The banner “Freed in Christ to Serve” hung in the convention center where the assembly was held.
Luke: 1:26-38, 46-55
Mary, Mother of Our Lord
Grace to you and peace in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I have a question, so all of you take out your imaginary voting machines.
Here is the question: “Like Mary, are we as a church ready to be moved by the power of the Holy Spirit?”
Press 1 for Yes
Press 2 for No
Press 3 for “Moved? I just got here!”
Press 4 for “I am totally confused, Bishop.”
Vote now. Voting is closed. Let’s see the results. My screen says: “No results at this time. They will be posted Friday before adjournment.”
Are we ready?
Are we ready, as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, for the Holy Spirit to move us as the Spirit moved Mary? To know the answer we first must ask, “Are we ready to begin where Mary began when she responded to God’s interrupting, God’s disrupting word of promise by asking, ‘How can this be?’”
When was your life last so interrupted, so disrupted by God’s grace that all you could say was, “How can this be?” Or has your life become so well-ordered, routines so set, relationships so secure, ministries so predictable that you honestly cannot remember the last time you joined with Mary in her pondering and her wondering, “How can this be?”
Perhaps it is just the opposite for you. Maybe your life has been in such turmoil — the economy so volatile, relationships so unstable, giving to your congregation so variable that nothing surprises you, nothing leaves you asking, “How can this be?”
Back to the question. Are we ready for the Holy Spirit to move us as the Spirit moved Mary? Are we ready to be moved from a “How can this be?” church to a “Let it be to us according to your Word” church?
To know the answer, we must ask whether we as a church stand with Mary. Is our response to God’s absolutely interrupting, disrupting, dislocating, relocating, amazing grace Mary’s response of awe and wonder? Or has God’s disrupting word of promise become so familiar, so predictable, so domesticated by us that it leaves us neither perplexed nor pondering?
The announcement to Mary
Just try to imagine what the angel Gabriel’s announcement was like for Mary. “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you!”
Mary had to have wondered, “With me? The Lord has found favor with me? Why? I have done nothing worthy of drawing God’s attention. The Lord is with me? How can that possibly be?”
Oh, but Gabriel was not done. “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and his name will be Jesus.” And he kept going … “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
“How can this be? Me, pregnant? I am a virgin. My child shall be called ‘Son of the Most High’ … the name reserved only for the son of Caesar. How is it possible that I can be both in a favored place, a favored relationship with God and yet — with this news that Gabriel brings me — I will be outside my community’s moral boundaries in a place of disfavor? How can this be?”
What does this mean for you?
Have you ever been there? Are you standing with Mary today? Does God’s word of promise spoken to you not fit with how the community — yes, let us be honest, how the community of faith — regards or disregards you? Do you hear the church’s commitment to being freed in Christ to serve the poor, but deep within you wonder what it is going to be like and how they will respond when you are honest with your fellow church members that you are one who is living in poverty, home facing foreclosure and unemployed for 18 months or longer?
Are there those who deserve to hear God’s disrupting, inviting word of grace, but they are having trouble getting within earshot of hearing it because they have been made to feel so unacceptable, so peripheral to our communities of faith? Do we talk so warmly about welcoming the stranger, the sojourner, but we really do not want to know about the one — the immigrant who lives in fear among us, lacking documentation?
What is it that you carry deep inside? What awareness about who you are or what you have done in the past? What fear of the future? What struggle diminishes your sense of self worth and makes you feel less than whole as a person?
God’s word to you
Friends, God’s gracious word of promise disrupts all such fears and feelings that have you trapped. God says to you today, “You are not less than human. In Christ you are a new creation. I do not hold your sins against you anymore. You are not peripheral. I have taken you in my merciful arms. In Christ, you are reconciled to me and to those from whom you feel such deep alienation.”
“Do not be afraid.” This is God’s gift of grace given to you for Jesus’ sake. “How can this be?” It really is okay to be there with Mary, perplexed and pondering over the awe and the wonder of God’s disrupting grace given to you for Jesus’ sake.
“How can this be?” was more than Mary’s response to Gabriel’s greeting and announcement of her pregnancy. “How can this be?” became the refrain that became the response to the public ministry of Mary’s child. As people saw Jesus extend the embrace of God’s reign to outcasts and sinners, as Jesus embraced the despised and the diseased, as Jesus boldly healed on the Sabbath and engaged a Samaritan women in a public conversation about living water, as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and rankled religious authorities, his critics cried out, “How can this be?”
Finally Jesus caused such disruption with God’s gracious word of promise that the cry, “How can this be?” turned into shouts of “This must not be. Crucify him! Crucify him!” Even the angel’s announcement on Easter morning, “He is not here. He is risen.” left Jesus’ followers fearful and bewildered, asking, “How can this be? How can it be that not even death has the final word with us?”
It’s tempting to be content
But it is tempting for us to stay there, is it not? It is tempting for us as the ELCA to be content as a “How can this be” church, a community that finds its comfort zone among the ponderers. Skepticism becomes our first response when someone tells us of God’s disrupting, interrupting grace in their life. Suspicion becomes is our first posture toward our neighbor.
So are we ready for the Holy Spirit to move us with Mary? I believe that, as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we are being moved by the power of the Holy Spirit to sing Mary’s song of God’s disrupting, dislocating and relocating power.
Oh, yes, I believe the Holy Spirit is moving us to sing Mary’s Magnificat not only in the security of our sanctuaries, but also in the public square. It will take the Spirit’s power to embolden us to sing of God scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts and bringing down the powerful from their thrones.
In the midst of the gridlock over the debt ceiling and debt reduction debate, I went to Washington, D.C., to join other religious leaders in singing Mary’s song about God’s promise to fill the hungry with good things. But, I can tell you, the refrains of Mary’s song were not resounding throughout those halls of power. There seemed to be more willingness to dismantle programs than to draw a circle of protection around those programs that serve the hungry, the homeless, the most vulnerable in our land and around the world.
Friends, you know and I know that religious leaders singing Mary’s song are not packing people into sports stadiums for so-called religious rallies. In a consumer-oriented, competitive, what-has-God-done-for-me-lately? religious marketplace, we are not going to hear much about God dismantling structures that marginalize and exclude people in poverty or those whose race or gender or citizenship or sexual orientation, physical or mental abilities or health make them unwanted, unnoticed.
But that is Mary’s song, and it is Mary’s song that the Holy Spirit will give you the courage and voice to sing. It is Mary’s song of God bringing the despised and the marginalized, the outcast and the downcast, the defeated and the denied, and even the dead into a new place. The place where God is building the new creation — the new community in Christ.
When we have been disrupted by God’s grace, when we have been dislocated, when we have been knocked off balance by God’s word of judgment and left wondering, “How can this be?” the Holy Spirit moves us. The Holy Spirit relocates us into God’s abundant mercy, into a community of faith that with Mary believes “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
Oh yes, this is who we are as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — a community freed in Christ to serve. So let this assembly unfold. Come, Holy Spirit. Come with your power, Holy Spirit. Move us as you moved Mary. Move us to sing, to live Mary’s song. Move us to faith. Move us to a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Move us to respond with Mary, “Here am I — here we are. Let it be to me — let it be to us, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, according to your word.”
So, like Mary, are we ready to be moved by the power of the Holy Spirit? Don’t forget — by adjournment Friday, we will have given our answer. Amen.
Mark S. Hanson has served as ELCA presiding bishop since 2001.
Sir,
What is the location of the picture in the upper left corner? The picture with the tapestry "Freed in Christ to Serve."
This is the lobby area of the hotel conference center where the assembly was held.
I like how you emphasized in this blog the interruption of God into our lives. He pursues us and I love the phrasing, "God’s absolutely interrupting, disrupting, dislocating, relocating, amazing grace love" that is what it is. I believe that is part of what we are seeing in India. God interrupting.
I have a question for Bishop Hansen.
It is my belief that a church's headquarters is actually the heart of the body of its faithful.
I note that our ELCA headquarters is a business office.
It is convenient to OHare Airport, and thats a plus.
I expect that we do not own or use the entire building.
In a way that feels like a brain of the body of its faithful, not its heart.
Is the picture at the upper left of this article a picture from the inside of that building? If so it looks nice.
I feel the ELCA message could resonate with young people but that we do not have a welcoming home to invite them in to.
I wish we had a campus that had a place to have events and access to other larger events so that we would be associated with both intimate and larger, even interfaith, events.
For example if, on our campus, we sponsored a live cafe for contemporary faith-based musicians, that broadcasted live concerts on KLOVE and we used the parking at the headquarters to shuttle concert goers to see contemporary musicians like a Jeremy Camp concert in Rosement at the AllState Arena THAT would encourage a youthful membership.
If the regional Lutheran church sponsored faith based garage bands, dance teams, stand up comedy teams, storytellers, ham radio clubs and choirs and then put on an event at the Youth gathering as a big fundraiser for something significant that would be exciting.
How come we have a few inner city ELCA Lutheran schools here and there yet we hear nothing about them? Shouldnt the Lutheran church be doing something creative to raise funds for them? How about on-line art auctions where you buy a chance to win some original art submitted by students at Lutheran colleges and universities? How about a Luther Leagues category? WELCA categories? Could it be a multiple like tee shirt design or something singular like a quilt made at a Lutheran preschool? And so they dont just go to rich, highest bidders make it a raffle ticket where you can buy 3 for $5 and put your virtual ticket in a virtual drawing for the piece of art of your choice!
Why not an electronic college campus at the headquarters that creates a unique on line major with a degree program that originates from many Lutheran colleges and Universities coming together electronically at the headquarters campus, including a Lutheran Deacon and Deaconess program? Take the best and brightest of all professors at ALL ELCA colleges and universities and offer unique faith based majors at the headquarters you cannot get anywhere else, like an InterFAITH BASED CRIMINAL JUSTICE degree with graduates who become Deacons, Deaconesses and or chaplains who practice interfaith alternative incarceration as probation officers? Or InterFAITH BASED LEADERSHIP with areas of specialization like running an interfaith community based clinic or running an interfaith before and afterschool program or running an interfaith elder daycare program FROM YOUR HOUSE OF WORSHIP. Or running an ethical business that operates on standard of the Golden Rule?
Lutherans don't want to proselytize. We just want to live the life, and warmly invite others to be a guest in our home.
Call it Living Lutheran and loving it.
God's Work. Our Hands.
Sound's nice.
Wow Elsie!
I like some of those ideas. I seems like you want the church start doing churchy things again. I miss those days. I hope someone takes serious note of this stuff. Thanks.
elsie and davebob,
Nothing's stopping you guys from trying those ideas. In fact, leaving it to 'the churchly authorities' is a good way to keep those ideas from ever coming to fruition. You need to step up and implement them.
Some aren't that hard. If you wanted to start a campus ministry with various activities, there are four places to start. One is talking to campus pastors around. Brian Beckstrom posts here on a semi-regular basis, and Google will connect you with campus ministries in your synod. Second is selling other people at your church/university on the idea so you have more help. Third is the university itself, seeing what bureaucracy you need to form a religious club and how to get space. In St Louis, we had a house next to the church down the street; in Duluth, we worshipped in the student union. Fourth is selling the local churches to bankroll it. Start with the Synod office, sell them, and then use their resources to try to sell the local churches (which means visiting them and giving little spiels). Set a goal for how much you want to raise and/or try to get them to commit on an annual basis.
As to the OP, I wonder how often we mis-identify ourselves in the Magnificat: "He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." (Luke 1:51-53) That is not good news for us proud, for us powerful or for us rich. Or as the Canticle of Turning phrases it: "Let the fires of your justice burn" and "not a stone will be left on stone". This is where we're at. Those fires of justice are going to burn us. Not imaginary rich people, or the set of people earning more than us. Us. When God turns the world, we're going to be in trouble.
The Good News is that we don't have to fear the trouble, nor do we need to stop it. "God's mercy must deliver us from the conqueror's crushing grasp." and we have "This saving word that our forebears heard is the promise which holds us bound". That Promise is that the Spirit will come to us, ready or not. And grasped by that Spirit, we'll get through God turning the world around.
I believe it takes the local church, the church hierarchy, the individual Lutheran and all other Christians to recognize God's work in the world whether it be in our group or not. God uses whom He choses to use. God's work begins with prayer and discernment of where He is working in the world and not by what our plans are. God does His work regardless of whether we participate or not. As the body of Christ becomes aware of His work we are to join in not ignore. Our focus is not on us but on the stranger, the other, the outsider to bring them closer to God. Disciples are called to go to all the nations in the world.God uses evil for good. God uses those not Christian for good as well. The silence about world issues is a concern.
davebob, please interpret "churchy things?"
the expression painted a picture in my mind of grownups in dressy clothes making an appearance on sundays at service.
i think of all the hard feelings and sadness assoc with the elca's position on gay parishoners and clergy in recent years. The courage of the elca inspires me.
the historic lutheran emphasis on a personal relationship with our heavenly father, son and holy spirit resonates deeply with me, especially when I am troubled.
i think it is no coincidence that Martin Luther King, Senior's parents named him that in a frightening and disheartening era for children of color, and that IN TURN he named his son Martin Luther King, Junior, and that they both were so living lutheran in a period when nary a person of color had crossed the threshold of any American Lutheran church.
its nice to think of the ways the elca can distinguish itself not to set it apart from other christians but as the embodiment of wwjd.
Elsie,
By “churchy things” I definitely did not mean dress up, and go to church, to the contrary. Some of your ideas for the church to engage in were inspiring to me. I think in many ways the church (universal) has gone astray from their historic mission focus on the poor and unsaved, and have ventured into less productive ministries such as politics. “Interfaith Based Criminal Justice degree with graduates who become Deacons, Deaconesses and or chaplains who practice interfaith alternative incarceration as probation officers” is an outstanding idea that has a huge mission opportunity to the poor and unsaved that would also be highly beneficial to the community. Churchy things like that. The church is becoming less of a positive influence in our communities because we are not figuring out ways to contribute to society.
Just as a side point, Martin Luther King, Jr was Baptist, not Lutheran.