Today’s worship service, in its entirety, may be viewed here:
If you’d prefer to listen to the gospel reading and sermon, you may do so here:
Today’s sermon is based on Psalm 34:1-9 and Luke 1:46-55.
Psalm 34:1-9
I will bless the Lord at all times; the praise of God shall ever be in my mouth. I will glory in the Lord; let the lowly hear and rejoice. Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt God’s name together. I sought the Lord, who answered me and delivered me from all my terrors. Look upon the Lord and be radiant, and let not your faces be ashamed. I called in my affliction, and the Lord heard me and saved me from all my troubles.The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear the Lord and delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are they who take refuge in God! Fear the Lord, you saints of the Lord, for those who fear the Lord lack nothing.
Luke 1:46-55
Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Beloved of God, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt God’s name together.
I had the great joy of singing this psalm in worship at Grace Institute for Spiritual Formation last weekend. Throughout our time together, we had been invited to hold our lament and our hope together, to remain with the losses of this pandemic time while continuing to hold tight to that thread of hope and trust that weaves itself through our lives and through this broken, beautiful world.
This poem, part of our worship on Saturday evening, resonated so deeply with those who were gathered: The Way It Is by William Stafford.
There’s a thread you follow. It goes
among
things that change. But it doesn’t
change.
People wonder about what you are
pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s
unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
Today is a day in the church year when we are invited to celebrate Mary, the Mother of Our Lord. She, too, had to explain about the thread when people looked at her—pregnant and unwed, young and poor—and wondered what she was pursuing.
Mary explains the thread that is holding her—the unexpected, mysterious, incredible thread that has woven itself into her life and made of her a vessel for God. She explains by way of song—the Magnificat that we heard read in our gospel reading for this day—steeped in the scripture that has formed and shaped Mary in preparation for this moment.
Mary sings—holding onto that thread as it holds onto her. Everything is changing–she is being called to bring God to birth in the world in a new way—but the thread doesn’t change. And so, she is not lost. She is grounded and clear, confident that the thread will hold, that God’s promised future has already come, even as we wait for it to be revealed.
He has shown strength with his arm, Mary sings. He has scattered the proud…He has brought down the powerful…and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
Reading Mary’s poem, Katy Shedlock writes, I imagine how she might look delivering it today: still in high school, already showing, a tough expression on her face, she walks up to the mic to declare, despite all appearances, that she is not ruined. She is not disgraced — no, she carries the infinite blessing of making God bigger…She speaks from the devalued, disgraced communities that dare to declare they are still carriers of divine favor. (Read Katy’s entire article here.)
The thread holds.
You can’t get lost.
Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt God’s name together.
Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are they who take refuge in God!
Ben Wildflower is a mail carrier by day and artist in his off hours. In 2017, he made a woodcut that showed Mary, her fist raised over her head, feet resting on a skull and a serpent (the former is a motif usually associated with Jesus’ disciple Mary Magdalene, while the latter is in keeping with historical representations of Mary, Jesus’ mother, triumphing over original sin). In a circle around Wildflower’s image are the words “Fill the hungry. Cast down the mighty. Lift the lowly. Send the rich away.” When he posted it on Instagram, it went viral. (Read the full article here.)
How we hunger for justice, for God’s dream to be fulfilled, for Mary’s song to become our global anthem, for that unyielding thread to carry us through to a future where all creation lacks for nothing.
We, who, like Mary, carry the Christ, bear Jesus in our words and in our deeds…pursue life—abundant life—for our neighbors near and far, for those our culture has deemed expendable, for the ones we find easy to love and the ones we confess we are so quick to judge, for all those on the margins, all those desperate to hear the song Mary sings, all those bound together by the thread of God’s abiding mercy. We pursue life—the life of God that calls us to love and frees us to hope.
People wonder about what you are
pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
While you hold it (while it holds you) you can’t get lost.
You don’t ever let go of the thread. (It doesn’t ever let go of you.)
Amen.