And each of us has the power to either protect or betray, lift up or
topple, affirm or destroy, co-create or kill each other in small or
enormous ways.
Christmas Day is no different than any other day - when it comes to the
truth of who we are. It just highlights and underscores the fact that
Its ALL about the relatives.
Its about how we treat the people closest to us - and what that tells us
about how we treat our distant cousins across the planet.
Its about our ability to communicate in healthy ways and resolve
conflicts with honor and compassion.
Its about generosity and openness - a willingness to hear the story of
another person's experience - validating and interpreting their
experience as we reinterpret our own.
Its about the stories - the oral traditions that preserve the truth when
the official records have been sanitized for the purposes of power and
corruption - reshaped by occupation forces or economic interests.
And on Christmas Day - on any day - it is up to us to tell our children
the stories of our time and and the stories of our tradition - so that
they can tell their stories truthfully, with integrity, without shame
and with heads held high - on a peaceful, economically just, reunified,
multicultural, inextricably interrelated planet.
Its all about the relatives - thanks be to God.
**********************************
BULLETIN
WE GATHER FOR PRAYER AND CELEBRATION
Music for Gathering
Welcome and Perspective on the Day
Musical Preparation for Worship - A Time for Centering
+ Call to Worship (Based on Philippians 4:4-7)
Voice 1:
Rejoice in God always!
I'll say it again: rejoice!
Children:
Rejoice!
plus Men:
Rejoice!
plus Women:
Rejoice!
Voice 2: God
is my strength and my might;
God has become my salvation.
Children:
Rejoice!
plus Men:
Rejoice!
plus Women:
Rejoice!
Voice 3:
Shout aloud and sing for joy,
for God is in our midst.
Children:
Rejoice!
plus Men:
Rejoice!
plus Women:
Rejoice!
Voice 4: Sing
aloud, O people!
Rejoice with all your heart!
Children:
Rejoice!
plus Men:
Rejoice!
plus Women:
Rejoice!
Voice 5: God
will renew you with everlasting love.
Children:
Rejoice!
plus Men:
Rejoice!
plus Women:
Rejoice!
Voice 6:
Rejoice in God always!
I'll say it again: rejoice!
Children:
Rejoice!
plus Men:
Rejoice!
plus Women:
Rejoice!
+ Advent Hymn It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Hymnal # 131
+ Opening Prayer (responsive)
One: In this
night - the stars left their habitual places...
Many: And
kindled wildfire tidings that spread faster than
sound.
One: In this
night - the shepherds left their posts.
Many: To
shout the new slogans into each other's clogged
ears.
One: In this
night - the foxes left their warm burrows.
Many: And the
lion spoke with deliberation,
"This is the end revolution."
One: In this
night - roses fooled the earth.
Many: And
began to bloom in the snow.
+ Our Common Prayer (unison)
Creator God who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the kingdom and the power
And the glory forever. Amen.
Time for Silent Reflection
One: My soul waits in silence.
All: God is my rock and my fortress. I will be at peace.
Silent
Reflection
The
Assurance of Good News (unison)
God draws near. How great our joy!
Sung
Response Hear The Angels Singing
by Lloyd Larson - Choir accompanied by Rebecca Dekker
WE TEACH, REFLECT AND PROCLAIM
Lighting
Conversation with Our
Children The
Candle of Joy
Children's Hymn (sung as candle is lit) Advent is
Waiting CSB #9
Reading from the Hebrew Prophets Micah 5:2-5a
Reading from the Christian Gospels Luke 1:39-45
Sermon It's All About the
Relatives
WE RESPOND TO GOD'S INVITATION
Intercessions, Celebrations and Encouragements
Call to
Prayer Be still and know that I am God
Hymnal # 743
Time for
Silence
Our Joys and
Concerns and an Offering of Prayer
Solo The Birthday of a King
by W.H. Neidlinger
Billie Dierking, vocal * Rebecca Dekker, piano
We Offer Our Gifts So That Our Lives May Be Our Prayer
Christmas Fund Offering
Offertory
Prayer of
Dedication (unison)
We give with joy, knowing the joy of having received.
May these gifts bring wholeness to all they touch. Amen.
+ Hymn of Joy Angels We Have Heard on High Hymnal # 125
+ Commissioning (unison)
Christ is coming.
God waits to be born once again in our hearts.
Let us make room.
+ Sung Response (we gather in some semblance of a circle)
NCH # 584 Refrain
I am the Light of the World
You people come and follow me
If you follow and love you'll learn the mystery
Of what you were meant to do and be
+ Postlude
WORSHIP NOTES
Call to Worship is from Seasons of the
Spirit Curriculum for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany p.38
Opening Prayer is by Dorothee Solle in
Singing the Living Tradition #618