A Magnificent Revolution Advent3A St Luke's Jamestown

      A couple of weeks ago I saw a meme on Facebook which read: “I don’t think we’ll understand Advent correctly until we see it as preparation for a revolution.” (Robert Berron).
Those words  hit me like a ton of bricks. Because yes, what we are preparing for, the birth of the messiah, is a revolution. This revolution is not one of guns and bombs, or of a collapsed stock market, or of impeachment proceedings in Washington. No, this revolution is a revolution of love. Of God’s love. A love so massive, so unrelenting, so universal that when accepted, when received, when welcomed and when embraced by humanity, this love has changed, is changing and will change this world.
       Welcome to the third Sunday of Advent. Welcome to the third week of our preparation for the greatest revolution of all time, a revolution we hear Mary sing about in today’s canticle, a revolution of saying yes to God and of saying yes to God coming to us in the flesh, Jesus.
    Why a revolution? Because God coming to be among us in the form of a baby, born to Mary and Joseph, God living as one of us in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, God living among us as someone who lifts the downtrodden, who challenges those in authority, who destroys the systems of evil and then dies on the cross, that God, this God, our God, isn’t interested in managing us like some puppet master, no this God, our God, is interested in being us. God, presented to us through the yes of Mary and Joseph in the person of Jesus, is the leader of a revolution, a revolution to turn this world upside down and inside out—returning creation to its original intent—-a manifestation of God’s love, in living, technicolor glory.
    Today we’re talking about the kind of revolution that begins with God choosing a young peasant girl to bear the greatest gift ever given to humanity, it continues with a stalwart fiancé who chooses to stand by Mary even though all the cultural, religious and legal norms of the day implored him to discard her like a piece of day old trash. Today we’re talking about a revolution born inside that barn , because there was no room at the inn. Today we are talking about a revolution that lives and moves and gains its meaning through every single one of us who proclaim Jesus as Lord, who join with Mary in her anthem of breaking down the unjust and immoral structures of the day, raising the lowly, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and embracing the outcast. Today, in the middle of Advent 2019, we sing Mary’s song of revolution not as a sweet homage to lowly Mary, chosen by God, we sing it as a promise to her and to her God and to her Son that this revolution, the revolution of Jesus Christ, still lives in each and every one of us.
     If I had my druthers I would spend all of Advent focusing on Mary and Joseph. Because the story of Mary and Joseph is meant, in my opinion, to be our story. Because Mary saying yes to God, Mary saying no to tradition, no to the cultural rules of the day, no to the norm… and Joseph doing the same, this is the foundation of what it means to be Christian, to be followers of Jesus Christ here in Jamestown, here at St Luke’s. For to be part of this revolution we must always say no to darkness, no to evil, no to oppression, no to unchecked power. In this revolution we say yes to light, yes to love, and we offer this yes to everyone, everywhere, always, as long as we take breath.

     The revolution of Jesus began when Gabriel said—-“ummmm guess what Mary? You’ve been  been chosen to be the Theotokos—-the God bearer.” Now most of the art depicting this scene show a very holy Mary saying of course, why wouldn’t I, thanks for asking.” I don’t believe it. Mary had to have been terrified. What God was asking her to do had so many implications—-those she knew of and those she couldn’t even imagine. And yet, this 14 year old girl said yes. That is strength, that is courage—it is the stuff of a revolution.
 What Mary unleashed with her yes was a revolution and her song, the Magnificat, was her rallying cry.

 I implore us all to have it be ours as well:
I pray that our souls will at all times and in all places declare the Greatness of the Lord and that we will always rejoice in that.
I pray that we will do our part to cast down the cruel from their thrones, raising the meek and the honorable in all we do.
I pray that the hungry will be fed, the lonely will be loved and the excluded will be brought into the fold. ‘For when we do that, when we follow the spirit of Mary’s Song, when we follow the path she took of always trusting God even when it pierced her heart and worried her soul, when we do all of this, at all times and in all things, we will perpetuate the revolution that is Christianity. The revolution that is following the teachings of Jesus to love, no matter what.
When we do that, really do that, you know, as well as I do, that we will change this world.
And that, my friends is the stuff of revolution.


Amen.