{"id":1210,"date":"2009-12-23T18:45:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T18:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=637"},"modified":"2009-12-23T18:45:42","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T18:45:42","slug":"incarnation-keeping-it-real-marilyn-zehr-dec-20-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=1210","title":{"rendered":"Incarnation – Keeping it real * Marilyn Zehr * Dec. 20, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Incarnation – Keeping it real<\/font><\/strong><\/font><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Luke 1:26-56; Micah 5:2-6<\/font><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Advent IV.\u00a0 There are now five days until Christmas day.\u00a0 Expectations are high.\u00a0 Anticipation is mounting.\u00a0\u00a0 You might ask, \u201canticipation of what exactly?\u201d\u00a0 That might depend on your age or life circumstance.\u00a0 I remember as a child the anticipation of wondering what would be under that tree.\u00a0 As I have gotten older that anticipation is becoming, might I say, seasoned.\u00a0 The flavours of my anticipation are blending like a soup that simmers all day in the kitchen.\u00a0 As I putter around the house while it\u2019s cooking I grow accustomed to the smell of it, and may not even realize that I anticipate a taste of that pot of blended rich flavours at the end of the day, until my stomach grows hungry and then I remember \u2013 ah, that smells good.\u00a0 I begin to look forward to the coming feast. Advent is a waiting, an expectation, and an anticipation of what is yet to come and as we draw closer to the experience of the realization of God\u2019s promise, we begin to notice more and more how hungry we are and how real that hunger is. I chose this beginning image of hunger because today I want to talk about real things \u2013 like hunger, and like pregnancy and birth, and a baby – flesh and blood real things.\u00a0 For that\u2019s incarnation after all \u2013 God coming in the flesh was and is real.\u00a0 The anticipation, the expectation, the desire that God will deliver and that God will keep the promises that God has made is nothing if it is not real.<\/font><\/p>\n

An angel Gabriel was sent to a small town to visit a young woman.\u00a0 Her name was Mary.\u00a0 She was a young Jewish girl in an out of the way, small town called Nazareth. Upon arriving, the angel said to Mary \u201cRejoice, Highly favoured one!\u00a0 God is with you!\u00a0 Blessed are you among women!\u201d\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

You will bear a son, and give him the name \u2013 Jesus -meaning saviour or deliverance.<\/font><\/p>\n

The angel said some more things about who this son would be like \u2013 the only Begotten of God,<\/font><\/p>\n

someone who would rule forever over the house of Jacob and in line with his ancestor David,<\/font><\/p>\n

But I\u2019m sure Mary got stuck on the \u201cyou will bear a son,\u201d part.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine her being able to listen to all the things that were said after that.<\/font><\/p>\n

Understandably she was troubled and wondered, \u201cHow can this be, since I have never been with a man?\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n

The angel told her that the power of the Most High would overshadow her and so the son to be born to her would be called the Holy One of God. <\/font><\/p>\n

And then the angel, possibly sensing her level of incredulity, told her that her relative Elizabeth, in her older years, one who was thought to be infertile, had also conceived a child and was already in her sixth month. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

I think it must have been the gritty reality of hearing about Elizabeth\u2019s pregnancy that helped Mary recover herself so quickly, for she says to the angel, \u201cI am a servant of God.\u00a0 Let it be done to me as you say. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

With that, the angel left her.<\/font><\/p>\n

I wonder if in the days that followed Mary really believed that it had all been real or was it merely a dream she\u2019d had.\u00a0 She was going to bear a son. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

There was one really good way to find out.\u00a0 Go visit Elizabeth.<\/font><\/p>\n

Within a few days, the text in Luke says, Mary set out and hurried to the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah\u2019s house and greeted Elizabeth. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary\u2019s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 In a loud voice she exclaimed\u2026.<\/font><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll tell you in a moment what she exclaimed.<\/font><\/p>\n

I just wonder if you have any relatives who greet you with a loud voice when you come to visit during the holidays.\u00a0 My grandmother always greeted us with a loud voice, like you were the most important person in the world. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cLook who\u2019s here,\u201d she used to say before she\u2019s smothered us with her embrace and kisses.<\/font><\/p>\n

When Elizabeth heard Mary arriving she exclaimed in a loud voice \u201cBlessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!\u00a0 But why am I so favoured, that the mother of the Messiah should come to me?\u00a0 The moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy.\u00a0 Blessed is she who believed that what our God said to her would be accomplished.<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let you imagine the embrace and kisses that followed.<\/font><\/p>\n

How more real could this be?<\/font><\/p>\n

The baby leaped in her womb, when she heard Mary\u2019s greeting at the door. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

In our congregation right now, there are two women that, I know of, who are with child.\u00a0 I wonder if either of you feel your infant move when you or they hear something, like when Elizabeth heard Mary\u2019s greeting. <\/font><\/p>\n

In this day and age it is possible to know that one is pregnant long before it is possible to feel the infant move, but for the mother to be and anyone intimately connected to her, the feeling of that movement is a wonder to behold.\u00a0 The stirring within speaks of reality in a new way.\u00a0\u00a0 A child will be born.\u00a0 This is the kind of reality that cannot be ignored then or now.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Micah passage today reminds us that <\/font><\/p>\n

hope for the birth of a child <\/font><\/p>\n

was an important part of ancient Israelite messianic expectation. <\/font><\/p>\n

The Micah prophecy born out of Israel\u2019s history about 800 years before the Common Era, when Northern Israel was being threatened by Assyria, is filled with passages of harsh judgement against Israel\u2019s wickedness, lack of justice and idolatry.\u00a0 Richard reminded us that in the words of the comedian Charlie Farquharson, a good way to sum up the entire prophets is with the phrase, \u201cyou\u2019re doing it all wrong.\u201d\u00a0 These texts of judgement are important parts of the advent message.\u00a0 In our anticipation of something to be hopeful about, something better than the world currently knows, we need to hear some of these mes
\nsages of the things that are wrong. <\/font><\/p>\n

Specifically, Micah is warning the southern Kingdom of Judah that they will suffer the same fate as their brothers and sisters in the Northern Kingdom. Some of Micah parallels the early parts of the book of Isaiah.\u00a0 Keeping it real, neither Isaiah nor Micah shrinks from naming reality as they see it.\u00a0 The first few verses of chapter 1 of\u00a0 Micah and the first few verses of chapter 6 speak of a God, YHWH by name, who plans to contend with the people in a court of judgement and the list of evidence against the people, primarily the people with power, the leaders, the priests and the prophets, (those were the also the ones who were in trouble in last week\u2019s sermon and the sermon before that) will be indicted for things like defrauding people of their homes, not caring properly for the women and children or the strangers in their midst, crying \u201cpeace\u201d when they themselves are well-fed but declaring war on those who have nothing to put into their mouths. <\/font><\/p>\n

There is nothing in this list that could not be applied to today.<\/font><\/p>\n

But Micah and Isaiah are also the prophets who provide us with some of the most moving and memorable and poetic declarations of hope, often in the form of messianic hope and longing for the anointed one who will usher in the reign of peace and justice.\u00a0 In keeping with our emphasis on the messianic hope that involves the birth of a child, our specific text for today, Micah verse 5:2-3 we hear of the expected birth of the ruler that will come from Bethlehem.\u00a0 The Isaiah passage that speaks of the messianic hope for the birth of a child is Isaiah 9:6, <\/font><\/p>\n

For to us a child is born, <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 to us a son is given, <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and the government will be on his shoulders. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And he will be called <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wonderful Counsellor, [a] Mighty God, <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a07 Of the increase of his government and peace <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 there will be no end. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He will reign on David’s throne <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and over his kingdom, <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 establishing and upholding it <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with justice and righteousness <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 from that time on and forever. <\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The zeal of YHWH Omnipotent will accomplish it!\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Messianic hope in the form of hope for a child is only one of at least four streams of the way Messianic Hope is described for us in the Hebrew Scriptures and our Old Testament. <\/font><\/p>\n

First in the ancient texts there is the messiah who will carry on God\u2019s covenant with Abraham and Moses and provide political deliverance.<\/font><\/p>\n

The second stream is the hope for the continuation of monarchy or Davidic line in an ideal reign where all of Israel\u2019s enemies will be conquered<\/font><\/p>\n

The third stream seems to narrow the messianic hope to the anointed one, the birth of a child, a special Holy One who will establish an ideal reign of justice and peace. <\/font><\/p>\n

And finally the one most difficult to grasp is the description of the suffering servant motif in Isaiah that began to suggest that the anointed one would voluntarily suffer or give up his life on behalf of the people.<\/font><\/p>\n

In our consciousness these different streams converge and are brought together in creative ways by the writers of the gospels who saw all of the different strands of messianic hope, anticipation and expectation fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.<\/font><\/p>\n

Christ Jesus, the anointed one, the child born in Bethlehem to Mary, the child who grew to be a man, who healed and freed people from their imprisonments, the one who spoke profound words of wisdom and invited profound transformation in response, the one whose intimate connection to God ushered in a new reign of God and whose words and actions so threatened the status quo that they led to his death by shameful crucifixion.\u00a0 This same anointed one was raised by God and through all of this provides for the salvation of all who learn to know him.\u00a0 Even so\u2026. we live forever with expectation \u2013 with anticipation, that we don\u2019t notice unless we are hungry.\u00a0 The smell of it lingers in the air like the smell of a good soup but when we feel it move in our bellies in the form of hunger or like the stirring of new life caused by a tiny infant\u2019s movement in the womb \u2013 it is then that we know how real our hope for complete fulfillment is.<\/font><\/p>\n

All messianic hope which is another way of saying all hope for salvation is born out of real need. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

How do we begin to know what we need?\u00a0 One way to know what we need is to pay attention. What is stirring inside, maybe almost imperceptively at first, but growing in strength? \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

There will be hungers that are unique to each one of us and to our unique spiritual journey.<\/font><\/p>\n

There will be hungers within us that we hold in common with every human being on our planet, <\/font><\/p>\n

like hunger for hope, <\/font><\/p>\n

hunger for communion with each other and with God <\/font><\/p>\n

and hunger for peace and for justice. <\/font><\/p>\n

And these hungers remind us that some part of the messianic promises have yet to be fulfilled. \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

And though it is the birth of the child that we celebrate at Christmas, it is not the child alone who saves us, rather it is how we receive all that the child represents and becomes in the world and in us.<\/font><\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of the hymn that is also a prayer,<\/font><\/p>\n

O, how shall we receive him,<\/font><\/p>\n

how meet him on his way, \u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

blessed hope of
\n every nation,\u00a0 our soul\u2019s delight and stay?<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0O Jesus, Jesus give us now by thine own pure light<\/font><\/p>\n

to know whate-e\u2019re is pleasing and welcome in your sight.<\/font><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s learn from Mary and Elizabeth to keep it real!\u00a0 Let\u2019s pay attention to the stirring within us that links itself to the hungers, hopes and desires of every nation, every religion and every generation.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0Elizabeth\u2019s words of greeting come to mind again.\u00a0 Blessed is she who believed that what our God said to her would be accomplished.<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

And may the grace and love and promise of God that found fulfillment in Mary and Elizabeth also find fulfillment in us this Christmas and always.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Incarnation – Keeping it real Luke 1:26-56; Micah 5:2-6 It\u2019s Advent IV.\u00a0 There are now five days until Christmas day.\u00a0 Expectations are high.\u00a0 Anticipation is mounting.\u00a0\u00a0 You might ask, \u201canticipation of what exactly?\u201d\u00a0 That might depend on your age or life circumstance.\u00a0 I remember as a child the anticipation of wondering what would be under that tree.\u00a0 As I have gotten older that anticipation is becoming, might I say, seasoned.\u00a0 The flavours of my anticipation are blending like a soup…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}