“How
Can I Keep from Singing”…Are You Ready?
Texts:
Luke 1:39-55 (main focus); Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 10:5-10
Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to
you from the one who is and who was and who is to come, our living Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
So, I put off working on this sermon this
week, as the end of the world was scheduled to happen on Friday. I mean, why
work on something if you don’t have to, right? Well…As we can see, that didn’t
happen. And, people have been joking about the end of the world like there’s no
tomorrow. Wait a second…
But, in all seriousness, there will come a
day when Christ returns, and NO ONE knows when that will be. Are you ready? Our theme this Advent
has been, “Ready or not, Christ is coming”…My friends, the time has come.
Christmas Eve is tomorrow night! Are you
ready?
Now, granted I didn’t procrastinate writing
this sermon because of the end of the world, but how many of you would consider
yourselves as procrastinators? How many of you have EVERYTHING ready for
Christmas? Decorations up, shopping done, cards mailed, cookies baked, gifts
wrapped, ingredients bought for dinner, house cleaned for company, suitcases
packed for traveling? If you are ready, can you see me afterwards, so I can
enlist your services to help me? Actually, is Barb Lind here? She has already
offered to do my shopping for me. I participated in a “non-cookie” exchange,
where some friends of mine and I skipped the baking this year and got together
for lunch. As for my Christmas cards, I have made peace with the fact that they
will be New Year’s or Epiphany cards.
Johnny Mathis sings, “It’s the most
wonderful time of the year,” but does it feel
like it? As I wrote in last month’s Breadcaster,
and my mom can attest to this, I once had a lady threaten to run me over with
her shopping cart at Target! Just last night, my family and I were almost
T-boned by a car blowing through a four-way stop sign, on our way to my
second-cousin’s wedding reception! Amid the preparations, it may be hard to
find and experience joy. But, one thing that helps the heart is a song.
Christmas music. It’s hard not to start belting out “Hark! The Herald Angels
Sing” at the end of “It’s A Wonderful Life” or “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The
music brings joy and peace amid the chaos.
In today’s Gospel reading, Mary sings such a
song. Now, how ironic is it that I get to preach on the passage that has singing in it! WOO HOO! Thank you, Holy
Spirit! Actually, Luke’s Gospel has a lot
of singing in the first two chapters. Mary’s song is the first, followed by
Zechariah at John the Baptist’s birth (1:68-79), then the angels announcing
Jesus’ birth (2:14), and finally Simeon sings a blessing (2:29-32), which is
the text for next week.
There’s music for every mood and emotion…Today,
let’s ask ourselves, What song is my heart singing as the time of
Christ approaches, ready or not? Or am I procrastinating in my singing, and why?
First,
let’s take a little closer look at our passage from Luke…Verse 39 says Mary
went “with haste” to visit her relative Elizabeth. Why did she go “with haste?”
Was she scared? Imagine…This is after the angel told her she was to have a
child, the Son of God. A teenager, unmarried and pregnant, many women died in
childbirth, judgment from others, how would she and Joseph provide for this
child? Raise him? Would people recognize him as the Son of God?
Yet she sings a joy-filled song. How can
Mary sing at a time like this? Breaking into a song, like a musical or flash
mob? Hey, that gives me an idea…Okay, I promise, no flash mob this morning.
Joy is a recurring theme in Luke. In verse
44, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, which is John the Baptist, “leaped for joy”
upon Mary’s greeting. The Holy Spirit revealed to Elizabeth and to John that the
Lord was coming. A beautiful aspect of this is that the work of God’s Spirit is
not limited by age, gender, or status. God was working in and through
Elizabeth, a woman who was old in age, having her first child…In John, a baby
in the womb, leaping for joy…In Mary, an ordinary person like you and I, giving
birth to the Savior of the world. Amazing. Are
we open to God’s Spirit, to work in and through us? The Good News of Jesus
shared, cause for great joy.
We, too, can have that joy, and better yet,
can multiply it when we share it with others. It’s not meant to be kept to
ourselves. One of my coworkers at Caribou asked, since I sing all the time at
work, if I was bubbly and sing all the time at church. So, how would you all
answer that question? My manager at Caribou encourages my singing…Woo hoo! “How
can I keep from singing…” So, what song is your heart singing as the time of
Christ approaches, ready or not?
Or are you procrastinating in your singing,
and why? Right now, we are living in dark times, after the shootings in
Connecticut and the stabbings in China. Maybe you’re wondering, How
can we sing? Maybe you’ve tried opening your mouth, but nothing comes
out. You know, Friday was not only supposed to be the “end of the world,” but
it was the shortest day of the year, with the least amount of sunlight. But, do
you want to know something? The sun shone brightly on Friday. No matter where
we may find ourselves today, light conquers the darkness. The smallest light
can pierce darkness. God is with us. Now the days are getting longer again.
Our voices may start out with a hoarse
whisper, but together, in a chorus, they gain strength. Christ came, died, and
rose again, so we can and must sing this song of faith, hope, and love. We
witness and participate in God’s promise to change the world.
These two children, John and Jesus, were
going to change things. Are you ready? Things
would never be the same. Many people fear change. Why is that? Is it the fear
of the unknown? We get so comfortable and we don’t want to disrupt it? We can
either allow Christ to change us, dying to our old selves, being reborn, or we
can resist change and die anyway.
Mary’s joyful words of praise speak of God’s
redeeming work not as future but as already having been fulfilled. The overthrow
of the powerful has not come about through the mounting up of the weak in
rebellion but through the coming of God in the weakness of a child. The baby Jesus.
People may say that forgiveness is a sign of
weakness, but it’s actually a sign of strength. Is it easy? Of course not. But
it’s life-changing, transformative. Do
we take our own forgiveness for granted? Time? Our loved ones?
The fourth candle of
Advent represents peace…Christ is the Prince of Peace, coming to reconcile us
with God and others, and helps us to see that peace is possible. If we hold
onto fear, anger, and unforgiveness, it tears us further away from one another.
We want people to pay a debt that they can’t pay. But, unforgiveness is like us
drinking the poison, wanting the other to be harmed. It hurts us and our
relationships with others. We are meant for community. Maybe today, call that
loved one whom you haven’t talked to in ages. Invite the person at work whom
you’ve never taken the chance to know to lunch. Visit the elderly who cannot
make it to church and may feel forgotten.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “…Through
violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish
the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the
hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence
for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already
devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Love comes tomorrow night
to that manger in Bethlehem; Are you
ready?
Mary sings for joy for what God has done, is
doing, and will do. The end of Mary’s song is really only the beginning. The
season of Advent reminds us of that. God’s mercy cannot be stopped. God is with
us amid the hurts, frustrations, losses, and difficulties of life. God is about
transformation. Allow God to lift you up, to live out who you are called to be.
Who are you? A loved child of God.
I want to close by showing a music video…How
many of you are familiar with the story of Zach Sobiech? His story was on the
cover of the Pioneer Press a couple
of weeks ago. Zach is 17-years-old, a senior at Stillwater High School, and battling
a rare form of bone cancer. He was diagnosed in the fall of 2009, and in June,
he was told that he had months, maybe a year, to live. So, this young man of
faith has been finding ways to say goodbye to loved ones the best way he knows:
through writing and recording his songs. Zach chose to write songs instead of letters,
because, as he says, “they might be around longer. It’s more powerful…because a
song can get stuck in your head. You find yourself humming it during the day.”
Here is “Clouds,” one of the songs he wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDC97j6lfyc
From Mary’s song to Zach’s song…We all have
a song. What song is your heart singing as the time of Christ approaches, ready
or not? Or are you procrastinating in your singing, and why? Are you
ready to let go of fear, anger, unforgiveness, and, in its place, pick up joy
and peace? You can’t pick up something if your hands are full of
something else. Does your song magnify God, like Mary’s? Do you fill your days
with hope and joy, like Zach? Share the joyous song with others. The Christ child is coming…Christmas Eve is
tomorrow night…Are you ready? Or not?
And now may the peace of God that surpasses
all understanding guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Caroline Harthun
House of Prayer Lutheran Church
8:30am and 10:45am
Sunday, December 23, 2012
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