Preacher: Pastor Jennifer Hosler, PhD
Date: December 10, 2023
Scripture: Mark 1:1-8, Luke 1:39-55
I learned a new word recently: muzak. I was reading a Bethany Theological Seminary update email with a reflection by President Jeff Carter that included this word, discussing the saturation of stores with Christmas background music during this season. Momentarily puzzled, I wasn’t sure if he was derisive, like the background music wasn’t good enough to be called “Music”. A google search was in order and Wikipedia told me that “Muzak is an American brand of background music played in retail stores and other public establishments” (Wikipedia, 2023).
I don’t shop much or really spend a ton of time in places with background music. At a few different points recently, I found myself not being able to think or really hear my conversation partners, because of the oppressive Christmas-themed muzak turned up so loud. Muzak is part of the cultural incongruence between the often overbearing, overwhelmingly capitalistic interpretation of Christmas.
The messages of muzak and our capitalistic Christmas fervor is jingle, jingle, shop, buy, merry, happy, bells, lights, food, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts (did I say buy?), happy. The vibe of Advent, if you will, is a bit different. Withering grass and fading flowers. Calls for repentance. The powerful being cast down, the rich being sent away empty…
I know that it can be hard for some folks not to have the happy Christmas songs during Advent and, especially in other years, we try to do a little mix of joyful songs with Advent yearning for light amidst darkness. Yet this year of all years, the Longing for Light theme – sitting in that expectant longing for God’s in-breaking in this world – feels like the most honest fit biblically. It also stands in solidarity with our siblings in Christ in Palestine where in Bethlehem, as Nate spoke last week, Christmas celebrations have been “cancelled” due to the war in Gaza.
For what I assume is most folks around the country and the world, there is a strong desire to do Christmas as normal. The White House is certainly doing Christmas as normal. There is no HINT that there is a war going on or that, for any reason, the festivities should be tempered. There is no inclusion of somber Advent themes we read in our lectionary scriptures. In fact, the 2023 theme is “Magic, Wonder, and Joy.” The description says, “The 2023 White House Holiday Display is designed to capture the pure, unfiltered delight and imagination of childhood, and encourage visitors to reflect on this time of year with hearts open to the “Magic, Wonder, and Joy” of the season.”
For many people focused on the thousands of children dead in Gaza – a war that has been the deadliest to children than any other war in recent times – this theme comes off as terribly, inhumanely tone-deaf. Yet this week I saw another voice speak out in contrast, with a different Christmas image.
Pastor Munther Isaac challenges us with a voice we do not expect during the Christmas season, but it is a voice that is a reality of the pain and suffering that exists amidst the lights and shimmering decorations. He says, “While the world is celebrating Christmas, at the birthplace of Jesus, this is what Christmas looks like in Palestine.” Watch a video here, then come back to the sermon.
These Christmas juxtapositions stand as a prophetic witness to not fall asleep amidst our safety and comfort. It reminds me of the poem that Brad Hendrickson shared with us in November, from Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky, We lived happily during the war. We need voices of poets and pastors and artists and activists and prophets to give us eyes that see beyond our own individual circumstances. Voices like that of poet Refaat Alareer, who died in Gaza. These are voices we do not expect, but sorely need.
Advent is about voices in the wilderness, voices we do not expect, preparing the way for transformation in our hearts. These voices we do not expect challenge our assumptions, turning them upside-down, calling us to an alternative reality of God’s in-breaking in this world. Our scripture passage today has an unexpected voice: Mary, expectant mother of Jesus.
Our passage in Luke features two people who were unlikely to be in the religious or cultural spotlight of their time. Mary, a young betrothed Jewish teenager living in first century Judea, under the occupation of the Roman Empire. She was most likely poor, and she didn’t marry into money either. She was young and she was a woman. None of these characteristics made Mary into a person of much notice. And yet – it is to her that the angel Gabriel appears, it is to her that he says, “Greetings, favored one,” and it is she who says “Yes” to God. This teenage girl accepts her call, the angel leaves, and then she heads directly to her cousin Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is not your typical star of the show either; she is described as “getting on in years” in the NRSVue. While she was married to a priest, the lack of a child would have placed a significant amount of stigma upon her. Mary arrives and Elizabeth, as the angel said, is with child – and we see the Spirit of God at work in these two women on the margins. Elizabeth feels the Holy Spirit inspired wiggles and kicks of the in-utero John the Baptist and remarks about the blessedness of her unwed teenage cousin and this other coming child.
Then, this unwed teenage girl starts to prophesy: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor on the lowly state of God’s servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name.” Mary describes how God, in great mercy, is at work to turn the world upside-down. God is scattering the proud and arrogant. God is casting down the powerful and lifting up the powerless. God is filling up the hungry with nourishing food, while sending the rich away emptyhanded.
Mary – unwedded teenage Mary, a young woman whose testimony would not hold up in court–it is she who speaks forth the song of God’s works. It is she who recalls that Yahweh is on the side of the powerless. It is she who declares God’s an alternative reality. It is she who has been deemed worthy to be the One to nurture God incarnate. Mary is a voice that we do not expect. The very act of her prophecy speaks volumes itself of how God is at work in and through the people we might overlook or disregard. Mary was a Galilean nobody and female to boot – but the angel called her favored one and she stepped forward in faithfulness for a journey she couldn’t imagine, trusting that the Might One would once again do great things.
Who are the voices, like Mary, that we overlook? Who are the voices we may not hear due to their gender or social status or geographic location or ethnicity or political beliefs or so much more? There are interpersonal and society, local and global implications for all of this and all of us.
One voice I did not expect God to speak through was a person with chronic, debilitating illness. I recently visited a person with dementia. While he forgets the names of his loved ones, he remembers much. Someone was speaking about the hymn Amazing Grace and, to everyone’s surprise, this person began to hum the tune of Amazing Grace. When he finished one verse, he then proceeded to sing all the words of the doxology. “Praise God from whom all blessing flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.” It was moving for many reasons: in the midst of much loss, this brother in Christ still has his faith and can still praise God. Not only that, but this brother ministered to all of us in the room at that moment, hearing the words of faith and affirmation. His song reminded me that we are to see the light of God in every individual, no matter how much the world wants us to overlook them. God speaks through voices that we do not expect. Who are the voices that society overlooks? Who are the voices that they or we do not expect God to speak from?
God is scattering the proud and arrogant. God is casting down the powerful and lifting up the powerless. God is filling up the hungry with nourishing food, while sending the rich away emptyhanded.
Are our Advent and Christmas observances shaped by the Magnificat? If God is scattering the proud, the arrogant, casting down the powerful and lifting up the powerless, filling up the hungry with food and sending the rich away emptyhanded, where will we be amidst that divine revolution? How can we walk through Christmas shaped by the Magnificat, in solidarity with the grieving, the sick, the hungry, the people overwhelmed by war? Sisters and brothers, siblings in Christ, let us look for God to speak through the voices we do not expect. AMEN.
References
Wikipedia. (2023). Muzak. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzak
Washington City Church of the Brethren 