Modern Day Marys: Announcing Love

December 18, the 4th Sunday in Advent, is a day we hear the magnificat of Mary and honor the homeless that have died in DC over the last year.  We started Advent with  the plea: Tear Open the Heavens and Come Down!  God does come down to the Mary of long ago, and God comes down to us in modern Day Marys.  I wrote this sermon poem not knowing that 3 young men from OccupyDC, who were on a hunger strike for justice, would be sitting in the front pews on 12/18.  Mary’s “turn the world upside down” song in the first chapter of Luke does come alive among us in the world today….Where do you see it?

 

 

 

Announcing Love

An angel breaks into the world
of a young woman
announcing God’s presence
God’s peace
love in a new way
the breathe of heaven
will come to be and do
the impossible
flesh from flesh
among an  ordinary
odd shaped family.

Mary, an agent of love
says, Yes, to God’s dream.

Few understand her openness
to an ancient promise,
comfort comes in a cousin
also wrapped up in the impossible.

Elizabeth offers space for Mary
to magnify God out loud,
with the fervor of a revolutionary
Mary sings an upside down world song
where the poor   the lowly
receive abundance
God’s hospitality invites all,
Yet Mary sings that ones
built up
proud
rich
enthroned
go last.
An unnerving message for us,
unless we are
the last
the lost
without homes
unless we long for God’s peace.

We live in a day
where gaps are growing
economic distance between
top and bottom
multiply
There are some who mind the gap
sisters and brothers across the world
who occupy space
and speak truth to mighty power.

We need courage to face the
dissonance of our days,
and if you watch and listen carefully
announcements of love still echo
magnified by modern day Marys,
like Leymah Gbowe
a Nobel Peace Prize winning
Lutheran in Liberia,
her challenge to Liberians’ Warlords
made real in her campaign
against the systematic rape of women.

Leymah Gbowe’s book entitled
Mighty be the Powers –
a memoir of peace,
tells how Gbowe organized power
to turn her Liberian world upside down
The power?
no special ops
or fancy financial instruments
no government negotiated work plan
or complex bailout
The power?
Liberian women no longer victims
energized by holy rage to survive.
Dec 12, 2011, in Oslo, Norway
39 year old Gbowe spoke –
We challenged warlords
who preyed on women despite a peace deal
We used our pains
broken bodies
and scarred emotions
to confront the injustices and terror
of our nation.
She tells how Liberian women occupied
soccer fields
government building entrances
how they fasted and prayed
and drove the devil back to hell.
There are modern day Marys
thousands across the globe -
they magnify God’s love
strong
compassionate
wise
just
fleshy
a love that  comes down
to be with us
among us
in us
a love that occupies Advent
wrapping us in the blue swirl
of ancient promise
teaching us to love out loud for God
by loving others
and ourselves
so every breath of our days
announces to the world
mighty are the powers
of God’s peace.

PKB  12/2011

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