Mary’s consent

Advent 4 year C Sermon 09

Mary’s consent to God’s action in her life…
runs contrary to all the things that promise us… fulfilment in this world.

Worldly wisdom…material abundance…the perfect image for ourselves and our families…absolute security…are just some of the things the world wants us to crave.

Yet Mary surrenders her will and her life…

her future fulfilment and happiness… to the will of God.
When she’s invited to give up her dreams and plans…
to the future God will reveal…Mary consents

‘May it be to me as you have said.’

The lead up to Christmas is a time when the world intensifies its promises to deliver happiness. Toys aren’t just toys…their marketing promises to bring us together

…as happy families…sharing golden moments of joy.

Products…promise to make us secure and safe and beautiful. Underarm deodorants promise to make us confident. Toothpaste promises to make us sexy.

‘Tis the season to buy fulfilment.’

The world keeps promising and we keep consuming.

The serpent in the garden promises wisdom…
and Adam and Eve turn toward its voice…
leaving their trusting relationship with God behind.

But the message of the Gospel… is clear isn’t it

fulfilment will never come…from what we think we desire in the world. And if we’re unaware of this…the world of marketing and image management …will keep us too busy to even look for deeper satisfaction.

We discovered last week… just how much emotional investment we make in these cultural and market driven programmes for happiness. It’s just as Jesus said, ‘where our treasure is… our hearts will be also...

and we can see the evidence of this…

in our emotional reactions to not getting what we want...
and we feel anxious or angry when our desires are frustrated

And we heard how Jesus calls us… to turn away from futilely seeking happiness in all the wrong places…how he calls us to repent…and turn our attention in God’s direction… toward God’s way of mercy compassion and peace with justice.

And we discovered…that deciding to turn our lives around this way… is only the beginning…because even our best efforts to do the will of God…can be undermined by emotional programming that we’re simply unaware of.

So the real work of repentance...is letting God renew our hearts and minds… by bringing all that is hidden into the light… so it can be named and let go. Allowing God to transform us from the inside out. In other words…
what follows logically from Jesus’ call to repent…
is the call to consent…to God’s action in us.

But how?

Well, Mary giving permission to God is our clue. ‘Let it be to me as you have said.’

Mary’s consent to God’s action in her life… is unconditional.

She doesn't say… well OK… I’ll have this baby…but only if there’s no social fall out… only with a guarantee I’ll never suffer. No, Mary’s consent is one hundred percent…not ninety eight point nine percent.

So you might say that in giving her consent…Mary embodies the great commandment…to love God… with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength.

If you can’t see yourself doing this...then think of our spiritual life as a dance with God. Because in a sense Mary has accepted God’s invitation to dance…

and she’s decided to let God lead.

Just for fun let’s do an experiment which demonstrates what I’m talking about. I’ve asked Janice and Carrick to come up for a little dance demonstration.

[Both try to lead then Janice lets Carrick lead]

Now it’s easy to see how awkward and graceless it is when both partners try to lead. But when the one who’s following can relax… and let the other do the steering… then the dance flows easily across the floor.

On the dance floor of life…most of us have difficulty letting go control… and allowing God to take the lead. We do try to turn our will and our lives over to God… but it’s scary not being in control. So time and time again… we take the lead back.

And at the root of this difficulty are questions of faith…

Just how much do we trust God?

Do we really believe God can and will change us from the inside out if we allow it…and do we really believe God’s way…offers us the deepest fulfilment.

And if our faith is weak… is there any way we can become like Mary and let God lead?

Is there some method we can learn…to make surrender possible…when we live in a world that’s competing day and night for our hearts and minds.

Well just like dancing cheek to cheek…learning to surrender our will and our lives to the care of God… takes time and discipline and practise…

just as on Dancing with the Stars.

For the past two thousand years… Christians have been letting go and letting God…in a form of prayer…It’s an ancient Christian spiritual discipline… called the prayer of consent…or the prayer of quiet…today it’s sometimes called Centering Prayer. It’s a discipline I’ve had for years… and the subject of my recent study leave.

We call the prayer of consent a spiritual discipline… because we’re disciplined about doing it. Here are Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 6 in The Message translation:

"Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”

So in obedience to Jesus the first thing we do is make time. Time to open ourselves to God’s transforming action in us. In our busy lives it helps to have a set time every day…maybe just five minutes to start with…

but twenty is ideal.

But the hardest thing about of the prayer of consent…

is just learning to be still… the most difficult part for us to grasp…is that God does all the work…we don’t have to do anything…and we’re not very good at that…so we have to practise doing nothing…in the presence of God.

It’s hard to let go and let God…because our hearts and our minds…are on other things…even in prayer… thoughts and images are constantly swirling around in our heads…distracting us and taking our attention away from God…yet this is a time when God must increase…and we must decrease.

And in the prayer of consent…we don't get up-tight about distracting thoughts… we just practise gently letting them go… and turning our attention back to God… in an attitude of openness and surrender.

Some people find it helpful to have a sacred word…

like the name of Jesus, or Abba…or Father…a word that symbolises their willingness to consent. And when they notice they’re caught up in their thoughts again…
they just gently bring to mind the sacred word…
to turn their attention back to God.

Now if you’re tempted to sigh and say ‘look…Diane…

its alright for you…but where on earth am I going to find time… just to sit in silence with God…I’ve got so many demands on my time already…people expect things of me…I’m so busy pursuing my other programmes for happiness …

Well… if you’re resistant to the idea of making time… to practice the prayer of consent… then the next time your tummy’s in a knot or you're your let down by a friend or frustration gets the best of you…I invite you to ask yourself… if a little resting in silence with God…

could be just what the divine doctor ordered.

When you lose your cool next time…

why not consider the possibility that God could and would transform your life… with your consent…
why not give God time… to conform you more and more into the image of the Christ…

Perhaps that’s what it means… to love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength…so you can gain the inner peace necessary to love your neighbour as yourself.

Far from withdrawing from the world…the spiritual discipline of the prayer of consent… can help us live in the world the Jesus way…. And with time and practise we will find it easier to consent as Mary did… to the coming of the Christ into her life.

May our Lord Jesus now enter our Christmas…in this sacred meal.

Surrender

Advent 4 year B Sermon 08 

"May it be to me as you have said."

On this fourth Sunday of Advent… we continue to celebrate the time of God’s promise… coming into time and space…in the form of a vulnerable human baby.

Over the past weeks… we’ve shared expectation and longing for a Messiah…we’ve shared it with the disappointed Hebrew elite… returning from exile five hundred years before the first Christmas…

And we’ve tried to comprehend the coming of the Messiah… with survivors of Jerusalem’s destruction… as they look back on Jesus birth seventy years later.

So we’ve looked at Jesus’ story…from the past and the future… but today…we zoom in… to the life of one young Jewish woman…the very same year… Jesus was born.  

We look closely at her encounter…with a messenger from God …a conversation that speaks to us…not only of Mary’s faith…but of God’s respect for her decision.  

And we ask…when Mary gave her consent… when Mary put her body unconditionally in God’s care…did she have any idea what was coming?  Listen as Hailey Westenra sings ‘Mary did you know?’  [Blog readers should Google 'Mary did you know?' for lyrics and video.]

Yes Mary’s son would heal and teach…and liberate and save…Yes… her son would proclaim his way of peace from a mountaintop… and yes…her son… would one day enter into the gates of Jerusalem … and lay claim to David’s throne…[pause]

but when Mary said yes to God’s messenger…did she know… there would be pain and grief and suffering …in her future too? Did she know there’d be sacrifices that most Christmas songs and stories never mention?

When Mary says to the angel "I am the Lord’s servant… may it be to me as you have said." …She wasn’t just agreeing… to be the proud mother of a king. She was making a radical statement of faith. 

You might say Mary surrendered herself… body… mind and spirit… trusting in the purposes of God. 

As the story goes…Mary didn’t bargain or negotiate with the angel. She didn’t say ‘well Ok… but only if you can absolutely guarantee… I’ll never have to endure any suffering… for the rest of my life…

 She didn’t say… yes I’ll do it…but first you have to promise… my son will live to a hundred and make me thousands of grandbabies. 

And Mary didn’t say…well that’s all fine with me…but don’t expect me to make any more sacrifices.

No Luke tells us…Mary just surrendered…then and there Surrendered a hundred percent…not ninety eight percent …not ninety nine point nine percent ... but totally and completely. [pause]

Do you have any idea… what it would mean to surrender your will and your life …and even your body… to God…as Mary did?

To say OK… whatever you want God…I’ll do it … even if it’s not what I was hoping for… or planning for… because your purposes are greater than mine. 

You know I never fully appreciated… the magnitude of Mary’s surrender… until I heard the story… 

of a slender young woman who wandered into a church one day…right into the middle of a communion service…

Instead of taking a seat… she walked slowly and with great dignity…right up the aisle. Without stopping she climbed the few steps… up to the communion table.

At first people were appalled by this sudden intrusion into their worship time. Eyes and mouths were set hard …heads shook in disbelief at her cheek …and  everyone wondered… how the minister would deal with the disruption

As the young women turned to face the congregation they noticed she appeared to be carrying a baby wrapped in a blanket… tears were streaming down her face…she clung tightly to the bundle in her arms…

the minister gently beckoned her forward…and smiling down at the bundle in the woman’s arms… the minister lifted a corner of the blanket to peek inside.

Solemnly he nodded to the woman…and with a great sweep of his hand…invited her to take his place behind the communion table.  

Moving where he pointed…the young women looked out with sad eyes at the wary congregation.

And with great tenderness she laid the bundle on the table and began to unwrap the blanket…

Suddenly there was a loud gasp from the congregation

as everyone realised what was inside.

And slowly…

the woman lifted the loaf of bread high into the air…as though she were offering it to God …

and then holding the bread out toward the congregation…she broke it in two… and offered it to them.

Welcome to the Table of our Lord. Come if you have surrendered much and come if you have let go of nothing. These gifts are freely given for you.