Waiting for Love
Can be listened to here
Gate Pa – Advent 4 2015
Readings:
Psalm Magnificat
First
Reading:
Micah
5:2-5
Second
Reading: Hebrews
10:5-10
Gospel:
Luke
1:39-45
What I want to say:
I
want to explore the human story held in Luke’s story, and how we might fund out
own story in the midst of it.
What I want to happen:
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
As I first heard today’s reading this week
I was reminded of waiting for our first child –
Kate
wonder those who had children can remember
what like waiting
J wonder of it
J fear and terror of it
o what was going to happen?
o what was this going to do to our lives?
o would I be any good at this parent thing?
J unreality of it all
J so much unknown – especially that first one
J so much anxiety around birth – even for male
J what was it going to be like ?
few weeks before due asked take funeral for
stillborn child.
while privilege accompany that family through
that process
did nothing for my anxiety
cot deaths in news a lot
take nothing granted
2. Mary and Elizabeth
Think we need to hang on to all those experiences
as we come to story we just hear,
so easy to romanticise this story
two very pregnant women sharing their joy
lots of pictures about that
rare story in any literature of this time
story
no males
invited
into hidden world of 2 women
so easy spiritualise these two women
lose sight humanity of them both
lose so much what story offers us
3. Elizabeth
wonder what like for Elizabeth in this story
wonder
who many miscarriages she endured
how
much loss she suffered
how
much shame
and
I wonder what like each day that this pregnancy unfolded
hope it held
incredible hope
the promise
and
yet
gnawing fear that it all go so badly
wrong again
more
loss
how much loss can one person hold
more
shame
how to live with so much fear and hope tied up
in this one child
what is love for Elizabeth in this story?
4. Mary
often portrayed as heavily pregnant
Luke says she comes almost straight away
she encounters an archangel
is told she is pregnant
and
then off to Elizabeth
how does Elizabeth know?
one commentator wondered if this was the first
time Elizabeth had felt her baby move
which
is a little bit romanticising the whole thing
beautiful
image
that moment i can only imagine when you feel
that life moving within
maybe/probably
for the first time
Mary come with her own fears
birth is not a straight forward thing
no pain killing drugs
no hospitals
no doctors
people die
babies
mothers
birth is a time of both new life and death
it is a sacred moment
never
be sure which way it will go
this baby means everything she has ever known
will change
her life will forever change
no longer a girl
now a women
a
mother
a
wife
all at once
with all the responsibility of that
the loss held in that
leaving your home
your family
your mother
and going to live with his family
And yet so much is promised in this child
so much hope
not pious hope
hope new world order captured in her song
even that held in shadow of Rome
5. we sit with them
so we are invited to sit with them
in this sacred moment
filled with so much hope
so much anxiety and fear
so much grief
so much uncertainty
held in love
their love for their unborn infants
their
love of God
their
love of family and each other
most
important
the
love of God for them found in this moment
6. The Picture
It is a sacred moment when these two meet.
we too easily pass over it
over
all it offers us
which is why I used this picture for our
reflection this week
It holds this sacred moment
and invites us into it
with all our hope
and anxiety and fear
our grief and uncertainty
and like Mary and Elizabeth
we too are invited into that same love
as we approach Christmas
how does this image
how does this story invite us into love?
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