Women on the Edge
We are on a 52-week journey through scripture together – nd we’re 15 weeks in – just past the first quarter. A lot of folks at Faith have been reading along in the book We Make the Road by Walking by Brian McLaren. And some people love the book. And some people REALLY DO NOT love the book. And sometimes we wrestle. And sometimes we agree. And sometimes we just don’t get where the author is going.
That’s good. Because we are doing it together.
We’re on this journey so that, as a community, we have immersed ourselves in the bigger arc of the storylines contained in the Bible, our Holy Scripture. It is a story that is historic, present and prescient. That is to say – it speaks of what was, what is, and what will be. You see…we are part of the story that continues to unfold.
Do you believe that?
I think, here in Avent, a season often shaped by deep history and traditions in our own lives, it is especially important to ask the question – what are we watching and waiting for?
The commemoration of an historic event, the birth of a baby who was Emmanuel?
The future coming of Christ – the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God?
Something new and hopeful born amidst us here and now that moves us forward somehow?
All of these things?
It is with these big questions on our heart that we gather around the texts of Advent, lighting candles and week by week asking what the week’s scripture has to do with what was, but also with what is and what will be.
Today, on this second Sunday in Advent we meet Mary and her relative, Elizabeth. In the book, McLaren touches this week on the mystery of a God who called on two unlikely souls - two women, who were really quite powerless in their society. He chooses as his title, Women on the Edge.
What were these women on the edge of, exactly?
To begin with, they were on the edge of an oppressive occupying force – the Romans. Their religious and ethnic and tribal identities were being subverted, erased, devalued.
They were on the edge of shame and expectation. Elizabeth’s shame is that she has made it to old age without conceiving. She has not yet fulfilled her duty as a married woman. She was expected to provide an heir, expected to nurture new members of the household to build Zechariah’s economic value and stability. On the flip side, Mary’s shame is that she is with child and not yet married. Who will believe her? The expectation was that she would arrive in the marital bed on her wedding night untouched by another. Her family, Joseph’s family, could not be expected to understand…
And somehow, each woman is also on the edge of receiving a gift.
For Elizabeth, being pregnant at last must have felt like an answered prayer. Of course she would be comparing her circumstances to the then-already-ancient story of Sarah giving birth to Isaac, a fulfillment of God’s promise. That story was deep in her tradition, it was part of the fabric of her being, of her community. And now, after many years of waiting, the time had come. What a gift!
Mary had also been raised in a faithful Jewish household. She would be familiar with prophecies about a new King and a virgin birth. She would have grown up waiting for the promised liberation for her people. She knew that someone was to be born and to return to the throne of David. Against that backdrop of tradition, an angel shows up and tells her this is who her child will be….the one who will reign over the house of Jacob forever.
Each woman is teetering on the edge of what is possible and what is impossible. Even in old age, Elizabeth conceives – and we assume that conception had to do with Zechariah. Mary is a virgin, and yet the power of the Holy Spirit overshadows her so that the child conceived in her womb is the Son of God.
They were teetering on the edge – of shame, of favor, of possibility, of expectation. Into the midst of their situation, there was suddenly hope and promise. That hope came in the form of an unexpected call on both of their lives. And they both responded…with joy, with willingness, perhaps notably with gratitude and very little fear and anxiety.
For one, the call that came was an answered prayer – an end of barrenness.
For the other, that call was grounds for shame and punishment – an unplanned pregnancy.
It is amazing, really.
In light of their story, I want to go back to the questions that we sit with in this season:
What are we watching and waiting for today in this Advent 2020?
The commemoration of an historic event, the birth of a baby who was Emmanuel?
The future coming of Christ – the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God?
Something new and hopeful born amidst us here and now that moves us forward somehow?
All of these things?
Might we be watching and waiting to see who is teetering on the edge? Who, while teetering on the edge finds themself called? And how they respond?
Mary’s response to Gabriel is resolved:
Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.
What is that response today?
I found myself thinking of the covenant prayer that is part of the Wesleyan tradition:
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen
I wonder…
Might our “yes” while teetering on the edge might change the world?
May it be so.
Amen.
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