Turned Upside-Down
December 20, 2009
December 20, 2009
Rev. Susan E. Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Text: Luke 1:39-55
CNN had an interesting story on yesterday, and after hearing it, you may decide you’re attending the wrong church.
It seems that Dan Willis, pastor of the Church of All Nations in Alsip, IL (outside Chicago) wanted to preach a series on the parallels between faith and finance because of the recession, and so, to help build interest in attending church, he started giving away $1,000 at the end of each service. Church of All Nations has theater-style seating, with numbered seats, and at the end of each service, Pastor Dan starts drawing seat numbers out of a bucket, and then gives “love gifts” to the lucky winners - $250 to $500 each. And attendance has grown at the church, from about 1,600 to 2,500 in just a few weeks.
I looked up the church’s website to get more information about this congregation, and it was very interesting. Each week they have Sunday services and also Wednesday evening services, although this week they’re cancelling the Wednesday evening services because it’s so close to Christmas, two days later. And next week, instead of a Wednesday evening service on the 30th, on Thursday they’re having a “New Year’s Eve Gospel Smackdown”.
Anyway, back to the cash giveaways – CNN interviewed Rev. Dr. William Schweiker, theological ethicist at the University of Chicago Divinity School, who commented, “The whole point of the Christian life is to care for others, to love others. To give. And yet, this could set up a mindset where the purpose of going to church is to acquire for one’s self, which is what Christians usually call sin.”
I thought this was a fascinating comment, on a story that was already pretty interesting. I leave it to the Finance Committee to weigh whether we should adjust the budget to include an outreach like Pastor Dan’s, but I’d like us to think about Dr. Schweiker’s comment some more: “The whole point of the Christian life is to care for others, to love others. To give. And yet, this could set up a mindset where the purpose of going to church is to acquire for one’s self, which is what Christians usually call sin.”
I thought this was a particularly interesting comment given where today’s sermon was heading. I think that usually, most of us in our individual-oriented culture tend to think about Mary’s personal response to learning that she was to become the mother of Jesus – and I talked about some of that last week. She was concerned about how it might come to pass, and as we realize how serious an impact this could have on a young, single woman in the ancient Middle East, we all probably reflect on how disruptive this birth could be in her life. Her own expectations were being upended – and yet, she greeted this unsettling future with deep faith and simple acceptance.
In fact, as we think about Mary’s life, disequilibrium will become a pattern. Not only the birth of this remarkable baby (and what parent’s life isn’t turned upside down by a new baby?), but throughout his life, her life would be turned upside-down again and again. Next week we’ll reflect on the time when he was 12 and ran away to the temple in Jerusalem. A couple of decades later, early in his ministry, he said (when told that she was looking for him), “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Those who do the will of God are my mother and my brothers.” And what would have turned her upside-down more thoroughly than his arrest, suffering, death and resurrection?? Again and again, Mary’s life will be upended by the call to be the mother of Jesus.
And when we reflect on the ways in which we are called in our own life-with-God, we often find that the call from God turns our lives upside-down…again and again – as we take on new responsibilities, engage new ways of thinking, find ourselves experiencing God, engage new circumstances, are comforted and challenged by life in community, and led to new adventures – as we deepen our response to God, the Christian life is one that often leaves us upended, with a new point of view and an increasingly familiar sense of disequilibrium.
And this is not only true for ministers, and the mother of Jesus, but is true for anyone who has ever seriously wrestled with their own sense of call, or allowed themselves to be led by God into new ways of serving God. It is often true for those who accept the call to ordination as elders and deacons – and then find themselves facing responsibilities they hadn’t anticipated, or giving care to people in ways that both stretch and nourish themselves. It happens to Sunday School teachers, who learn from the children even as they are teaching the children. It can happen to committee members who find themselves challenged to engage in responsibility for the church. It can be that way for volunteers, who in doing new things – from liturgical movement around the Advent candle to going to another state as a mission volunteer – experience themselves and God in new ways. And it happens for those who look at the circumstances of their lives through the lens of God’s presence – through hard times an d good times, God nourishes and challenges us.
But Mary does not dwell on her personal experience. She contemplates her experience as a window to understanding God’s work in the world. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of this servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name,” she begins, and then shifts to a broader outlook: “His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; 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.” This is what the scholars call Luke’s them of reversal – those who have been small and poor will be lifted up while those who have been powerful and rich will be brought down. And she saw her own experience – being blessed by God despite her own lowliness – as being an example of God’s work in the world. Her own experience wasn’t a just private experience of God; it was a means to connecting with the community’s experience of God.
And indeed, this theme of reversal is about Mary’s understanding that God is, indeed, over time turning the world upside down, and she realizes that her obedience is a means of participating in this process of God’s. And she also seems to understand that her own personal transformation comes in participating in the larger transformative process of God’s for the world.
Anyone who has ever participated in hands-on mission knows this kind of transformative process – as we extend ourselves outward, serving in substantive ways as God’s hands, feet, and voice in the world, God’s spirit works within us – bringing peace and joy to us, as we work for peace and justice in the world.
And this gets to why I was so struck by Schweiker’s words yesterday. Again, he said, “The whole point of the Christian life is to care for others, to love others. To give. And yet, this could set up a mindset where the purpose of going to church is to acquire for one’s self, which is what Christians usually call sin.”
Simply put, our discipleship isn’t about just us, and when we turn religion into a self-centered quest for inner peace or personal empowerment, we are as off-target as if we were coming to church hoping for cash winnings. And yet, so often in our culture, faith is privatized in a way that misses the point of Christianity. It’s not about what it will do for us – it’s about involving ourselves in the work of God in the world. And it made me realize how truly remarkable Mary was – not only because she said yes to God when it would upend her life, but because she understood herself to be living part of the life of God in the world.
This kind of understanding came more easily in the ancient Middle East, when identity was not individually derived, but came from community identity – that of family, community and tribe. So the challenge for the church and those of us who belong to it in our era, is to develop a more profound and lively sense of identity together through which to be people of faith, the Beloved Community. That’s a huge stretch for some of us, who have long thought of religion as a private, God-and-me, kind of enterprise.
And yet we were made for each other as surely as we were made for God…and so Mary found that her first impulse, as she embarked upon this new experience of God in her pregnancy, was to connect with someone else, and share the experience. And so she visits Elizabeth and they wait together. For Elizabeth and Mary, the waiting of pregnancy was a time to share with one another. Waiting is hard, and it is the dimension of Advent that most of us don’t like – waiting to see family, waiting to sing the Christmas carols, waiting to give gifts to one another. Tomorrow one son will come home from college, and another son and daughter-in-law will arrive from the East (I hope), and we are definitely focused on waiting. And yet Advent is an important reminder to us that the world is still waiting for justice: the poor are waiting for food, the grieving are waiting for hope, the lonely are waiting for love, those at war are waiting for peace, the unemployed are waiting for a job, the imprisoned are waiting for freedom, the excluded are waiting for full inclusion.
And it’s not that people don’t care – people do care, and the people of this community reached out most recently to help with the Christmas basket program. Our deacons were collecting to provide Christmas gifts to 3 families and you gave enough that they could provide gifts to 5 families, and more. Our youth (and some adults) worked hard all Wednesday afternoon wrapping gifts and assembling baskets for families. People continue to support the Alternative Christmas giving catalog, supporting mission both locally and around the world as a way of giving to the world while honoring loved ones. Danny Mitchell created a wonderful opportunity for people to give while coming to his Music on a Mission concert tonight and so we’ll listen to some wonderful music while providing funding for the Frame Community Grants. There are lots of ways to show our caring.
But we should remember what someone said, that “charity is what we do until there is justice…” and so we should work for justice, too. None of us can accomplish all that needs to be done, but each of us can do something.
And some of what we do is indeed inner work. A senator wrote 24 years ago: “Above all, we must allow our hearts to be made sensitive to the suffering of our fellow man. The facts and statistics must be translated into human realities which we can feel from deep within, and which quicken our conscience. We should allow ourselves to feel uncomfortable about our wealth, our lifestyle, our diet, and all our subtle worship of affluence.” This was written by a Republican from Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield.
And we should continue to reach out to one another, building relationships of fun, sharing, and working together – so that over time we are knit more tightly into a community of deep compassion who make a difference through our efforts. And as we make a difference in God’s world, God makes us different as well. So that indeed, Christmas can be about something being born in us as well as in the world – a hunger for God, a thirst for justice, a love for one another. And then we can say too that our souls magnify the Lord, and that our spirits rejoice in God who saves us, and surely we will know that we are blessed. Amen.
Rev. Susan E. Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Text: Luke 1:39-55
CNN had an interesting story on yesterday, and after hearing it, you may decide you’re attending the wrong church.
It seems that Dan Willis, pastor of the Church of All Nations in Alsip, IL (outside Chicago) wanted to preach a series on the parallels between faith and finance because of the recession, and so, to help build interest in attending church, he started giving away $1,000 at the end of each service. Church of All Nations has theater-style seating, with numbered seats, and at the end of each service, Pastor Dan starts drawing seat numbers out of a bucket, and then gives “love gifts” to the lucky winners - $250 to $500 each. And attendance has grown at the church, from about 1,600 to 2,500 in just a few weeks.
I looked up the church’s website to get more information about this congregation, and it was very interesting. Each week they have Sunday services and also Wednesday evening services, although this week they’re cancelling the Wednesday evening services because it’s so close to Christmas, two days later. And next week, instead of a Wednesday evening service on the 30th, on Thursday they’re having a “New Year’s Eve Gospel Smackdown”.
Anyway, back to the cash giveaways – CNN interviewed Rev. Dr. William Schweiker, theological ethicist at the University of Chicago Divinity School, who commented, “The whole point of the Christian life is to care for others, to love others. To give. And yet, this could set up a mindset where the purpose of going to church is to acquire for one’s self, which is what Christians usually call sin.”
I thought this was a fascinating comment, on a story that was already pretty interesting. I leave it to the Finance Committee to weigh whether we should adjust the budget to include an outreach like Pastor Dan’s, but I’d like us to think about Dr. Schweiker’s comment some more: “The whole point of the Christian life is to care for others, to love others. To give. And yet, this could set up a mindset where the purpose of going to church is to acquire for one’s self, which is what Christians usually call sin.”
I thought this was a particularly interesting comment given where today’s sermon was heading. I think that usually, most of us in our individual-oriented culture tend to think about Mary’s personal response to learning that she was to become the mother of Jesus – and I talked about some of that last week. She was concerned about how it might come to pass, and as we realize how serious an impact this could have on a young, single woman in the ancient Middle East, we all probably reflect on how disruptive this birth could be in her life. Her own expectations were being upended – and yet, she greeted this unsettling future with deep faith and simple acceptance.
In fact, as we think about Mary’s life, disequilibrium will become a pattern. Not only the birth of this remarkable baby (and what parent’s life isn’t turned upside down by a new baby?), but throughout his life, her life would be turned upside-down again and again. Next week we’ll reflect on the time when he was 12 and ran away to the temple in Jerusalem. A couple of decades later, early in his ministry, he said (when told that she was looking for him), “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Those who do the will of God are my mother and my brothers.” And what would have turned her upside-down more thoroughly than his arrest, suffering, death and resurrection?? Again and again, Mary’s life will be upended by the call to be the mother of Jesus.
And when we reflect on the ways in which we are called in our own life-with-God, we often find that the call from God turns our lives upside-down…again and again – as we take on new responsibilities, engage new ways of thinking, find ourselves experiencing God, engage new circumstances, are comforted and challenged by life in community, and led to new adventures – as we deepen our response to God, the Christian life is one that often leaves us upended, with a new point of view and an increasingly familiar sense of disequilibrium.
And this is not only true for ministers, and the mother of Jesus, but is true for anyone who has ever seriously wrestled with their own sense of call, or allowed themselves to be led by God into new ways of serving God. It is often true for those who accept the call to ordination as elders and deacons – and then find themselves facing responsibilities they hadn’t anticipated, or giving care to people in ways that both stretch and nourish themselves. It happens to Sunday School teachers, who learn from the children even as they are teaching the children. It can happen to committee members who find themselves challenged to engage in responsibility for the church. It can be that way for volunteers, who in doing new things – from liturgical movement around the Advent candle to going to another state as a mission volunteer – experience themselves and God in new ways. And it happens for those who look at the circumstances of their lives through the lens of God’s presence – through hard times an d good times, God nourishes and challenges us.
But Mary does not dwell on her personal experience. She contemplates her experience as a window to understanding God’s work in the world. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of this servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name,” she begins, and then shifts to a broader outlook: “His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; 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.” This is what the scholars call Luke’s them of reversal – those who have been small and poor will be lifted up while those who have been powerful and rich will be brought down. And she saw her own experience – being blessed by God despite her own lowliness – as being an example of God’s work in the world. Her own experience wasn’t a just private experience of God; it was a means to connecting with the community’s experience of God.
And indeed, this theme of reversal is about Mary’s understanding that God is, indeed, over time turning the world upside down, and she realizes that her obedience is a means of participating in this process of God’s. And she also seems to understand that her own personal transformation comes in participating in the larger transformative process of God’s for the world.
Anyone who has ever participated in hands-on mission knows this kind of transformative process – as we extend ourselves outward, serving in substantive ways as God’s hands, feet, and voice in the world, God’s spirit works within us – bringing peace and joy to us, as we work for peace and justice in the world.
And this gets to why I was so struck by Schweiker’s words yesterday. Again, he said, “The whole point of the Christian life is to care for others, to love others. To give. And yet, this could set up a mindset where the purpose of going to church is to acquire for one’s self, which is what Christians usually call sin.”
Simply put, our discipleship isn’t about just us, and when we turn religion into a self-centered quest for inner peace or personal empowerment, we are as off-target as if we were coming to church hoping for cash winnings. And yet, so often in our culture, faith is privatized in a way that misses the point of Christianity. It’s not about what it will do for us – it’s about involving ourselves in the work of God in the world. And it made me realize how truly remarkable Mary was – not only because she said yes to God when it would upend her life, but because she understood herself to be living part of the life of God in the world.
This kind of understanding came more easily in the ancient Middle East, when identity was not individually derived, but came from community identity – that of family, community and tribe. So the challenge for the church and those of us who belong to it in our era, is to develop a more profound and lively sense of identity together through which to be people of faith, the Beloved Community. That’s a huge stretch for some of us, who have long thought of religion as a private, God-and-me, kind of enterprise.
And yet we were made for each other as surely as we were made for God…and so Mary found that her first impulse, as she embarked upon this new experience of God in her pregnancy, was to connect with someone else, and share the experience. And so she visits Elizabeth and they wait together. For Elizabeth and Mary, the waiting of pregnancy was a time to share with one another. Waiting is hard, and it is the dimension of Advent that most of us don’t like – waiting to see family, waiting to sing the Christmas carols, waiting to give gifts to one another. Tomorrow one son will come home from college, and another son and daughter-in-law will arrive from the East (I hope), and we are definitely focused on waiting. And yet Advent is an important reminder to us that the world is still waiting for justice: the poor are waiting for food, the grieving are waiting for hope, the lonely are waiting for love, those at war are waiting for peace, the unemployed are waiting for a job, the imprisoned are waiting for freedom, the excluded are waiting for full inclusion.
And it’s not that people don’t care – people do care, and the people of this community reached out most recently to help with the Christmas basket program. Our deacons were collecting to provide Christmas gifts to 3 families and you gave enough that they could provide gifts to 5 families, and more. Our youth (and some adults) worked hard all Wednesday afternoon wrapping gifts and assembling baskets for families. People continue to support the Alternative Christmas giving catalog, supporting mission both locally and around the world as a way of giving to the world while honoring loved ones. Danny Mitchell created a wonderful opportunity for people to give while coming to his Music on a Mission concert tonight and so we’ll listen to some wonderful music while providing funding for the Frame Community Grants. There are lots of ways to show our caring.
But we should remember what someone said, that “charity is what we do until there is justice…” and so we should work for justice, too. None of us can accomplish all that needs to be done, but each of us can do something.
And some of what we do is indeed inner work. A senator wrote 24 years ago: “Above all, we must allow our hearts to be made sensitive to the suffering of our fellow man. The facts and statistics must be translated into human realities which we can feel from deep within, and which quicken our conscience. We should allow ourselves to feel uncomfortable about our wealth, our lifestyle, our diet, and all our subtle worship of affluence.” This was written by a Republican from Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield.
And we should continue to reach out to one another, building relationships of fun, sharing, and working together – so that over time we are knit more tightly into a community of deep compassion who make a difference through our efforts. And as we make a difference in God’s world, God makes us different as well. So that indeed, Christmas can be about something being born in us as well as in the world – a hunger for God, a thirst for justice, a love for one another. And then we can say too that our souls magnify the Lord, and that our spirits rejoice in God who saves us, and surely we will know that we are blessed. Amen.