Grace to you and peace, over and against all that is not
peaceful in our world and our lives, grace to you and peace from God who slips
into our world in peace.
As I was preparing for today, I came across this picture…
“I want to be mommy, no I want to be mommy. OK, two mommies.”
The tale of 2 mommies, the meeting, Elizabeth and Mary – to
share the good news: BABIES! To share
excitement. Perhaps to share their
concerns and their fears. And to offer
their praises to God.
I’ll think of Katie and Lizzy, when I think of this
story. I also often think of two dear
friends of ours from seminary: Annie and Sara.
I want to tell you a little about them…
My experience and observation of women relating to one
another had been largely and very broadly about comparing and competing. Competing for looks, competing for status,
competing for men, competing for the things that make a woman successful. And rather than building one another up, I
had observed women often tearing one another down…usually subtly, or covertly,
little comments under their breath to me or to others. Men certainly do this too, of course, but I
want to tell you about Sara and Annie, on this day as we reflect on Mary and
Elizabeth of old. Sara and Annie, two
women, who I observed for 4 years, to be dear, dear friends. And when they were apart for a time it was so
joyous for me to see them reunite, that’s the closest picture I have to Mary
and Elizabeth. Maybe you have some
friends like this too. I sensed an
unspoken understanding between Sara and Annie—like two sisters who genuinely
get along and get each other. They
helped each other through some challenging times. I always admired their relationship, and
still do—it’s just a joy to watch. They
didn’t go around proclaiming their dear friendship to everyone. They didn’t give each other matching jewelry,
that I know of. I probably wouldn’t even
say they were best friends. There was a
kind of gracious space between them. They both have families, they have lives apart from each other. Now they’re both pastors and have to travel
great distances to see each other. And now
they both have children. But when they
were together, you couldn’t help but notice a genuine sweetness between them, a
joy just to watch. Something I wish we
all had—a deep joy they had, just in being in one another’s presence. I think of them today.
We’ve got these beautiful angels this year at SVLC. Angels that you’ve brought, on the tree,
angels that our children and resident artists have made, hanging in the narthex.
It’s good to reflect on the angels this time of year. Tomorrow night, we’ll hear the story of the “angels
of the sky” who meet the shepherds. But
this morning (amid the stress/stink) lets remember that perhaps the most
bodily, the most earthy, and regular experience of angels we can have, is in
the meeting of two friends, in the sharing of hopes, fears and joys. Watch for angels these days, “angels of the
ground”, not just “angels of the sky”
I don’t think we give the dear friends of this world enough
credit sometimes. Maybe we do, maybe we
give ‘em gifts, and tell them how much we love them, but today let’s go all the
way…and give our dear friends “angel cred”!
Let’s put them on the level and status of angels, for surely the love
that they share gives them halo and wings.
Let’s celebrate the angels too, this season. Annie and Sara, Lizzy and Katie, Mary and
Elizabeth: all angels.
And here’s the thing about angels: They’re not just a joy to watch from a
distance. Angels speak out, they sing
out. That is, angels don’t waver. There’s our w-word for today: we waver. They
know where they stand; their love is genuine and bold, gracious and strong. And Mary demonstrates that with her angelic song
– genuine, bold and unwavering.
In this world, we can waver, we can find ourselves on the
fence, caught between the pulls of “consumption and power and money and fame
and status and competition and cutting one another down and violence and fear
and dog-eat-dog and buy, buy, buy” on one side—and the alternate,
counter-cultural vision offered in the birth of Christ into humble, smelly
conditions...the farthest thing from the worlds images of success and glory—oh
how we can waver, how we can get lost, how we can get caught in it or sucked up
by it.
But the angels don’t waver.
Mary boldly proclaims the latter vision in her song. “My soul proclaims your greatness O God, not
the world’s greatness. You lift up the
lowly and cast down the mighty. You feed
the hungry. Clothe the oppressed.”
The beautiful, angelic, non-wavering song of Mary must not
be sentimentalized – sometimes I get upset that we sing it and turn it into a
gentle melody…because it is so political.
It turns the world on its head!..because it advocates for the poor. Oh, may we have the non-wavering of Angel
Mary! Mary’s song is about how God longs
for us to live together. The poor shall
be lifted up, the rich shall be brought down and “all flesh shall see it
together” from a level plain. Just
trying to imagine that, all I see at first is violence, argument, vitriol –
what do you mean the hard-working rich shall be brought down, and the poor slackers lifted
up? The corrupt rich and the oppressed poor...
But Mary’s beautiful song, isn’t political in that way. It’s political in the way that two dear
friends reunite. Ever imagined two friends coming back together as political? (The word political, from polis, Latin for city, connoting “how shall we live
together”) It’s “how shall we live
together” in the way that two dear friends come together. The rich and the poor coming together like
Annie and Sara! Black and the white
ending all strife and dealing compassionately with one another. That’s Mary’s vision. Male and female, or female and female,
reuniting like Annie and Sara. The slave
and the free, the Democrat and the Republican, the easterner and the westerner,
the Muslim and the Christian, the animal and the human. Mary’s political song is a song of
reunification under God, a peaceful and joyous coming together, as tender and sweet as Annie and
Sara, Mary and Elizabeth. And the world is turned on its
head in love. That’s what the angels
mean – “peace on earth, goodwill to all!”
This is God come down to be with us! This is Christmas. Peace, joy,
angels, friends, forgiveness. Thanks be
to God. AMEN.
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