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Third Sunday of Advent Homily 12/17/17
Reflection:
Our first reading from 2 Samuel, reflects David’s concern that he is living in a house of cedar while the ark of God remains in a tent.  We will hear how that concern unfolds through God’s perspective. Paul admonishes us to rejoice in all circumstances and Mary does just that as she embraces her prophetic call in salvation history.
 
 
Homily
 
The readings today are taken from the Advent 3 of the Comprehensive Catholic Lectionary.  Jane Via, an RCWP bishop, scripture scholar and Nancy Corran a theologian, constructed this lectionary.  The purpose is to include every significant story of women from both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures that are not included in the Roman Catholic Lectionary; it is to avoid exclusive language for God and human beings; and to familiarize believers with the broad spectrum of Biblical readings and history.  I chose to use these readings today because it puts Mary as central to our Advent and Christmas celebration. 
 
The Samuel reading reflects that David wants to unite the ark and its symbolism into a new decision, building for the home of the Ark, a house of cedar.  This would ensure the stability of the monarchy in David’s mind.  Up to this point the ark, the symbol of God’s presence, has had the freedom to move with the nomadic tribes and to act independently of the people.  God has another plan and is not taken with David’s proposal.  God resists the plan of David to build a house a cedar.  Instead God would build David a house, a lineage, which makes human beings the living testimony to God’s presence.  This kin-dom would last forever. 
 
So…God’s saving presence will not be limited to a place or object, but will be manifest in the people.  To this end God raises up an individual as leader.  The hope of Israel lies with these individuals.  The symbolism is powerful.  God’s presence and power in the world lies with these persons.  The human being or king, as this person is known, is the instrument for establishing the reign of justice and peace. 
 
This week I read an article from Patheos.com titled: No More Lying About Mary by Nancy Rockwell.  It debunks the saccharine sweet, meek, passive Mary that has been handed on to us for generations.  This is the Mary that so many women rejected and dismissed after VVII and the movement in the 60’s and 70’s of feminism.  That Mary just did not have anything to say to us about our experiences and who God was for us.  Our image of God was radically changing and Mary was being dismissed as irrelevant as well. 
 
We, women, are now reading the Scriptures with greater biblical knowledge, theology and clarity about our experiences as women.  These are informing our understandings of scripture stories such as the Annunciation. 
 
We pair the reading from Samuel, in which David desired to put the Holy of Holies in a house, with Luke’s Annunciation. Mary became the house or the human ark where God would dwell.  Mary has embraced and consented to her part in God’s dwelling with and in human beings independently. We cannot underestimate the historic reality of such a ‘yes’.  She becomes the arc of the covenant.  Mary grants life by her yes.  I think, we need to reconsider Mary as an active participant in salvation history, rather than a passive recipient of the Word of God that just went along submissively. 
 
She must have known the stories of her ancestors and how God had formed and lived with them.  It was a very dangerous thing for her, in the climate that she lived, to consent to be an unwed mother.  When God calls us, it is to live in the margins often and on the edge of what is seemly acceptable.  It frequently puts us in a position that we look unfaithful, undiscerning, at odds with the establishment.  Mary was living consciously and deeply her relationship with the God who created her.  She is called virgin, not from physicality, but because she is a woman of strength and clarity of purpose.  This opens her to the Spirit and a new and deeper consciousness. She is open to what Love brings to her.
 
We, like Mary, are called to be Mothers of God, as Meister Eckart reflected centuries ago, for God is always waiting to be born. 
 
At the heart of winter lies the moment when the fullness of eternity—the life of God’s own self—is made visible in human form. God finds expression in the cavern of an empty womb. The fullness needs the emptiness in which to make itself manifest—and all this in the silence of the night while the world sleeps.
—By Margaret Silf in Daily Inspiration for Women
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

​HOMILY, December 3, 2017, 1st Sunday of Advent
What a perfect time in history to talk about “Lamenting!”  Let’s let it all hang out.  Most of us don’t have Christmas shopping done yet, or cards or letters finished.  Maybe family is not all getting along.  We’re living in a time of political upheaval, homelessness and persecution running rampant.  Yes, we can help on a small scale, but the problems are never-ending!  Let’s not run away from the situations or turn off the TV too soon.  There’s real pain out there and in here.
 Isaiah laments to God, saying: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would shake before you!  … All of us have become unclean and soiled, even our good deeds are polluted. …  Yet you are our mother and father, YHWH; we are the clay and you are the potter, we are all the work of your hands.”  The people are lost without God.  They feel like God has abandoned them, when instead they have abandoned God.  They had to wake up to that before they could be converted.  There’s joy in just that!
 We know that story as well. Blaming is a dead-end game!  When we realize that and take responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and actions life is more real.  At that point we’re ready to listen to the voice of wisdom, often called “Sophia.” 
Advent is a time to do just that, practice listening to the voice of wisdom.  How do we actually take the time to do that?  Each of us has been trying to do that for many years.  Let’s take a fresh look at what wisdom has to teach us now.  Our motto at St. Mary of Magdala is “Grounded in tradition, soaring with the Spirit.”  Where is the Spirit guiding the Christian churches today?  Many people and congregations are picking up the concept and strain of the “emerging or emergent church.”   This has been in the air for many years.   Remember the Week of praying for Christian Unity, January 18 – 25.  That concept has evolved. I think the “emerging church” has taken us further into a Christianity that seeks together to go back to Jesus’ life and vision of his divine commission: teaching people to “stay alert!”  Now we can see that we are invited to stay alert for opportunities to listen and learn from other Christian groups.  We can learn how to be more effective in bringing about a peaceful, compassionate world.  Through Christians being united we can accomplish changes we could never have imagined as Catholics.
Together with other Christians we can do much more to change people’s attitudes and behaviors regarding such things as the role of money in society, the importance of education based on equality and love.
Show pictures of the Indiana Interchurch Center. 
www.indianainterchurchcenter.org’
We can become a church that leads and encourages people to look for where the Spirit of God, Holy Wisdom, is leading us, and then take the steps to follow that lead. 
 Jesus, the Christ, has been seen in the New Testament as the personification of Wisdom, the “wisdom of God,” folly to the wise of this world. (1Cor.1:18-25.) 
View Christ Pantocrator, meaning “sovereign” or Sophia, the Sinai Christ, from the Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai, Egypt, also called “The Blessing Christ,” later, “The Lover of humankind.” (Find ”Christ Panocrator” on the Internet)
 His hand is raised to bless and almost seems to reach out to touch those viewing the painting, while his face is still and timeless.  Christ appears to be looking out straight ahead beyond the frame.
As we look into the face of Christ let’s each ask ourselves if this Advent I dare risk beginning again to discover my own truest and deepest self.  His face invites me to trust him.  Is it time for me to start again the life-long journey of learning to love my shadows that I fear and project onto others.  The Sinai Christ encourages me to trust the deeper meaning of judgment and compassion.
I think it’s time for deep prayer and reflection.  Let’s bring up those secret thoughts and emotions into the light of day.  Sophia will guide us personally and as a Catholic Community in the Emerging Church beyond lamenting into the joy of being Christ. 
The Eucharist teaches us how to be Christ.  Let’s be there enthusiastically.
Maria Thornton McClain, RCWP
December 3, 2017