SERMON ~ 12/23/2018 ~ Fourth Sunday of Advent ~ “Souls Proclaiming Greatness”

READINGS: 12/23/2018 ~ Fourth Sunday of Advent ~ The Sunday on Which the Christian Virtue of Joy Is Celebrated ~ Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45, (46-55).

Souls Proclaiming Greatness

“Then Mary said, / ‘My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, / and my spirit rejoices in You, my Savior.’” — Luke 1:46-47.

I have delved into the story I’m about to tell before but with a different emphasis.  Besides, I have not reviewed or revived this tale in quite some time.  So please forgive me as I wade into these waters again.

In 1983 I had a friend who went for a three day battery of psychological and skills tests at the Northeast Career Center in New Jersey.  While this is an overstatement, I like to call that process “three days of ‘What does this ink blot mean?’”  [The pastor holds up a sheet of paper as if displaying a page with an ink blot.]

The reputation of this organization is ‘they know what they are doing.’  That’s because they have a serious track record.  They have been conducting psychological and skills testing since the mid-1920s.

My friend had been working in the advertising business as a copywriter.  Having completed the three days of work, the Career Center suggested to my friend there might be a different career to be pursued.  The recommendation suggested the legal profession was an appropriate arena for work given his skill set.

So he entered Princeton University Law School.  He eventually wound up as the editor of the law review at Princeton and later went to work at a big corporate law firm on Wall Street.

Seeing this result— that a writer changed careers to the law— caught my interest.  I was at that time making my living as a writer— often a hand to mouth existence— and the law does seem to be a more lucrative, stable profession than writing.

And so, in 1986 I went through the same three day battery of tests, hoping I also would get a similar recommendation— attend law school.  When the tests were done the Center said they had good news and bad news.

They did not recommend the law.  But that was really not the bad news.  The bad news was, they said, not only should I be a writer, but I was off their charts on that skill set.  How is that bad news?  Simple— not too many people actually make a living just writing.

Even many people who are famous writers, said the staff at center, do other things to keep food on the table.  They teach, especially at the University level, conduct seminars and, for a fee— usually a high fee when you’re famous— give talks at corporate meetings.

But there was good news.  Most people test as doing one thing really well and nothing else particularly well.  I, on the other hand, tested as doing one thing well and nearly everything else at least adequately well or even a cut above average.

That was good news since— I should add they said I should never be an airplane pilot.— that was good news since writers, if writing is all they do well, wind up as starving artists.  But, because I did many things with a reasonable degree of competence, they said, it was unlikely I would ever starve.  (Slight pause.)

In fact, the real goal of a place like the Northeast Career Center is not so much to detect skills as to put you in touch with yourself, help you analyze, self-analyze who you are.  If you can do that kind of analyzation successfully once, doing it over and over again can become routine.

Understanding who you are, being able to assess where you’re at, digging deep into the soul with consistency is an invaluable asset.  And, in order to constantly and consistently assess where you’re at, self examination is the kind of skill which needs to be practiced and practiced and practiced some more.

I think self examination needs to be and to become regular, constant.  It was, after all, Socrates who said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  (Slight pause.)

This is found in Luke: “Then Mary said, / ‘My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, / and my spirit rejoices in You, my Savior.’”  (Slight pause.)

A couple weeks ago I was chatting with someone who was retired.  This person said one of the pratfalls into which she fell upon retirement was not being able to let go of her work.

Why?  She came to realize her identity was tied up with what she had done in her work life.  Therefore, her identity was about what she did rather than who she was.

Once she was able to let go of what she did, it freed her to be who she was.  But this movement, this change took a couple years.

Frankly, many people find their identity in their work.  But is that who we are?  (Slight pause.)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism of the Anglican tradition says the purpose of humanity, each of us, is to glorify God.  The Baltimore Catechism of the Roman tradition says the purpose of humanity, each of us, is to know God, to love God, to serve God.  I want to suggest these two are intertwined, inseparable.

I want to suggest glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God is about who we are, not about what we do.  And I also want to suggest glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God— these are not even a possibility unless we first know ourselves.

But that raises questions: how do we know ourselves?  How can we know ourselves?  (Slight pause.)

First and to be clear, I think we can know ourselves only in part.  Testing is invaluable because we can never know ourselves fully.  There is always a new avenue to explore, another way to look at ourselves.  But second, because we can never know ourselves fully, one of the best ways to find out about our own self is to listen to what others say about us.

Indeed, I believe when we allow others to examine, to explain, to affirm who we are that can be an essential way of getting to better know ourselves.  Other people can help us in the process.  (Slight pause.)

When this reading from Luke was introduced it was said Luke has a number of stories in the first two chapters.  All of the stories, not just the Nativity of the Christ, are important.  And we need to pay attention to everything in the first two chapters and not separate out the Nativity because these two chapter are a whole.

Given that, when Mary proclaims the greatness of God she has already been affirmed twice.  She has been affirmed by Gabriel and was told (quote:) “Blessed are you among women.”  She is then affirmed by Elizabeth who also says (quote:) “Blessed are you among women.”

And so, having been affirmed Mary proclaims.  Mary proclaims by and through glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God because Mary knows who she is.  Mary knows who she is in part because she has been affirmed.

And Mary knows, because of that affirmation, what her true identity is.  She is a child of God.

And this may be key.  I think we cannot glorify God, know God, love God, serve God in the most effective way we are able without knowing and affirming who we are, who each of us is individually.  And who are we?  We are children of God.  (Slight pause.)

That presents an obvious question: who am I?  The testing helped.  But it didn’t really tell me who I am.  My answer is, like Mary, I am a child of God.  I am a child of God and I am, thereby, empowered to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God

There is, I think, a second, equally obvious question: who are we, as a church?  You see, Mary received affirmation from others.  And the community of faith, this group who we commonly call a church, needs to be a place where affirmation happens.

I maintain unless we affirm one another we cannot fully, to the best of the ability of each individual and to the best of the abilities of the whole, function effectively as a community, function effectively as a church.  And who do we need to be?  What do we need to do as a church?  We need to empowered to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God.

Hence, as we move forward through these next months it would be wise of us to ask a simple question.  Who are we?  Who are we as individuals.  Who are we as a church?  Indeed, this process of self-examination, this process of just asking questions about who we are might help us envision the future.

So to reiterate, do we, as individuals, strive to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God?  Do we, as a church, as a community of faith, strive to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God?  Amen.

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “New Testament scholar Nicholas Thomas Wright says the Realm of God as it is found in the Gospels is not about getting to heaven.  The Realm of God as it is found in the Gospels is about the transformation of life here, now.  I say if we as a church, truly glorify God, know God, love God, serve God then we will, as a church, be working toward the transformation of life here, now.  What does transformation look like?  Mary said what it looks like.  It looks like the equity which happens when the proud are scattered, the powerful brought down, the mighty disposed, the lowly raised to high places, the hungry filled with good things.  And who will accomplish this?”

[The Children’s Time at the service today had ended with a very large mirror being held up first to the children and then to the Congregation.  At this point the pastor took that same mirror and held it up to the Congregation while not saying one word before intoning the Benediction.]

BENEDICTION: Let us be present to one another as we go from this place.  Let us share our gifts, our hopes, our memories, our pain and our joy.  Go in peace for God is with us.  Go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation.  Go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being.  Go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that God is steadfast.  Amen.