Candidating sermon preached by the Reverend Lillie Mae Henley 2 Apr 2006
I’m sure God was waiting for Jesus to say, “Yes.”
The radical rabbi, the discontented rebel from Nazareth. In the beginning, Jesus was one of many revolutionaries who plagued the Roman authorities.
Did he know, in the beginning, where his path would lead? And was he scared in the beginning, when the crowds were small and the followers few? When did fear begin to creep into his awareness? Was it when the crowds became many?
Was it when people from other nations came to hear him? In the Gospel of John he asks his Father to save me from this hour?
God waited for him.
Where did he get the courage to live his life’s story?
When he was most afraid, how did he continue on?
I have decided that the courage it must take to follow through with his journey must come from that part of his story that we don’t usually talk about at Easter. I think it comes from his heritage, from the five women in his birth story.
It might seem fantastic to believe that the women of his birth story could have an impact on his life; after all, the lineage we speak of is hundreds of years old. Few of us know our lineage and heritage of even 100 years ago. But we have to remember that the culture in which he grew up was an oral culture, and the stories were as real in Jesus’ time, as they were when they occurred. We also have to remember that Jesus’ story is larger than ordinary life; and has meaning beyond factual history.
There are 41 men listed in Jesus’ lineage, and five – 5 – women. Each was powerless to control her life, as most women were in that culture and in that time. Each one overcame her fears, faced the unusual circumstances Life gave her, and courageously said “Yes” to what she needed to do.
The first woman we encounter in Jesus’ lineage is Tamar. She was sold to Judah, patriarch of one of Israel’s Twelve Tribes as a bride for his oldest son. The son dies. Then she is given to the second son, who dies. Judah won’t give Tamar to his third son, because he is afraid he’ll die, too. Tamar, a young woman, is forced to return to her father’s house, where she is to live as a widow, unable to have children, which in that culture, is the only thing that makes her life worthwhile. She refuses accept her banishment from any kind of productive life. With unusual courage and at great risk she plans a way to make her father-in-law alter his decisions. When he becomes a widower, she deceives him into believing she is a prostitute, conceives twins, and it is from one of these twins that Jesus is a descendent.
Next, there is the Canaanite woman Rahab living outside the walls of Jericho and at the margins of her culture. At the time the Israelites were claiming their land of milk and honey. When two Israelites come to spy on Jericho, they are almost caught and are forced to flee for their lives. Risking herself and her own family, Rahab with great courage hides them in her home. She lies to the authorities. When the danger is over, she sends them on their way, saying they can easily take Jericho. Her words become a divine prophecy to the Israelites, and after the walls of Jericho fall, Rahab becomes a great prophet to the Israelites, and become one of them. It is from one of her children that Jesus is a descendent.
Ruth is the next woman listed in Jesus’ birth story. She is the widowed daughter-in-law who followed Naomi back to Naomi’s people. With great fear, she courageously conspires to create a place for herself when there was no place for a widow like her. She conceived of a child of Naomi’s relative, and it is through this child that Jesus is a descendent.
After Ruth, there is Bathsheba. King David forces himself upon beautiful Bathsheba while she is married to one of his generals. King David kills her husband and forces Bathsheba to marry him. Eventually she gives birth to King David’s youngest son. While she had no control over her own life, she courageously conspires to have her son made king when David dies, and it is from this son, the great King Solomon that Jesus is a descendent.
The fifth woman is Jesus’ lineage is his mother Mary. When an angel comes to tell her she has been chosen to conceive the Messiah, Mary was afraid, but she courageously asked questions before she chose to accept God’s plan. In the Bible story, just as in the poem Sue read this morning “God waited” for her answer.
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
God waited.
She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.
There were many times in Jesus’ life when he could have said “No.” As full of fear as he must have been, as any human being would be, it would have been understandable, but he faced his fears and answered, “Yes” with courage.
He answered, “Yes,” because he was who he was; he was formed by his life’s stories and he was formed by his own life decisions.
We are no different than Jesus.
We, too, are formed by our life’s stories and our life decisions. And when events or circumstance threaten our every day existence, the first thing we experience is fear.
A woman who grew up Port Arthur, Texas, the town next to my hometown, and wrote a song about how fear keeps us from answering “Yes,” to Life.
It's the heart, afraid of breaking,
that never, learns to dance.
It's the dream, afraid of waking,
that never, takes the chance.
It's the one, who won't be taken,
who cannot, seem to give.
And the soul, afraid of dying,
that never, learns to live.
There was a very successful businessman driving to the airport in his new $70,000 Jaguar. He was running a little late, the traffic was bad, so he took a short cut through a part of town in which he never goes. It was a place to live that was as different from his gated community as his car was from public transportation. Driving down what appeared to be a near-deserted street, a brick flies from behind some abandoned boxes and hits the side of his car. Scared and angry, he slams on his brakes, jumps out of the car, and runs around to see who threw the brick.
There, by the curb, was a small boy, about ten, crying, sitting beside his older brother who was in a wheelchair that had fallen over. The young boy was pushing his brother to the clinic, both of them missing school, because his mother could not afford to miss work and the youth in the wheelchair was sick that day.
The boy had tried to cross the street and lost control. Now his brother and the wheelchair were stuck until someone who could help. With no one in sight, the boy feeling hopeless was determined to stop someone. So he picked up a brick and threw it at the first car that went by.
The man, of course, helped the boy pick up his brother and the wheelchair and helped them on their way.
God waited.
The businessman went his way, too, and by the end of his business trip, was a little wealthier than he was before the trip.
He couldn’t get the two boys out of his mind for a while.
He thought about all the things he could do to help them.
He thought about all the things he had within his power to make a difference in the lives of other young boys and girls.
God waited.
Mary Jane, a woman I know, was the first-born daughter of her mother, Mary Jane, who was the first-born daughter of a first-born daughter named Mary Jane. All the first-born daughters were named Mary Jane, all the way back to the early days of the Colonies.
All the Mary Janes in her family were teachers.
There came a time, though, when she was faced with her sister’s death and the need to adopt all of her sister’s children in order that they might continue to live and grow up together. With three children of her own and four nieces and nephews, she would be mother to seven children all under the age of 14.
Should she give up teaching and become a full-time mother or did she continue to teach and allow her nieces and nephews to be separated by her sister’s death?
God waited.
In a very rich, upper class, socio-economic neighborhood somewhere outside Washington DC, a slave runs away from the home where she has been working for an average of 16 to 17 hours a day. She is a slave in the home of a foreign diplomat, who brought in several young women to serve his family when he came here. As soon as the State department had reviewed their passports, they were turned over to the diplomat, who kept them locked up in a safe.
His wife and children verbally abuse these young, women who slave in their home, and sometimes, the wife even beats them.
The runaway slave makes it to the commuter station and sits there, seemingly in a trance. Most of the people walk by her without a second glance.
For those of us who believe this is an isolated incident, we need to read the book Slavery Today, by Auriana Ojeda, and find out more about a foundation named Free the Slaves right here in our Capitol.
What is going to happen to this young slave in America?
She sat on the bench and waited for help.
God waited.
How many times in our lives has Life given us circumstances, an Annunciation, for which we needed courage to say, “Yes”?
How many times in our lives has God waited for us?
We don’t always say “Yes.” Sometimes we say, “No.”
And that’s all right, because God doesn’t think any less of us if we say, No.
And anyway, Life/God, is always going to offer another Annunciation, another chance to say “Yes” somewhere else along our journey.
Did the wealthy man who helped the two disadvantaged boys go back to their neighborhood and build a youth center? Yes.
Did Mary Jane adopt all her nieces and nephews? No.
Did someone help the slave at the train station? Yes.
Did Jesus face his death with courage? Yes. Despite his fears, he said, “Yes.”
We are who we are, and while sometimes we may answer “No,” to what Life asks of us,
God waits
And then we try to be like Jesus, despite our fears; we answer “Yes.”
Readings
“Annunciation” by Denise Levertov
We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.
Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.
But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions
courage.
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
God waited.
She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.
Aren’t’ there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when road of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.
John 12:20-33
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say-- `Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.