Luke 1:39-55; Psalm 80:1-7
In
the Middle Ages, during the week after Christmas, the peasants, the outcast and
anyone who was no one participated in a parade that meandered through the
streets of most villages and every township. It was known as the Feast of
Fools. Folks dressed up in costumes which lampooned any political or
ecclesiastical character of note. Bishops and Earls, Kings and Popes who
constantly disputed amongst themselves all agreed the Feast of Fools was an
abomination to everything sacred. Eventually those with the power to make laws
declared the Feast of Fools to be heretical and banned the local citizenry from
participating in such debauchery. By the 16th century the Feast of
Fools disappeared, never to return, although I have been told the Mummers
Parade on January 1st in Philadelphia expresses some of the mischief
and naughtiness of the original.
As
we enter this most holy time of the year, why on earth would anyone want to
revive thoughts of an absurd festival banned 500 years ago? Maybe the problem is I read too much. Recently
I have spent a great deal of time with my head firmly planted in this incredibly
dangerous book called the Gospel of Luke. It begins like this.
A long time ago, in a
culture far, far away, a mighty empire ruled all of the world that was thought
to be known. No one was safe. The roads and the cities were overrun with legal
thieves and local rogues who robbed the population blind. It was a time of
great darkness. The people cried out to their God, “Give us your ear, O
Shepherd of Israel. Restore us, O God of Jacob. Let your face shine through the
darkness that we might be saved.” After years of pleading and seemingly centuries
of being ignored, God responded. You won’t believe God’s Holy solution.
It began with two
women. We live in the 21st century. To offer a solution for the ills
of the world by saying, “There were two women”, gives me great hope. Today,
women run families, businesses, and even run for president. We celebrate the
brilliance and imagination of women and you must admit men have a history of
making a real mess of this world? Thank
goodness, today is different. If you ask a majority of people living outside
the United States who is the leader of the free world, the over whelming
response would be Angela Merkel. That is not a slight to President Obama. When
Mr. Reagan was president the same people would have responded Margaret
Thatcher.
But the world of today
and the world in which the writer of Luke lived are vastly different. Women had
no status in the Roman Empire. Their primary role was to have babies and hope those
babies were boys. So imagine my surprise when the first chapter of Luke centers
around an old woman who is assumed barren and a pregnant virgin.
IS THIS GOD’S PLAN TO
SAVE THE WORLD????
“There were two
women.” Too often when we read the gospel of Luke we start with chapter two. We
all know the story of a man and wife traveling 60 miles by foot to pay taxes. What
an absurd demand on a woman nine months pregnant. But then we rationalize; no one wants to get
in trouble with the IRS. Anyway, once the child was born, Mary and Joseph got
to claim their first deduction. It was a win, win situation.
We occasionally we
raise our eyes at the idea of Jesus being born in a barn. But the truth is we
have heard the story so many times when are mystified when no stable makes it
into Matthew’s version. As for the shepherds, who else would proclaim the birth
of the son of David but shepherds? We sanitize the story, making the baby in
the barn scenario seem like the most natural occurrence. We wrap the story up
so neatly all Mary has to do is “ponder” what she has observed. No pain, no
mess, and no cleaning up afterwards.
Let me invite you back
into Luke 1. It begins with Elizabeth, a woman who had been trying to get
pregnant for as long the day was long. She had reached the age where most women
are spoiling their grandchildren. Then suddenly, out of the blue, her husband
gets a visit from an interested party and the next day they are turning the
sewing room back into a bedroom. Elizabeth was with child and cannot contain
her joy. Her husband was literally speechless. After months of a one-sided conversation, Elizabeth
was thrilled to receive a visit from her younger cousin and share the miraculous
news. But Elizabeth was not the only one with a story to tell.
“Elizabeth, I heard
the good news.”
“Yes Mary. Who can
explain the wonders of God?”
“You can say that
again. Elizabeth you are not the only who has been blessed. I am also expecting.”
“God be praised! Who
is the father?”
Mary smiled, “Who can
explain the wonders of God?”
Two pregnant women,
both believing they are touched by God, sat down to share a meal. To the
rational or the faithless, this most assuredly was a feast of fools. And then things
went completely out of control. In an
explosion of gratefulness, Mary began to sing.
My
soul magnifies the Lord.
God
has blessed this lowly servant.
Generations from now people will call me
blessed.
If Mary had stopped
right there, things would have been just fine. How could anyone argue with her joy?
She was about to have a son and the son was a gift from God. But this was not an
ordinary baby shower. This was a feast of fools and this fool refused to be
quiet. Mary continued.
God
will scatter the proud.
God will bring down the
powerful.
God will lift up
the lowly.
God will fill the
hungry.
God will send the rich away
empty.
What
on earth got into this girl? Mary sounds like Bernie Sanders railing against
Wall Street, or to be more precise, like those 14th century peasants
who took one day out of the year to raucously remind Popes and Princes alike
that Christ didn’t come just for the powerful.
I
am not sure we react well to Christmas Day as a feast for fools. But what
better way to celebrate the vision of Mary and the grace of God then by acting
just a little bit foolish on the one day of the year when we are allowed to be
bold enough to remember that at the wrong place, under the most precarious circumstance,
Jesus was born.
Not
quite two years ago Deb and I drove to Columbia to be with Martina as she
delivered our first granddaughter. Since Deb is wonderful with the boys and I
do equally well with solitude, it was mutually decided she should entertain Andy
and Austin while waited outside the delivery room. When the glorious moment
arrived, Zach rushed out to tell me Siddalee was fine but Martina was having an
emergency procedure to stop some excess bleeding. Right on cue the nurse came through
the door with my granddaughter. I nodded for Zach to go to Martina. The nurse
placed this delicate life into my hands and nothing else mattered. Such is the
amazing love of our God.
One
might assume since God created the universe, life’s fragility might be
forgotten. But Jesus, like all of
us, was born powerless and dependent on the loving hands that held him. What an
eternal memory this must have fashioned.
Jesus
was born, not among the powerful and not in germ free hospital. Jesus was born absolutely
reliant on the whims of an exhausted teenager, a confused husband, and nothing
but Jesus mattered to them.
The
absurdity of Christ’s birth, the absurdity of any birth, reflects the contradiction
of our lives. We imagine we are so powerful, but compared to what. We imagine
ourselves to be in complete charge of the universe, but we know better. Jesus, who
was born in obscurity, knows our fears, knows are confusions, knows our insecurities
because Jesus was born into our confusion, lived among our insecurities, and
eventually died because of our fears.
And Mary,
Sweet
Mary,
Dangerous
Mary,
Perhaps even Proud Mary
Continues to sing:
God will scatter the proud.
God
will bring down the powerful.
God
will lift up the lowly.
God
will fill the hungry.
God will send the rich away empty.
That
should cause us to pause.
Are
we proud?
Are we powerful?
Do we oppress
the lowly?
Do we ignore the hungry?
Will God send us away empty?
Certainly those are
questions worth considering,
but not today.
It’s Christmas,
That day when God’s memory was fully charged.
It’s Christmas,
The day when Jesus invites us to a feast of fools,
where the only item on the menu is the grace of God.
Amen
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