Pentecost is our Annunciation, your call to let the Spirit fill you and transform you for the healing of the world.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
St. Mary, the Mother of Our Lord
Text: Luke 1:46-55

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Pentecost is our Annunciation. It’s that simple.

Today we learn to model Mary, not worship her. Mary stands alongside us, urging us to join her in answering God’s invitation. To join her willingness to open herself completely to God’s work, even if it meant her world turned upside down. To say with her “let it be so,” and let God’s Spirit transform us for the life of the world.

Sharing Mary’s “yes” means letting down all sorts of boundaries with God.

And maybe only a pregnant woman can show us this. From the moment of conception, a pregnant mother shares her body with another being. There isn’t a breath taken that isn’t shared. Blood runs between the two. Food eaten, physical movement, all affect both. There’s distinction between the two, but the boundaries seem nearly transparent.

This is what God asked of Mary: to let down all boundaries and join with God for the healing of the world. To say, “let it be as you will,” and let God into her life wherever God needed to be.

And as much as we desire God’s presence in our lives, God’s grace in our hearts, there are some places inside our hearts with a “no admittance” sign, places where we say to God, “this far, and no further.” Where we say:

I don’t want you to challenge my preconception, my way of thinking. It’s mine to keep.     OR

I don’t want you to prod at that sin, that habit that hurts me and others. It’s comfortable to me.     OR

I’m not ready for you to change me fully into Christ, to set aside my needs. I like being number one in my plans.     OR

I don’t want you to open my heart fully to love you and love others. That vulnerability terrifies me. I’d rather limit my love, protect myself.

And God will let you give these answers. You, like Mary, can always say no.

But if God allows your “no,” what does that suggest about the Magnificat?

This powerful, brave, joyful song to God’s overturning of the world pours out of this young woman and still thrills us. God will cast down the mighty from their thrones. God will send the rich away empty and scatter the proud. God will lift up the lowly, fill the hungry with good things. God will bring healing and wholeness to the entire creation.

But if God inspires this song by inviting a teenage girl to bear Christ into the world, and if God waits for her “yes” before proceeding, that surely means this is how God will fulfill Magnificat’s promise with us, with you.

Mary, who wasn’t forced into “yes,” couldn’t sing a song about God forcing anyone else, either. When Mary’s child grew to an adult, Jesus invited people into the reign of God, called people to lose everything to find God’s life. The Son of God was so committed to not forcing humanity to follow, so committed to invitation rather than coercion, that he let us torture and kill him, rather than take up force against us.

So the Magnificat can’t be a manifesto for God’s forcing the world upside down. God’s approach to Mary, the Son of God’s consistent approach in preaching and teaching, dying and rising, declare this is also the only way God will accomplish Magnificat’s promise. Through you, and me, and all God’s children, saying “yes, let it be as you say, as you ask.”

We who are mighty, powerful, aren’t threatened to comply by God’s armies.

We’re invited by God’s sacrificial love to step down from our thrones of privilege and lift up those who are trodden down. We who are full, rich, sated with plenty, are invited to empty ourselves, to step away from the buffet table, so that all can feast, all are fed and housed and clothed. We who are proud, self-centered, who act consciously and unconsciously more out of self-interest than we care to admit, are invited to scatter all that pride, let go of all those self-satisfied thoughts. So we can truly become Christ.

This won’t be easy. Mary’s “yes” led her to great joys, but also pain and suffering. Dropping all boundaries and letting God enter in, for the healing of our world, for the healing of our own lives, always has cost, loss, risk. Mary’s “yes” led her to the foot of the cross where she saw her son brutally killed. A world turned upside down means we move down so that all might live.

But Mary’s path didn’t end at that cross.

She was there in those confusing, glorious days after Easter, able to take her beloved son into her arms again. She saw him ascend to his divine life. And she was there with about 120 women and men on that day, fifty days after he rose, when the Triune God came to all the believers in the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit, asking the same question Gabriel asked Mary. When the Annunciation came for the whole Church, when believers were invited to welcome the Holy Spirit into their hearts and lives, to drop all boundaries, to join with God, bearing Christ for the healing of the world.

Pentecost is your Annunciation. The Spirit will enter you, change you, when you say yes, and you will be richly blessed and become a blessing to the world. A part of God’s Magnificat overturning. Whatever you let go, whatever you’re asked to lose, you’ll realize they’re nothing compared to the joy of bearing Christ. You’ll find life and love in God’s heart on this path.

And Mary will walk alongside you, holding out her hand, saying, “All will be well. Come, let’s walk together.”

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

Don’t be afraid: God is pleased to give you the reign of God, here and in the world to come, for you and for all creatures and the creation.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 19 C
Texts: Luke 12:32-40; Genesis 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Don’t be afraid, Jesus says.

God-with-us says it is God’s good pleasure to give you the reign of God.

Trust that, Jesus says. Trust that no matter what you think about the world, what you fear, despair about, all will be made new in God’s reign. Trust that no matter what you think about yourself or whether you’re worthy, God loves you unconditionally and says you are welcome, forgiven, beloved, enough. So you don’t have to be afraid.

For the second time in a couple weeks, you’re invited to trust God. And once again, Abraham’s trust is your model.

Two weeks ago Abraham trusted God’s nature, God’s goodness and mercy and spoke his heart to God. Today, he learns to trust God’s promises.

This is such a powerful moment in the history of God’s people that Paul builds a whole theology of grace out of it, and the writer of Hebrews spends a lot of time considering it. Abraham and Sarah are very old, and the promises God made seem impossible to Abraham. How can they have a child? Where will this promised land be? How will his descendants bless the whole world? Nothing has come of these promises. He’s leaving his goods to a slave since he has no heirs.

But God speaks to him, again, and says, again, “no, it will be your own children that will continue this promise.” And God shows him the stars and says, “that’s how uncountable your family will be.” And once again Abraham trusts. That’s what amazes Paul and the writer of Hebrews. With little evidence, Abraham continues to walk in faith, to serve God, to await the fulfilling of God’s promises. Look at him, they say. You could trust in that way, too.

But what promises are we talking about here?

Not Abraham’s list, so what is this reign of God? Hebrews here focuses on the heavenly city yet to come. There’s also a lot in this letter about our earthly pilgrimage, but here the writer says the ultimate promise of a life to come is what these faithful followers of old trusted from God.

And this is the reign of God Jesus promises: you can trust you have life to come after you die, a home in God’s heavenly reign. Even if you can’t see it, it’s there. But since no one can see this promise fulfilled unless they die, trust is your only option with this.

And yet, Jesus says God’s reign is also here now, in this life.

Jesus, the face of the Triune God for us, lived and proclaimed a reign of God here – on earth as in heaven, as he taught us to pray – where no one goes hungry. Where all who are thirsty are filled. Where strangers and aliens are welcomed and loved, where people imprisoned are cared for, and the sick and destitute are brought healing. Where the naked and homeless are clothed and sheltered. All that is promised for here.

And yet, this world doesn’t look at all like that. We live in a country that despises and abuses strangers and aliens, that burns 500 tons of food meant for starving children rather than give it to them, that targets vulnerable children and adults for abuse and hatred and exclusion under law. And the same is happening all over the world. There are few signs that God’s promised reign is here.

But, like Abraham, you’re asked to trust this promise anyway. Because what else Jesus says today.

The problem isn’t the promise. It’s how the promise is meant to happen.

Jesus’ coming as God in our flesh was to enlist God’s children, enlist you, enlist me, in making God’s reign happen here.

So Jesus says “don’t be afraid, God’s reign is yours” and then immediately says how you’ll be a part of this reign. Sell your possessions and give to those who lack, he says. Always be dressed for action, lamps lit, ready to serve God wherever needed. This is how God’s reign will happen. When you and I keep at it, doing our work, being God’s love.

Didn’t Christ say “you will serve me when you serve someone who is starving, or thirsty, or naked, or sick, or in prison, or a stranger”? When you serve the world in love, you’re in God’s reign. When you see God’s face in all people, you’re in God’s reign. When you realize God’s Spirit is in you and in all, you’re in God’s reign. When you see God in your enemy and are drawn to love them, you’re in God’s reign.

And remember, this is all God’s idea, God’s passion.

We didn’t come up with the idea of this reign of God that you and I so desperately want to see happen here. Everything we care about – justice, ending oppression, welcoming all, making peace and shelter and food and safety for all, building a world of hope and healing – all this is the Triune God’s idea first. God’s reign. God’s plan.

We sometimes forget that. We despair because we see so much wrong and think we can only do a little. But this is the Triune God’s dream, that all live in God’s reign. You can’t see how your little part, your love, your kindness, your activism, your devotion, your prayer, your work, is going to affect the whole thing. But you don’t have to. Let God see the big picture. Trust God is bringing this reign about, and do what you find yourself called to do. That’s how it will happen.

Don’t be afraid. The Triune God is pleased to do this, Jesus says.

Even if you die – and you will – there is life in God’s reign waiting for you. Trust that, and don’t be afraid of death.

And since God is also bringing this reign here, you get to be a part of that, too. If you can’t see how that could be, look at Abraham and remember he trusted with very little evidence. Ask the Spirit to help you find that trust, too.

And even if you and I don’t live long enough to see this all come to be, that’s OK, too. God’s got the big picture. As you serve and love as Christ, you’ll see parts emerge that bring joy.

So don’t be afraid. God has promised this and will do it. You can trust your life to it. And the life of the world.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen