Title: God-bearer's

Scriptures: Luke 1:39-55

12/21/03 Fourth Sunday of Advent

Rev. Joy R. Haertig

You can't get much more earthy than the picture that is created in today's scripture as we hear of the older Elizabeth, soon to be the mother of John the Baptist, greeting Mary, soon to be the mother of Jesus.  The institutional church has often tried to leave the body out of this God-stuff - thinking that somehow you had to be better than your body to be Christian, but you just can't get away from it today.  Two pregnant women are difficult to miss in all their fertileness, the awkward beauty of carrying extra weight that extends itself outward for all to see and wonder at.  (Those tummies are almost irresistible for some people, I remember well having people just make them selves at home and reaching out to touch mine as if it was common property!)

So often we imagine God as being out there somewhere - suspended high above us like stars in the night sky, but today if we really listen to the story, God is not out there somewhere but right here in the midst of history.  God is moving and shaking, growing and laboring, using these mortal bodies to be made known.  

However you understand who Jesus is - whether he is the Son of God or God himself, or a human-divine being that reveals God to us - Advent and Christmas is the time we celebrate the beauty and power of the incarnation, the earthy reality of God being made known to us through the womb of Mary and the flesh of Jesus, a historical person that entered the world in the same way that you or I did.  

Just recently I had a brief conversation with some folk at church about the Apostle and Nicene Creeds.  Some people wonder why we don't use them, while others are glad we don't.  This week I took time to look at them and remembered that one of the things that I struggle with in the traditional creeds is the absence of even a mention of what Jesus did in the years, however brief he lived and taught.  The focus is on his birth, crucifixion and his resurrection to eternal life.  These issues are important of course, but in my faith journey I find that it is his ability to follow God as a human being that challenges and instructs me in my living.  Without that part of Jesus lifted up, being a Christian has more to do with birth and death than what we do with all the time in-between.  

Howard Thurman wrote in one of his reflections about Christmas: “Jesus Christ was born in a stable, he was born of humble parentage in surroundings that are the common lot of those who earn their living by the sweat of their brows.  Nothing can rob the common man of this heritage - when he beholds Jesus, he sees in him the possibilities of life even for the humblest and a dramatic resolution of the meaning of God.”

Dare I claim that the mystery and power of the incarnation, God in the flesh, did not end with Jesus?  There would be no incarnation without Mary, and for that matter, without Joseph as well in his steadfast courage and strength.  I am intrigued by the writings of a 14th century Catholic mystic named Meister Eckhardt who wrote: “What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the Son of God fourteen hundred years ago and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and my culture?”  He also wrote, “We are all meant to be Mothers of God…fofor God is always needing to be born.” (Mind you, Eckhardt was proclaimed a heretic by the Catholic Church at one point, but I find his writings to be fresh and original.)

In other words, Advent and Christmas is not only another anniversary celebration of Jesus' birth, but a symbolic season that honors the ongoing nature of the incarnation.  Of God using humanity, you and I, men and women, adults - teens and children, to be bearers of God in our time and culture.  

One of the things that I find so powerful in Mary is that not only did she bear the Christ but her powerful and prophetic song reveals that she bore a deep compassion and concern for all humanity, particularly those like herself that were hungry and living in poverty.

As a pastor I have witnessed time and again that when a person of faith discovers the God-within them, they also discover a more embracing compassion for those who are hurting, and a deeper sense of conviction for what is just.

If you are struggling with the image of yourself as a “mother of God” - another way of saying it is that the incarnation continues to happen as we participate in sharing God's hope, love and vision of justice in our time and place.

Charlotte Donnan, sharing her beautiful hair with Pat Buchan is a reflection of the incarnation.  So was feeding 300 homeless men/women and children at Mary's Place on Saturday, and the ongoing work of Mary's Place in aiding women who are caught in the cycle of despair and hopelessness.  The love and dignity which we have seen adult children give to their aging parents in our congregation and beyond, as they make difficult transitions, comes from their inner God-place.  

Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, is a God-bearer in Haiti.  His organization is bringing medication to hundreds of AIDS victims in the far reaches of Haiti.  He is training the ordinary citizens of rural Haiti to dispense medicines, draw blood, take X-rays, clean bedpans, measure vital signs, and spread the word about preventing HIV infection.  Dr. Farmer and the people he works with are bringing life and hope to an otherwise forgotten people.  

I so love the image of Elizabeth and Mary, her cousin, meeting together in the fullness of their physical, God-bearing selves.  Our bodies and our hearts are the tools we have to bear God into the world.  I invite each of you to ponder this powerful metaphor from the 14th century mystic Eckhardt as you come closer and closer to the Holy Night: “We are all meant to be Mothers of God…fofor God is always needing to be born.”