Texts: Micah 5 :2-5a Luke 1:47-55

Ann Ferrell Lewis First Presbyterian Church December 24,2006

Le2aCY of Love

I have read that there is a particular African tribe with an unusual custom. When a woman is interested in having a child, she first goes to sit alone under a tree, and in that place of solitude, she listens. She stays in that quiet place until she hears a song. She knows that it is the song of the child who wants to come.

When she hears the song, "she returns to the man who will be the child's father and teaches the song to him. When they make love to conceive the child, they sing the song to call the child to them.

When the woman is pregnant, she teaches the child's song to the midwives and old women of the village so that when the birth time arrives, the people surrounding the mother sing the song to welcome the child among them.

Then as the child grows up, the other villagers learn the song. If the child falls or hurts his knee someone picks him up and sings the song. When the child does something wonderful, the people of the village sing this song. When the child goes through the rites of puberty and becomes an adult, the villagers sing the song.

It goes this way through life. At a wedding, the songs of husband and wife are sung together. Finally, when this child grows old, and lies in bed ready to die, all the villagers know the song, and they sing it for the last time.

Today's Gospel tells us of a pregnant woman who sings a song -- a song about her child, who he is, and who he will become.

Mary's song is her response to her cousin Elizabeth's spirited greeting, but it is more than that. It comes from deep inside her. It knits together in a new

way the sacred experience and language and hope of her people like pieces of a quilt transformed from scraps to splendor.

Nowhere in this song do we hear the name of her child, but somehow he is there in every phrase. Mary's song is not hers alone; it is the song of the child who wants to come, who comes to do the will of God. This song echoes in the events of her son's life, his death, and his exaltation. The song celebrates the God who keeps promises - not only to Abraham, but also to

S ,,1 u.

It is a song of God's love, a song to be sung from generation to generation.

With the recent losses of Charlie's mom and dad I've been doing some thinking about how it is that parents influence the lives of their children - how the legacy that they leave behind is so much more than possessions or memories. Parents pass on to their children their values, things like honesty, compassion, or diligence; they influence the culture of the home to cultivate individuals who are accepting of others, committed to justice, or generous of spirit. Of course parents can pass on to their children traits and qualities that aren't so desirable as well- we've all seen that happen - but with Charlie's parents it was clear to me that their influence upon their children has clearly shaped them into being loving and gracious individuals. If we were able to trace the history of those traits, I am confident that we would discover that they were present in grandparents, and great-grandparents, back to generations of our ancient past. And our hope is that now we can pass down those same traits to our children and grandchildren. This has been where my thoughts have been in these past few weeks.

So as I was reading Mary's song this week, it may not be too surprising that I was struck by the language that emphasizes that Mary's experience of being chosen to be the mother of the Son of God is connected both with generations of the past and those of the future. Mary's jubilant song includes such phrases as "Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed." (vs. 48) "His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation." (vs. 50) and "He has helped his servant Israel, in

1 As told by the Rev. Charles Hoffacker, an Episcopal priest and writer, in his sennon, "The Song of Divine Trimnph" for Dec. 24, 2006 with reference to book by Jack Kornfield, "How Then Shall We Live? Accessed 12/23/06 at http://www.episcopalchurch.orgisennons_that_work_80472_ENG_HTM.htm

remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendents forever." (vs. 55) The song of Mary interprets the impending birth of Jesus as a fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham. Do you remember what God's covenant with Abraham was? After we just finished a series on Genesis, surely you do. God promised to make of Abraham a great nation, to give him a multitude of ancestors. This alone was an amazing promise to Abram and Sarah who were old and wrinkled and completely barren. God also promised to give them a land to live in. But even more significant, God promised to be faithful to these descendents - to be their God forever.

As Mary watched her belly growing month by month, she must have often reflected upon her encounter wit~ the angel who informed her that she had been chosen to playa unique role in the ongoing covenant God had made so long ago. God was breaking into human history in an entirely new way - and Mary was the flfSt to know it. Who would have thought the Almighty and Powerful God would do it this way? If God wanted to make a grand entrance into human history, you would think there would be more fanfare, more drama, a burst of blinding light, a crash of thunder, an earth­ moving tremor. But instead, God sent a single messenger to a young girl in the privacy of her home to quietly inform this ordinary girl that she was going to have a pivotal role in salvation history.

The Bible does not say it, but perhaps from that day on, Mary had a new song to hum while she went about her work. On the way to the well, she might have sung it; while cooking by the fire, she might have hummed it; and as she knelt in prayer at the end of the day, it might have echoed in her ears. As Mary and Joseph awaited the birth of God's own child, they may have rehearsed the song to teach it to him; and on that flfSt night of his birth, as they cradled him in their arms, they may have sung it to him. We do not know how many times Mary sang, but in Luke, we hear her burst forth in song during a visit with her cousin, Elizabeth, that is a celebration of what God is about to do. It is not an entirely new song. Long ago, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, sang a very similar song. Hannah had promised that if she could be so fortunate as to have a child, she would give the child back to God. Now, Mary, who was not much more than a child herself, was serving God in a unique way, and the song she sings celebrates the new reality breaking forth into the world: the strong and powerful will be brought down, the weak and lowly raised up. Mary understands her role in this as God's servant. And so her song celebrates God's mercy. It celebrates

justice. It celebrates God's faithfulness from generation to generation. It is a song that links God's actions in the past, with what God is doing in the present, and with what God will do in the future. Mary understands that she is both a recipient and a conveyor of the legacy of God's love. God's mercy is ffom generation to generation, and she is a pivotal link. And her response to this is to sing, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

Like Mary, we are recipients of the legacy of God's love. God entrusts each one of us to carry God's love so that Christ may be born again and again ffom generation to generation. But in order for us to do that successfully, Christ must fIrst be born in us. The great medieval mystic and theologian, Meister Eckhart said, "We are all meant to be mothers of

God ... What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten in US.,,2

Mary's song is also our song. As we carry God's love within us, the melody repeats itself in our memory; we hum it as we go about the work of serving God's kingdom; we sing it stridently as we take action to lift people out of poverty; we march to it when we fight for justice; it is the song that causes us to rise up in the morning; it is the song that echoes in our minds at the end of the day.

In the last few days of Bernadette Lewis' life, Charlie and his sisters heard their mother humming a tune. They listened closely, but the song was not distinguishable. The musical phrase repeated itself, but Bernadette seemed unable to give them enough of the tune for them to recognize it. For nearly an hour they tried to guess the song that wound its way through their mother's thoughts and across her lips, like contestants on "Name that Tune," but they were unsuccessful. Charlie went to sleep. But in the middle of the night, he was awakened by the sound of his mother's humming. Perhaps it was the quiet of the night. Perhaps it was the solitude of sleep. Perhaps it was that this song had wound its way into Charlie's consciousness. But as he listened ffom his bed, he recognized the song his mother was singing. It was "Jesus loves me." The song that his mother had learned as a child - the song that she had sung to her own children - was now the song that brought

2 Matthew Fox, ed. And trans., lvJeditations with Meister Echart. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company, Inc., 1983, pp. 74, 81. As referenced in Pulpit Resource, Oct.-Dec., 1999, p. 50.

comfort to her in her final days. With a failing body, and fading breath, she told her children, "God is so strong in my heart."

Those saints who have gone before us have left each of us this legacy of love, and now God entrusts us to carry the love of Christ for the next generation. So let our hearts leap with the knowledge of what God is doing, let our voices join the chorus of the faithful in song, let our lives echo the melody of the saints gone before us, let us celebrate God's gift of salvation ­ the gift of God's own beloved Son. Unto us a child is born!