Sermon, December 22, 2002
4th Sunday of Advent, Year B
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Sermon, December 22, 2002
4th Sunday of Advent, Year B
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Gospel – Luke 1:26-38 The Annunciation to Mary
"Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."
Traditionally many religions including Christianity have used feminine imagery to speak of God’s Spirit and God’s Wisdom in the world. The Hebrews used the word Sophia to personify the creative, active presence of God’s Wisdom-Spirit within creation.
Some people will imagine the presence of that Spirit within us, at the center of our being, a few inches behind our belly button. In a place that is deeper than thought, close to the heart yet even deeper than emotion. Spiritual directors have encouraged those on the spiritual journey to listen and to be open to God’s direction within, to the prompting of Sophia, Wisdom, Spirit. That prompting is often accessed through another feminine resource, our intuition. Intuitive openness and acceptance of the Spirit’s yearning for us is an ancient path for God’s creative activity. God honors us by inviting us into cooperation with what God is doing, allowing us to be co-creators with God’s Spirit in the new birth of God’s blessing.
"Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."
One of the things people will say over and over is that God is full of surprises. What God is up to is truly unpredictable. Another thing people will say is that comes to us through our weaknesses, often using our most frightening life-events to announce a new beginning.
That’s what happened to a young peasant girl in Galilee. She found herself inconveniently pregnant. It was a pregnancy that could cause scandal and would probably ruin her plans for her future. But she experienced a message from God so powerful that it seemed personified. The message first told her that she was not condemned, but favored. That God loved her and blessed her, as odd as that seemed under the circumstances. And something about the message took away her fear, as perfect love always does. Perfect love always casts out fear. She heard the message in her depths. "God favors you. Do not be afraid." "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."
When I imagine the Annunciation to Mary, I imagine it right here, right below the belly button, in the very center of her being, in that intuitive place where we experience Sophia, Wisdom, Spirit and where God invites us to be co-creators to cooperate in what God is doing. And Mary is not the only one pregnant with the gestating birth of God’s being in the world. You too carry God’s work within you and God’s Wisdom speaks gently at the center of your own vulnerability saying, "You have favor with God. Do not be afraid. Listen."
Edwina Gateley is a Roman Catholic lay minister who writes and teaches. She also has served in many kinds of street ministries. It is part of her discipline to listen intuitively to Sophia, the Wisdom and Spirit within, and to try to cooperate with whatever God may want to do through her.
Once when she was in an argument trying to convince the Catholic hierarchy to empower lay ministry, she heard that messenger of Wisdom saying to her, "I am the God of the back door." She understood that God creeps around the edges, always looking for little spots, for avenues. That the God of surprises will come round from the back. Rarely, she says, will we encounter God’s surprises up front. They slip in gently, elusively, and if you listen very carefully, you may well hear the laughter of the Spirit of Sophia in those kinds of events.
One evening she was following her belly button instinct and found herself led into a back street in a poor area of Chicago. Something told her that it was important for her to be in a certain area and certain place. Maybe she would experience God’s presence there.
She followed her instinct to a tavern with boarded up windows, dingy, small, gritty. It was dark inside. She could feel the bodies, hear the loud music, dancing. She went to the front of the bar. "What am I doing here?" she asked herself, yet instinctively she knew she was supposed to be here.
She went up and sat on a barstool. "Glass of wine, please." Thinking, "Come on God, what now?" Then the door opened. An older woman in her late 50's came in carrying a plastic bag. She walked to the front, climbed on the barstool next to Edwina, hit her fist on the bar and said, "Hey Joe, give me a jug." He gave her a jug of wine.
She turned to Edwina and said, "Hi Hon." "Hello." "Are you hungry?" "Well, oh, uh, a little bit," Edwina muttered, trying to be open. "Thank God for that! I haven’t eaten for three days, and I just stole this loaf of bread from Jewel and I’ve been looking for someone to share it with."
She leaned down into her plastic bag and she took a jumbo sliced loaf of bread. She opened it and took out a big white slice of bread with no butter or anything on it, took out a can of tuna fish which had no lid on it, took her fist and grabbed a fist full of tuna fish, slapped it on the dry bread, took another slice and stuck it on top and said, "Here you are Hon." Edwina mumbled, "Thank you?" looking at the huge jumbo sandwich of dry bread and tuna fish.
"You know Hon," said the woman, "it’s real hard to make it these days. I only make five or six bucks a day, you know. Just the odd taxi driver. I used to do well, but I don’t do so well nowadays." Edwina was thinking, "What’s she talking about?" "But you’re still young, Hon. You’re still young, you know. With my experience -- I know where all the guys are; I know where all the tricks are -- with my experience and your body we could team up; we’d make a good team, and it would just help me so much; we’d be able to manage. Would you help me? Would you, please work with me Hon?"
"Oh my God," thought Edwina. "Oh, she thinks I’m a prostitute. And she wants to partner with me. What am I gonna do?" With an apologetic tone, she replied to the woman, "I’m sorry. I’m not a prostitute. I’m a Catholic minister."
The woman’s eyes got big. "What are you doing here? What are you doing here in this place Hon?" "I’m having a drink." "Do you know what this place is? This is a hooker bar, Hon. This is where the guys come and pick up that gals. We ain’t never had a Christian minister in this place before. Ain’t never had nobody like that." And she put her arms around Edwina and she began to tell her life story. Her story of abuse; her story of violence. All they did in that dirty place that night was hold on to each other on the barstools. Edwina held her and rocked her and she sobbed and she sobbed and she told her life story. All Edwina could do was just hold the woman in her embrace.
As she left the bar that night, she thought to herself. "I went in there hoping that somehow because I dared to be present in a place where I felt I needed to be that night that maybe God would break through. I thought I was bringing that with me. And I sat there. The old lady came in and she brought the bread. She broke it and she gave it to me. She brought the fish and she took it and gave it to me. We took the wine and we shared it. Then she embraced me and we kissed one another and she told me her story. ...I knew in that bar that night, there was a eucharistic event. And I felt the power of Sophia, Wisdom, Spirit saying, ‘I will show you my wisdom and I will show you my ways if you dare to see things differently and if you dare to be open and follow in the places where I dance and where I move." (from Edwina Gateley, Discipleship: Turning the World Upside Down, audiotape available from St. Anthony Messenger)
In the center of your being, Sophia, Wisdom, Spirit speaks to you saying, "God favors you. Do not be afraid." All it takes to be a co-creator with God is to respond like Mary, "Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word."
A simple, trusting, "Yes."