Generation to Generation

Generation to Generation

A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart

Epworth United Methodist Church, Berkeley

December 18, 2011

35 million people in the U.S. dread “having to be nice” during the holidays.  This was reported in the New York Times “Forum.” We also dread violence, gaining weight, shopping, and getting deeper in debt.  But 15% of us hate having to be nice most of all.

Good news.  Christmas is not nice.  God born into human life is not a cozy Hallmark Christmas movie.  It is revolution.   And, as Richard Horsely says in his book, The Liberation of Christmas, “If we take seriously the substance and significance of her song… in the Magnificat… Mary meek and mild becomes Mary our mother revolutionary.”  As we just witnessed in Joanna’s dance and the music, that does not mean it is not beautiful and joyous!

Mary, most likely about 14 years old… living in occupied territory (very near what is today Ramallah)… pregnant… unwed… is not still and silent gazing tenderly downward draped in a blue robe.  A poor woman in the first century, she sings a song announcing God “has brought down rulers from their thrones… sent the rich empty away…” Subversive to unjust leaders, she is in the throes of the messy business of giving birth.  Mary’s song does not serve the market, the military, or the mighty.  Herod sought the baby Jesus because he knew the threat to power.  Mary’s spirit cries out new birth and invites re-birth in every generation.

Generation after generation Mary sings, “God has done great things in me. I rejoice in God, my help, for God has ended my humiliation, God casts down the mighty from their seats of power, and raises up those who have been trampled on.” (Schottroff)

Her song was born of the history, legacy and language of ancient Palestinian Jewish hymn.  Psalms of praise, songs of victory in the midst of struggle, the songs of Hannah, Miriam, Deborah and Judith shaped Mary’s song and Mary’s son.

Meister Eckhart, 14^th century mystic and theologian wrote:

“We are all meant to be mothers of God.  What good is it to me, if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself…What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace… if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture?  This, then is the fullness of time:  When the Son of God is begotten in us.”

Mary’s voice, raised in the streets of our cities, through the malls and town halls of this nation today, through the struggles and songs of the poor throughout the world, unleashes a movement of un-terror and healing … turning the world downside up.

Time Magazine announced its “Person of the Year.”  And it is “the Protester.”  The lead article begins, “History often emerges only in retrospect.  Events become significant only when looked back on.  No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square in a town barely on a map, he would spark protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.  Or that the spirit of dissent would spur Mexicans to rise up against the terror of drug cartels, Greeks to march against unaccountable leaders, Americans in the United States to occupy public spaces to protest income inequality, and Russians to marshal themselves against a corrupt autocracy.  Protests have now occurred in countries whose populations total at least 3 billion people,…”

From generation to generation voices have directly or unknowingly echoed Mary’s song, “… the powerful have lost their authority…the rich are being sent empty away and the poor are fed and flourishing.”

Secretary of State, and lifelong United Methodist, Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke on December 6^th at the United Nations Human Rights Conference in Geneva.  She spoke about a group of people whose rights, “are still denied in too many parts of the world today. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed…they are denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from homes and countries, and forces to suppress or deny who they are to protect themselves from harm.  She said, “I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and (equal in dignity and rights), and one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time.”

It’s a wonderful address  with a commitment to action.  She concludes, “Those who advocate for expanding the circle of human rights were and are on the right side of history and history honors them.  Those who tried to constrict human rights were wrong, and history reflect that as well… Let us be on the right side of history, for our people, our nations, and future generations, whose lives will be shaped by the work we do today.”

I hear Mary singing, “My soul sees the land of freedom and my spirit will emerge from intimidation.  The empty faces of the women will be filled with life and they will become those expected by generations before us.” (Solle)

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward was part of a recent delegation visiting peace-building communities in Palestine.  She writes that Bethlehem remains imprisoned behind a fortified separation wall.  The people live under constant threat and pressure.  One statistic demonstrated this reality: 80% of the children of Bethlehem show signs of trauma, anxiety and fear.

In Bethlehem, in the shadow of the wall, the delegation visited a center called Wi’am, which means “being close together” in Arabic.  Wi’am is a place for conflict transformation, restorative justice and meditation, countering overwhelming challenges with hopeful work among women, men youth and children.

I hear Mary singing.

There is so much stirring … in our world … in our country … in our communities.  New life breaks out in places at least as unlikely as a Bethlehem stable, and through lives at least as unlikely as Mary’s.  From generation to generation we are called by the Living and liberating God to the radical imagination and transformation of the world.

Maria, in Chile, sang it in her prayer:

With pride and dignity I sing my song of joy in God’s presence;

I am poor and vulnerable…but the Lord looked upon me

And the history of the poor will give witness to my joy.

God is… unpredictable,

… God uncovers the feet of clay of those in power, and nourishes the yearning of the poor.

To those who come hungry

God gives bread and wine. And to the wealthy, God exposes their selfishness and the emptiness of their ways.

God is faithful ….”

(Soul Weavings: a Gathering of Women’s Prayers)

Thanks be to God!  Amen.