Who am I? What is Joy?
This sermon can be heard here
Gate Pa – Year B 3rd Sunday Advent 2017,
Readings:
Psalm Luke 1 - Magnifcat
First Reading:
Isaiah 61:1-4,
8-11
Second Reading:
1 Thess
5:16-24
Gospel:
John 1:6-8, 19-28
What
I want to say:
To explore how both John Mary and Francis
answer the question – Who are you? In light of all that who are we?
Then explore what Francis at least meant by
“joy”. – Are we people of joy? What kind of joy do we aspire to?
What I want to happen:
People
to reflect on how they describe who they are in light of how John, Mary and
Francis answered that question
how
are we people of joy?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
ask everyone to take turns to ask each other –
Who are you? – how many ways can you answer that question….
2. Who are you John?
number of ways we can answer that question
two readings offer different takes
-
our
psalm from Luke 1 – Marys song
-
Gospel
reading from John 1 about John the Baptiser
lets look at John first
our question comes from Judean elite (Jews)
who sent some representatives to John to check him out
their question looking for 2 things
-
who
he claims to be – is he calling himself the Messiah
o tends not to go well with Romans and ends up
people dying
o do without that kind of kafuffle
-
his
genealogy – where does he fit in pecking order
o where many of us started with maybe
o establishes relationships – why so important
for Maori
his answer is interesting
-
offers
no genealogy at all
-
instead
offers three things
o “I am not….” – I am not the messiah (Phew)
o This scripture will tell you something about
what I do:
§ Jesus does same thing with another passage
from Isaiah
§ Francis kind of did that too – some to that
later
o If you want to really know what I’m about,
you’d have to know that I do this: I baptise
if we were to use that formula – how would we
answer
o who are you not?
o what scripture tells us something about what you do?
o what is it that we need to know about what you
do?
Pause
3. Mary’s song
Mary’s song or Magnificat is also her answer
to that question – who are you?
very different answer
two components
-
first
is answers in relation to who she is in God
o lowly servant
-
leads
her then celebrate all that God is
-
implicit
within this song is deep joy because of what God has done for her and all
Israel.
-
wonder
how many of us give similar answer
o for some of us we needed more time to get to
this kind of answer.
4. Francis
want to introduce third person
holds Mary and John together
-
like
John sought to live out various passages scripture
o around poverty and humility
-
like
Mary he was filled with joy because of all God did in him and through him – for
he was the most wretched of all sinners
talking about Francis of Assisi
-
God’s
fool
-
Minstrel
to the Lord
“what are the servants of God but his
minstrels who should lift up the hearts of people and move them to spiritual
joy”
One of his early brothers of brother Pacifico,
had been famous master of courtly songs – court minstrel – before joining Francis
-
Francis
asked him to go traveling with friars and join their singing of praises to God
and their preaching of the Gospels- for singing represented the spirit of joy
o common to see Francis and his brothers
travelling the countryside of Italy, singing and bursting with unrestrained joy
o renowned for it
o became a thing – Franciscan joy
-
when
another brother seen walking along with his head down and gloomy, Francis
rebuked him for such an outward display of sadness
-
suggested
that he keep his sorrow between him and God and to pray for a restoration of
his soul to the joy of God’s healing
-
“But
in front of me and others show yourself as always having joy; for it is not
fitting for a servant of God to show sadness outwardly, or to have a clouded
face.” (Praying with Francis by Joseph M.
Stoutzenberger and John D. Bohrer, p.100)
5. Perfect Joy
what is this joy that infected Francis
this joy became associated with him and his
brother friars
I want to finish by reading a story from
Murray Bodo’s “Tales of St. Francis”.
I offer it as a way for us to think about that
question posed to John
-
who
are you
-
and
John, Mary and Francis answered it.
On this Sunday we celebrate Advent joy
– invite you to consider what did Francis mean
by joy.
-
how
are we people of joy?
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