Turning Into Worship

Turning into Worship December 21 (1 Sam 7; Luke 1:26-38, 46-55; Fourth Sunday in Advent) I was not sure if after my last sermon I had crossed some line in beginning to push too hard or in being too critical of our culture and our practices. In the sermon I hoped to challenge us to consider the life of John the Baptist who demonstrated that the comforting face of God may come through uncomfortable means. I tested out my concern with someone during the week asking how she received the sermon and she responded, lightheartedly, by saying that later that Sunday one of the themes of the sermon came to her and it was that, “Life is hard, you are not important, then you die.” These statements were almost directs quotes from Richard Rohr who I used in the sermon and in fairness that was not far from what he was getting at. So what is the point of such a message? Messages that pass judgment on our practices are difficult to receive. The message tends to be either embraced inappropriately or rejected uncritically. We can embrace judgment inappropriately when we have tendency to be too hard on ourselves; when we have already been shaped by messages that tell us that we are not valuable and that we are not good enough anyway. Or we can reject a message of judgment because it is not realistic. It is not possible for us to continue our way of life as it is and meaningfully incorporate the prophetic path God is calling us to. What we are engaged in is good anyway, sure it is not perfect but perfection is not possible on this side of heaven anyway right? And so we continue on our path further entrenching ourselves either in self-hate or further distancing ourselves from repentance. This week it became clear to me why it was that I could get so caught up in the message of John the Baptist. For what reason would we even entertain and reflect on the life of someone who constantly challenges our every thought and decision other than in the possibility that the path John opens up is indeed the path of life that leads towards an intimate relationship with God and with our estranged neighbours. It is the wild man John with his rough edges and blunt speech who shakes us from our dozing off in order to prepare a place in which God can dwell. And so this Sunday as we are hopefully more alert and aware we can reflect on what it means for God to dwell within us. Judgment is not about guilt and shame but about clarifying for us where God is absent or where we are absent from God. So now we can move from the wild man to the humble young woman who receives an unexpected visitor. It is the story of Mary that sets a profound context for the indwelling presence of God. The angel Gabriel came one night to visit Mary in the village of Nazareth in northern Israel. Greetings the angel says to her. You who are highly favoured, the Lord is with you. This visit and these words were more than a little troubling for Mary. The angel Gabriel is only named one time in the Old Testament. It is in the book of Daniel that Gabriel comes to explain a vision that Daniel received about the world powers who are in conflict, with one throwing another over in continual violence. In the light of this vision of violence Daniel responds with repentance pleading for God to forgive him and his people. Then it says that while Daniel was still in prayer the angel Gabriel returned to him and said to him that an answer has been given to your prayer for you are highly esteemed which sounds not unlike the greeting Mary received. Then what follows is a highly cryptic vision of the end of time which continues to perplex biblical scholars. The vision is filled with combinations of sevens, and seven sevens, and sixty-two sevens.

And somewhere in the midst of these times is trouble, desolation, the rise and fall of Jerusalem, the end of sacrifices, and an anointed one will emerge but who will be cut off and become no more. Gabriel comes to Daniel so that Daniel might understand the end of the world. And by the first century Jewish groups had been trying to calculate the significance of the numbers given to Daniel and many believed they were in the time that a Messiah, an Anointed One would come and overthrow the world powers. This same angel comes to Mary. I think it is fair to think that Gabriel introduced himself Mary and so we have the harbinger of the apocalypse coming to an almost unknown town out in the country visiting a teenage girl saying, “Hi, its me Gabriel, you might remember me as the one who explained the rise and fall of violent nations and the end of the world to Daniel. Well, I’m back. Greetings to you who, like Daniel, are highly favored.” There is little wonder that the next verse is telling us that Mary was greatly troubled by these words. The visitation of the angel Gabriel to Mary is above all an introduction into God’s plan for the nations. Gabriel seems to be the one designated for political delegations. Gabriel goes on to make this even more explicit telling Mary that her child will be called the Son of the Most High and he will take the throne of David and rule forever. When Mary asks how this could happen since she was a virgin and not yet married Gabriel tells her that the Holy Spirit will come and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The imagery that the angel Gabriel uses is extremely dense and full of meaning. The Holy Spirit will come and hover over you as at the very origins of the universe. As at creation the Spirit will hover over what does not exist and bring life out of nothingness, out of the void of absence. Then it says that the power of the Most High will overshadow. You will enter into the midst of the presence of God. You will dwell in the midst of God. The imagery of overshadowing is found in two significant places in the Old Testament. This is the imagery of Psalm 91 which begins by saying that The one who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Then in the Greek translation of this Psalm it says, He will overshadow you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. Gabriel tells Mary that indeed she will be caught up into the stage of the world’s drama but it will happen by being overcome with the secure and abiding protection of God Almighty. But there is one other important instance of the shadowing presence of God. In the final chapter of the book of Exodus Moses calls the people to set up the Tabernacle for the first time. The Tabernacle is to be a portable tent so that wherever the people go they can worship God and dwell in the midst of God’s presence. Then at the end of the book it says that Moses finished the last details of the Tabernacle and the courtyard when a cloud overshadowed the Tabernacle and the glory of the Lord filled it and as a result Moses was unable to enter into it. The imagery is that a cloud would overshadow the Tabernacle and that the glory of the Lord would fill it. If this imagery can be connected to Mary then we find that Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and that a holy one would be born within her. The body of Mary becomes the Tabernacle. There is a profound shift that occurs here. The people do not come together to a specific place so

that they can dwell in the presence of God. Instead they now open themselves to receive the indwelling presence of God. We no longer come into the presence of God but God’s presence enters into us so that we too might give birth to God’s salvation. John the Baptist came to tell us that God would not be born into a family privilege and power. God would not rise through political force and positioning. God’s power would come where there is no power. God’s freedom would come in the midst of those who are oppressed. God’s sight would come to those who are blind. God’s strength would come through the weak. The end of history and triumph of God began through one who had no power in her culture. And what is more the coming of God did not immediately raise Mary’s status, rather, in the eyes of the world the coming of God came as a scandal. The pregnancy could only be explained by infidelity. But for Mary what mattered was that her life was now literally being shaped by the indwelling presence of God. What was to the world a scandal and a shame was the very reality of God’s salvation. Then coming from Mary’s lips we have one of the most beautiful songs in the Bible. In this song Mary captures several themes of God’s deliverance in the Old Testament. We might wonder whether Mary as a young Jewish woman learned the song of Hannah found in the 1 Samuel. Perhaps young women were taught of the faithfulness of Hannah and her role in God’s deliverance of the people. Unlike Mary though, Hannah was growing older and still she did not conceive a child and so she prayed that if God would grant her a child then she would dedicate that child to the Lord. In time Hannah did give birth and in thanksgiving she offered up a prayer to God that has many similarities to Mary’s song. What is important in both of them is the intimate knowledge that all of reality is based on the will of God and so it speaks of turning away from human promises and resting in the promises of the Lord. For as Mary says, The Lord 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. There is no promise in the comforts and securities of the world. This again is what John the Baptist was trying to open our eyes to. In the middle of her song Mary says that God has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. Those who have not made room for God will be scattered. Those who try to live in control will be tossed about while those who live out of control will be secured in God. To those who are able to let go; to those the salvation of God will be revealed. All the different themes and images that are tied up in Gabriel’s visit to Mary and of Mary’s song are all based on one common understanding. It is crucial for us to see that the indwelling of God and therefore also of our participation in God’s salvation depends only and entirely on our ability to pray and worship. The Christian’s and the Church’s response to the brokenness of individuals and of the injustices in society is its worship. The Tabernacle, the imagery that shaped Gabriel’s encounter with Mary shaped God’s community through proper worship. In Psalm 91 it was those who called God their dwelling place who would be secure from the evils around them Gabriel’s political vision of God’s anointed came to Daniel in response to prayer. Hannah received her child through faithful worship and prayer. Through all these images it is hard not to imagine that the night Gabriel visited Mary that Mary was not already in prayer herself.

Prayer perhaps for her upcoming marriage. Prayer perhaps for her family. Prayer perhaps for her people. Prayers of thanksgiving or prayers of forgiveness. Prayers of deliverance or prayers of healing. Mary was no super-hero but I suspect that she was turning her life towards God in worship and prayer. And when the Lord visited her and called her to serve with her life Mary responded by saying, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Coming before the Lord and receiving from the Lord turned Mary’s whole life into an act of worship. Now perhaps I am stretching things here a little but there is an interesting ending to Jesus’s birth narrative in Luke. Towards the end of chapter two we find Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Temple where he would be circumcised, marked by a covenant with God. At the Temple Jesus is introduced to two figures. The first is Simeon but the second and last is Anna a prophetess. It says that Anna was old and widowed and that she never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. Seeing the child Jesus she gave thanks to God and told everyone who was looking for the redemption of Jerusalem about him. Now in Greek there is no letter ‘H’ so Hannah’s name in the Old Testament is translated in Greek as Anna. I can’t help but think that Mary here is receiving in some symbolic way affirmation from the Hannah of the Old Testament whose life was marked by trusting in God. The beginning of God’s salvation is in worship but so to is the end of it as it was marked by Anna’s life. The word repentance that was used so often by John the Baptist and also later by Jesus means most fundamentally to turn. And in as much as it means to turn away from certain actions it also means to turn inward and examine who it is that dwells within us. It is the disciplines of the church that help us to open our lives to God and tear down the existing idols within. We need prayer and meditation so that we can hear the competing voices within us and learn to discern the true communication between ourselves and God. We need acts of service because in them we not only begin to love as we are loved but we learn where we have continued to be self-serving. We need to sing songs because the combination of music and words works itself deeply into our hearts and minds. I am sure when you get home from church your children don’t discuss the nuances of our sermons but I have heard many stories from parents of finding their children singing one of the songs from the service. We need regular confession of our sins so that they can be loosened rather than having them continually tighten their grip. We need to practice the spirit of Sabbath so that everyone would know that they are created before they are creators. We need to consider what it means to encourage baptism and what it meant for us who are already baptized. What was the commitment we made? What commitment are we expecting new members to make? We must continue entering the gift of celebration because the fruit of the Spirit is not only love but also joy. And in keeping with our theme this morning perhaps we need to reflect more on our practice of communion. Jesus said that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Unless God is ingested and becomes part of your very being dwelling in the midst of you then you cannot expect to have life. How is it that communion shapes us into the body of Christ? It is the calling of every Christian to participate in and also to offer meaningful encounters with God. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul has to try and lay out some ground rules for orderly worship because Paul says that when the church gathers together “everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an

interpretation.” Paul did not need to encourage active participation in worship but needed to keep a sense of order in worship so that everyone had an appropriate opportunity to share their gifts. If you do not know where to begin then for now let us look to Mary. May we spend our nights turning our anxious thoughts towards God. Ask God to open wide our hearts so that he would dwell within us. Then in the morning anticipate God’s birth in the first rays of sunlight. Anticipate God’s birth in your finances and your family. Anticipate God’s birth in your decisions and circumstances. Turn your life away from arrogance so that you might witness the birth of God in the wonder and power of humility. We are created for worship. We ask worship leaders to spend time thinking about how to order this one hour of time together but what would it look like if someone asked you to be the worship leader for their entire week? Wendell Berry is a writer who in his early years had a promising academic career ahead of him but decided to return to his home in Kentucky where he has farmed and written for over 40 years now. Berry is convinced that any expression of integrity must be integrated with God, neighbour, and self. Early in his time back on the farm Berry wrote a poem called The Mad Farmer Liberation Front in which he articulates what I think is a life turning towards and being defined by worship. Here are a few excerpts, Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. So, friends, every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. Go with your love to the fields. Lie down in the shade. Rest your head in her lap. Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn't go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection. Practice resurrection. And practice also Advent. Know that the angel Gabriel came bringing news of salvation not to a King but to a young woman. Practice the holy scandal of receiving God in your midst and let it turn your life into an act of worship. Amen.

Prayer: God our life is a liturgy. We order our lives according to whom our face is turned towards and whom we invite within and among us. Our lives are ordered by our fears and our desires. Send your angels Lord to visit us in the quietness of night and business of day