|
|
|
|
|
|
"Mary's Joy" Mary....Mary, you young, tender child. What’s going on in that head of yours? As I listen to your song, I can’t help but wonder, Mary - how on earth can you say that you are the most blessed woman there is? Where does this song come from? What are you thinking? Especially since your fiancé is thinking quiet divorce. And your family is thinking dishonor and shame. Your little town is thinking sin, guilt, punishment. Seems to me that your situation couldn’t be worse. And your status, well, far from the most blessed of women, more like the lowest of females, which, to tell the truth, were already at the low end of the totem pole. You nothing more than an ordinary teenage girl, who has found herself pregnant, with no special skill, no special family bonds, no special ties--gone now to “visit relatives,” which as many of us have heard before is really a euphemism for “sent away to have a baby out of wedlock.” Oh Mary, when you sing, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God,“ you sound like a child who has just opened the best Christmas present ever. Where does your joy come from? Ah, that’s the question. Where does her joy come from? Today, we lit the candle of joy, the rose one, Mary’s candle, some call it. And we are asked to remember a young teen-aged girl and her song of joy. She sings the praises of God for she has received the best present ever, one far more precious than all the glittery packaging and slick marketing which passes off as “gifts from the heart” in this time of year. It is a gift that touches her right at the very core of her being; that stayed with her; that deeply affected her. On this Sunday of joy, Mary’s Sunday, we pause to listen. . .to discover joy. And as with hope and peace, we do not find it in the situation or circumstance of our lives, it is not located outside of us somewhere, in something…no, it is in here (point to heart) it is internal. For joy is not the same as pleasure. Oh--joy can bring pleasure to be sure, but it is something far more, located deeper within than pleasure. Joy is not the same as happiness, for happiness is equated with laughter and delight. Joy is cut with far more facets than mere happiness. Joy is that inner delight when one knows…knows completely that there is a place inside of you that unhappiness cannot touch. A place deep within you that displeasure cannot reach. A Joy that centers on understanding who you are, and whose you are. A Joy that springs from the well that comes from drinking deep from the spring of living water. A joy that is possible only with God, presented as a gift from God, and always centered upon the character and nature of God.
As a gift, joy cannot be commanded or coerced or even gently cajoled
into existence. It can only be received. As a gift, it is God’s to give,
What a gift -- wrapped within Mary’s womb. In time she
will wrap this gift in cloth and gently place before adoring shepherds. A gift
received becoming a gift shared. God has come down to touch her, to be within
her, part of her, and so to touch us, to be within us, a part of us.
--Like the joy of finding your child that you had lost--safe back in your arms. --Like the joy of discovering that you are not alone, there are others who understand, and will walk with you along life’s most troubled paths. Each of these are simple gifts of joy, when received, become the source of joy we cannot help but share. So that others will know the joy we know--a joy not as fleeting as happiness, or as shallow as pleasure, but a joy that frees us to rejoice and know God’s presence in all things. So we can rejoice, even in this world, this world filled with sin, brokenness, disease, injury, and death. Rejoice, dare I say it? Yes! Rejoice! In what? Rejoice in even these circumstances that tend to rightfully move us toward despair? Ah--but Mary did not rejoice in circumstances. She did not rejoice in being a pregnant teenager in a no-name town. She did not rejoice in the shame and guilt that, by circumstance, belonged to her and her family. No, she rejoiced despite her circumstance. Despite her situation. She rejoiced in the nature and character of God. A God who delighted in creation, who sought relationship with human beings, and who filled the sky with starlight and the songs of angels to announce the birth of the one who is sent to enter the world so as to save it-- The character and nature of God is joy. And so joy becomes how we discover the presence of God. This is the essence of God’s nature that causes Mary to laugh and sing out at the top of her lungs, responding to the mighty, holy, merciful giver of the gift of joy. Such a joy, when we discover it, will sustain us far beyond the holiday of Christmas. Fill us with joy that we might become joy-bearers, a bearer of God’s gift to the world. The great African American poet and pastor Rev. Howard Thurman once wrote:
“When the song of the
angels is stilled, This was Mary’s response to God, her model, her identity…From her heart…This was Mary’s music.”
Indeed, this was Mary’s joy. May it be our own. Amen.
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
