Magnificat!

As are many of you, I'm still "basking in the glow" of this past Sunday's worship with our Bishop Wright.  However the unusual day's beginning with doubly troubled cars had its effect what transpired once the church was full and we were singing was already a remarkable moment.  And it kept on happening as a beautiful combination of prayer book order and spiritual spontaneity unfolded before us all.  It was a unique gift for each of us to be party to Sunday's events.  

Lots of thank you's to go around:

• The members of the vestry who waited anxiously to recognize with the bishop the gift of the rectory and prayed together in gratitude and blessing for the property and its donor.
• The members of our Altar Guild and Flower Guild who staged our church for the multi-faceted orchestration that was 2 baptisms, 3 confirmations, 3 anticipated reaffirmations and 6 others who responded to the bishop's invitation to present themselves for reaffirmation. 
• The parishioners and others -- those present and those who could not be -- for giving in multiple ways to make this special "joint" service possible.  Evidenced not only by the healthy representation of "8 o'clock-ers" but those who joined us via comments on Facebook and email messages.
• To those who pooled together, set-up, food donations and clean-up for the reception. Especially the clean-up that happened before the reception, and the flowers again!  
• Thanks to the Eastons, Bucks, Cronics, to Nancy Bush who prepared so conscientiously for this important day for Brennan, Poppy Grace, Camden and Cade, and Nancy herself, who each gave us a glimpse of God's image we will not forget.  
• To Faith Roman, Paul Roman, Flossie Dodge, Rick Crown, Avery Jackson, and Jeffrey Hagy who showed us even more of what a life renewed by God can look like.
• To Daisy Jane Buck for FaceTiming her grandmother so she could join us while recovering from back surgery.
• To our Bishop Wright for his preaching, his persistence, his presence of mind and heart, his spontaneity and generosity, his invitation to a new evangelism and his sharing for our diocese and our Episcopal church.  

There are more, so please do not hesitate to remind me of my omissions.  We'll probably still be "basking" some next week and can share those thank you's, then.  

There's a connection with the songs in Luke's gospel to the events of this past Sunday and the days ahead.  It is perhaps the most important song, sung by Mary herself.  The Magnificat is her answer to God's calling her to a necessary and unique responsibility that will take from innocence,  to challenge, to struggle, to endurance, to heartbreak and ultimately to the highest blessing and beatification.

What she sings we should sing because God not only visits us in unique and stirring moments but because God calls each one of us.  Like her singing it will work for us to keep ourselves mindful and to do our own glorifying our own magnifying of God.  That is what will sustain us and forward God's purpose in visiting us in the first place.

There's a world that needs God's lifting and leveling, that needs God's enriching and balancing, that needs God's restoration and renewing.  We can bask AND we can sing:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!  My spirit rejoices in God, my savior. . . ."

Once in Royal David's City

It was when I was serving in Augusta, Ga. as Assistant Rector for the Church of the Good Shepherd that I first coined the phrase, "taking Halloween back from Wal-Mart."  It was in response to our having adopted the outline from Gretchen Wolff Pritchard's Offering the Gospel to Children of an All Saints' Day event.  Tricia Dodge, Infant and Childrens' Minister needed the youth which were in the program for which I had oversight to help. 

It was an incredible adaptation away from a "theologically sanitized" and more typical halloween carnival to a rich telling the story of how we could better understand sainthood as biblical people and by way of that understanding re-adopt Halloween -- All Hallow's Eve -- and "take it back" from the over-commercialized gluttonous affair it had become. 

We managed a couple of years of doing it here with the help of students from the Episcopal Center @ UGA.  I remember when someone's hayride trailer stopped and unloaded 20+ unexpected young guests we were going to run out of our more modest treats.  It was worth it. The lessons we taught and learned were invaluable. 

Advent presents a similar opportunity to teach and learn an alternative understanding of God at work in the world through a child born in Bethlehem that in many ways begins taking back Christmas from it's own over-commercialization. 

Our readings on the Sundays of Advent: prophets forecasting a vision of Israel's return and restoration, Paul, exuberant and glowing as he thanks God for the faith of the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Philippians. And mostly Luke's songs and narrative of those months before Mary gives birth. 

They are all preparatory, all about the work of redemption and Judgement that Jesus, the Christ WILL accomplish, about what God WILL do as the early church grows, how God WILL keep his covenant and continue to choose the jewish people to be his blessing of the world. 

We do our own preparation by the way we withhold gratification, not yet singing the songs and carols that radios and streaming devices have already made present, at least ambient is one the toughest lessons to learn. 

But . . . , I confess.  I need help!  Whenever we are planning our service of Lessons & Carols I always slip ahead and give into the impulse to sing at least one of those dreamy, pastorally sedative standards.  This year we will sing Once in Royal David's City.  That's the piece that traditionally begins the Christmas Eve -- no longer Advent -- service from King's College Chapel aired by BBC and NPR Every year! 

So please forgive me.  I'm still teaching and still learning and I love this hymn!

Once in royal Davids city,

Stood a lowly cattle shed,

Where a mother laid her Baby,

In a manger for His bed:

Mary was that mother mild,

Jesus Christ, her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven,

Who is God and Lord of all,

And His shelter was a stable,

And His cradle was a stall:

With the poor, and mean, and lowly,

Lived on earth our Saviour holy.

For He is our childhood's pattern;

Day by day, like us, He grew;

He was little, weak, and helpless,

Tears and smiles, like us He knew;

And He cares when we are sad,

And he shares when we are glad.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,

Through His own redeeming love;

For that Child so dear and gentle,

Is our Lord in heaven above:

And He leads His children on,

To the place where He is gone.

The Songs of Luke's Gospel

There so many songs associated with our Advent observance.  The human response to God's presence as Redeemer and Judge elicits praise, thanksgiving, relief, confidence, commitment, and hope.  Even what we read in scripture in the story of God's coming into our world and the difference that makes is rendered in song after song.

This Sunday we'll substitute the Song of Zechariah for the psalm at the Gradual.  Zechariah's song was unique and was so by his being made mute until his son, John -- the baptizer -- was born.  He and his wife Elizabeth were like Abraham and Sarah, advanced in age and without a son.  When he questioned the angel Gabriel's announcing Elizabeth's pregnancy this is what happened:

Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.” Luke 1:18-20

So when John is born, Zechariah's voice is restored and he gets to sing his song. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them! . . . "

There's lots of other singing in Luke's gospel.  Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, Simeon each take a turn rejoicing, praising, giving thanks, sighing relief, stirring confidence, making commitments, and proclaiming hope.

Off of the bad news that the world is falling apart at the seams -- remember what Jesus said last Sunday -- this good news that God is coming into our world totally releases so much that is muted within us; things we're afraid to mention, things about which we have little if any confidence, things of sadness, pain, and separation.

The songs -- some are carols -- of this season are honest about the darkness but without fail call forth the light.  There's lots of singing in Luke's gospel.  There's lots of Luke's gospel in our world, today.  We too can sing!

Hark a thrilling voice is sounding:

"Christ is nigh," it seems to say; 

"Cast away the works of darkness, 

O ye children of the day!"