But we always get a more pointed message, too. Here it is in notes I made twelve years ago from an on-line meditation by then - assisting priest Kirk Lee.
Kirk began, "I have a hard time believing that God raises up oppressive and evil people simply as a means for showing his ultimate power." He could be referring to Herod in the birth narrative, or to the apocalyptic readings we've had in Advent about earthquakes, persecutions, and wars to come. Kirk continues,
I do believe that ordinary people like you and me allow oppressive and evil people to rise up. We do so because we are not by nature proactive in denouncing wrongdoing. We give the oppressors and the evil ones the benefit of time to prove themselves, before we act. Usually, this is at the expense of many kind and innocent people.
Kirk wonders at how we wait until the problem gets so much worse: "Do any of us allow an infection to spread through the body by not treating it as early as possible?" His pointed message is that God shows his power through us, moving us "to right the wrong perpetrated on kind and innocent people."
With my notes on Kirk's sermon is a prayer by John Taylor (1914-2001), Bishop of Winchester (1974-1984):
Lord Jesus Christ alive and at large in the world, help me to follow and find you there today, in the places where I work, meet people, spend money, and make plans. Take me as a disciple of your kingdom, to see through your eyes, and hear the questions you are asking, to welcome all men with your trust and truth and to change the things that contradict God’s love, by the power of the Cross and the freedom of your Spirit. Amen.
Little baby Jesus is "alive and at large in the world" through us.
[Image: Visitation of Mary, Rogier van der Weyden, 1440 - 1445, Northern Renaissance]
Yesterday, Fr. Daron Vroon preached on the Visitation (Luke 1.39ff). Elizabeth's unborn son John "leaps" in his mother's womb when her cousin Mary, carrying Jesus, comes to call, and Elizabeth says, "Blessed are you among women! And blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Fr. Daron pointed out that "mother of the Lord" is the first of many titles applied to Mary, including "Created Temple of the Creator" and "House of God." He commented on Mary's song, "Magnificat," in which Mary sees an upturning of the world order: when almighty God takes shape inside a "handmaid," then...
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts
he has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.
This upturning literally means a "revolution." Fr. Daron admitted "sheepishly" that, though he has repeated many times the collect for the fourth Sunday in Advent, he never noticed until this week how it relates to this scripture:
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Archbishop Cranmer, writing this collect in the early days of our church, refers not only to the Visitation, but makes us, like Mary, a "mansion" or house for the Lord.
I wrote about this in a lyric for my Advent Cantata nearly 30 years ago (see my post of 12/05/2018), but I saw the coming of Jesus mostly in terms of refreshment, rebirth, renewal; Fr. Daron, Fr. Lee, and Bishop Taylor add a strong element of empowerment and responsibility. They agree: Little Jesus is at large in the world only when we act as his base of operations.
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