Report on CCN Gathering in South Africa

President’s Report

International Rep’s meeting

Cape Town, South Africa

January 26-31, 2916

Visit to St. Cyprian's Girls School in Cape Town

A Prayer for Africa (used on many occasions during the week)

God bless Africa

Guard our children

Guide our leaders

And give us peace

For Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen

I traveled to South Africa in my role as President of the CCN-NA to attend a meeting of the International Representatives of the Community of the Cross of Nails. We gathered as representatives from the U.K., Germany, Eastern Europe, South Africa and the U.S. for our biennial meeting.  My wife Leslie joined me on the trip.

Petrina Pakoe was our gracious host in South Africa. Formerly with Hope Africa, a ministry of the Anglican Province, Petrina is now director of the Peninsula Feeding Association which feeds hungry school children on the Western Cape. My arrival was delayed one full day because of a mechanical problem in our British Airways 747 that caused us to put down in Abuja, Nigeria for 18 hours. By the time I arrived, the meeting’s agenda had already begun. The gathering is a chance to hear about the various events are going on throughout the network and to find common cause with the work and staff at Coventry cathedral.  We discussed fundraising, the Coventry Cathedral vision and strategy, and other areas of collaboration.

Throughout the week the work of the Community of the Cross of Nails in South Africa influenced our conversations and directed our time. When not meeting, we visited centers and met with CCN members. The group visited Protea Village and Good Shepherd church and learned of the their decades long struggle to reclaim the land that had been lost by the local colored population in 1950 when the Group Areas Act forcibly moved families to the Cape Flats. Jenny Wilson, a CCN Companion, spoke about the work of the CCN to help heal the wounds of history and fight wherever possible to advocate in court to help return the land to its rightful owners.

We traveled on hour outside of Cape Town to the town of Paarl and Ascension Church to present a new cross of nails to the congregation after the previous cross had been stolen. The congregation’s work involves supporting the rights of farm workers in this wine producing regioun, many of whose livelihoods have been impacted by low wages and more recently the growing influx of foreign workers from southern and central Africa to compete for limited work. 

We spent a lovely day at the Volmoed Retreat and Conference Center, a CCN partner near Hermanus.  http://www.volmoed.co.za/aboutus.html  Volmoed was started in the early eighties as a place that would minister to people who felt shattered by their life's experience. Volmoed means full of courage and hope. We met with theologian the Rev. John de Gruche who offered a lively reflection of the state of reconciliation in South Africa – which he implied is a bit tattered due to many whites ignoring the Truth and Reconciliation -- and even found a way to include Donald Trump in his analysis.  EVERYONE we met wanted to know about Donald Trump!  John’s blog is certainly worth looking into:  https://khanya.wordpress.com/2016/01/28/books-etcetra/

On January 29 we visited two schools that are ICONS schools. In doing so, we got a glimpse of the education of the youth of the largely white and elite population of the country. The schools were lovely and the welcome we received was warm from staff and students of both Somerset West and St. Cyprian’s Girls School in Cape Town. There was an open and honest sense of anxiety and uncertainly among the white population that we had a chance to meet and engage. There were clear concerns about the economy and the political turmoil surrounding the current President Jacob Zuma. There was a great deal of chatter about the President’s four wives and the recent 25% devaluation of the South African Rand, causing real economic hardship for the people.

Our host Petrina gave us a tour of the Cape Flats, including the colored area of Manenberg and Reconciliation Anglican parish. We also visited the black township of Khayelitsha, where we visited the Fikelala Children’s Home. The dedicated staff care for abused and abandoned children, many of who are HIV+ and some of who were born with alcohol fetal syndrome.  We learned later that then NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg had visited the same home. 

On Saturday we gathered at St. Mark’s Anglican Church in the District Six area of Cape Town to meet with Christian and Muslim youth and to visit a local mosque. From the St. Mark’s website one can learn of the importance of this church:

Between 1969 and 1984, some forty thousand District Six residents were evicted by the Group Areas Act, and relocated in houses scattered all over the Cape Flats, their homes demolished. Faced with the prospect of their church being de-consecrated, the St Mark's congregation firmly rejected the Government's offer to rebuild the church, stone for stone - an exact replica - in Athlone, and returned the two million rand compensation cheque. At the same time they decided that, regardless of distance, "they would, as far as possible, continue as before."

From St. Mark’s we walked to the Al-Azhar Mosque and entered its worship space. The mosque is a reminder of the unique centuries old history of Muslims living peacefully and co-existing alongside Christians and Jews in the melting pot that is Cape Town. The young people we met with were all very impressive in the ways in which they have formed new and trusted friendships and are doing the hard work of reconciliation, which for some of them begins in their homes with understanding and healing from family histories and conflict.  From there we visited St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in downtown Cape Town, the site of many anti-apartheid protests, the ministry of Desmond Tutu, and courageous HIV-AIDS education and outreach through the years at the height of the epidemic. 

On Saturday evening we were hosted in the home of noted church and social activist Di Oliver, a long-serving member of the Black Sash, a human rights organization. Di  has received many honors for her role in advancing peace and justice in South Africa.  The gathering was a valuable glimpse into what I would call the witness and struggles of the white progressive minority who were once at the center of the anti-apartheid government activity and now see there roles shift and somewhat diminished in today’s South Africa. 

Our main service on Sunday was held at St. Saviour’s Church in Claremont.  The dean of Coventry preached and I was invited to read the gospel.  In attendance was the Rt. Rev. Garth Counsell, Bishop of Table Bay of the Cape Town archdiocese. 

On my last night in Cape Town, Leslie and I went to hear a talk from Fr. Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest of international fame for his work as a liberation activist and a reconciler. Michael lost both hands and one eye in a mail bomb sent to him while he was living in Zimbabwe just months before Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. He is an amazing speaker and inspiring person who has claimed a new identity after his own personal tragedy. 

My general and lasting impressions of my visit was to see up close how South Africa is living through the days after Nelson Mandela.  Though the evils of apartheid are behind them, the residue and impact of that system of racial cleansing and social engineering are still very much in sight.  It is as if the people of South Africa reached their Promised Land after years of oppression, led by their Moses figure Mandela, only to find many new challenges in building a just society in the new land.

I continue to be moved and inspired about how individuals and communities gain strength through the iconic Coventry cross of nails. It continues to invite people to imagine a different kind of future.  It offers them a way to share their stories and voices with others around the world.  Forgiveness, in the end, is the only way forward. But it does not come quickly or cheaply.

The Rev. Mark B. Pendleton

Children's Home

Foxes and Hens

January 21, 2016

Lent 2, Year C

The Rev. Mark B. Pendleton

Christ Church, Exeter

 

A child at an orphanage in Cape Town, South Africa

Foxes and Hens

In the gospel lesson we just heard, two animals are mentioned. One is a fox and the other a mother hen.  Jesus uses a fox to warn us and a hen to inspire and gather us closer.

What I hope to do this morning is to describe some of the ways we live with the foxes of the world and how we, with God’s help, can become more like the hen – or at least the brood that is gathered under her wings.

From what I remember from last Sunday beyond how cold it was outside and how cool it was inside due to our boiler problem (now fixed) the focus of the lessons was temptations. It is where Lent begins. Always.  The devil tempted the hungry Jesus with food, power and safety, yet nothing could shake his trust and belief.  The forty days he spent in the wilderness only made his mission and identity more clear.

I like to think of this time, when we build towards Holy Week and Easter, as a fruitful time to tend to the basics and essentials. 

There was some talk this past week about what makes a good Christian – perhaps you heard. A certain bishop of Rome and a titan from New York engaged in a rather stunning dance as to whether it was Christian to put more effort in building walls than bridges.  It is never easy to guess what government policy Jesus would endorse, but we can always ask, and we should: What would Jesus do?

Starting there we can and should ask ourselves then: what should we do as we face

The trials, demons, obstacles, challenges and choices in our lives.   Would we end up in the same place? Can the “What would Jesus do?” work in a world that is so full of global unrest and domestic anxiety where the foxes of the world loom large? 

I am often asked by people who want to study the Bible – to go farther and deeper in their faith – as to where and how to begin. A good question in Lent and during those wilderness and dry times of our lives.

I point them to the psalms.  Any of them.  All of them.  We hear one each Sunday. These ancient words are not history, visions, parables or teaching, they are honest and real expressions from the hearts of people who wanted to sing and cry out to a God who gave life and blessings even when and if life looked pretty bleak. 

What I like about Psalm 27 that we prayed this morning is its honesty of living in the midst of hope and fear.  That is where I often find myself. 

1The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

2When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall.

3Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.

These are words that allow us to say: God is good.  Our light and salvation – the stronghold of our lives.  The rock.  The steady hand and guiding force.  And there is a need to say and affirm this always.   Last Sunday, when it was 9 below zero and 52 degrees in the church, I looked out at many of you with your coats and hats on and I saw a desire to live into this light.  We can draw comfort from what is expressed in this psalm: We are to wait for the Lord, be strong, and take courage.  v.5For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.

The power of the words grows when we return to them again and again. 

It is interesting, isn’t it, how often repetitive fear is mentioned in Scripture.  Jesus constantly tells his followers not to be afraid. In the psalm, it is the evildoer, the adversary, the foe, the army, and the enemy that threatens. 

Let’s try to stake out what we know.  I don’t believe that it should be our goal as Christians to wish away all those who would do harm to us and those we love and disrupt God’s purpose in the world.  How tempting that would be…  Who, if given three wishes from a genie’s bottle would not wish for an end to war, violence, corruption, and exploitation and human trafficking. Who would not want their nemesis to just go away and leave them alone? Who couldn’t want to turn off the inner voice that tries to tell us that we matter less than we should?   

What ever we want to call it – the devil, darkness, evil, temptation, negativity – there is real power there to attract and entice.  Our decision and our direction is whether we will allow what we fear to shape us. To turn us into people Christ would not recognize.  To become the sum of our worst fears and anxieties.  

The psalm points us in a direction where we can find shelter.  It is in God’s presence – where we can behold God’s beauty -- where our true confidence comes.

Where do the fox and the mother hen fit in?

As Jesus travels closer to Jerusalem and the cross, he is moving, healing, teaching and casting out demons. People are noticing, the crowds are building, and the authorities are getting more nervous.  In an interesting twist, the Pharisees shed their normal bad boy image in the gospels and came to Jesus’ aid by warning him to “get away from here” for Herod wanted to kill him. “Go and tell that fox for me….” Jesus replied.  

Why did Jesus call Herod a fox? Jesus did so because Herod was complicit in the death of his friend John the Baptist.  He was a puppet, a stooge, an imposter, or a ruthless religious tyrant.  And Herod wanted Jesus dead before he could reach Jerusalem. 

What do we know about foxes? I occasionally see a fox come out of the woods in the back of our house. I’m always fascinated by foxes in their beauty, their movement and the sense that seem to be a magical cross between a large cat and a small dog.  

To call someone a fox, one is saying that the person is clever, agile and most certainly threatening. 

There is the expression that comes to mind:  “Don’t let the fox guard the henhouse,” which means: be careful about who holds positions of authority and trust, lest they exploit their position for their own benefit and cause harm.

Foxes and motherly hens are alive and well today.

On my recent visit to South Africa, what I found most interesting was to see up close how that country is living through the days after Nelson Mandela.  Though the evils of apartheid are behind them, the residue and impact of that system of racial cleansing and social engineering are still very much in sight.  It is as if the people of South Africa reached their Promised Land after years of oppression, led by their Moses figure Mandela, only to find many new challenges in building a just society in the new land.

Our visit took us to an orphanage in a black township in what is called the Cape Flats outside of Cape Town.  These townships were created decades ago when the all white government literally moved the black and colored populations out of existing neighborhoods – where some families had lived for decades – and moved them to the dry and dusty flats far from the center of the city.  They achieved their goal of total racial separation – apartheid – those divisions sadly exist even today. 

The orphanage we visited was full of babies and children, most of who were HIV+ and abandoned by their families. The staff were angels. The kids were playful and only wanted to be held. I saw God alive in that place, in the eyes of children who been rescued and who were being care for by saintly women getting paid next to nothing.  These are the mother hens of this world: protecting their brood from the foxes of this world.

When I visit these kinds of places I go through a familiar mix of emotions. The unproductive guilt of privilege certainly tops the list. 

My go-to spiritual friend Frederick Busechner wrote: “Sometimes we travel to get away and see something of the world. Sometimes we travel just to get away from ourselves. Sometimes we travel to convince ourselves that we are getting someplace.

The footloose Israelites were really … "seeking a homeland," which they died without ever finding but never gave up seeking even so (Hebrews 11:14).

Maybe that is true of all of us. Maybe at the heart of all our traveling is the dream of someday, somehow, getting home.”

When I travel and return to my home, I am often more aware of where and how I live.  I remember the sights and the hardships that I saw, but I try not to allow them to haunt me, but rather inspire me to make a difference in what I can.  What would Jesus do?   More importantly: what are we going to do?

I hope we can see the ways in which God still gathers us – like a hen gathering her brood.  Allow yourself to be gathered into God’s work. There we will find protection, comfort, meaning and holy purpose. 

My Thoughts on that Anglican Communion Thing

You may have heard from many of the recent reports in the media that the Episcopal Church has either been “suspended” or “disciplined” by the wider Anglican Communion. In fact, only the Primates (Archbishops and Presiding Bishops) gathered and deliberated. They are not the Roman Catholic Curia. They are, well, a group of bishops taking votes. 

Justin Welby, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, is not an Anglican pope. He is first among equals and has inherited all the history and legacy of the ancient See of Canterbury, but he cannot order, or fire, or discipline his piers – or as some might call them – his unruly children.  The point of disagreement is, on the surface, different views of human sexuality, but really the issue is much broader and vexing. 

Last Sunday parishioners mentioned to me that they were thinking that I might comment, perhaps in the sermon, on what took place. Frankly, I really wanted to preach on the Gospel story – Jesus’ sign of grace in Cana – than I did about Anglican polity. Perhaps that is telling in of itself. 

Our bishop has commented on his blog: http://www.tendingthevine.org/news/

There are a couple of articles I would commend: 

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/the-selective-outrage-of-the-anglican-church/424569/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/15/anglican-leaders-further-marginalise-gay-people-and-church-of-england?CMP=share_btn_link

The immediate impact in the life of you and me in the Episcopal Church will be minimal if at all. We are no less nor more Anglican and Episcopalian than we were last week. What we are witnessing though is the worldwide communion of churches wrestling with issues that we have been living with here in New Hampshire for some time. We have held up equality, inclusion and understanding as guiding principles and values.  

Being suspended from high-level meetings for three years will not cause us to go back into time. Many of us who attend the Episcopal Church have already decided that issues of sexuality and faith are matters that have evolved and changed overtime: they do not rise to the status of unmovable dogma and doctrine.

The world is changing. Once fixed positions are changing.  The Anglican Communion as we once knew it, with the English and Americans reigning over their collective cultural and spiritual empires is a thing of the past. Other voices, however far from what we may find just in our context, are speaking out.

I will be traveling on January 25 to Cape Town, South Africa with Community of the Cross of Nails. We will visit with the staff of the Anglican Province of Southern Africa. I will preach at a Eucharist  with their staff. When I do so, I will be present as a Christian, an Episcopalian, a husband and father, an American, and I hope, a sheep of God’s flock and a sinner of Christ’s own redeeming.

We will be OK we Anglicans, or Episcopalians -- or whatever some might want to call us. Have faith.  Keep the faith. 

Selling Christmas with Puppies and Babies

Christmas Eve 2015

Selling Christmas with Puppies and Babies

Elisha Minnette Photograpy

Many Christmas sermons, year after year, warn the listener to beware of trading in the eternal joy and holiness of welcoming the Christ child as the light of the world for all the rushing around, shopping, buying, maxing out and over-consuming that is all too familiar.  We make a valiant try to guard the sacred from the secular. Each year we make an implicit or explicit plea for “less is more.”   Wait don’t rush.  Slow down. Breathe.  Look up. Look around.

Yet, as much as we push back against and lament the over commercialization of the season, the church gathered is also, in all honesty, selling something at Christmas.  With our pageants, angels, shepherds, carols, and candles, we too are selling something that we assume will have universal appeal and an eternal shelf life.  We are selling this: that God came into this world as flesh and blood, sweat and tears, to reveal God’s true essence and nature: love.  Not judgment, rejection, exclusion, punishment, trial and testing, but divine love.  And that moment, what we call the Incarnation, changed everything. What Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah could not do, the child born in tiny Bethlehem of Judea had to do.  He had to be a savior like no other: saving the world, saving the nations, saving our soul, the present and future.  Nearly two thousand years later, you and I are here listening to how it all began.

So, yes, we are selling something at Christmas.  We have a durable, solid, road-tested product to sell to our war-weary, on-edge, fearful and complicated world.   And we can do better.  To whom might we turn to boost our sales forecast for the next year?

Could we learn a thing or two from Madison Avenue? How would Madmen’s Don Draper – the television fictional advertising guru who could literally sell ice to Eskimos – approach the Jesus born in Bethlehem account?  Where would they start?

We know from experience as consumers, that there are two things that sell products on television and print year in and year out. Those two things are puppies and babies.  So I contend that we need some puppies and babies to sell Christmas.

There is proof to back this up. 

There was a recent focus group that showed four images and asked which was most likely to tug on their heartstrings.  (Adweek Media/Harris Poll) Participants were shown images of “a puppy”, “a baby”, “a sweet old lady” and “a sweet old man.”  41% chose a puppy when they saw it in a commercial. One-third said a baby (34%) is most likely to do so.  Not such good news for sweet old lady (3%) or a sweet old man (2%).  Another study by the Marketing Bulletin showed that a cute baby increased the odds by 88% that people would respond to a survey.  A cute animal increased response rates by 42%.

 With this hard fought data research in our pockets, cue the animals and the baby. 

 Joseph went Bethlehem “to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” 

A manger is not the whole crèche but the feeding tough for animals that doubled as a crib for the Christ child.  We can imagine the animals being brought into the ground floor of houses in the cold winter with families sleeping above.  Shepherds too were keeping watch over their flock by night in the fields when an angel of the Lord stood before them with the joy-filled news.  “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Every Christmas pageant that I know has its core of shepherds and animals.  Outdoor live nativity scenes use any animals they can find to enrich the experiences by adding cows, and donkeys and sheep, chickens, lamas, goats, and rabbits. They remind us the humble beginning of the child born as the Son of God.

Selling Christmas with animals.  Check.

All stories have a beginning, a middle and end.  The Christian story begins with the birth of Jesus to Mary in Bethlehem.  Soon, the Wise Men arrive to worship the child and bring gifts from afar.  We know that the child would grow, learn, and live into this true identity as the fullest expression of God to ever walk on the face of this earth. We know that he would teach and heal, lead and inspire, challenge and provoke. We are reminded by the crosses that fill churches of how his life ended. And each time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we are reminded of his resurrection and the promise of our own.    

Yet at the onset, Jesus was, as we all were once, an infant. A child. Vulnerable. Innocent. Needing love, warmth and protection, nurture and guidance.

The Christ child, at the center of this story, is a reminder that we have a unique message to the world that is ruled by might, ego, power and dominance and oppression.  

The apostle Paul puts it another way: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. 1:27-29

Selling Christmas with a baby.  Check.

 In the run up to Christmas we here at Christ Church have been praying, discerning, educating and advocating for the plight of refugees around the world, and especially for the compassionate response to Syrian refugees.  During this holy season where children are at the center of our attention and hopes, it’s worth reminding ourselves why and when we began to pay attention. 

It began in September with a photo. A three-year old Syrian boy, wearing a red T-shirt, shorts, and Velcro sneakers (the kind that are the easiest for parents to manage). His name was Aylan Kurdi, and he drowned off he coast of Turkey along with his mother and brother.  It was one of those turning point iconic pictures, when the world took notice. And it was before it all became political and partisan.   

For those of us gathered here– for whom a holy child has led us to believe or at least a desire to have more faith – we can and should connect what we believe, how we pray, to what we care about and work for in our world and communities throughout our lives.  The spirit of giving, the desire for peace, the wonder that fills the air, and the hope that abides deep within us on this night, should and must last long past the gifts are opened and the decorations put away.

As it turns out, the true advertising genius of Christmas is not the fictional Don Draper but the most beloved of saints, Francis, who in the year 1223 created the first outdoor nativity scene.   

It is the prayer of St. Francis that reminds us what you and I need to go out from tonight’s service and live, believe, and yes: sell. 

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

 

 

Mary the Most Powerful Woman in the World

December 20, 2015
4 Advent, Year C
The Rev. Mark B. Pendleton


Annunciation (1489-1490) Sandro Botticelli

                       

Today I want to talk about what it means to be faithful.

I begin with the larger than life Biblical characters that take center stage in Advent – this condensed pre-Christmas season of waiting and light.   Zechariah, a member of the religious establishment, sings a song of thanksgiving and expectation that his son John would prepare the way for the Lord.  The images his paints for us are poetic and clear – “the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” John the Baptist delivers on his promise to shake things up. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” He held up a mirror to peoples’ lives and challenged them to consider if this was the best they could do for their own souls and for the lives of those around them. John’s mother Elizabeth makes an appearance on stage when she welcomes her relative Mary for a three-month stay. Two women, one older and well beyond normal child bearing years and the other young, vulnerable, engaged but not married and recently carrying a child conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Gabriel, the angel messenger from God, crashes almost every big scene of this Advent/Christmas pageant.  He is the God whisperer to Zechariah and Mary -- giving them a clear indication that big things are brewing and their lives would never be the same.

At the close of the year, Time magazine makes a big splash when they choose a person of the year and puts their face on the front cover. It is a practice going back to 1927 when aviator Charles Lindbergh was chosen.   This year they chose German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her leadership confronting one crisis after another in Europe.

National Geographic -- a treasured magazine from my childhood -- this month had a different cover. They too had a picture of a woman.   It was a picture of Mary, the mother of Jesus, with the caption: The most powerful woman in the world.  The wide ranging article points out that “Mary is often the touchstone of our longing for meaning, a more accessible link to the supernatural than formal church teachings. Her mantle offers both security and protection. And she is the spiritual confidante of billions of people, no matter how isolated or forgotten.”

Her song, part of Luke’s gospel this morning, known as the Magnicat, is one that has been set to countless musical setting over the centuries.  Each evening it is sung by choirs in cathedral all over England.   She is known by many titles: The Virgin Mary, God bearer, The Blessed Mother, Mother of God, Saint Mary, Holy Mary, Our Lady, The Madonna.  Paula Gooder writes, “Mary is a character about whom we know a great deal and very little, all at the same time.” (In Meaning is in the Waiting, pg. 137).  Muslims as well as Christians consider her to be holy above all women, and her name Maryam appears more often in the Koran than ‘Mary’ does in the Bible.  She has an entire chapter of the Koran about her.  With today’s climate of growing mistrust and fear when some want to pit one religion against another, wouldn’t it be a good thing to remind ourselves what we hold in common.  For one: Mary. 

Yet even as Mary takes center stage each Christmas, she is to me an inkblot Rorschach test of our faith. The National Geographic article interviewed the New Testament professor Amy-Jill Levine who commented,  “you can project on her whatever cultural values you have. She can be the grieving mother, the young virgin, and the goddess figure. Just as Jesus is the ideal man, Mary is the ideal woman.”

I referred to Mary as a kind of Rorschach test because how you think of Mary is often shaped by the religious tradition of your childhood and youth. The Episcopal Church is a church that is easy fit for many who were raised Roman Catholic and for many reasons found their way to our tradition of being the “via media” the middle way between Rome and many Protestant traditions.

Yet, whatever your heritage, Mary is still the dominant person of faith of the birth story. Other characters will fade and fall away over the years. Mary is there when Jesus as Jesus grows, she is present at the time of his ministry, and we read in John’s gospel that she is present at the foot of the cross. 

And Mary sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.

Mary’s God and ours scatters 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. 

Her words lay the groundwork for what her son Jesus would say later:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. (5:5)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled. (5:6)
Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy. (5:7)
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God. (5:8)
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God. (5:9)

Mary can matter even to those who did not grow up with a particular devotion to her, in that she can show us what it means to be faithful in our everyday lives.

Do we hear and see in Mary’s words humbleness or strength?  Is she a story of scandal or sacredness? Do you see her as submissive or strong?  Innocent or wise?  Lofty or grounded?   

The reason it matters is that all around us the world, culture, trends, voices, shadows hint to us that they know what is best. Best to make us loved, wealthy, happy, and strong, and safe and important.

It matters because we need to know how to filter and listen and sort through all of this and decide how to life a life of faith in a complicated and distracting world.

There are moments and days in our lives when we should be all about waiting – and there are times when the waiting is over and we need to act. Take a stand. Speak up and out. And Mary shows us how to do this. 

We see that in her life: in a moment everything changed.  So too, with us.  Our lives can be turned upside down, inside out, in an instant.

In truth, we should be more open then closed.  More generous than cynical. More trusting than guarded.  More forgiving than withholding forgiveness. And that is not easy.  It never is.  So, Mary, help us.  Show us. 

By December 20^th, our pre-Christmas preparations should be well underway.   

If we have done well with Advent this year, we have set the stage for all of us to hear again a story of the birth of something new and life changing. Jesus, born to a woman in a far off, small forgotten town, brings the experience of the eternal God – maker of heaven and earth – to our life and experience. 

The waiting is almost over.