Sermon from Sunday, Dec 23, 2012

The Rev. Aron Kramer

Advent 4

December 23^rd, 2012

I began working at St. Paul’s in Duluth in July of 2000. I had been three years in Berkeley California at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, working on my Masters of Divinity. Seasons are different in California than they are here in Minnesota, and 2001 was the first Spring I had experienced since leaving for seminary in 1997.

That first Spring was amazing, I realize that spring in Minnesota tends to be muddy and, for the most part, absent these days, but in 2001, I watched each bud on all the trees in town grow with possibility and purpose. I watched as the grass went from dead brown to glorious green. The earth seemed to be birthing something new in a way I had not seen before.

So, one Sunday, when I was preaching, I preached about the earth seeming to be pregnant with possibility. That this spring was filled with newness, I reflected back on this text, the approach of Mary and how in Elizabeth, John, the little baby, leapt with joy, as she was filled with the Spirit. I said in my sermon that I felt the same way, that I was privileged to experience the approach of spring and that my heart leapt for joy, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit.

After the service that day, I was approached by no less than twenty people who asked: “So, you are going to have a baby soon?” and “Is Sara pregnant?” Since that day I rarely preach about pregnancy, for fear of being accused of having another baby!

But as I approach this text, and as I look at the future, I can’t help but think about the idea of being pregnant with possibility. Being filled with something that will transform lives. I look at this moment and I see the innocence and the excitement these women must have had for their future together. They were so filled with the idea of possibility; they were filled with hope for the children they bore.

Of course, we know how it all ends for these children. John loses his head at the whim of a woman loved by a ruler, and Jesus’ life is cut short when he is determined to be a rebel revolutionary and a threat to the empire. But, I am getting ahead of myself; we are a long way from those sad moments of ending.

Yes, for now, we are faced with a future, with a spark, with a small light that is leading us towards hope. We don’t know, at this moment, this Advent moment, we don’t know what will happen, and instead of being filled with the sadness of death, we are filled with the expectation of possibility. Anything can happen, anything will happen, and these women know only the joy of carrying a life inside of them that will change the world, their own as well as the world around them.

There is so much to consider in these texts, as we close out the Advent season today, as we bring to an end this time that has been filled with possibility, with the hope for a future that will be better.  Our lives have been rocked by a tragedy that has taken the lives of many young children, and sitting here, thinking about a little baby to be born must make us wonder about God and God’s presence in the world.

As I sang last week, Mary takes that role for us today. Not only is Elizabeth proclaiming the joy she has in her God, but Mary too is filled with the Spirit. There is something about singing; there is something about being filled with the Spirit.

Too often we are afraid to speak when we are filled with the Spirit, too often we are hesitant and worried about what people will think if we speak from the passion, from the joy that has filled us when the Spirit has approached us. Those moments when we are filled with the Spirit, those are the moments when we are made to be pregnant with possibility. Those are the moments when we are creating something new. And those moments happen for all of us.

They are not miracle moments, they are not mystical moments necessarily, they are Spirit moments, moments when, as Mary approached Elizabeth, the Spirit approaches us. One of the commentators I read said that Elizabeth proclaiming the joy of the Lord is literally saying that she is using her outside voice to share with the world the love and the joy she feels about God. For Mary it was the same, both use their outside voices to make known their great pleasure and joy.

Our outside voices are too often told to be quiet, we come to Church and we are told to sit quietly, not usually with words, more often with glances. We don’t want to be like those Pentecostals you know, shouting and fainting in Church. No, we have to be reserved, we have to hold it together, we must not sing with too much gusto, we must not speak with too much volume. Yet, here we have two women, seemingly over flowing with joy and possibility and purpose and the Spirit. And because of that they can only sing at the top of their lungs about how much they love their God.

I think about the first days we had together, those early days here in the Garden when we were filled with a hope for the future. Looking back, we had no idea that we were going to experience the hardest economic times since the Great Depression. Looking back, we had no idea the Church was facing some of its own hard questions about its relevance. We had no idea that the boiler was cracked; we had no idea about what the outcome of that moment would be.

Looking back, I had no idea my son was going to be sick, I had no idea my marriage was crumbling. Looking back I had no idea I would lose the love of my life. Looking back, I had no idea about the hostility, and outright belligerence I would experience from my colleagues about the work being done in this place.

I think about those first days and I think also of all the things that were birthed. Looking back, we had no idea Roger Green would come and change our lives. Looking back, we had no idea that the Shelf of Hope would emerge in the way that it has. Looking back, we had no idea the garden would grow into the magnificence that it has become. Looking back, we had no idea the people who call this community home would take into themselves the motto of this Church, The people had a mind to work and then literally change the world.

Those first days together were filled with possibility, filled with hope for a future that would be exciting, Spirit filled and revealed to us the glory of God. All we could do was sing, and our song was heard, and this place was filled, transformed and made new.

We had no idea what would come, how the Spirit would approach us. In the approach of the Holy Spirit into our lives, we let ourselves be open to the possibility of a future, but in that moment, in that approach, before anything else, we sang. So today, as Mary approaches us, as the Spirit approaches us, let us not worry about our future, but instead, let us sing with joy about the love and joy we hold in our hearts, our bodies and our minds for our God.