A sermon by Rev. Henley
I said, “Yes.” I said, “Yes!” all those years ago, when the dream became real and Gabriel said to me I was to be the mother of the son of God. Little did I know then, what joy there would be in the knowing of Yeshua. Little did I know then, what pain there would be in the knowing of it all.
There will be many stories of him after we are all gone. I do not know what they will say, all I can tell you now, is my story and the love he brought into our lives.
My mother, as her mother had, and all the women of our family from generations before, taught us the scroll and the law at home. We are responsible for the education of the boys until they are old enough to go to the rabbi and for the girls until they are married. I taught my children, Yeshua, my first born, and all his brothers and sisters. Often, my sisters and I gathered in my bayit, my house, and taught our children together. That is why they were so close to each other as they grew, and, I think, why many of his brothers, sisters, and cousins became followers.
He was my first, a miracle to me. It was a miracle that we both did not die; the conditions were horrible, and if it wasn’t for Joseph’s determination to see us live through it all, I think we would have died. He made sure there was boiling water and swaddling and a midwife from a cousin’s family.
Yeshua was strong, but he cried a lot the first months of his life. Because I am the youngest sister, my sisters, already mothers, told me to be patient. Just as I was losing hope he would ever quit crying, he grew into walking, and began to laugh a lot. He laughed at the older children’s antics and he laughed at all the new babies crawling and crying around our families’ homes.
Yeshua was fascinated by the scripture and was happy when he grew old enough to go with his cousins to the rabbi’s bayit for study. I taught him the prophets. I especially loved their message of warning, their message of hope, and their message of relationship with Yahweh. Yeshua listened more intently than most of the other boys. He was eager to go with our families to Jerusalem to the Temple for Passover. He often begged to go with his father or his uncles when they went to Jerusalem to perform their duties as one of the priests who accepted offerings, but of course he could not go.
Anytime someone came to our small Nazareth from Sepphoris, he listened intently to the stories they brought. When the merchants told stories of faraway places, Yeshua had a faraway look in his eyes. He was fascinated by the Roman soldiers who rode through Nazareth ever so often, and would not stop asking questions about them.
It did not take him long to associate the soldiers with the stories he learned from the great prophets in our scrolls. At an early age, he knew the soldiers meant domination and oppression. Yet, he, among all the children seemed to believe most in the promises he found in Isaiah’s words.
… do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you… [Isaiah 41:10a Today’s New International Version]
It was, I believe, because Yahweh was more real to him than any of us. We were who we were, because Yahweh called us as a people to be His people. We were bound together; all of us, and Yahweh was part of our family.
8 “But as for you, Israel my servant,
Jacob my chosen one,
descended from Abraham my friend,
9 I have called you back from the ends of the earth,
saying, ‘You are my servant.’
For I have chosen you
and will not throw you away.
10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. [Isaiah 41:8-10]
Yeshua had more faith in our faith than the rest of us. I am not saying that because he was my son; I say that because it was true.
When we took him to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem when he was twelve, he was so involved in discussions with some of the priests, that we left him there under their care for a few days. We could see that he wanted that more than anything in the world. When we went back for him, he was almost sick from staying awake for three days talking, listening, and studying. When I asked him what he was doing, he said something about doing the “work” of his father. I was relieved when we returned to Nazareth; I was afraid he would ask to stay in Jerusalem.
I think about the early years through the lens of what happened to him.
Beside the man who gave his life for what he believed, I see the infant, my baby Yeshua crying, then laughing. I see the young man he became. He had more compassion than his siblings and his cousins. If the old people needed a visit, he would go. If the disturbed wandered through, he would approach them and soothe their troubled minds. If they were playing in the fields and someone was hurt, it was always Yeshua who brought them in. If there was a group of traveling lepers on the edges of Nazareth, and Yeshua saw them, he would run to all my sisters’ houses and beg for food for them and put it in their path. If someone had an illness, it was Yeshua who led the prayers.
Then, one day, he said he had more to learn than he could learn in Nazareth. He gathered up his carpenter’s tools and only a cloak and left. I now know that he traveled to those faraway places that the traveling merchants talked about. He was gone for many years, but he came home ever so often, and when he did, he talked about us loving each other as much as we loved God. This is heresy; but we did not say anything to him, we were so happy he was home.
When he came home the last time from his travels, he said he did not want to be a carpenter any more. He wanted to share his stories. To do anything in Nazareth, or anywhere really, one needed a patron. This was not something that Yeshua wanted to do. He said that this was part of the problem with our people. They were too entrenched in the system of the Roman Empire and there were other ways to live.
Yeshua told me Yahweh was calling him to share a new way of being with our people. I know the anguish he went through as only a mother could know. I also know what sustained him throughout his “ministry of sharing.” It was the words of Isaiah, the word I taught him.
10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11 "All who rage against you
will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
will be as nothing and perish.
12 Though you search for your enemies,
you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
will be as nothing at all.
13 For I am the LORD, your God,
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.
[Isaiah 41:10-13]
Before he went to see his cousin John in the wilderness, he told me goodbye.
Then I knew what Gabriel told me was true. A messiah would be my child. It was me who taught him about our relationship with Yahweh. It was me who taught him the spirit of the Law. It was me who taught him what was truly important. And then, I remember the song I sang after Gabriel left me with my dreams.
46 … "My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."
The world will always challenge us when we try to live as Yahweh would have us live. My son knew that. I see the infant in the man who died for what he believed. Whatever will come of his story and the memory others have of him is up to Yahweh.
I said, “Yes.” I said, “Yes!” all those years ago, when the dream became real and Gabriel said to me I was to be the mother of the son of God. Little did I know then, what joy there would be in the knowing of Yeshua. Little did I know then, what pain there would be in the knowing of it all.
Opening Words
Prayer For A New Mother by Dorothy Parker
The things she knew, let her forget again—
The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold,
The gaping shepherds, and the queer old men
Piling their clumsy gifts of foreign gold.
Let her have laughter with her little one;
Teach her the endless, tuneless songs to sing,
Grant her her right to whisper to her son
The foolish names one dare not call a king.
Keep from her dreams the rumble of a crowd,
The smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red,
The thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud
That wraps the strange new body of the dead.
Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where mothers go
And boast his pretty words and ways, and plan
The proud and happy years that they shall know
Together, when her son is grown a man.
Responsive Call to Prayer
This responsive call to prayer was adapted from reading #664 in Singing the Living Tradition, Unitarian Universalist hymnal, "Give Us the Spirit of the Child" by Sara Moores Campbell adapted.
Leader: Give us the spirit of the child. Give us the child who lives within.
Congregation: Give us the child who trusts, the child who imagines, the child who sings.
L: Give us the child who receives without reservation, the child who gives without judgment.
C: Give us a child’s eyes, that we may see the beauty and freshness of this day.
L: Give us a child’s ears, that we may hear the music of mythical times;
C: Give us a child’s heart, that we may be filled with wonder and delight;
L: Give us a child’s faith, that we may be cured of our cynicism;
All: Give us the spirit of the child, who is not afraid to need and to ask.
Reading I
Contemporary interpretation of St. John of the Cross, by Daniel Ladinsky:
If You Want
If
you want,
the Virgin will come walking down the road
pregnant with the holy,
and say,
“I need shelter for the night, please take me inside your heart,
my time is so close.”
Then, under the roof of your soul, you will witness the sublime
intimacy, the divine, the Christ
taking birth
forever,
as she grasps your hand for help, for each of us
is the midwife of God, each of us.
Yet there, under the dome of your being does creation
come into existence eternally, through your womb, dear pilgrim—
the sacred womb in your soul,
as God grasps our arms for help; for each of us is
His beloved servant
never
far.
If you want, the Virgin will come walking
down the street pregnant
with Light and
sing ...
Reading II
Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.