Sermon: “Shout and Sing!”
December 23th, 2018 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Luke 1:39-55, Micah 5:2-5
Micah’s Song
The passage from the prophet Micah that was read earlier probably was not actually sung, but it is written in verse, in a poetic style. Those verses from Micah are often read at Christmas time for they point to the coming King and Savior, the coming Prince of Peace, One sent to shepherd God’s people. But let me tell you about the context of those verses of promise and hope, for the other parts of Micah’s book are filled with images of agony and destruction.
Micah is writing in the midst of devastating times when nations are at war and self-serving rulers have plotted power-grabs, devised ways to take people’s land and homes and livelihood. Their armies are like gangs that use fear and violence and extortion to take control. Micah is believed to have been speaking at the time when the armies of Babylon had overrun the towns and cities of Israel. Jerusalem was under siege, with supplies and hope running out. The King of Israel would be captured and humiliated, and many lives are lost. It is the kind of devastation that it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to envision, for we just need to see the images and listen to the stories coming out of Syria or in Yemen. I watched a news story this week on the city of Mosul in Syria: homes are heaps of rubble, the few survivors tell traumatic stories of suffering, of holding loved ones as they died, of starting to rebuild by scavenging for any bricks and beams that might still be intact. The security forces that guard the demolished, abandoned neighborhoods at night tell of hearing the ghostly sounds of fading cries and of children playing deep beneath the rubble.
This is very likely what the town of Bethlehem looked like as God’s message came to Micah. One translation I found of the verse just before our reading goes, “Now cut yourself, daughters of cutters, a siege is upon us; with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel across the cheek.” Adam Hearlson, workingpreacher.com In the midst of that terrible trauma, Micah goes on to sing, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, out of you will come a ruler… Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth… He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, … He will be our peace.”
Trauma and Resilience
It reminded me of one of the workshops I attended at the Space for Grace conference last month, a workshop on Trauma and Resilience. We all know what trauma is, devastating experiences of physical or psychological violence, of surviving deep losses. Trauma can be a single event or a long, on-going accumulation. Trauma can be individual or it can be collective, a whole community or people or nation. A lot of research and focus has gone into understanding trauma. But among helping professionals these days, the focus is increasing moving from the trauma itself to a focus on resilience. Resilience is what allows a child who grows up in the midst of a Chicago city neighborhood, controlled by gangs and riddled by bullets, to go on to make something of himself and become a force for positive change in the world. Resilience is what enables a woman who loses a husband and a child and a sibling, all in the space of a few months to get up each day and begin to put a life back together. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from stress and adversity and trauma.
The good news is that it is possible to build resilience, to learn resilience. It can be taught to children and nurtured within families. Here are a few of the things that build resilience: listening to music, using your creativity, using your logic, naming the things you are grateful for, appreciating beauty, facing fears, practicing self-compassion and self-care, taking walks in the woods, cultivating forgiveness, learning a new skill. As you do these things, researchers have discovered that your brain actually repairs damaged neurons and restores depleted brain chemicals.
The Resilience of Elizabeth and Mary
But long before anyone had learned about neurons and brain chemicals, Elizabeth and Mary had much to teach about trauma and resilience. Both Elizabeth and Mary faced trauma in their lives. It included the political violence of their times, the vulnerability of their poverty, the daily traumas of being women in a society in which they had little voice or value. Both Elizabeth and Mary also faced the trauma of individual circumstances. Elizabeth’s decades of infertility would have brought with it guilt and shame, probably the taunts of neighbors, the disappointment of her husband. Mary’s pregnancy before her marriage would have also brought shame to her family, the fear of being rejected by Joseph, of being accused of a crime punishable by death.
In their midst of these traumas, Mary seeks out the love and care of her cousin Elizabeth. In the midst of these traumas, the women speak of joy and hope and the goodness of God. In the midst of these traumas they face their fears together, they draw from the comforting words of scripture, and from the beauty and miracle of developing life within them. They shout with joy. They sing. But at the core of their resilience is another quality that gives them their real strength. At the core of their resilience is a deep confidence in God’s promises.
Luke tells us that Elizabeth speaks to Mary in a loud voice, not a timid whisper but a bold, outdoor voice. With confidence and jubilation she blesses Mary for one particular thing, saying, “Blessed are you because you have believed what God has said, believed that God will keep all his promises to you.” When Mary breaks out in song, she sings of those promises – the promise of God’s mercy, the promise of God’s justice bringing down tyrants, the promise of God’s care for the hungry, the promises that endure over generations. Mary’s closing line is “…Just as He promised!”
There are two lessons from Mary and Elizabeth’s resilience that I believe would serve us well in our lives. First, is cultivating and practicing that deep confidence that God’s promises are true even when we don’t have the foggiest idea how they will come about, even when we struggle to see the evidence of promises fulfilled around us. If you look closely at Mary’s song, she does not sing about what God will do. Mary sings in the past tense. She sings has if it has already happened, anticipating the day when the promises have come true. He has scattered the proud, he has brought down the tyrants, He has lifted the victims, He has filled empty stomachs, He has dismissed the callous rich, He has remembered to be merciful. She is so confident in the truth of God’s promises that she already anticipates the generations to come that will call her blessed, who will remember her faithfulness and remember God’s special love for her. This is like Micah, writing poetry about the One who will rescue God’s people coming out of Bethlehem, even as the town lies in ruins.
Is there an uncertainty you are facing today? Is there a trauma that makes it hard for you to have hope? Build resilience by thanking God for answering prayer even before the answers comes. Recall the times when God has answered prayer in the past, when you have overcome adversity before. Build resilience by imagining yourself at a time when you are beyond the struggle and when you heart is filled with joy once again, when you are victorious and free.
The second lesson from Mary and Elizabeth is that God’s promises are so sure they can’t be postponed. They don’t just wait and anticipate their coming, but act as if they have already happened. Before the babies are even born, they are speaking and singing of what will be accomplished after they are grown men. They know that what God is doing is going to change everything, and they immediately live as if the changes are already there. Elizabeth declares that the Lord has already taken away her disgrace and she is living as one already free. As the Holy Spirit fills her, she speaks as if the day of Pentecost had already happened, when the Holy Spirit will be poured out on both men and women, and both young and old will prophesy.
Mary, too, doesn’t put off the implications of Christmas till after it happens, but already begins to sing over her unborn son of what He will accomplish. I imagine that Mary continues to sing that song to Jesus, as an infant, as a young boy, and into his teens. Her song gave him a sense of who he was and affirmed his mission and ministry. Her song gave him resilience to face opposition and danger and rejection even before they happened.
We are called to live as if all of God’s promises are true right now, that God has already accomplished mighty things. Not putting off the implications of Christmas; not procrastinating on the repercussions of God’s plan to deal with human pride and human greed. Not postponing how it will change your life, that God Himself has come and upended the ways of this world and showed us the true way we were created to live in relationship to one another. What are the implications of Christmas that you might be putting off or conveniently ignoring? Are there changes in your life that need to happen before Christ returns, but that you have been procrastinating on putting into practice?
Build resilience for the challenges ahead and for the final day when your life is called to account, by living as if all of God’s promises are true right now. Live as if Christ is already back and you are already standing in the very presence of the One who created you. Shout and Sing! Use your outdoor voices, not timid whispers, to announce the goodness of God and declare your trust in God. Sing of your hope, your faith, your love for God in Jesus Christ. Be God’s voice, the voice of a prophet today, shouting and singing with love over the whole world, over this community, over your neighbors and family.
God keeps His promises! Hallelujah!
Closing Song: “Go, Tell It On the Mountain” # 151
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