Introduction
This is the sermon I preached at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 19–20, 2009, the weekend of the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
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Readings
Micah 5:2–5a
Psalm 80:1–7 (antiphon v.7)
Hebrews 10:5–10
Luke 1:39–55
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Prayer
As we hear and heed your Word, O God, may it be for us a voice crying in the wilderness of our lives, calling us to prepare the way of the Lord, your Son and our Savior. Amen. (based on Luke 3:4b, NRSV)
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Message
When the Holy Spirit comes upon us,
we are changed beyond what we can imagine.
It truly gives us new eyes, fresh ears,
soft and open hearts, and submissive wills.
In short, it remakes us, it recreates us,
so that we embrace our faith as a gift,
so that we approach life with hope,
so that we give ourselves away in love.
And if this sounds a little familiar,
it’s because we are also describing
our Lord’s mother, the virgin Mary.
In today’s Gospel,
we follow her along the whirlwind path
down which the Spirit has blown her.
Her ears are still full of the news
that she will bear the Son of God.
Her heart is still flush with the love
that led her to commit herself fully, totally, to God, saying:
Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word. (Luke 1:38, NRSV)
And so she goes with haste to Elizabeth, her kinswoman.
She, in her old age,
is—miraculously—pregnant with a baby
who will grow up to be known as John the Baptist.
And the Spirit moves among them.
So Elizabeth exclaims to Mary:
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb. (Luke 1:42, NRSV)
And she tells how unborn son, John, leapt in her womb
at the sound of Mary’s voice.
And the Spirit blows among them.
So Mary breaks into song,
spilling forth what we call The Magnificat,
the wondrous hymn of joy and praise
to God for his mighty acts to save his people.
It is filled with the telling of God’s blessings,
how he pours out his mercy on the generations,
how he scatters the proud and topples the powerful,
then raises up the lowly,
how he feeds the hungry,
but sends the rich away empty.
It is all the work of the Spirit of God.
Once it enters human life,
making Mary the mother of our Lord,
then all the barriers are pierced,
all the walls are broken down.
She carries in her the Son of God,
Jesus, Yeshua in Hebrew, meaning “he saves.”
And when the Father sends him with the power of the Spirit,
then there is no stopping the grace and blessings of God.
This is the great and wonderful Good News
of Advent and Christmas,
that God himself is with us, Immanuel,
that he has become one of us in Jesus Christ.
And in response,
the whole Church,
from its beginnings until now,
including the apostles and you and me,
follows in the footsteps of Mary.
Our great gift and task
as the people of God blessed with his Spirit
is to do no less than she did.
We are called to say, along with her,
Here we are, Lord.
We are your servants.
Do with us as you choose.
This is how we submit our wills to God.
This is how we live with hearts softened to his desires.
This is how we walk in faithful obedience.
And by his Spirit, the Father empowers us to proclaim, along with Mary,
We rejoice in you, Lord God.
We announce your blessings to the weak and the poor.
We proclaim your great reversal to the rich and the powerful.
This is how our hearts and heads, our ears and tongues,
work together to serve the mission of God.
And we can do all of this
in confidence that God our Father will bless our service,
that he will pour out his Spirit upon us,
that he will send his Son to dwell among us,
that he will keep the commitments he has made,
as Mary reminds us in her song,
He has helped his servant Israel…
according to the promise he made to our ancestors…. (Luke 1:54–55a, NRSV)
The Holy Spirit does come upon us,
because that is what God promises.
And we are changed beyond what we can imagine.
This is the assurance we have from God.
And without a doubt, we receive new eyes, fresh ears,
soft and open hearts, and submissive wills.
In short, the Spirit remakes us, it recreates us,
so that we can join with Mary and say,
Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word. (Luke 1:38, NRSV) Amen.