Does our longing make a difference? (Advent, wk 2)

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For the second Sunday of Advent, we visit again Mary's Magnificat -- the song of longing and revolution that formed Jesus in the womb.

SPEAKER NOTES

Does our longing make a difference? (Advent, wk 2)

Context

Today is the second Sunday of Advent -

- More reflective time that centers on themes like hope and waiting as we prepare for Christmas, similar to how we mark Lent leading up to Easter in the spring
  • Throughout the year here at BLC, or at any church, we visit many different texts across the Bible
  • BUT EVERY YEAR in Advent, we visit a few familiar texts again
    • the birth narratives of Jesus in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels,
    • and the Hebrew poetry they creatively attached to Jesus
    • Scriptures that hold up Jesus as “Emmanuel” or God with us
  • There is something particularly formative and important about these texts and rhythms
    • A time to be more intentional about building rituals and traditions
  • Reminder of resources:
    • BLC's Advent Mealtime Prayers
      • for friends, families, roommates to share together
      • We encourage you to set aside time (especially if you have kids)
      • Prayer can feel like good idea, but awkward or difficult
        • No modeling?
        • Bad modeling?
      • We think these can help!
      • Every Sunday, we'll release via email, Discord, Instagram
        • One person leads reading through the resource
        • Song as a prayer if you'd like
        • Light candles if you'd like
        • And then some questions to reflect on and share aloud
    • Kate Bowler's ”Bless the Advent We Actually Have”
      • If you'd appreciate a daily Advent devotional

Vince, I’d love for you to set the stage for our scripture passage for today?

Luke 1

So the Biblical text that it is our tradition to return to this second week of Advent is Luke 1:26-56

  • This passage is referred to as Mary’s Song or the Magnificat:
  • What's just happened in Luke's story of Jesus' noble birth is that the Angel Gabriel has appeared to Mary and told her that, though she is a virgin, she will give birth to a son, Jesus, who will bring about God's Kingdom.
    • And, like Paul McCartney, she has replied "let it be”
  • A virgin birth is truly a “noble birth" -- an incredible story that demands attention -- and that's exactly the point for Luke!
  • Because stories of “noble birth" were a big thing in Luke's day -- the "noble birth" stories everyone would've known in that day were the “noble births” of the Roman Emperors or Caesars
    • miraculous circumstances to establish why this person should be in power
    • It's not unlike the way we Americans love "rags to riches” stories today as ways to establish why someone has business acumen
  • So the Christmas stories of Jesus' “noble birth” are subversions of the “noble birth" stories that were told of the Roman Caesars to establish their power
  • The message was: Jesus is an alternative King to the Roman Caesar, with an alternative Kingdom to the Roman Empire --
    • not a power hungry tyrant born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but a humble teacher of love, born in a manger
    • not a violent empire, but a non-violent commonwealth
  • That's the context of the Christmas stories in the Bible
    • So look for that oppression resistance language as Hayley reads,
    • Imagine Mary singing this to her unborn child, helping to form Jesus into the resistor he would become

And Mary said,

My soul glo­ri­fies the Lord and my spir­it re­joic­es

in God my Sav­ior,

for he has been mind­ful of the hum­ble state of his ser­vant.

From now on all gen­er­a­tions will call me blessed,

for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name.

His mer­cy ex­tends to those who fear him, from gen­er­a­tion to gen­er­a­tion.

He has per­formed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scat­tered those who are proud in their

in­most thoughts.

He 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.

He has helped his ser­vant Is­rael,

re­mem­ber­ing to be mer­ci­ful

to Abra­ham and his de­scen­dants for­ev­er,

just as he promised our an­ces­tors.”

Personal stories around Mary’s song / longing ?

Hayley:

  • This is one of my favorite passages and I’m glad we return to it each year; (convinced Mary is the main character of the Christmas story)
    • this year I’m really experiencing Mary’s Song as a song of longing.
  • If we turn the “He has” reflections into “he will” statements, it embodies the hopes Mary for this baby she is carrying and hopes for God’s presence in the world
    • Both a song of certainty and openness
    • What she’s naming are things we still long for today, which is maybe why this passage resonates so much
  • So we have this song of longing and longing is a common theme of Advent
    • I would love for us to spend some time around longing this morning, especially coming out of Mary’s Song.

Vince, does a personal story come to mind for you?

Vince: story around longing

  • Years ago, Keziah and I experienced living below the poverty line and being on medicaid (government assisted health insurance) for about two years…
  • There was a lot of longing -- longing for better work (this was after the 2008 Recession), for more financial stability
  • Specifically with medicaid, which was so complicated and confusing, we were longing for clarity, answers, a person not a voicemail…
  • During that stretch though, we realized how much MORE hard this must be for people who aren’t first-lanugage english speakers, who aren't familiar with white bureaucratic org structures…
  • So it turned into longing for our country to be more fair, humanizing, forgiving, considerate, accessible -- where healthcare is not tied to employment

Hayley: story around longing

  • Comes to mind for me, is longing for things to be different during peak Covid times
  • I found out I was pregnant at the very end of 2019 and immediately had expectations of what that pregnancy and birth would look like
  • And instead, I was extremely sick for most of it, but especially in the beginning, from morning sickness (all day sickness)
  • And then the world shut down and even more of my expectations fell apart
  • I remember longing to see family, especially my parents. Longing to see friends. Longing to have some sense of normalcy
  • Longing for the anxiety to lessen around getting sick, especially once Ollie was born and out in the world and vulnerable
  • Like your story, longing around self becomes longing on behalf of others-
  • There was (and is) a longing to see healing instead of death. For comfort instead of grief. For justice instead of violence and despair
  • Interesting how our longings have a ripple effect- Mary’s song of longing is beyond herself and yet the act of singing it over her baby is so deeply personal (“she treasured these things in her heart”)

So Vince, you suggested the writing of Monica Coleman, a womanist (or black feminist) theologian as a lens for us to use this Advent.

  • I’d love for you to remind us of the language Coleman uses that is helpful for our understanding in this season :

Coleman: Making a way out of no way:

Coleman unpacks the social and religious experience of black women to develop a picture of God

  • Who is God? Where in life might we recognize God? If we start with the experience of black women (rather than the usual: European or American white men)
  • God is the call and the force of love that makes ways out of no way.
  • Making a way out of no way is a pillar phrase in Black American history.

Anytime you feel trapped or stuck or beyond hope, but then, in spite of that, you carry on — that is God

  • The pull lovingly calling you forward is God
  • The push giving you the courage to cooperate with that call is God

This is a conception of God that can truly connect all people --

  • because we all inevitably experience loss, limitation, suffering, being trapped, stuck, hopeless

AND at the same time it also helps us acknowledge that we don’t all face these things in equal amount or frequency.

As a liberation theologian, Monica Coleman would say:

  • The God of the Bible is especially on the side of those who feel trapped more than others for systemic reasons —
    • the marginalized, the oppressed
    • in particular black women, the focus of her work
  • God's Salvation then, from this definition, is NOT unbelievers being saved with right belief, so they can go to heaven
  • God's Salvation is people tormented by the threat of dehumanization being saved with personhood, so they can live free, with possibilities, not trapped

God making a way out of no way: Mary’s Song

  • As we think about God making a way out of no way, I’d love for us to consider the question does our longing make a difference?
  • Because it can feel helpless when we are witnessing things not as they should be while longing for what they could be
  • Does our hope actually matter? Does prayer and looking to God for comfort and “deliverance” actually make a difference?
  • Looking at Mary’s song we have these “he has” statements again:
    • He has scattered the proud
    • He has brought down the powerful and lifted up the humble
    • He has filled the hungry and sent away the rich
  • Reminder: Humanizing the dehumanized goes both ways — key to this passage.
    • We often think of it as uplifting the marginalized and oppressed, which it is.
    • But for those who have taken on “god-like” status, they’ve become dehumanized too. Which is why the powerful need to be brought down and the rich sent away- their humanization is essential for the flourishing and liberation of all people
  • When we look around and it does not seem like the proud are scattered and the humble are lifted up and the hungry are fed… what do we do?
  • What do we do when our longings feel impossible? How do we stay hopeful and not fall into cynicism?

Yeah, this is where Monica Coleman's perspective as a “womanist" really gives power to Mary's Song

  • One of Womanism's contributions to theology is to push that a truly good and loving God HAS to be able to be experienced
    • *while liberation is still in process, or*
    • when liberation fails due to evil
  • Again, when your starting point is the experience of black women, this is important,
    • because there are still so many ways in which black women are not as free as others in our society
  • Key themes in womanist theology are survival and quality of life --
    • God is found in survival in spite of evil
    • God is found in carving out of quality of life, in spite of not experiencing an equal freedom
  • Those are just as much "God making a way out of no way" as full liberation is
  • And that means Mary's Song isn't naive or unrealistic in its revolutionary leanings when the powers that be still kill Jesus
    • It's a reflection of courage, in spite of evil and violence

Hayley

  • This both/and is so important— God is found in survival and quality of life AND in full liberation— helps us navigate the middle ground (theologically refered to as the now and not yet)
  • And when we think of salvation as humanizing the dehumanized, it’s important that we don’t fall into all or nothing thinking
    • Whenever we witness or participate in leveling power, humanizing the dehumanized, it is a victory along the trajectory of justice and hope
    • When doom-scrolling or witnessing mass atrocities happening, it can be easy to feel like there is no progress, there is no hope for a just future. Is that actually helpful?
  • Because I think despair, bitterness, and cynicism, are stagnant, they’re limiting.
  • But being hopeful that our longings could come to be- that God can make a way out of no way- is fuel for actually partnering with God and participating in justice
    • Tricia Hersey and Cole Arthur Riley both speak about wonder and imagination as necessary parts of liberation
    • When we think of lament and longing, there’s this great Cole Arthur Riley quote from her book This Here Flesh:
      • “In lament, our task is never to convince someone of the brokenness of this world; it is to convince them of the world’s worth in the first place. True lament is not born from that trite sentiment that the world is bad but rather from a deep conviction that it is worthy of goodness.”
    • We need to act from a place of knowing the world is worthy of goodness, that we, our communities, all of humanity is worthy of goodness
    • And if God is on the side of the oppressed (As liberation theologians like Coleman or James Cone would say), bringing about the possibility of goodness and liberation is the mission of God

To go back to Monica Coleman‘s open and relational view of God and life —

We talked last week about how we prefer the image of a God who breaks through rather than a God who breaks in

  • Mary’s song is not waiting patiently for the God who is outside of the world in a timeless throne room to single handedly break in and fix everything.
  • Mary’s song is joining the God who is with us, looking into the open, uncertain future — it is Mary contributing to the conditions from which break through can emerge, through God’s influence and inspiration.

Like: Here is God’s call before me in this moment to contribute to the break through of God’s will, I choose to accept it!

This is why prayer matters.

  • The reason “thoughts and prayers” feels trite in our secular age is because, in most public discussion, believers and unbelievers alike presume a view of God that is less than worthy of worship, in my opinion — the God who could single-handedly break in and intervene in any suffering but frustratingly won’t.
  • This presumption leads many to reject God, and others to tie themselves in knots defending God…

Coleman wants to do neither of those things, she wants to start with a different picture of God.

  • The God who is always working to break through,
  • but who needs our cooperation - action AND prayer - for the conditions to be right for break through to emerge —
  • for new possibilities instead of repetition of past injustice, for courage to change instead of falling into familiar patterns, for the rare but incredible miracle.

Do you want to be made well?

  • Brings to mind for me another story in the gospels, later in the book of John, (isn’t a Christmas story but it’s helpful for our conversation)
    • There is a man in need of healing. He’s laying by this pool that is said to bring about healing, but he can’t get to the waters. He’s been sick for decades
  • And Jesus approaches him and asks “Do you want to be made well?” before healing him and restoring his ability to walk.
  • Always thought this was the most bizarre question- of course he wants to be healed!
  • But more recently I’ve seen this as Jesus allowing the man to name his own longings instead of acting out of a place of assumption and power
    • Being allowed to name what we are longing for and what we need- this restores personhood, it’s humanizing
    • Are we listening to others to hear what they are crying out for instead of assuming what they need? — do we have space to name our own longings and needs?
  • I’ve also started to think of this question communally, not just individually
  • Communally, societally there is a desire for things to be different and yet it can’t just stay as desire. It has to actually transform into concrete action and change
    • Do you want to be made well? Isn’t a ridiculous question then because it requires follow through on our end
    • We are being asked if we want to participate in being well. If we want wellness- if we want liberation- to be possible, then we must long for it and act in ways that make it possible to be true.
  • It’s this tension between thoughts and prayers and actions and change that can be quite divisive but as you were naming before, we need both
  • And maybe the course correction for some of us could actually be the encouragement that your thoughts and prayers do matter. Separating prayer from action is a false dichotomy
    • I believe that prayer and connection help us stay rooted as we act- and it’s this underlying need that will sustain us.
      • Having a source of hope we are connected with will keep us going in the long run of navigating injustice after injustice
  • Spectrum: Rooting yourself within tradition/religion right now may seem risky, like it needs to come with a disclaimer. And yet the “spiritual but not religious” camp may not fully represent the longings you have for a loving God that it’s possible to partner with
    • This gets at rooted and open language we tend to use here (another both/and)
    • Partnering with a loving God and prayerful reflection help deepen our understanding and can move us in concrete ways to humanize the dehumanized

Healing, refueling, imagination, prayer, taking heart so one can choose courage — all of these things take time, they are processes that happen in time

  • But we’re afraid of this because life is so goddamn busy. And, as we talked about all fall, busyness is what we believe a full life is inside our age of late modern capitalism.
  • So we have this vicious cycle. We feel guilty for taking any time for longing, and not jumping right to action, so we don’t. But then we burnout because busyness is not fullness and it can’t nourish us.
  • We’ve got to break out of this cycle. And I love the way hiding in plain sight in Mary’s song is the insight that connection is what actually nourishes us. We’re talking about all the inspiring content in the words of Mary’s song, but what is Mary’s Song most foundationally? A song of worship! A praise! A celebration of the connection she feels with God. That’s what nourishes us.

(Love the question in our mealtime prayers this week (spoiler alert): what songs formed you and were sung over you? What songs are you singing over yourself, your family, your community? These words matter and shape us! Connection at the center shapes us and forms us and certainly shapes Jesus

So to answer our question: Does our longing make a difference?” With a yes, and:

  • Yes, our longings make a difference AND we must be prepared to follow through with actions that align with these longings
    • They connect us with communities who are also longing for hope and justice to come to be
    • They connect us with the God that Mary joins, a God that experiences the unfolding of life alongside us and isn’t removed from us
  • Mary’s song of praise leads shepherds and angels to sing songs of praise as well- the words we sing and pray and proclaim matter- they provide an opportunity to be rooted in hope

I would love to close us in prayer: My sister-in-law Steph actually sent me a poem earlier this week from Rilke’s Book of Hours that I would love to read it for us as a prayer over our longings: (leave room just to breathe first)

God speaks to each of us as he makes us

Then walks with us silently out of the night

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

Go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me

Flare up like a flame

And make big shadows I can move in

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror

Just keep going. No feeling is final

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life

You will know it by its seriousness

Give me your hand.

Emmanuel, God with us-

As we experience both beauty and terror, I’m grateful for the push and pull of your call. That the Christmas story is an invitation into liberation. Would you be a sustainer of our hope. Would our longings join your justice and peace. And would we find rest and restoration in you.

John, LukeVincent BrackettAdvent 2023Comment