A Place No One's Heard Of (Luke 1:26-38)

 If you were to tell me that you were going to Chicago, that’s all you’d need to say. Everyone knows about Chicago. 

You don’t need to clarify that Chicago is a city in Illinois. You don’t need to say, “I’m going to a city in Illinois called Chicago.” Everyone knows that Chicago is a city in Illinois. You just say, “Chicago,” and that’s enough. It’s even on the freeway signs.

On the other hand, if you were going to Dieterich…

Some of you know that Walter Scott Camp and Learning Center—the camp that we at First Christian Church, along with the other congregations of our region, own and operate—is located in Dieterich, at least according to its official mailing address.

But if you told someone you were going to Dieterich, they might wonder: “Dieterich? Where is Dieterich? I’ve never heard of Dieterich.” 

Because Dieterich is a very small town. It has less than 1,000 people. So, instead of just saying “Dieterich,” it would be helpful if you gave that a little context. For example, instead of just saying, “I’m going to Dieterich,” It might be better to say, “I’m going to a small town in southern Illinois called Dieterich.”

And that helps the person you’re talking to have a little better idea of just where Dieterich is.

That’s how Luke introduces the town of Nazareth. Luke doesn’t expect anyone to have heard of Nazareth, or know where it is. 

So, Luke says that the angel Gabriel was sent to a town in Galilee called Nazareth.

Luke doesn’t just say Nazareth, because that would lead to blank stares and a shrugging of shoulders. Nazareth was not a place many had heard of.

Luke doesn’t do this for Jerusalem; when Luke mentions Jerusalem, he just says, Jerusalem. Everybody knows about Jerusalem. Luke doesn’t need to say “a city in Judea called Jerusalem.”

But Nazareth? Not many people knew about Nazareth.

And for those who were waiting for the arrival of God’s messiah, few would have looked to Nazareth as the place from which he would come.

For the people who lived in Jerusalem and the area around Jerusalem, even if they had heard of Nazareth, there’s no way they would have expected Nazareth to be the hometown of the messiah. 

Jews in Judea, the region where Jerusalem is located, thought of Jews in Galilee as not quite as good. Galilean Jews were lower-class, 2nd rate Jews.

Those Galilean Jews—they didn’t follow all the right customs that Jews were supposed to follow. They intermarried with non-Jews. Some of them weren’t even circumcised, for cryin’ out loud!

And they were always stirring up trouble. Like those zealots in Sepphoris, a city just a few miles away from Nazareth. They started a little rebellion a few years before Jesus was born, but Roman troops not only destroyed that resistance movement; those troops destroyed the city itself. Just leveled it to the ground.

Which may actually be why Joseph was living in Nazareth. Joseph was a carpenter, and I can only assume that carpenters were in demand as Sepphoris began rebuilding itself after its destruction.

Had Joseph always lived in Nazareth? I don’t know. We know from today’s Bible story that his family’s roots were in Bethlehem, so at some point, Joseph, or one of his ancestors, made the move from Bethlehem to Nazareth. 

Which isn’t a move that many people would want to make, because, well, it’s Nazareth. 

My guess is that the opportunity for employment is what caused Joseph or someone in a previous generation of Joseph’s family to make that move. 

But, you know, in this season of Hallmark Christmas specials, I do sometimes imagine that maybe it happened a little differently. Maybe Joseph is still living in Bethlehem when, one day, he goes to the temple in Jerusalem during a festival. There, he bumps into this beautiful girl from Nazareth, and their coins spill on the ground, and as they both bend down to pick them up, their eyes meet…

And the next day, Joseph says to his friends and family, “I’m moving to Nazareth!”

And his friends say, “Where?”

And Joseph says, “Nazareth… it’s a town in Galilee.” 

And they say: “Why?”

And Joseph says: “I know… Galilee… but what can I say? Love makes you do crazy things…”

And off he goes.

OK. That’s probably not how it happened. I don’t know how or why or when Joseph’s family made the move to Nazareth. (It could have been many generations before Joseph.) I just know that Nazareth was a town that few people took notice of, and if they did take notice of it, it was neither positive nor favorable.

The same could be said about Joseph and Mary. Few people took notice of them. They were a poor couple, insignificant in so many ways. Outside of Nazareth, no one knew who they were, and if they did, they wouldn’t think much of them.

They were Galileans, after all. Poor Galieans. Even if there was plenty of work for a carpenter like Joseph, carpenters made miniscule wages. 

And if Mary’s family agreed to let her marry him, she must have been just as low, if not lower. Maybe she was “damaged goods,” as some would say; as some scholars I’ve read have suggested. Maybe she was victimized by Roman soldiers, as so many young women were in those days. Maybe, among the people at least, there was some question as to her “virtue.” Why else would she—or her family—choose a low-life like Joseph for her future husband, no matter how good or decent a man he was?

Or maybe Mary didn’t even have a family. They aren’t mentioned, other than her distant relative Elizabeth.

This is all speculation. However it came about, it’s clear that Joseph and Mary were poor nobodies living in a poor town no one cared about or had ever heard of or expected anything good from. 

When I moved here to Bloomington a year ago, a lot of people here in Illinois said to me things like: “Why would you move here from California, especially at the start of winter?” 

But I think also implied in that question was the idea that California is an important place, a place where things happen. Especially southern California. 

Celebrities live in southern California, and yes, I’ve seen a few, at restaurants, at amusement parks, even in the pews of my church. 

Such encounters are less likely, now that I live here in central Illinois. 

Maybe that’s why some of the people I’ve met, who live here in Bloomington, rank this area as less important, less desirable, than a place like southern California.

Maybe they even think that God pays more attention to a place like Los Angeles than to a place like Bloomington; or that God pays more attention to a place like Washington, or a place like Rome, than to a place like Bloomington. 

I think if you were to ask people where Jesus would be born if he were to be born today, I think a lot of people would choose someplace more important. Someplace like Washington. Or Rome. Or Jerusalem.

“Jesus would appear where the powerful are located. If he’s going to change the world, he’s got to be where the powerful people are.”

But if that’s true, then why wasn’t he just born in Jerusalem to begin with? Why Bethlehem as the place of his birth? Why Nazareth as his hometown?

Of all the places God could have picked for Jesus to grow up… God picked Nazareth. Maybe God saw something in Nazareth no one else saw. What, I don’t know. Maybe a combination of goodness and humility. Maybe God liked the diversity of people there, a unique blend of Jewish, Greek, and Roman. Maybe it was something else, something God alone could see.

It makes me wonder how much better we’d feel about the places we come from, if we could see those places through God’s eyes.

It makes me wonder how much better we’d feel about ourselves, if we could see ourselves through God’s eyes.

We tend to be hard on ourselves. We doubt our own abilities. We think of ourselves, and wonder: “what good could I do?”

Not too long ago a congregation that I think very highly of called a friend of mine who I think very highly of to be their new pastor, and I thought: what a perfect match!

I was so happy, both for him and the church. This friend of mine, who I admire, who inspires me, who makes me want to be a better pastor myself.

But as he was about to begin his ministry there, he told me that he was dealing with imposter syndrome. He was doubting whether he was really up to the task, or whether he was the right person.

And I was shocked, because I couldn’t think of anyone who was better suited for that congregation than him!

How often do we doubt ourselves and our abilities… even when others see what we’re capable of, and see the beauty in us, and tell us… Even then, we still have doubts.

I wonder if Mary felt that same sense of self-doubt. It seems she did at first. The scripture says she was perplexed, and that she then asked, “How can this be?” As in, “I think you might have the wrong person.”

It’s so hard to imagine that God would take notice of us. God, who created the earth and the heavens, who set the stars in place… takes notice of a girl from a town in Galilee called—what was it again?---oh, Nazareth.

God, ruler of the nations, takes notice of us, the people of First Christian Church in Bloomington, Illinois… a long way from more places like Washington, or Rome, or Jerusalem.

Can that possibly be true?

God, the one who was and is and is to come, takes notice of you.

Yes, you.

God has given you unique talents and gifts and abilities in a combination that doesn’t exist in any other human. 

In Isaiah 43, God says: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name…” Whether you are well-known, like Jerusalem or Chicago, or mostly unknown, like Dieterich or Nazareth, God knows your name. “I have called you by name [God says]; you are mine…you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.”

That’s why God came to be with us, at Christmas, in the form of Jesus: to let us know how much God loves us.

And maybe the reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem, to a couple from Nazareth, is to show that no place—and no person—is too insignificant for God to notice. 

In scripture, so many of those called by God to do big, important things, come from the most humble of beginnings. Many of them doubt their own abilities, and some even insist that God chose the wrong person. And none of them is perfect; they all have flaws. 

Yet God called them anyway.

And God calls you. 

This world needs you. This world needs what you and only you have to offer. There are holes in this world only you can fill. There is sadness in this world that only you can comfort. There is joy in this world that only you can celebrate.

In fact, when it comes to Christmas gifts, YOU are the best gift that you can give. Give of yourself, give love, give kindness—even a small act of kindness can make a big impact in someone’s life.

It may seem unlikely to you, that God would notice you, choose you; but if God looked with favor on Mary and Joseph, a poor, young, not-yet-married couple from an obscure town in Galilee called Nazareth, then surely God can, and does, look with favor upon you. God has blessed you, and God has made you a blessing to others.

Noise and Silence (Luke 1:5-25)

 In the sanctuary of the Lord, it was relatively quiet, but Zechariah could still hear noise from the courtyard outside, echoing around him: the clamor of the crowds; the squawking and baaing of the animals; the soldiers’ footsteps, marching; and the musicians’ instruments.

Suddenly, right there inside the sanctuary of the Lord, Zechariah heard a loud and present noise. It was the angel of the Lord, and its voice overpowered all the sounds from outside.

We think of angels as being soft-spoken, but angels were God’s warriors and messengers. When they spoke, they spoke with POWER—enough power, that those to whom the angels spoke often shook in terror.

So I’m not surprised that, when the angel appeared to Zechariah, it was enough to make Zechariah forget all the stories that he had studied all his life: the story of Abraham and Sarah, for example; and the story of Jacob and Rachel; and the story of Elkanah and Hannah. 

All those couples who, like him and Elizabeth, were childless well into their old age, yet who did eventually bear children through the miraculous power of God. 

When the angel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would become parents, just like those other couples, Zechariah couldn’t believe it. “How will I know that this is so?” he asked. In other words: “Prove it.”

How quickly he forgot what God is capable of!

So the angel silenced Zechariah. The angel decided that it was time for a little less noise, at least from Zechariah. At least for a while.

And when Zechariah came out of the temple, he could not speak.

I don’t blame Zechariah. When there’s too much going on, too much noise, too much commotion, and too many thoughts for my brain to keep track of, I also forget things that I should have remembered. Sometimes there’s just too much input. Sometimes, I just need a little peace and quiet, to sort things out.

So I don’t blame Zechariah; and I don’t really think of Zechariah’s forced silence as a punishment. I think of it as an opportunity—an invitation—to dwell in the silence, to ponder, to wonder, to become aware.

It could be that I’m reading too much of my own situation into the gospel story. The Advent and Christmas season is a noisy time of year. There’s more noise, more activity, more commotion… and moments of peace and quiet can be hard to come by.

I wouldn’t want things to be quiet all the time. To everything there is a season; a time for laughter and a time for crying, a time for singing and a time for dancing, a time for speaking, and a time for keeping silent.

…At this time of year, it’s the times of silence that are in too short of supply.

Zechariah’s silence allowed him—and it allows us—to hear more clearly the voices of Elizabeth and Mary. With that male voice silenced, we get to better hear the voices of the women. 

This happens a lot in Luke. Women are prominent among Jesus’ followers. Women are the first to proclaim the good news of Christ’s resurrection. Women are disciples and apostles. 

Luke presents the gospel in such a way that women—and other marginalized voices—can be heard.

Even if it means silencing the male voice for a while.

I hope you can find some silence amidst all the noise of Christmas. Put on a coat and go for a walk, look at your neighbors’ Christmas decorations... Or, grab your favorite hot beverage and sip it in quiet contemplation—or while listening to some soft, instrumental music. 

And maybe read the first few chapters of Luke’s gospel, pausing over each scene, each verse, because there’s far more there than we’ll get to hear in worship.

And in those quiet moments, think back to Zechariah, and Elizabeth; and the noise of Jerusalem; and the relative quiet of their home in the hill country just outside of the city… 

Imagine their joy when Elizabeth confirms that she is, indeed, pregnant, just as the angel said.

Imagine their excitement when they see Elizabeth’s relative Mary making her way on the road toward their home in the Judean hills, and behold Elizabeth’s surprise when the baby in her womb leaps in greeting to the baby in Mary’s womb.

In your moments of quiet, think on these things. Think on the despair and the gloom and the hope and the anticipation that existed 2,000 years ago, and which exists today, as we look toward the coming birth of Christ, who brings peace to the world, peace to the hearts of all those who look to him.

A Bold Vision (Luke 1: 46-55)

 Today’s scripture is Mary’s song of praise, also known as the Magnificat. It seems to find its way into the lectionary every year, even though it only appears in Luke’s gospel; and it is, for me, one of the most important Advent scriptures.

Now, I don’t know what impressions you have of Mary, but I know that studying the Magnificat has had a big influence on my impression of the mother of Jesus.

I remember growing up, being in my share of Christmas pageants as a child (like Linus in the Peanuts special, I was always a shepherd); and Mary—I don’t remember Mary ever saying much in those pageants. She had the spotlight, but not a lot of lines. 

The few words that she did speak were spoken quietly, with wonder and reverence, like when the angel greets her, and she responds, “How can this be?” And then, “May it be so.”

I do not remember, from those pageants of my childhood, hearing Mary sing her song of praise; and certainly not the whole song.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!… He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts!… he has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly! He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty!”

These are attention-grabbing words! I think if they had been included in the pageants of my childhood, I would have remembered them.

But in fact, there have been many people throughout history who’d rather we not remember these words.

Mary’s song of praise was actually banned from being read or sung by rulers and governments. It was banned from being read or sung in India during the British colonial administration; banned in El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980’s; and, after mothers of disappeared children in Argentina put Mary’s song on public display, it was banned there as well.

It’s not hard to see why…

The Lord has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly…

Mary’s song presents a bold vision of a new world order, a new world that is nothing like the old world where power corrupts, and where rulers oppress the people.

And the Mary who sings this song, she’s not a meek, docile, submissive Mary. Her hand is in a fist, and raised in a show of power.

And she is ready for change! She is Dorothy Day; She is Rosa Parks; She is Dolores Huerta. She is Malala Yousafzai. She is Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Gobels Johnson. 

When you listen to the words of Mary’s song, you realize, that’s the kind of woman Mary was.

I’m not sure why we usually see Mary portrayed so meek and mild. Maybe patriarchy has something to do with that. 

Because if you read through her song of praise, and if you pay attention to the words, you begin to realize Mary had spunk. She was feisty.

And just where did Mary get this bold attitude from? Who were her influences?

I think some of it, she got from Hannah, the mother of Samuel. 

Hannah appears in 1 Samuel, chapter 2. There, we read about how Hannah was fierce and determined in her prayer life; so much so, that when the priest saw her praying, he accused her of being drunk. 

And when God answered Hannah’s prayer, Hannah sang a song to the Lord that went like this:

My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God… the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.… The Lord raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.” (1 Samuel 2)

It all sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it? Mary’s song is, in fact, based on this ancient song of Hannah.

Mary’s bold attitude may also have come, in part, from Miriam, Moses’ sister. In Exodus 15, we read that, after God rescued the Israelites from Pharaoh by leading them through the Red Sea, Miriam sang a song to the Lord, that went like this:

Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. (Exodus 15) Like Hannah’s song, and like Mary’s song, Miriam also sings of a reordering of society, in which those at the top and those at the bottom find their places reversed!

Mary’s bold attitude may also have come from her cousin Elizabeth. After all, Mary sang her song in response to Elizabeth’s blessing upon Mary, when Elizabeth said to Mary: “Blessed are you among women.” 

These words of Elizabeth, in turn, echo the words of blessing sung by the prophet Deborah, in the book of Judges. Deborah was a bold warrior, judge, and prophet, who pronounced this blessing upon Jael, yet another bold woman from the Bible.

So, all this is to say: Mary’s boldness did not arise out of a vacuum. Her challenge to the ways of the world, the ways of empire, the ways of oppression, did not come out of the blue.

And Mary’s own life circumstances probably also contributed to her bold attitude. Like many Jews living under Roman occupation, she was oppressed; like many women living in a patriarchal society, her rights were limited.

But Mary shared a vision for the way the world could be, a vision shared by the ancient prophets.

Mary’s radical vision of the way this world could be, is the vision God has for the world. It is the “new heaven and new earth” Isaiah talks about, when everyone’s thirst and hunger are satisfied, regardless of how much money they have, and where good news is brought to the oppressed…

It’s the vision spoken of by Amos, who spoke of justice rolling down like water, and righteousness like an everflowing stream…

It’s the vision spoken of by Micah, who spoke of justice and kindness as what God requires…

This is the vision that became central to Jesus’s ministry. When Jesus talked about the “kingdom of God,” or “the kingdom of heaven,” he was talking about a new world, a world of justice and steadfast love. A world where (as I’ve already said) the poor are lifted up, and the mighty are brought low; where the first are last, and the last, first. It’s a world where the blind see, but many who see walk around as if they are blind.

Mary shared this vision, and like many in her time, she was awaiting the coming of the Messiah, the one who would usher in this new age.

So when the angel told her that she would be the one to give birth to this messiah, this son of God—and when her cousin Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, confirmed this miraculous event—Mary realized that the hopes and fears of all the years were about to come together, through her; and no wonder Mary burst forth in a song of praise! No wonder she drew on the spirit and words of Hannah, Miriam, and Deborah, in giving praise to God for what was happening and what was about to happen.

That vision is alive today. As Christmas draws near, we once again lift our hearts in praise to God, the giver of peace; and we pray that God’s kingdom may come on earth, as it is in heaven; that peace may prevail upon the earth, that all people will be able to live in harmony, that parents won’t have to fear for their children’s safety, that the hungry will be satisfied with good food, that the voice of the poor will be heard, that the earth itself will find healing and restoration.

And so we actively engage in the “work of Christmas,” as described by Howard Thurman:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the people,

to make music in the heart.

This is what we are called to do; and we are called to do it with all the boldness of Mary.

And it is my hope that First Christian Church can continue to engage in this work and these tasks of ministry, to do this “work of Christmas,” and to do so boldly. 

It takes a certain amount of boldness to start a church. When I arrived in my office for the first time, I found some historical information about our church that the ladies who meet in our history room left for me, and I read about William T. Major and the 13 charter members who started FCC way back in 1837. What a bold vision they had!

At least some of their bold spirit remains with us today.

It takes a certain amount of boldness for a church to proclaim itself as open and affirming, as FCC has. 

It takes a certain amount of boldness to build and install a helping shelf, and to invite the community to make use of it. Nearly every day I see people at our helping shelf, so I know it is blessing many lives.

It takes a certain amount of boldness to join with others in working to eliminate medical debt; 

…And it takes a certain amount of boldness to share space with the Boys and Girls Club, an organization that empowers young people to reach their full potential; because of my experience teaching, I know how important that is.

So, this work of Christmas: we are doing it! In these ways, and in so many other ways as well!

And I give thanks for the ministry, and I give thanks for all of you who make it possible.

Your presence, your prayers, and your generous support are what makes it all happen.

And when we pray “thy kingdom come, on earth as in heaven;” and when we work with the Spirit to make God’s kingdom come; that kingdom, that new world, that vision of Mary and the prophets, becomes real and present in our world today.