Luke 1
46And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."
I firmly believe that there should be a twenty-four hour rule on great comebacks. You know the situation: confronted by unexpected words or a surprising turn of events you find yourself speechless. And if you are like me, you know that within twenty-four hours you will have something brilliant to say in response. It usually happens in the car on the way home, and I say "Ha Ha! So there!" And I can catalogue one more gem-like response given far too late.
Poor Mary: Confronted by the angel Gabriel, she is overwhelmed. Her halting speech and her confusion seem perfectly appropriate in the context of the angel messenger's words:
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
She will, however, get her twenty-four hours to respond. And respond she will. Her initial (and appropriate) response saying "I'm too young" will recede from the front of her mind and she will have her moment to express the texture of what is happening inside her. Listening, it could well be a psalm or the words of some great prophet that she speaks:
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
***
I speak for all of Scarborough Presbytery when I say we were sad to send John to you. John is dear friend, but also a treasured colleague who brings wisdom and integrity to whichever setting he finds himself. We were lucky to have him in three pastoral charges over 5 years and now reluctantly release him to you. (Of course he hasn't drifted far from me, since I live about 500 metres from here)
Part of John's most recent experience in Scarborough Presbytery is serving in a context that is undergoing an intensive self-assessment process called SpiritWork. A couple of years ago the leaders of the presbytery decided that the malaise that had settled over many of the 22 churches in Scarborough had to be addressed. Declining membership, two closures, and the presbyteries own struggle to attract leadership all pointed to the need for some sort of reflective process. The questions were vexing: Why the persistent decline? Can it be arrested or reversed? What resources do we need to counteract the trends?
The presbytery engaged a consulting group and began meeting with congregations and groups of interested individuals. Ministers were consulted, and demographic information gathered. Finally, two years ago, a group was gathered to sift through the data and make recommendations. In the spring of 2003, the SpiritWork steering team issued a report.
As a small sample, I would like you to consider one of the group’s insights, and how we can apply it to the life of the church. The insight involves types of change. I begin with a simple illustration: When a woman is pregnant, her life begins to change. This might include her diet, sleeping patterns, daily routine, weight, shopping habits, and gradually her self-perception. She will soon be a mother. Her life is changing. This is known as adaptive change. Something shifts, and she adjusts to the change. All the while she can continue to come and go when she chooses, travel, go to work, and experience the freedom she has always known.
Then the baby is born. Everything is changed. Suddenly, she is never alone. Her schedule depends on the baby, and the patterns of waking, sleeping, eating, moving about, and engaging in anything resembling her former life is gone. She has experienced deep order change. Deep order change is complete and irreversible. You can’t say "this one cries all the time, I think I’ll send it back." For better or worse you are a parent and will continue to be a parent until they are grown and even then you never stop being a parent.
The consensus in Scarborough Presbytery is that we are in the midst of a new style of change. The period where you could simply add a new program or call a new minister and expect the church to grow is gone. The days when young families with children would flock to church and quickly find their place are gone. And (hardest to hear) the days of one congregation, one building, and one full-time minister are soon to be gone too.
So what is the church to do? The first pastoral response is to recognize that change is disorienting and often leads to conflict. People need time to grieve the loss of the old style of church: two services on a Sunday, 400 children in the church school and more committees than Jesus had disciples. They need to see the new reality and not be given to despair. It's tough though, to remember the days when the church was the centre of the community and then realize (as we did in Scarborough) that the worshipping presence of the United Church now touches 0.4% of the population of our part of the city.
I want to share with you words from writer Walter Burghardt. His words give a clear sense of where I hope our SpiritWork conclusions lead:
"You must be men and women of ceaseless hope, because only tomorrow can today's human and Christian promise be realized; and every tomorrow will have its own tomorrow, world without end. Every human act, every Christian act is an act of hope. But that means you must be men and women of the present, you must live this moment - really live it, not just endure it - because this very moment, for all its imperfection and frustration, because of its imperfection and frustration, is pregnant with all sorts of possibilities, is pregnant with the future, is pregnant with love, is pregnant with Christ." (Imaging the Word, p. 92.)
And it is with this pregnant hope that we return to Mary and the blessing of Advent. She took her twenty-four hours to ponder and dream of a way to express her sense of what God was doing in her life. This is what she said:
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
God's mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."
The revolutionary nature of these words has not been lost on those seeking a radical departure from the past. Like Pharaoh ruling proudly from his throne, so many ignore the radical implications of a God that chooses to enter human experience and usher in the Kingdom. This is deep order change: That a pregnancy like no other will result in a birth like no other and God will be present to us as never before.
It is easy to get swept up in the excitement of the season and forget the profound changes that Mary points to: The hungry will be filled. The humble will be lifted up and those who are proud “in the imagination of their hearts” will be scattered. Politicians beware.
And for you, at Cosburn, the season finds you pregnant with possibility. Here, in the midst of change and surrounded by even larger changes, you seek to remain faithful. I urge you to take your cue from Mary and praise the God that remains ever in your midst and seeks to enter in ever new ways:
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
May God bless your work together. May you be strengthened to keep the vows you make, and may God continue to enter this place in new and surprising ways. Amen.
posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 4:55 PM
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