The Hope of New Birth
By Charles Rush
November 28, 2004
Lk. 1: 5-35
trust you had a blessed holiday. You might have seen the humorous Op-ed piece in the New York Times a week ago that recited the reasons that people were leaving their cabinet positions with the Bush administration. The last one was an announcement that Laura Bush announced that she was stepping down as 1st Lady, saying only to the press that "I want to spend less time with my family." I hope your intrafamilial red state/blue state discussions over the Turkey were not so heated that you were driven to such a declaration.
Our story
this morning is about changes, abrupt changes. It is about shedding our old
self and allowing a new one to be born. It is about starting off in a new
direction. It is about birth, not just the wonder of physical birth, which is
wonderful in its own right. Remember where you were the first time you felt
your first baby kick in your womb? Remember how startling that was? Remember
how you knew this was for real now?
We all go
through spiritual rebirths during our life, not just once but several times if
we are staying alive. It is all about change. I think of a friend just this
year who was watching her youngest two on Thanksgiving Day, one on the football
field, the other leading cheers on the sideline. Such a classic It was kind of
a summation for a whole period of her life, all the Friday nights under the
lights watching her boys, the oldest two were out of school, now and the
youngest ones just about to graduate. She was standing there just before the
beginning of the game with friends that had grown their kids up together in the
freezing brisk air of an early winter. The announcer came on and the band
started playing the Star Spangled Banner, and right into the second measure she
just started to weep. One of her friends put a hand on her shoulder like she
was just overcome with gratitude and she had a lot to be grateful for. But it
wasn't quite gratitude that was filling her. It was a sense that this chapter
of her life was coming to a close before her eyes just as surely as it began
with the birth of her oldest son 24 years ago. And she knew now, just like she
knew when she held that first child in her arms on the first night of his life,
that everything would be different going forward.
She wasn't
regretful about the past in any way but she had been dreaming lately about New
York City, she herself was in New
York City and whatever else the dreams were about, the
background was the polar opposite of their ranch outside San
Angelo, Texas. It is as far
away and as different as it could be. She stood their just weeping. She said
she almost wanted to raise her arm and wave goodbye but she didn't do it for
fear that people around her might think she was having delusions of a middle
aged- would be prom queen. And that was that. A few minutes later, she felt
better, and she had a sense of resolve about change and the strange thing was
that she couldn't really say exactly what that change would look like.
We go
through many spiritual rebirths in this life. Often times, it seems to start
with the need to change stuff out there, outside of us. You think it is your
"external circumstances that needed overhauling. A new job. A new house or
apartment. A new hairstyle. A new wardrobe. A new look, period. New friends. A
break from the family. A new husband. A new boyfriend. A new husband. A
boyfriend or husband, period. But that's not it. Those are fine for temporary
relief, but they can't quite the deeper, interior upheaval that's going on
inside you. To calm those twitters, you will have to first face them and call
them what they are. Spiritual gestation. Outgrowing an old self, shedding old
skin, and becoming a new self. Sacred labor. Holy work. Rebirth."[i] In
this sense, we are all like Mary at critical points during our life. The angel
comes to Mary one day and tells her that her life is going to be different. In
one sense, she has no control over what is happening to her. But then, neither
do we when we "wake up one morning unable to go on playing a role we feel
we've long outgrown."[ii]
Perhaps the
most amazing thing about this passage is what we are most likely to overlook. The
Angel comes and speaks to a woman, a peasant girl on the outer edges of
civilization. I was recently watching a documentary made by women for women in Afghanistan.
It was a fascinating show. Two young women of college age, had taken enough
courses on T.V. and somehow got a grant, and toured the country for the past
several months- before that, I believe that neither of them had ever left their
home town- and they talked to women in rural villages and urban areas all
across the country. The vast majority of them, particularly in the rural areas,
were still veiled. But these women went into their homes and asked them about
the Taliban, about their hopes and dreams.
Of course,
they alone could actually make such a film. No men could talk to these women.
And many of them were forbidden from being filmed by their husbands, who cite
some obscure religious text that couldn't have any bearing on photography which
hadn't wouldn't be invented for another 1200 years.
On the one
hand, the women they met were fascinated. They were curious, intrigued. But
they were fearful too, more fearful the more rural their lives. They were
afraid to speak their minds because of what the Taliban sympathizers might do
to them. The Taliban, it turns out, was far worse than anything we've seen
reported in Western papers so far. But they were also afraid of what the men in
their clans might do to them. But they were curious to be interviewed, to be
asked what they thought. Nobody ever asks women what they think in their world.
Women have no rights in their world and are of very little account. And these
journalists came all the way from Kabul
to ask them their opinions. So occasionally, they opened a floodgate.
The Angel
Gabriel comes to Mary and has that wonderful line, "Do not be afraid Mary,
you have found favor with God."[iii] Angels
in the Bible don't speak to women. They speak to men who speak for the women.
Especially this would be true for young women, women that were not yet married
but were of marriageable age. The rich ones were surrounded by full time
guardian maids, the poor ones just kept out of sight, pretty much like most of the
Middle East today.
This fits
with the wider context of the story of the birth of Jesus in Luke. It almost
appears that Luke had read a number of the biographies of the Roman Caesar's.
It became a custom in the decadent period of the Roman Empire
to write these fawning biographies that attributed every virtue and divinity to
the Emperor. A regular part of this tribute was to look back to their birth
which was often elaborated in exaggerated detail to show how the Emperor was
conquering even as a small child, how he was able to command almost
supernaturally, how the gods had singularly vested him with every military
virtue that one would need, and an exceedingly cunning mind to get out of
difficult tricks. They routinely depicted power, strength, greatness and where
appropriate, the great, long and distinguished ancestry that his family
represented.
The
contrast of the gospel could not be sharper. Here, God comes to the edge of
history, to the powerless, to someone without repute- not even a last name, to
a woman, not at a particularly eventful historical time. And he tells her,
"You have found favor with me" This is the new, wonderful message
that we almost take for granted. All of us have are God's children. All of us
are important.
Surely, she
too, must have been curious. She must have been interested. But she must have
drawn back as well. Everything in her culture would have made her reticent to
talk to anyone not mediated through her father and brothers. She must have been
afraid.
And if she
was wise, she would be afraid on another level too. I get this same response
from people, a certain respectful wariness. I call someone on the phone, leave
a message, they call back with a nervous timber in their voice. As if to say,
"The Reverend is calling, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is he going
to ask me something too difficult?" Often the case. I remember when we
were fundraising for the new building, I saw one of our parishioners at a
Christmas season cocktail party and started to put my arm around his shoulder
and he said, "Keep your distance." I said "why?" He said,
"Every time you put your arm around me it costs me 10 grand." Is this
a good thing or a bad thing?
And this is God, not just the
Minister talking. If you look down the long list of God's visits to people,
they are not about small stuff like who is going to win the football game. And
the first response is not one of great enthusiasm. You may recall that when God
came to Moses and asked him to go to Pharaoh, Moses
gave God a chapter on why he couldn't do, begged off time to think about it,
and God had to go find him again in hiding. Jeremiah is characteristic of all
the prophets. God says he has given him a word to speak to those in power.
Jeremiah doesn't jump at the opportunity. He says, "I'm only a young man,
who would listen to me?" God has to encourage him, build his confidence,
cajole him, to get him to do the right thing. All these men, all these excuses
why they can't get involved.
Finally, God asks a woman in
scripture. What is her response? "Let it be so with me." Finally,
someone who just says "Yes".[iv] I
don't know why God didn't figure this out before, probably because God is a Man
and a little slow on this subject.
But what did she say
"Yes" to? It is hard to know. It all sounds a little vague and
demanding from the outset. Spiritual rebirths are regularly that way. What is
about to come will make sense in due season but it is not all crystal clear
from the outset.
At the outset, Renita
Weems says, you find yourself "looking around,
paying attention to your life, listening for the sounds of the season. You pay
attention to the people God sends into your life during this period. New
friendships. Prayer partners. Role models. Mentors. Strangers who say something
you can't get out of your mind. Renewed friendships. 'Even Elizabeth in her old
age, who is supposed to be too old to conceive, is pregnant' the Angel hinted
to Mary. Nothing more was offered. Mary figured it out. She headed for Elizabeth's
home. She knew not to go straight to Joseph, who would not have believed her
and who would have badgered her to make sense and get to the point. Stay away
from the Joseph's who demand that you have answers, make a decision, and give a
name to what is going on. Find women, find men, find prayer partners, mentors,
friends, who know birthing pangs when they hear them being described. Partner
with people who share your passion for life and for learning new things.
"Find a dancing partner and compose your own praise song, or Magnificat. Make up the words. Make friends as you go.
You're on the right road to Elizabeth's
house when you encounter the unlikeliest of people, the unlikeliest of
conversations, the unlikeliest of songs and events…"[v]
Amen.
[i] This
sermon, indeed I decided to focus the Advent season, because of a devotional
book I had recently used for a class on spirituality at the Eastern School of
Christian Ministry. The book is by Renita Weems Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom,
and the Blessings of God (West Bloomfield: Warner Books,
2002) pp. 2-3. She does some nice reflections on Mary and Elizabeth from an
African-American perspective
[ii] ibid.
p. 5.
[iii] Ibid.
p. 10.
[iv] Ibid,
p. 12.
[v] Ibid. p.
6,7.
© 2004
Charles Rush.
All rights reserved.
