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Sermon December 19, 2021
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C
https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Advent/CAdv4_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__December_19__2021
Video: https://youtu.be/NkIK_9OseyQ
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And Mary said…. Luke 1:39-40, 46
Please be seated.
I think we've all heard of flight or fright; that when something is really scary and fearful for us we will tend to either run away from it or be paralyzed with fear.
But in recent years scientists have also remarked that there are other possibilities. One is known as tend and befriend. When a tough situation arises people in this mode, tend to gather together to support and help each other. That's what we hear about, I think, in our Gospel today.
Mary has received some pretty shocking news from the angel Gabriel. Not only will she bear a son who will be great and the Son of the most high, but her relative Elizabeth will also have a child. Both events seem impossible, and Mary accepts them both.
She travels 80 miles to her relative Elizabeth. I think this is the tend and befriend mode. Something seemingly impossible has happened and her desire is to be with this relative who is also having a similar seemingly impossible experience. They can tend to each other. They can share each other's joy and astonishment.
In the process of supporting each other, we hear these beautiful visions. Elizabeth affirms Mary's importance and what she will bring to the world. Mary proclaims a vision of how the world needs to be, a vision which these two babies to be born will help to bring to fruition.
Mary's vision is about turning the world upside down.
Yesterday I read about a recent book by Tyler Stovall, an award-winning historian of France. Unfortunately, Mr. Stovall died last week. In his latest book, titled White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea, he talks about different understandings of freedom. I've never thought about it in the way that he has studied it.
He says that to some people freedom means the freedom to dominate others. The freedom that some people describe requires the domination of others to maintain it. For others, freedom is freedom from domination. So the two groups clash; one group enforcing domination and the other group working to overthrow domination.
Even president Abraham Lincoln understood this.
In April 1864, as the Senate moved to approve the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery, Abraham Lincoln spoke to a crowd in Baltimore about this question of freedom, liberty and democracy. “We all declare for liberty,” he said, “but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.” With some, he continued, “the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor, while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor.”
So Mary's Magnificat is about overthrowing domination. For those in power, these words turn the world upside down. These words of Mary have been considered so subversive to those in power that in some country, they were banned from being translated out of the Latin.
And the example of Mary and Elizabeth and the words of Mary call us to action. They are not just passive words or a nice vision, but call us to make that vision a reality.
That was the case for Jonathan Daniels. He was in the Episcopal seminary in Boston, and heard these words anew. He knew he needed to go South and help with the civil rights movement. In 1965, he answered the call from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to come help register Black people to vote and to integrate public places. He ended up in Selma and even tried to integrate the local Episcopal Church.
He was arrested as part of a group of protesters during a protest of segregated stores in Fort Deposit, Alabama. The group was jailed for six days in Hayneville. They were finally released and were waiting for transportation to take them back to Selma. Daniels, a Roman Catholic priest and two women activists who were Black walked to a nearby store to get something to drink. However, barring the door to the store was Tom Coleman, an unpaid special deputy. He was pointing a shotgun and threatening one of the women in the group, Ruby Sales. Daniels pushed Ms. Sales to the ground just as Coleman pulled the trigger of the shotgun. Daniels was killed instantly.
Jonathan Daniels understood Mary's words to be about overthrowing domination and knew he had to be part of that effort. He unhesitatingly gave his life to make that domination go away.
We may not be called to give our lives like Jonathan Daniels or do seemingly impossible things like Mary and Elizabeth; however we are called to turn the world upside down so that it is more just for all people.
We do that in so many ways from simple things and acts of charity, to more complex advocacy. For any issue that you are interested in, there is an advocacy group working on it. In addition, the Episcopal Public Policy Network provides opportunities for us to become involved.
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve had a notice about Episcopal Election Activators. You can apply to become one and meet regularly to develop and implement strategies to help increase voter turnout and increase participation in elections.
May we follow Mary's example and be spurred to action so that we too may magnify the Lord.
Amen
Jonathan Daniels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Daniels
Episcopal Election Activators https://www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/office-government-relations/episcopal-election-activators/?mc_cid=1a54c45514&mc_eid=30e41dc07b
