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God’s
Christmas Choice The other
night a member of EFM [Education For Ministry is a four-year intensive
study of the Bible, theology and church history.] and I were talking.
I reflected on how helpful it must be for members of EFM to relate to
sermons, as a result of studying Scripture in depth, in much the same
way that it is done in seminary. We pondered
that for a moment and then the EFM student said, “It must be tough
for people without theological preparation to understand sermons.”
My response was quick. “No, no, no,” I said. If it is difficult
for anyone to understand, that is the fault of the communicator, not the
message. The Good News is a message that by its very nature can be understood
by the least educated, most common laborer. We are taught in seminary
to never use a big, theological word when three small words will do.” The entire
story of the birth of Christ and everything surrounding the nativity literature
is about common folk, about the poor, about the powerless. In the somewhat
modified version of this morning’s Gospel that I just read, you notice
that the major players were all members of America’s “rich and
famous” group. Have you ever wondered why God chose Mary to bear
God’s Son? She was underage, unmarried, female, poor and simple.
Same for Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Same for all the apostles. The fact
of the matter is, the silent night of Christmas that we now await with
anticipation is clearly a message from God the most High--God the Creator
of you and me and all that was, is and will be--a message that his favored
people are NOT the rich and famous but rather the poor and powerless.
They are
not perfect, and often they are the recipients of injustice and certainly
of inequality in the lives that they live. I heard it said the other day
that there are no wealthy people on death row. Perhaps there has been
an exception here or there but think about it, it is pretty much true.
That doesn’t seem right, because we know that educated and wealthy
people are just as capable of murder as others. So does this
mean that God would like for all of us to be poor and powerless? I don’t
think so. But I believe that God would like it if our wealth and our power
did not cause us to take our eye off the ball--the central reality of
our life and death, God in Christ. I think God
would like it if we cared more and did more for the poor and powerless,
in fact I believe it is our destiny to evolve as individuals to where
we cannot help but reach out to the miserable of this world. The problem
is, most of us don’t live long enough to evolve that much. So our Advent
story, the announcement to a poor girl about a poor boy about to be born,
is really perhaps the central Word from God, and the word is justice--do
justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
Copyright 2002 Calvary Episcopal Church Gospel:
Luke 1: 26-38 |
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