{"id":1326,"date":"2012-12-30T17:51:21","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T17:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=801"},"modified":"2012-12-30T17:51:21","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T17:51:21","slug":"when-god-looks-with-favour-sermon-by-marilyn-zehr-december-23-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/?p=1326","title":{"rendered":"When God looks with favour – sermon by Marilyn Zehr – December 23, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

View Archived Sermons<\/font>
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When God looks with favour<\/h3>\n

Fourth Advent Sermon, by Marilyn Zehr<\/h3>\n

December 23, 2012\u00a0<\/h3>\n

Texts: Micah 5: 2 – 5, Luke 1: 39 – 55<\/font><\/p>\n

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Good morning, Lovers of God. That\u2019s what Luke calls you. He was that serious young man, serious but not gloomy mind you, who came to interview me. \u00a0He wanted to hear my story \u2013 so he could tell it to you, Theophilus, lover of God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He was so full of questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wanted to hear about that time an angel showed up to talk with my husband Zachariah. \u00a0<\/p>\n

He wanted to hear about what happened to me after that. I\u2019m not sure if it was foolishness or miracle or both.<\/p>\n

He wanted to hear about what I knew about my young cousin Mary. \u00a0But if I jump around too much you won\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n

Hmmm, \u00a0when Luke came, I invited him to sit for a bit, prepared a plate of tomato and cucumber and a bit of yogurt and bread and some strong sweet tea because I knew when I started to tell about it\u2026. well you know, it was probably going to take a while. \u00a0So please have a bit of yogurt and tea yourselves.<\/p>\n

When God looks upon you with favour? \u00a0Watch out.<\/p>\n

Zachariah and I had been married a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We were pretty clear about how to follow the commandments \u2013 and did so \u2013 righteous and blameless they said. \u00a0I wouldn\u2019t quite know about that, but the ordered life of God\u2019s commands gave everything rhythm, clarity, a sense of purpose and control. Priestly line we were, – he from Abijah, me from Aaron. \u00a0But underneath all of that \u2013 Zachariah and I lived a sadness and longing we didn\u2019t say much about. \u00a0What do you say when the blessing of children simply doesn\u2019t happen. \u00a0We lived the disgrace of it silently. Not much compassion for that in my day. But who were we to complain in that time of Herod. \u00a0He was a raging murderer, he was and so the blessing of children sometimes led to unspeakable sorrow of another kind. \u00a0Our sorrow and longing seemed to us pale in comparison, so we kept quiet, except in prayer. \u00a0Then the year that Zachariah drew the lot to offer the annual incense in the Holy of Holies \u2013 how do I tell you?<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t even speak of it at first \u2013 at least not til the baby came.<\/p>\n

The glory, the terror, the answer to prayer, the disbelief \u2013 God told him through a messenger, a vision, an angel \u2013 that we were favoured \u2013 that a son would be born to us. \u00a0His name would be John, he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. \u00a0He would be given the role of preparation. \u00a0With the Spirit and power of Elijah, he would turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of righteousness, to make ready a people prepared for the arrival of the long-awaited Son of the most High.<\/p>\n

It was too much. \u00a0Joy, foolishness, miracle \u2013 this favour of God. \u00a0Before long I was pregnant and immediately I went into seclusion for five months \u2013 a precious time, waiting. \u00a0Zachariah couldn\u2019t speak, and at first I simply didn\u2019t either. \u00a0It was so overwhelming, but when my tongue came back, I was really glad that all Zachariah was able to do was listen. \u00a0I had a lot to tell him about what it was like to be favoured instead of disgraced. \u00a0<\/p>\n

And then at the sixth month \u2013 Mary showed up, my young cousin Mary. \u00a0The boy in my womb set up a dance that made me catch my breath. \u00a0Full of this dancing Spirit, I knew that this young woman was favoured too. \u00a0Truly blessed she was to be carrying the one who was to be given the throne of his ancestor David. But why me, why her? \u00a0Really? \u00a0I remembered her, a little girl, full of laughter, sometimes mischief, always running about creating fun and inciting others to join in. \u00a0I think the only time she sat still was in the synagogue when the Stories of the scroll were read. She loved stories \u2013 to listen and tell them. I remember once when she re-told to me the one about Hannah and her son Samuel. \u00a0She loved the part where Hannah\u2019s prayer for a son was answered and Mary\u2019s eyes sparkled when she told me about little boy Samuel who hearing his name called in the middle of the night learned eventually to say, \u201cspeak for your servant is listening.\u201d \u00a0I suspect she also knows something about listening and answering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh favoured one. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Those days in the hill country, when we were both expecting, were full of story and hope and love and song. \u00a0As we did the chores together, went to synagogue, and compared our disappearing waistlines it became clear to me that Mary grew beyond the Samuel part of the story and along with me sang Hannah\u2019s song of joy. \u00a0She made up some of her own words but the hope and joy in the song she sang \u2013 still echoes in my heart. \u00a0Let me see if I can still remember it\u2026<\/p>\n

My soul is filled with joy as I sing to God my savior; you have looked upon your servant, you have visited your people<\/p>\n

and holy is your name through all generations! Ever lasting is your mercy to the people you have chosen, and holy is your name.<\/p>\n

I am lowly as a child, but I know from this day forward that my name will be remembered, for all will call me blessed.<\/p>\n

and holy is your name through all generations! Everlasting is your mercy to the people you have chosen, and holy is your name.<\/p>\n

I proclaim the power of God; you to marvels for your servants; though you scatter the proud hearted and destroy the might of princes.<\/p>\n

and holy is your name through all generations! Ever lasting in your mercy to the people you have chosen, and holy is your name.<\/p>\n

To the hungry you give food, send the rich away empty. \u00a0In your mercy you are mindful of the people you have chosen.<\/p>\n

and holy is your name through all generations! Everlasting Is your mercy to the people you have chosen, and holy is your name.<\/p>\n

In your love you now fulfill what you promised to your people. \u00a0I will praise you, Lord, My savior, everlasting is your mercy.<\/p>\n

And holy is your name through all generations! Ever lasting is your mercy to the people you have chosen, and holy is your name.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it. \u00a0That\u2019s the song she sang. I\u2019m so glad you were familiar with it.<\/p>\n

She was something else, that Mary \u2013 those days of hope and love and song in the hill country of Judea \u2013 near Bethlehem. \u00a0Precious days they were.<\/p>\n

Our sons were born eventually and they lived strange and beautiful lives.<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit and Glory that surrounded them, sustained them, and emanated from them — lingers still. \u00a0<\/p>\n

When God looks with favour – \u00a0so much joy, so much pain, so much love, so much messing with the world \u2013 this Holy One. \u00a0Angels show up, miracles happen, foolishness erupts, impossibilities become possibilities,\u00a0<\/p>\n

but you know, John and Jesus and the angel armies didn\u2019t fix things quite the way we thought they would. God\u2019s favour in our son\u2019s lives led them places we dared not imagine when we gave birth to them. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Ah but as I said there are things that linger still.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re a long way from that time. \u00a0I wandered the hills near Bethlehem recently \u2013 or tried to. \u00a0More houses than there used to be. \u00a0I see there are settlements on the hills. \u00a0Those were ruggedly beautiful hills once. \u00a0There\u2019s a massive wall too. \u00a0It\u2019s all very strange. \u00a0I really don\u2019t understand about the wall. \u00a0It makes me wonder about that song, the one Hannah sang more than a thousand years before Jesus, the one that was recreated in Mary\u2019s life. \u00a0It\u2019s been a couple more millennia now. \u00a0What if God again chooses to look upon God\u2019s servant and visit God\u2019s people, Holy be the Name? \u00a0What if God again shows God\u2019s favour? What kind of messing up of things will happen then? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My John prepared people to tur
\nn towards God, he was a voice crying out for people to make a way in the wilderness for God. \u00a0I\u2019ve heard that now there is a man named Zoughbi, Zoughbi in that wilderness full of settlements surrounding Bethlehem calling out to people to make a way for the Prince of Peace. \u00a0Makes me wonder what his mother thinks.<\/p>\n

Sorry, that\u2019s an aside, but I\u2019m one mother who knows the risks that prophets take when they point out injustice and ask people to change their minds, or change their ways or change their hearts. \u00a0The world doesn\u2019t respond well to that kind of truth. Think about some of the ones more current to your time and place and space<\/p>\n

\u00a0think your Martin Luther King Jr., or Gandhi or Teresa Spence\u2026..<\/p>\n

The call to truth and justice so often bumps up against strange resistance \u2013 almost inevitably. \u00a0And it is then that we realize the power of the forces in the world that are death dealing instead of life-giving. \u00a0In Zoughbi, Zoughbi\u2019s case it is the death dealing forces of separation \u2013 caused by that wall, separation caused by laws that apply differently to people of different ethnicity and origin, oppression caused by separating people from the land of their fathers and mothers and from essential sources of water \u2013 as scarce as that water is in those hills anyway.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Mary\u2019s Jesus. \u00a0 What would he do? \u00a0He would call for justice and have mercy on all who are separated by that wall. \u00a0The profound love and longing of our Saviour is for everyone \u2013 kind of like the mother or grandmother whose table is always open.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which have some more yogurt, more tea too surely.<\/p>\n

Okay \u2013 according to Mary\u2019s song – God\u2019s favour raises up the lowly and brings down the powerful \u2013 sure but not without cost \u2013 usually the most significant cost to prophets and our Saviour. \u00a0The highest cost ultimately was to the one whose love cost him his life.<\/p>\n

What phenomenal patience the Holy One has had with all of us.<\/p>\n

Through generation after generation \u2013 everlasting is that mercy and Holy is The Name. \u00a0Did we, do we deserve it? \u00a0Only in that we \u2013 all of us – are welcome to gather round the salvation feast served at the table of God regardless. \u00a0God created us as God\u2019s beloved deserving ones and continues to be the One who just keeps making us into the deserving ones \u2013 not actually something we did. \u00a0<\/p>\n

And apparently it takes a while.<\/p>\n

From experience this salvation business that God\u2019s in requires the long view. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Reminds me of my mother\u2019s mother \u2013 whose own table was always open, I think I referred to her just a moment ago. \u00a0People knew there would be more than enough food at that table for whoever happened along. \u00a0My grandmother served food to stray people the way some people feed stray cats. \u00a0And she didn\u2019t assume that one meal would be sufficient to fill people up \u2013 she served her meals to hungry folks every day because they were hungry every day. Again, I digress, but you look hungry too.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all hungry for this salvation that seems so long in coming but here\u2019s the thing, maybe this salvation that God is providing is more like feeding us every day \u2013 As you know – since the world did not end on December 21st as the Mayan calendar predicted it might, we\u2019re still here and we\u2019re still hungry.<\/p>\n

And God is still finding favour, with person after person,\u00a0<\/p>\n

and providing meal after meal,\u00a0<\/p>\n

day after day,\u00a0<\/p>\n

year after year,\u00a0<\/p>\n

generation after generation, messing things up, creating foolishness and miracles and making impossible things possible. \u00a0<\/p>\n

This is how our God works to save us.<\/p>\n

Holy is your Name.<\/p>\n

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View Archived Sermons Listen to this Sermon When God looks with favour Fourth Advent Sermon, by Marilyn Zehr December 23, 2012\u00a0 Texts: Micah 5: 2 – 5, Luke 1: 39 – 55 \u00a0 Good morning, Lovers of God. That\u2019s what Luke calls you. He was that serious young man, serious but not gloomy mind you, who came to interview me. \u00a0He wanted to hear my story \u2013 so he could tell it to you, Theophilus, lover of God. \u00a0He was…<\/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-1326","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\/1326","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=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}