A
Reflection for III Advent All Saints’ Episcopal, Southern Shores,
N.C. December 15, 2013 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector
Isaiah
35:1-10 Canticle 15 (Magnificat)
James 5:7-10 Matthew
11:2-11
Today
we sang the Magnificat,
the Song of Mary, who sings a song of thanksgiving, magnifying the
Lord, after an Angel speaks to her and tells her of God’s plan for
her. The song she sings is not really her own, but it is her version
of an ancient song called the Song of Hannah found in the book of
Samuel. It is sung by an old woman with thanksgiving when she is told
by a priest during a worship service that God would answer her
prayers and she would become pregnant. Two different women - one old
who feels as if life has passed her by and the other who has just
gotten engaged and is full of hope for the future. For Hannah, the
good news will be an answer to years of prayer, and for Mary, the
news will be troubling since she is not yet married. They are divided
in time by 1000 years of history, divided and yet united in the song
they sing. The uniting theme is that they are both loved, and they
are asked to bring the spirit of God into themselves and, out of that
willing love, bring forth love, bring forth hope, bring forth joy,
bring forth justice, bring forth peace. Hannah’s son will be
Samuel, who is the one who will anoint David as the King, and Mary’s
son will be Jesus, who will be called the King of the Jews.
When
Scripture tells us stories of the past, those stories speak to God’s
people. The point of these stories is not to give history lessons or
to be collectors of trivia or adiaphora – matters of indifference,
to stay on the literal level, to stay on the surface - but the point
of faith is to look deeper, to go to the core. In the Magnificat,
when we look at the core, we find the symbolic center which sings
that God rejoices, has joy, in us, and we rejoice, have joy, in God,
and in this relationship the world is made a better place. Messages
from the Divine are not meant to be stored in one’s own private
treasure chest of memory to be hoarded for private spirituality but
to be used to change the world.
When
Luke remembers this story, the editor is asking the listener to take
the song into her or his heart and ask “How can I open myself to
the Divine message and give hope, joy, justice and peace?”. Each of
us is invited to sing, “The Lord has shown favor on me, I have been
blessed beyond all that I deserve; therefore how can I bring forth
blessings.”
Divine
messages are communicated in many ways - in nature, in the holy space
between people, in liturgy, in direct spiritual experiences of
visions, in the study of other people’s experiences and dreams as
in the Bible, and in thousands of years of other experiences. Divine
messages come in so many ways. The word Angel means “messenger”
and is one way that messages are delivered.
Most
of you know I was gone last week as Pat and I were at the Kanuga
Conference Center attending our second of six Intensive Training
sessions for becoming Dream Group Leaders. We believe that dreams are
one of the ways that the Divine speaks to us through symbols. Dreams
have many details and sometimes you want to find out what the details
mean, to do analysis of each thing, but the problem is that keeps us
in our head and on the surface. What we are learning is that, when we
gather in a Dream Group, we are not asked to show how bright we are
and interpret every little facet of someone else’s dream, but to
look deeper and to take the dream upon ourselves and find how it
speaks to our souls, our deep spirits.
Let
me give you an example of a dream I had that the group worked with me
on and took into themselves. I call it “Red Boxers”
I
am in Western North Carolina doing a tour of streams and rivers on
which to canoe, and this is against the backdrop of the Election of a
Bishop, so there is lots of buzzing about the election ( there is no
election in Western North Carolina- but I am on the search committee
for a new Bishop in East Carolina). The bus that we are on is driving
around mountains with lots of beautiful views. We get out and wade in
the waters. We stop and get out to pick up some treats made out of
honey. The scene shifts, and I find myself entering a church because
I am subbing for a priest in a communion service. I look down and see
that I am dressed in red - bright red - boxer shorts. Did I feel so
comfortable that in the wading I stripped down to boxers? I don’t
know and I feel a bit confused, but no one seems to comment. I go
into the chapel and find that it has not been set up. There is no
chasuble, so I am helped into a small woman’s or child’s poncho
with only a small opening. I am not sure that my head can fit
through, and it barely makes it. There is no stole, but they take a
lace table cloth and gather it together, and it is bulky and clumsy.
As I move around with it I am knocking some things over. People come
in but not to attend the service - they are coming in to have lunch
around tables, and there are waiters taking orders and customers
talking and laughing with each other, and I am doing the service.
There is no bread and no wine – so we use some coke and maple sugar
candy figures.
I
wake up.
On
the surface we can look at water, which is a symbol for the
unconscious, and going to Western North Carolina to go deeper into
the unconscious. I was fed honey like John the Baptist in the
Wilderness. Stripping down to boxers can mean getting rid of all I
hide behind, being vulnerable. In the personal unconscious, the color
red can mean passion, love, or danger for, since red is the color of
blood, it can mean something that will cost dearly, a sacrifice. Yet
in the collective unconscious, red is a color of happiness. That is
why Chinese restaurants use so much red in their decorations. In the
dream, I am still a Priest and I do the service, but I can no longer
fit my very self, my theology, my understanding into the narrow
confines of standard worship. I am clumsy and silly looking; can they
really afford me, do I really belong?
Dreams
don’t come to tell us what we already know but to tell us what we
need
to know and to give clues to find the way for healing and wholeness.
If that is so, then the deeper message for me in this dream is that I
am too worried about the church, for the community has gathered
together and is being fed despite me. I am not the church; to the
contrary, it will continue without me. It is God who feeds me and
feeds the congregation. My actions seem to be like those of a woman
beginning the second trimester of a pregnancy, when clothes no longer
fit and she feels clumsy. What is it that I have inside me that the
Divine has planted that I need to carry, nurture, and bring forth?
What I am called to do in the meantime is to be faithful and point to
the work we are called to do and to the source of all of our
blessings. Like Mary, I am to go deeply into myself and give what the
Divine has given to me. The deeper message is to sing the Magnificat;
My soul proclaims
the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all
generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers, *
to Abraham and his children for ever.
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers, *
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
That is one of my
dreams; take it and make it yours. Take Mary’s and Hannah’s
visits with the Divine and make them yours. How are you blessed,
having your pride scattered? How are you feeding the hungry with
Good things, sharing mercy, hope, justice and love? How are you
magnifying, praising, rejoicing? Are you open to hearing God, taking
the Divine inside yourself, and then ready to give out of yourself in
joy?
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