Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBAHCkQprk
Program Transcript
Advent—He Was, He Is, He Will Be
In the beauty of the incarnation, we witness the depth of God’s love. Jesus, born into our world, took on our humanity, placing himself in our skin and on our side to reveal divine love for all creation. He was with us in the most tangible way, sharing in our struggles, joys, and every aspect of our humanity.
But Jesus is not only a figure of the past. Through the Holy Spirit, he is with us now, walking alongside us as we navigate the complexities of life. In our moments of joy and sorrow, in our triumphs and challenges, Christ’s presence brings comfort, guidance, and love. We are never alone.
And we hold onto the hope that he will come again. Jesus will return to bring peace, justice, and the fullness of God’s kingdom. The brokenness of this world will be mended, and the old will give way to the new—just as we are invited to let go of what is behind us and welcome the transformation Christ brings.
Jesus Christ was, he is, and he will be. The incarnation is not just a historical moment—it is the heart of God’s love made manifest. By becoming human, Jesus embraced the fullness of our shared humanity, showing us that even in our fragility, we are loved and valued. His presence among us gives humanity a renewed sense of dignity and purpose..)
Now, as we await his return, we are called to let go of the old—our fears, anxieties, and doubts—and make room for the newness of life Christ offers. This is the hope of Advent: that through Christ, all things will be made new.
As we light the final candle of Advent, let it remind us of the one who was, who is, and who will be. May we celebrate the beauty of the incarnation, rejoice in Christ’s presence with us today, and live in hope for his return. In Christ, we are invited to let go of the old and embrace the new life that awaits us.
7 Restore us, God Almighty;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
In Christ, our past is redeemed, our present is embraced, and our future is made whole.
Program Transcript
Advent—He Was, He Is, He Will Be
In the beauty of the incarnation, we witness the depth of God’s love. Jesus, born into our world, took on our humanity, placing himself in our skin and on our side to reveal divine love for all creation. He was with us in the most tangible way, sharing in our struggles, joys, and every aspect of our humanity.
But Jesus is not only a figure of the past. Through the Holy Spirit, he is with us now, walking alongside us as we navigate the complexities of life. In our moments of joy and sorrow, in our triumphs and challenges, Christ’s presence brings comfort, guidance, and love. We are never alone.
And we hold onto the hope that he will come again. Jesus will return to bring peace, justice, and the fullness of God’s kingdom. The brokenness of this world will be mended, and the old will give way to the new—just as we are invited to let go of what is behind us and welcome the transformation Christ brings.
Jesus Christ was, he is, and he will be. The incarnation is not just a historical moment—it is the heart of God’s love made manifest. By becoming human, Jesus embraced the fullness of our shared humanity, showing us that even in our fragility, we are loved and valued. His presence among us gives humanity a renewed sense of dignity and purpose..)
Now, as we await his return, we are called to let go of the old—our fears, anxieties, and doubts—and make room for the newness of life Christ offers. This is the hope of Advent: that through Christ, all things will be made new.
As we light the final candle of Advent, let it remind us of the one who was, who is, and who will be. May we celebrate the beauty of the incarnation, rejoice in Christ’s presence with us today, and live in hope for his return. In Christ, we are invited to let go of the old and embrace the new life that awaits us.
7 Restore us, God Almighty;
make your face shine on us,
that we may be saved.
8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
In Christ, our past is redeemed, our present is embraced, and our future is made whole.
Psalm 80:1-7 · Micah 5:2-5a · Hebrews 10:5-10 · Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)
Advent Reflection: “Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.” — Simone Weil
The Fourth Sunday of Advent offers love and rejoicing as themes, along with our weekly theme of He was, He is, He will be. Jesus Christ was incarnated as a human being to place himself in our skin and on our side to reveal the Father and his love for creation. Jesus is still the incarnated human, with us now through the Holy Spirit as we navigate the challenges of being human, and he will return again to bring God’s peace and justice on earth. Psalm 80 provides our call to worship, asking the Shepherd of Israel to save his people. Micah 5:2-5a speaks of an archetypal leader who will offer safety to the people, one “who is great to the ends of the earth.” Our reading of Hebrews 10 reminds us that the offering of Christ’s body has sanctified us, rather than the Judaic system of sacrifices and burnt offerings. On this last Sunday of Advent, our sermon text from Luke 1:39-55 focuses on the responses of two women, Elizabeth and Mary, to the good news of the Incarnation, God with us. Their willingness to see and support one another demonstrates how God sees us.
The Divine Gaze
Luke 1:39-55 NRSVUE
Parenting expert Dr. Shefali Tsabary, who has appeared on Oprah and authored various books, such as The Conscious Parent, says that every child desires to know the answers to these three questions:
Am I seen?
Am I worthy?
Do I matter?
Dr. Shefali (she goes by Dr. Shefali on her website) writes that “when a person feels seen, feels worthy, and feels they matter, they grow up to live an empowered life.” While this is wise parenting advice, these questions find their ultimate answer in God.
Author Richard Rohr writes in Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality about God’s gaze as the triune God looks with love at each person:
It seems that God keeps looking at what is good, what is God in me, and of course always finds it entirely loveable. God fixes the gaze intently where I refuse and where I fear to look …And one day my gaze matches God’s gaze (that is what we mean by prayer). At those times I will find God loveable and myself loveable at the same time…because it is the same gaze, but they have become symbiotic and look out at life together…We move to a deeper level of being ourselves when we genuinely receive the being and the gaze of the Self-Giving Jesus. (p. 50).
[Speakers, be sure your audience understands what is meant by “gaze.”]
Our sermon text for today tells the story of two women, Elizabeth and Mary, and the way Elizabeth saw Mary as well as the way Mary saw herself as a result of her belief in God’s favor. These examples highlight the importance of being seen by another person, being seen by God, and the outcomes for receiving the divine gaze. Let’s read Luke 1:39-55 .
The Context for Luke 1:39-55
In Luke 1:26-38, the angel, Gabriel, appears to Mary and announces the divine conception of Jesus. His greeting to her, found in v. 28, is “Greetings, favored one!” Scholars indicate that what we translate as “favored one” or “highly favored one” is more accurately translated in modern terms as “you who are as favored as you can possibly be favored” or “you supercharged one” or “you who have got it all” (Rohr, Things Hidden, p. 178). Rohr points out that “the word favor doesn’t mean anything about you. Favor says something about the one who is doing the favoring. So, it’s really not saying anything about Mary. It’s saying something about God’s election of Mary” (p. 178). Mary receives the divine gaze, that favor, and doesn’t argue that she is not worthy. Instead, she says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38, NRSVUE). God didn’t require worthiness; God only asked her to participate with his plan.
Barclay’s Commentary summarizes the Magnificat, Mary’s song found in Luke 1:46-55, as including three main revolutions of God: a moral revolution (the proud are scattered), a social revolution (the powerful are brought down), and an economic revolution (the rich are sent away empty). These revolutions or reversals of common human systems convey the way God’s vision of life on earth should be but is not yet.
We can learn from the examples of Elizabeth and Mary in our sermon text for today as we consider ourselves participants in the reciprocity of presence. Reciprocity of presence refers to the reciprocal or mutual benefit of being seen and present with one another.
Elizabeth: Our responsibility to reflect
the divine gaze toward others
In Luke 1:39-45, Mary went to see her relative Elizabeth. She had been told by the angel Gabriel that “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” (v. 36-37). Since Elizabeth had experienced a miracle pregnancy, Mary may have felt she would be able to talk to her about Gabriel’s visit and message.
Upon seeing Mary, the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth, and she blessed Mary. In verses 42-45, the word “blessed” appears three times. In this example, Elizabeth’s response to the Holy Spirit revealing Mary’s pregnancy was blessing.
-
-
- She spoke of what had been divinely revealed to her.
- She confirmed that Mary was blessed because her willingness to choose God’s will demonstrated her belief in God’s grace and favor.
-
We can reflect the loving divine gaze to one another, witnessing the divine presence in other people. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the church at Corinth, says this:
And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, NRSVUE)
As pointed out in the parenting advice from Dr. Shefali in the opening story, people need to know they are seen, they are worthy of love, and they matter to God and to us. God has called us to share that good news. God’s face is always turned toward us, but we have to learn to return the gaze of love and reflect it to others.
Mary: Our responsibility to grow into
the favor we’ve been given for the good of all
In Luke 1:46-55, we read Mary’s song or “The Magnificat.” As mentioned before, Mary is an archetype of “received salvation” because God chose her without her earning it, she chose to follow God’s will, to go forward with the immaculate conception without any offer of divine “reward,” and her ability to live in that mystery quietly and in an unassuming manner. She also was committed to Jesus through the end of his life and was there when the Holy Spirit showed up at Pentecost. Divine presence asks for reciprocity, mutuality. God allows us to choose him, he doesn’t force anyone to do anything.
Mary’s song shows us that reciprocating divine presence always leads to outgoing concern for others, particularly those who are powerless and marginalized in human-made systems. Notice that Mary returns the divine gaze with verses 46-49:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name (Luke 1:46-49, NRSVUE)
The name Mary is Mariam in Greek as in Luke’s Gospel, but other forms include Mariai and Marias. Another form is Miriam, a popular Hebrew name because it was the name of Moses’ sister, also a singer and a prophet. It was brave Miriam who saved Moses’s life and reconnected him with their mother once Pharoah’s daughter found him. The same Miriam sang of God’s victory when Israel made it across the Red Sea and the Egyptians didn’t. In verses 50-55, Mary’s song echoes the same themes as her namesake: God’s faithful rescue of the powerless and the upheaval of the rich and proud. Mary reflects the divine gaze to others, particularly those who are lowly and hungry and in need:
Indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination 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. He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. (Luke 1:50-55, NRSVUE)
Mary is speaking of God’s vision of peace on earth where his mercy is extended to those that were usually forgotten or mistreated. Mary’s song says to marginalized people, “I see you. You are worthy of love and care. You matter to God.” As pointed out by homiletics professor O. Wesley Allen, Jr., we often focus on our individual salvation, forgetting that it “cannot be separated from … [the] systems of power being reversed … Our salvation is part and parcel of the saving of the world.”
Again, we’re reminded of the “already” but “not yet” aspect of God’s dream for peace on earth. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, and Mary probably had lived through a Jewish rebellion against Rome that took place around 4 BCE, when Herod the Great died. Josephus writes of a Roman army killing a great number of Jews, eventually setting fire to the porticoes of the temple. This fueled the belief among Jews that the only way to overcome the imperial power of Rome was through God’s intervention. [Speaker, you may need to define a portico and who Josephus was.]
These themes of injustice still echo today as people struggle to make ends meet, wars continue, and political dishonesty runs rampant. God cares deeply about people — both in ancient times and modern times — who suffer because of injustice. Mary’s Magnificat highlights the ongoing issues human beings face because of unjust governments and cultural systems.
The examples of Elizabeth and Mary show the power of the divine gaze that sees us, loves us, and affirms that we matter. As we grow in our belief in this unconditional love from God, we extend grace and favor to others, especially the powerless and marginalized in human-made systems. Advent offers the opportunity to rejoice, knowing that Jesus was incarnated, Jesus understands our human struggles, and Jesus will return to restore justice and God’s peace on earth. Jesus sees us, and that means the triune God sees us, too.
Call to Action: As Advent concludes, consider the divine favor you have experienced in the past. Sit in silence, rejoicing in this memory. Additionally, watch for opportunities to reflect the divine gaze to another person. Recognize the divine presence in them and offer encouragement by pointing out where you see God’s grace reflected in them.
For Reference:
Rohr, Richard. Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality. St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2008.
https://www.laparent.com/parenting/dr-shefali-workshop
https://www.drshefali.com/the-3-most-important-messages-for-your-child/
Bill Vanderbush—Year C Advent 4
December 22, 2024 — Fourth Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-55
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Program Transcript
Bill Vanderbush—Year C Advent 4
Anthony: Our final passage of the month is Luke 1:39-55. It’s the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the Fourth Sunday of Advent which is December 22. And I’d be grateful, Bill, if you’d read these powerful words.
Bill: I’d love to, from Luke 1, starting in verse 39.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name;
50 indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Anthony: Good news.
Bill: Indeed.
Anthony: Yeah. For the sake of time, I’m just going to ask you a single question, but I’ll invite it to be the comprehensive one.
If you were preaching this text, let’s just say in Bethel Austin, what would be your emphasis of the sermon?
Bill: You got to go to the phrase that we always, I think, find ourselves in the Magnificat. “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”
Has there ever been a more pure expression in the English language (we could say or in any language) of human worship than was ever articulated than that, whether it’s Hebrew, Greek, English. In every way, it speaks to the two specific areas of our life that ultimately lead to a complete surrender of the whole person — the mind, the will, and the emotions magnifying the Lord that is ever increasing in the revelation of the goodness of God.
And then the Spirit responding in the song and dance for the salvation that’s been given to us in Christ. And I see that when the soul and the spirit come together to say the same thing. It’s engaging the entire person. The body becomes the follower in this.
I was with a dear friend the other day to worship at a retreat up in the mountains of Colorado, a group of worship leaders from all over the world were gathering in the mountains of Colorado. To write a new hymnal, essentially, is what they’re doing.
A little bit off the record kind of a gathering and he got up in the middle of the room and said, listen, this is you guys. The modern Christian movement, he says, has paralyzed us from the armpits down. You have this whole body to worship God with. And yet, it’s like we’ve become stiff. And so, they just started drumming, they started playing, spontaneously playing, even beating on the floor and stuff.
And yeah, I thought to myself (usually I observe when people are getting really demonstrative) and I thought, no, I’m going to get up. I’m leaping around the room. I’m like, wow, I haven’t twisted this way in a long time. It’s incredible and apart from the fact that I thought maybe we’d be healthier in doing this, I began to realize. Something was happening in my mind.
My will was surrendered to just the completeness of going, “God, the entire offering of who I am, spirit, soul, and body, this is yours.” And next thing you’re leaping. And then they’re singing this spontaneous song that just emerged about standing on holy ground, and you recognize the holy ground is you; it is who you are. Oh, my goodness. And you leap even higher.
Now, this isn’t dancing. And in terms of any actual coherent movement, I probably look like a baby deer on a frozen lake, but I’m just saying there was something about the freedom of just being there. Liberated spirit, soul, and body to magnify God and rejoice in his salvation.
And that liberation I think of it in terms of Mary’s posture in that moment. That God for nine months rents space in the womb of a Middle Eastern virgin girl — to separate cell by cell, as we all do, to emerge from a human body, to be cared for as a child, and by the age of 12, fully knowing his identity, fully knowing who his Father is and what his assignment is.
And then for the next 18 years, living in virtual obscurity. So much so that by the time he comes home in Mark 6 to his hometown and does a miracle, everybody’s freaking out because there was nothing special about this guy.
God surrenders to actually live as a person. And the fact that he’s not going around with any weird militant urgency, constantly doing crusades to try to beg people to follow him, it tells me that he knows something we don’t and that there’s something of this story that we can live at rest in.
We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to be in a hurry even. I was, one day I was saying to the Lord, “God I feel like I’ve wasted so much time,” and I felt him speak to my heart and said, “It’s okay. I can make more.” I was suddenly struck with this realization that he can do more with 10 surrendered minutes than I could do with an entire lifetime of my own initiatives.
And I look at that, I see Mary at a complete place of rest, to the point where she’s not even preparing for this birth. Her entire pregnancy has been taken care of by God. The birth will be too. And if it just happens to happen in a stable, so be it. There’s no sense of toil on her part.
To me, I get lessons on how to be human, not just from Jesus, but from God. The person of who Mary is as she carried the incarnation of God in her womb. And that’s where we all are — we are all bearing in us the very Holy Spirit of the resurrected Christ.
Again, I can’t remember if it was John Chrysostom, who in one of his homilies said something along the lines of that Mary is wandering through the streets of humanity saying, in whom will the Christ child be birthed? Who will allow me in to birth the Christ child within you?
That is just a beautiful picture of this invitation to union with Christ.
Anthony: It’s really powerful what you said about the embodiment of the body. Sometimes we get this idea, Bill, that Jesus, as we read, the Word became flesh, that astonishing reality that we see in John 1:14, but that at the end of his life here on earth, after 33 years, once he ascended to the Father, he unzipped the skin suit, like it was wet clothing. Ah, I got to get this off of me.
But there in the presence of the Father is a human who embodied what he did and continues to. So, it’s one thing to say we need to love our neighbor, but there’s another thing entirely about walking across the street and meeting that neighbor and finding out what their needs are and listening to them and in word and deed showing them the love of Christ.
We are called to embody this. And I think this is one of the great lessons of Mary and the season of Advent that God loves our body. He made us and he said, it’s very good. He’s fond of us in that way. And we embody this love, as you said earlier in the podcast, to live as loved.
And so, we anticipate that coming. I think it was Frederick Buechner that said Advent is like the anticipation of a play before it starts. And then the curtain opens, and everybody’s hushed with anticipation. We’re looking toward the Word becoming flesh. And we know it’s already happened, but we embody the practice of remembering that he did come, and (as you’ve said so eloquently here today) his work was finished at the cross. And we say amen to his amen because of that and celebrate it.
I wanted to leave our listening audience with this quote from T.F. Torrance. And I took it from a book that has had such an impact on my life The Mediation of Christ, and he says this, “God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ, his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation.”
And he’s really good at it. Come, Lord Jesus. Come.
Thank you, Bill, for being with us. Jared was right; you’re just an excellent teacher. And we’re so thankful for the words that you said because your words pointed us to the living word Jesus Christ.
I want to thank our team of people that make this podcast possible, Michelle Hartman, Reuel Enerio, Elizabeth Mullins. You guys do a fantastic work, and it makes my job really easy. And we say thank you.
Bill, it’s our tradition here at Gospel Reverb to close with prayer. So, I invite you to do that and once again, thank you for being you. May God continue to bless you and walk with you as he does in very powerful ways by the Spirit.
Bill: Amen. Thank you.
Jesus, thank you so much for being such an amazing friend that sticks closer than a brother, a Father that loves deeper than we could ever begin to imagine. Jesus, I thank you for being present with every person that’s listening to this right now. God, may they experience a fresh revelation of union with you.
May they experience a reconciled rest as they come home to the heart of the Father and find themselves just surrendering to believe everything you’ve always believed about us. Lord, I pray that today that we would find ourselves filled, not just with the presence, but the power of your Holy Spirit.
That the Spirit would rest within us, move through us, God, as we just live in it, just affection for you and a consistent awareness that you are ever before us. Lord, as you bring people into our path just divine appointments throughout the day, God, may we be aware of you in the conversation. May we be aware of you in the moments when we’re faced with an impossibility.
May we be aware of your presence in every encountering of a problem. Lord, we trust that you are the solution. We know that you love us so deeply. And Father, I pray that today each person listening would come to a greater awakening and awareness of the grace that you have for us, and that the love that you have for us would just eternally, God, just burn within us. God, that the fire of your Holy Spirit upon us would just ignite the entire earth, Lord, that the earth would be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We ask all these things in your precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Anthony: Amen and amen.
Program Transcript
Bill Vanderbush—Year C Advent 4
Anthony: Our final passage of the month is Luke 1:39-55. It’s the Revised Common Lectionary passage for the Fourth Sunday of Advent which is December 22. And I’d be grateful, Bill, if you’d read these powerful words.
Bill: I’d love to, from Luke 1, starting in verse 39.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name;
50 indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has come to the aid of his child Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Anthony: Good news.
Bill: Indeed.
Anthony: Yeah. For the sake of time, I’m just going to ask you a single question, but I’ll invite it to be the comprehensive one.
If you were preaching this text, let’s just say in Bethel Austin, what would be your emphasis of the sermon?
Bill: You got to go to the phrase that we always, I think, find ourselves in the Magnificat. “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”
Has there ever been a more pure expression in the English language (we could say or in any language) of human worship than was ever articulated than that, whether it’s Hebrew, Greek, English. In every way, it speaks to the two specific areas of our life that ultimately lead to a complete surrender of the whole person — the mind, the will, and the emotions magnifying the Lord that is ever increasing in the revelation of the goodness of God.
And then the Spirit responding in the song and dance for the salvation that’s been given to us in Christ. And I see that when the soul and the spirit come together to say the same thing. It’s engaging the entire person. The body becomes the follower in this.
I was with a dear friend the other day to worship at a retreat up in the mountains of Colorado, a group of worship leaders from all over the world were gathering in the mountains of Colorado. To write a new hymnal, essentially, is what they’re doing.
A little bit off the record kind of a gathering and he got up in the middle of the room and said, listen, this is you guys. The modern Christian movement, he says, has paralyzed us from the armpits down. You have this whole body to worship God with. And yet, it’s like we’ve become stiff. And so, they just started drumming, they started playing, spontaneously playing, even beating on the floor and stuff.
And yeah, I thought to myself (usually I observe when people are getting really demonstrative) and I thought, no, I’m going to get up. I’m leaping around the room. I’m like, wow, I haven’t twisted this way in a long time. It’s incredible and apart from the fact that I thought maybe we’d be healthier in doing this, I began to realize. Something was happening in my mind.
My will was surrendered to just the completeness of going, “God, the entire offering of who I am, spirit, soul, and body, this is yours.” And next thing you’re leaping. And then they’re singing this spontaneous song that just emerged about standing on holy ground, and you recognize the holy ground is you; it is who you are. Oh, my goodness. And you leap even higher.
Now, this isn’t dancing. And in terms of any actual coherent movement, I probably look like a baby deer on a frozen lake, but I’m just saying there was something about the freedom of just being there. Liberated spirit, soul, and body to magnify God and rejoice in his salvation.
And that liberation I think of it in terms of Mary’s posture in that moment. That God for nine months rents space in the womb of a Middle Eastern virgin girl — to separate cell by cell, as we all do, to emerge from a human body, to be cared for as a child, and by the age of 12, fully knowing his identity, fully knowing who his Father is and what his assignment is.
And then for the next 18 years, living in virtual obscurity. So much so that by the time he comes home in Mark 6 to his hometown and does a miracle, everybody’s freaking out because there was nothing special about this guy.
God surrenders to actually live as a person. And the fact that he’s not going around with any weird militant urgency, constantly doing crusades to try to beg people to follow him, it tells me that he knows something we don’t and that there’s something of this story that we can live at rest in.
We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to be in a hurry even. I was, one day I was saying to the Lord, “God I feel like I’ve wasted so much time,” and I felt him speak to my heart and said, “It’s okay. I can make more.” I was suddenly struck with this realization that he can do more with 10 surrendered minutes than I could do with an entire lifetime of my own initiatives.
And I look at that, I see Mary at a complete place of rest, to the point where she’s not even preparing for this birth. Her entire pregnancy has been taken care of by God. The birth will be too. And if it just happens to happen in a stable, so be it. There’s no sense of toil on her part.
To me, I get lessons on how to be human, not just from Jesus, but from God. The person of who Mary is as she carried the incarnation of God in her womb. And that’s where we all are — we are all bearing in us the very Holy Spirit of the resurrected Christ.
Again, I can’t remember if it was John Chrysostom, who in one of his homilies said something along the lines of that Mary is wandering through the streets of humanity saying, in whom will the Christ child be birthed? Who will allow me in to birth the Christ child within you?
That is just a beautiful picture of this invitation to union with Christ.
Anthony: It’s really powerful what you said about the embodiment of the body. Sometimes we get this idea, Bill, that Jesus, as we read, the Word became flesh, that astonishing reality that we see in John 1:14, but that at the end of his life here on earth, after 33 years, once he ascended to the Father, he unzipped the skin suit, like it was wet clothing. Ah, I got to get this off of me.
But there in the presence of the Father is a human who embodied what he did and continues to. So, it’s one thing to say we need to love our neighbor, but there’s another thing entirely about walking across the street and meeting that neighbor and finding out what their needs are and listening to them and in word and deed showing them the love of Christ.
We are called to embody this. And I think this is one of the great lessons of Mary and the season of Advent that God loves our body. He made us and he said, it’s very good. He’s fond of us in that way. And we embody this love, as you said earlier in the podcast, to live as loved.
And so, we anticipate that coming. I think it was Frederick Buechner that said Advent is like the anticipation of a play before it starts. And then the curtain opens, and everybody’s hushed with anticipation. We’re looking toward the Word becoming flesh. And we know it’s already happened, but we embody the practice of remembering that he did come, and (as you’ve said so eloquently here today) his work was finished at the cross. And we say amen to his amen because of that and celebrate it.
I wanted to leave our listening audience with this quote from T.F. Torrance. And I took it from a book that has had such an impact on my life The Mediation of Christ, and he says this, “God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ, his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation.”
And he’s really good at it. Come, Lord Jesus. Come.
Thank you, Bill, for being with us. Jared was right; you’re just an excellent teacher. And we’re so thankful for the words that you said because your words pointed us to the living word Jesus Christ.
I want to thank our team of people that make this podcast possible, Michelle Hartman, Reuel Enerio, Elizabeth Mullins. You guys do a fantastic work, and it makes my job really easy. And we say thank you.
Bill, it’s our tradition here at Gospel Reverb to close with prayer. So, I invite you to do that and once again, thank you for being you. May God continue to bless you and walk with you as he does in very powerful ways by the Spirit.
Bill: Amen. Thank you.
Jesus, thank you so much for being such an amazing friend that sticks closer than a brother, a Father that loves deeper than we could ever begin to imagine. Jesus, I thank you for being present with every person that’s listening to this right now. God, may they experience a fresh revelation of union with you.
May they experience a reconciled rest as they come home to the heart of the Father and find themselves just surrendering to believe everything you’ve always believed about us. Lord, I pray that today that we would find ourselves filled, not just with the presence, but the power of your Holy Spirit.
That the Spirit would rest within us, move through us, God, as we just live in it, just affection for you and a consistent awareness that you are ever before us. Lord, as you bring people into our path just divine appointments throughout the day, God, may we be aware of you in the conversation. May we be aware of you in the moments when we’re faced with an impossibility.
May we be aware of your presence in every encountering of a problem. Lord, we trust that you are the solution. We know that you love us so deeply. And Father, I pray that today each person listening would come to a greater awakening and awareness of the grace that you have for us, and that the love that you have for us would just eternally, God, just burn within us. God, that the fire of your Holy Spirit upon us would just ignite the entire earth, Lord, that the earth would be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We ask all these things in your precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Anthony: Amen and amen.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- How do you feel when considering that God gazes at you with infinite love? Do you find yourself wanting to bring up shortcomings? If so, why do you think we do that?
- Does the parenting advice from Dr. Shefali resonate with you (i.e., make a child feel seen, worthy, and important to you)? Does this parallel our relationship with God?
- The sermon suggests that “Divine presence asks for reciprocity; God will never force anyone to do anything.” What examples, either personal or biblical, can you think of that demonstrate this?
- Mary’s Magnificat reminds us that our salvation in Jesus is not just individual but communal (i.e., concern for marginalized people groups). Does this aspect of Advent promote hope in you for future peace on earth?
