ADVENT 4C – Micah 5:2-51; Canticle 15 – The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55);

Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-55 – 20 December 2009 –

A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

Offering Ourselves: Long-Term Vision

INTRODUCTION – Mary’s Embrace of a Long-Term Vision

People talk of Mary’ courage, and they talk of her deep faith in God, and I would not argue with either of those assessments. But the other traits that Mary exhibited were selflessness and long-range vision.

Anyone in Mary’s position, when receiving this proposal from the angel Gabriel, could have gotten fixated on the short-term challenges that she would inevitably be facing.

“Okay, assuming I get pregnant as you say I will, um… what will Joseph think? And then, well… Nazareth is a small town, and people aren’t stupid, and everyone is going to figure out that I am pregnant before we’ve gotten married, and then I’m probably going to have the baby before we get married, that is… if I can get Joseph to marry me. People are going to be talking, and Joseph might not be talking to me at all…”

You see how we can get fixated on the immediate challenges and the immediate ramifications of something? And if we do that, it can be hard to step back for a moment, and see the bigger picture. In fact, if you let your mind go racing off in that direction, it can be very difficult to hear the other 75% of what the angel says, or what the Lord is saying to you. We encounter one thing that we perceive as a setback, and we are ready to give up on life and give up on God; we might rush to assume that we can’t make it through to a place of light and peace and joy.

Evidently Mary did none of that. She kept listening to what Gabriel had to say. “… you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end… the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” (Luke 1:31-33, 35b)

An everlasting kingdom, with the son I bear as the ruler? This is the One we’ve been waiting for, the Messiah. And I could give birth to him?

Okay, perhaps she thought for a little while about how credible this all seemed, and how folks might react. What, you were visited by an angel? Perhaps she thought for a little while about the ridicule that she might suffer. But then she thought of the opportunity, and the long-range possibilities. If this were true, what Gabriel was telling her… if this were true… WOW! “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

Mary looked beyond what the challenges might be for her personally to what this could mean for her people, and even for the world. That is selflessness and long-range vision.

What Mary offered, when she said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord…”, was the prayer of oblation. According to our Prayer Book, “Oblation is an offering of ourselves, our lives and labors, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God.” (“The Catechism”, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 857)

OFFERING OURSELVES FOR GOD’S PURPOSES

I was reading a front-page article in The Denver Post on Thursday about a Denver businessman named Tom Gamel. (“Cool at School”, by Jeremy P. Meyer, page 1A) Perhaps you saw the article. Mr. Gamel is a very successful businessman who has decided to adopt Cole Arts and Science Academy, in the Five Points neighborhood in Denver. More than 90% of the students at Cole are eligible for federal meal benefits. Mr. Gamel said this to a room full of sixth-graders on Wednesday: “I am a very lucky person. The reason I am able to buy you each a present is because of education. I want to urge you, if you want to grow up and be successful, get an education.” Mr. Gamel has promised to give Cole $500,000 every year, as long as the students are making progress. Not only that, he has made a list of about 35 other rich Denver businessmen who he is planning to call, to challenge them to adopt another struggling school. When Gamel heard from the teachers at Cole that many students weren’t going to get Christmas presents this year, he and his wife went shopping for all 620 them, and with the help of the teachers, personalized the gifts to each student. The gifts were delivered by a semi and cost a total of $13,500. Ten mothers at the school spent two days wrapping every single present, and on Wednesday the children got to open them.

Buying and wrapping presents for over 600 students was a short-term challenge, but Mr. Gamel is a man of long-range vision. He is thinking about children graduating from Cole, graduating from high school, and even graduating from college. He is thinking about what it takes to give at-risk children the support they need, so they can have the foundation they need to become successful, and then be able to give back to the next generation.

Mr. Gamel understands the prayer of oblation, just as Mary and Joseph did.

We follow a Lord whose entire life was about being an oblation, being an offering for the world. The last verse that we heard from Hebrews today was this: “And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10) God’s will, yes. But someone had to be willing to offer himself, his life and labor, in union with God, for the purposes of God. That someone was Jesus.

In the same way, someone had to be willing to offer herself, her life and labor, in union with God, so that the Messiah could be born into the world, so that God could become flesh. That person was Mary.

Someone had to be willing to take Mary as his wife, even though she was pregnant before marriage, and partner with her in being the earthly parents of the Son of God, as overwhelming as that job description might sound, so that Jesus could have the foundation of love and faith that he needed to be an offering for the whole world. That someone was Joseph.

Probably the most profound prayer that you and I ever offer involves no words whatsoever. For it is about offering ourselves, our life and labor, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God. Ultimately, we are called to make our whole life an oblation to God, for the purposes of God

And the purposes of God have everything to do with that everlasting kingdom that Gabriel told Mary about. God wants to build a kingdom that affirms life, where all are loved and all discover, through the love that comes to them through their fellow human beings, how much they are loved by God.

Those of you who are parents know something about seeing past the short-term challenges to the longer-term vision of raising a child who will grow up to love, exercise faith, and ultimately offer himself or herself for the good of others, and for the good of the kingdom. You do that by offering yourself, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God.

But if you are not a parent, you are no less able to be an oblation. Any one of us can offer ourselves, our life and our labor, in union with Christ, for the purposes of God. Any one of us can say with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

We can do this our whole lives long, and even in our dying. Julia’s mom, Helen, made a request at her time of death, that in lieu of flowers, people make a donation to the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. I’m sure quite a few people have responded to her request by now. And in and through Helen’s death, a new home is being built for a family in the Houston area who could not otherwise afford one. It is the Mary story all over again.

CONCLUSION

You are a gift from God. It is also true that you are where you are today because other people have given of themselves – given their lives and labor – so that you might thrive. We are called to do the same thing, in the name of Christ, for the purposes of God. May you and I not get so caught up in the short-term challenges of our lives, that we fail to see that God is using us for much bigger and much longer-term purposes. You are a gift. And when you give of yourself, for the good of the world, you offer the most profound prayer that you could ever offer – the prayer of oblation.

Thanks for offering yourself, in all the many ways that you do that – with your time, with your talents, with your little acts of loving service, with your money. It all adds up to offering yourself, in union with Christ, for the good and transformative purposes of God.