Epworth United Methodist Church

Epworth United Methodist Church
The Rev. David Weekley
December 20,2009
Luke 1:39-45

Mary’s Song

Last week’s wonderful presentation by our Sunday school class and youth, “Night Max to Bethlehem” reminded me of a Sunday school Christmas program from several years ago; it was a first grade class who decided to get together and write their version of the nativity story.

Just like our presentation last week, this classes’ interpretation was more modern than the traditional story.

Yes, there were the familiar cast members: there was Joseph, the shepherds, three wise men, a brilliant star and shepherds- with an angel propped in the background.

But Mary was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly there were loud moans and groans coming from backstage, behind the bales of hay.

Apparently Mary was in labor.

Soon afterward a doctor arrived, complete with white coat and stethoscope.

Joseph, with a relieved look on his face, took the doctor to Mary and then began pacing back and forth in the “waiting room” just outside the inn.

After a few moments the “doctor” emerged with a big smile on her face and announced, “Congratulations Joseph, it’s a God!”

Christmas really is about seeing things differently.

It’s about breaking tradition images and moving outside the box.

Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, during which Elizabeth proclaims her song and is responded by what we know as Mary’s song, the Magnificat, is far more than two women meeting together- it is the announcement of Jesus as the Messiah, as Savior to our world.

Unlike the culture surrounding her, or our culture today, Mary’s unplanned pregnancy is not a problem for her. It is a reason to rejoice in what God is doing for all the people on earth in hers and in every generation to follow- including us.

And the child Mary carries will be a mighty but an untraditional king, a king who lives outside the box as well: this is a Messiah God will use to bring down the powerful from their thrones, from their arrogance.

This is a Messiah who will go out seeking the least, the last, the outcast and the lowly of heart.

The real Christmas should shatter our cultural expectations and push us also to move outside the box- including the beautifully decorated gifts boxes we have come to associate with this season.

At its best, Christmas moves us to see things differently- to see between this meeting of Mary and Elizabeth the beginning of God’s ability to turn the world upside down.

I am reminded of the word, “iconoclast”, which literally means, “image breakers.”

To be an iconoclast is to literally be a person who attacks traditional images, ideas or institutions.

Every Christmas we celebrate Jesus as an iconoclast when we acknowledge that in Jesus God is turning the world upside down, as Mary proclaims, “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” [Luke 1:51-53]

Have we forgotten?

To celebrate an iconoclastic Christmas is to worship an iconoclastic God.

But this image-breaker named Jesus is not devoted to destruction, like the word may sound.

Actually the work of an iconoclast is usually very creative and constructive.

According to the business magazine, “Fast Company”, iconoclasts, “do what tradition-minded people say cannot be done, and they do it by seeing things differently.”

I found myself watching a Walt Disney Christmas special recently and I realized how he was an iconoclast.

This was someone who could have been satisfied with a living of making decent illustrations, or drawing cartoons on paper.

But he had a vision outside the box; he realized animation’s full potential when he saw his cartoons animated on a big screen- that’s seeing things very differently.

More recently, think about Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who began a service in the mid-1990’s called Backrub.com. They changed the name to Google, which is a play on the word googol, a term used to describe the number 1 with a 100 zeroes behind it: in other words, Google, according to their vision, is a web tool that can organize an infinite amount of information- which it does today.

Walt Disney and Google are iconoclasts in today’s world, seeing things differently, shattering traditions and making contributions that are creative and constructive- from this perspective we can see and we can say that Jesus is our first iconoclast.

Which brings us back to Mary and Elizabeth, who see things not for what they are but for what they might become.

The traditional culture of their day would imprison Mary and Elizabeth in the role of second class citizens, with more shame placed upon Mary as an unwed mother. But neither Mary nor Elizabeth buy into this interpretation of their lives, and so when Mary greets Elizabeth she exclaims, “Blessed are you among women…”
With the help of the Holy Spirit Elizabeth sees that God is breaking human and cultural traditions and doing things differently, by sending a Savior to the world through a young woman named Mary.

So what could it mean for us to celebrate an iconoclastic Christmas?

Maybe it could mean that we get busy together to become creative and constructive, seeing things not for what they appear to be but for what they might become as we live into faith together.

Mary invites us to see things differently and to find joy in a new place- in the gift of God’s love.

This is truly good news for all of us, in the midst of economic turmoil, layoffs, investment looses and personal instabilities in our lives.

When the world around us does not appear to care, the song of Mary and the message of the gospel is that God loves us and cares about us.

When the immediate future seems uncertain, God promises to do great things for us.

Yesterday one of our grown children told us that they are not giving any gifts to the adults in our family because, after all, Christmas is for the kids and they want to give them a lot of presents. I was saddened by this, not because I am not receiving a present from them, but because of what they think Christmas is, and what they are teaching their children that Christmas is.

The bottom line is that when the wrapping paper is cleaned up and the decorations are put away we need to join Jesus, the good shepherd, in working for a better world for all people, especially the outcast, the poor, the lost and the lonely.

We need to join Jesus in a world where the powerful are held accountable and the powerless are given support and opportunity.

This is Mary’s song of an iconoclastic Christmas. Mary invites us to sing with her not only at Christmas but every day of the year.

Christmas is all about moving from what to what might be, from seeing what is to what may become, for all people.

This is what Elizabeth did as she welcomed an unwed mother with joy.

And this is what Mary did when she rejoiced in her pregnancy and God’s spirit with her.

And this is what Jesus did when he entered the world to save us from our broken and limited vision of life, and to declare God’s love and justice for all people.

Today, may we join this movement as Christian Christmas iconoclasts.

One closing image from the poet William Blake:

“To see a World in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a Wild Flower.

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.”

I wish you all a very merry and iconoclastic Christmas!

Amen.