God of Reversals
Pastor Mathew Magera – 12/23/18 – Sermon 321
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from God our Father, from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
You know it's close to Christmas when you're in your
car singing Christmas songs but don't realize that you haven't turn on your
radio yet. You know it's close to Christmas when you see yet another headline
on the evening news of a baby Jesus being stolen out of a nativity scene. You
know it's close to Christmas when people in Florida have to start wearing socks
with their sandals. We know it's close to Christmas. We've been reminded about
it for the past several weeks, maybe even months. You can't avoid the
reminders. Whether you have children in the family, the radio on in the car or
the TV on in the living room, Christmas is coming. But, what would happen if
time just suddenly slowed to a stop and began to go backwards? Instead of
Christmas coming, Christmas got further and further away? Not that it would
happen but if it did, you can imagine quite the uproar that would be made over
this reversal in time. We're going to be thinking about reversals today, particularly
the ones in our Gospel reading today and how they might affect our viewing of
Christmas.
Of all the four Sundays in the season of Advent, today
is the first Sunday in the season where we hear anything related to the
Christmas story itself. If you can remember we started with talking about the end
times and the second coming. Then, for two weeks we've been focused on John the
Baptist. While John the Baptist is present in our reading today we have
actually been able to get a glimpse of the Christmas story and its nearing
approach. Mary has just found out from the angel that she will be the mother of
Jesus. Mary has just accepted to take a journey that would forever change the
world. What's the first thing Mary does after this? She packs up and heads out on
vacation. She goes to see her older relative Elizabeth in the hill country.
What follows is what we heard just a few minutes ago. Mary came into the house
where Elizabeth was. Elizabeth's baby leapt in her womb and Elizabeth becomes
the first person in all of history to call Mary blessed. After this encounter, Mary
sings her song, the Magnificat, and the story goes on. But, something is very
different about that encounter. Something happens here that doesn’t happen very
many places. Something we’ve come to expect was reversed.
A reversal is essentially something we may have felt
we have control over only to find that this something might actually have
control over us. Something we have come to expect is going to teach us
something completely new and different. Reversals are a common part of life too.
Some of them are more obvious than others. In fact, you may remember that we
just began one of two reversals of our calendar year. Friday was the last day
of the days getting shorter. From now until June, the light will continue to
grow day by day. I was watching a video the other day where the theory was that
communication was becoming a reversal. You see, many, many years ago, people
communicated with pictures, with hieroglyphics. As time went on, we got the
letters of the alphabet and started using words. Then many years later we had
the telegraph followed by the telephone followed by the cell phone. Then, someone
invented texting and we reverted back to using words, then going back to using
abbreviations, and now people are using emojis and pictures to talk again.
Reversals are all around us. Some reversals are so subtle that we don't pick up
on them quickly enough until they've come and gone.
In comedy, there is even a humor technique known as
the reversal. A reversal is a joke that starts out by stating something fairly
true and obvious with the punchline being the reverse of that. The part of your
brain that identifies something as funny is set off because of the reversal
itself being unexpected. It was a style that was popularized during the cold
war, coined the Russian Reversal, to make Americans believe that their country
was perfect in contrast to life in Soviet Russia. For instance, a common
reversal might be that in America we watch television whereas in Soviet Russia
television watches you.
With all this in mind, even before Jesus is born we
can see God at work overturning the expectations and norms of society. Mary and
Elizabeth are women and they have the spotlight today. Who speaks in this
narrative? Who is silent? Who blesses? Who is blessed? Who is welcomed? Who or
what is not? Women, often overlooked in their society and in Bible stories,
have the only speaking roles in this story, whereas the men are silent. It’s
about time, right? This is one of the most important parts in all of scripture
and two of the main characters in the story have no speaking role. A few weeks
ago in my children’s message I had mentioned that Joseph, Jesus’ father,
doesn’t even have a speaking role in the Christmas story. The angel comes to
him, he doesn’t say a word. He just listens and obeys. Wives, how do you like
that for a husband?
Mary announces her presence to Elizabeth. John
responds in utero but leaps, not speaks. Elizabeth speaks the prophetic words.
She is the one filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks of the birth of Jesus
before Mary even tells her the news. Elizabeth becomes the prophet of what
cannot be seen with the eye and she knows by the Spirit who the child will be.
Elizabeth's actions then do not stop but continue as she becomes the first
person to bless Mary. By doing this, she overturns the norms and expectations.
Mary and Elizabeth in no way deserve
the roles they have in our reading today. This entire encounter should go
unnoticed. Mary and Elizabeth are both lowly and deserving of shame but God has
directed the spotlight toward them as he begins the transformation of the
world. Mary, being a pregnant, unmarried teenager should only receive social
judgment, shame and ostracism. Elizabeth had been a barren woman all her life,
a position and condition also worthy of shame. She had been unable to live up
to a woman’s purpose of bearing children.
When Mary comes to Elizabeth, Mary must’ve known she
could have easily been sent away by her older relative. But instead of
rejection, Elizabeth drew on her own experience, knowing the cost of being
shamed and excluded and she welcomed Mary. Elizabeth knew what it felt like to
have the culture beat down on her. Mary, also, deserves this treatment but
Elizabeth welcomes her and blesses her. God reverses social expectation and it
begins with these two women. Elizabeth, in this first encounter with our Lord,
practices the very same ministry Jesus will preach, the very same love shown to
sinners and other rejects of society.
Who speaks in this story? The one who should be
silent. Who is blessed in this story? The one who should be shamed. Who is
welcomed in this story? The one who should be turned away. God is performing a
reversal. Christmas is all about this grand reversal. God looked upon us caught
in the shame of our sin and God took away that shame by sending us Jesus. God
is working in the Church all over the world continuing this grand reversal and
we can continue to reflect on it as we enter into the Christmas season.
God is working through unexpected people in our
world today. God is at work through people that we and our neighbors might
often exclude. God is calling us, instead, to listen to the Spirit's prompting
when the bearers of God's new reality are in front of us just like the Spirit
prompted Elizabeth's response to Mary's presence. We are called to become a
community that supports each other as we hope and wait. We, as the Church,
trust that God is coming to save us and to free us. That's what Advent is all
about. We have been set free to welcome the sinner and to give thanks to God
who has removed our sins.
You know how we're still a part of this battle to
keep Christ in Christmas? Do you realize that the best way to keep Christ in
Christmas is not to fight about what words we say around this time of year?
Keeping Christ in Christmas is about being Christ at Christmas. It's about
serving your neighbor, welcoming the unwelcome, loving the unlovable, forgiving
the unforgivable, healing the sick, comforting those who grieve, inviting in
the lonely. This is how we keep Christ in Christmas because this is what Christ
himself did during his ministry and this is what he empowers his Church to do.
There is another reversal in the early parts of the
Christmas story. Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband was a religious leader but when
he was told his barren wife would give birth to a son and he would be named
John, Zechariah didn't believe it. Zechariah, a religious leader, doubted God
and worked against him. It caused him to be struck silent until he uttered the
words at his son's naming ceremony where he said, "His name is John."
Mary, on the other hand, a peasant girl, without a theology degree, she
believed. The one you would expect to believe falls silent. The one you would
expect to be overlooked speaks out.
How open are we to the ways God chooses to act in
our world? How quick are we to speak of the change he is calling for as being
unnecessary or wrong? The Church is changing before our very eyes. Some of
these changes can be seen with our eyes but some can only be felt in our
hearts. What does God need to reverse in our lives? What does God need to
reverse in our church so that his will would be done?
Remember, in a reversal you assume you have some
sort of agency, knowledge, or control over something that ends up having an
agency, knowledge, or control over you. While they can be used for humorous
purposes, I can’t help but see how useful the technique becomes when thinking
about how we understand life. A reversal can reveal how weak we are even when
we think we are strong. In our lives, we might tend to feel like we have agency
over many things or even God but the reversal that God plays, particularly at
Christmas, is that it is really God who has agency over us. It is really us who
are weak, it is us who have it all wrong. It then leads us to rely on God, to
be subject to his reign, his rule, his will. It’s about God’s strength in our
weakness. God initiates reversals for our benefit, for the benefit of the
relationship God seeks out to have with us. We can see this through faith.
I mentioned earlier how the days are starting to get
longer now. Yet, though we know more light is coming, we know the harshest part
of winter is yet to come. The hope of light is already here but it doesn’t
change the reality of the cold, dark, and snowy winters we tend to experience.
Such is our hope in the reversal God put in place for us. The light is growing
but we know the harshest part of the darkness is still upon us.
So as we edge ever so closely to Christmas, the role
we play at Christmas has the opportunity to be changed. Think about the
reversals God has done in your life, particularly, how he took your shame and
sin away and gave you joy and new life. Think about how God has called you to
continue those reversals in your daily life. Be mindful who speaks and who is
silent. Be mindful of who is blessed and who is not. Be mindful of who is
welcomed and who is not. Then, in the name of Christ, and for the sake of
Christmas, spread that grand reversal to the very edges of your life as God
continues to change the world through you. To God be the glory, now and always.
Amen.