Advent IV: Joy and Conflict

SERMON – FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2018

Fr Hugh Kempster “Joy and Conflict” Luke 1:39-45

I have a confession to make to you: I first started praying the rosary in the 1990s, when I was at the College of St John the Evangelist in Auckland, studying to be a priest. It had not been part of my Christian Education as a child, at the middle-of-the-road suburban Church of England parish my parents attended. Dr Janet Crawford was my lecturer for a paper on Christian Spirituality, and she encouraged a practicum for each method of prayer we were studying. So, I duly purchased a set of rosary beads, and over the years since have found great riches in this ancient prayer:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now,
and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The devotional use of a knotted prayer-rope goes back in Christianity to the desert fathers and mothers of the 3rd and 4th century. The rosary prayer opens with the Archangel Gabriel’s words to Mary at the Annunciation, words that appear in the liturgies of the church as early as the 6th century: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee” (Luke 1:28). The second part of the prayer comes from today’s gospel. Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit exclaims: “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb” (Luke 1:42). These two verses were joined together in liturgies from around the eleventh century, with the apposition “Jesus” added some two centuries later, purportedly by Pope Urban IV (1195-1264). The closing petition is first found appended to the prayer in the 14th century, and finally received its stamp of approval in the 1568 breviary of Pope Pius V:

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc,
et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen.

This is a prayer deeply fitting for this last leg of our Advent devotions; from Annunciation, to Visitation, to Ars moriendi “pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

Our every-day seasonal salutations at this time of year, it could be argued, reflect more of a hedonistic secular spirit than a truly Advent one. One parishioner, confirmed relatively recently, sent me an email, unsure as to whether he should greet me with the usual “Merry Christmas” and a “Happy New Year.” Initially I didn’t understand his dilemma, but then it dawned on me. Biblical theologians, Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan, in their book The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Birth (Harper Collins, 2007) put it like this (P. 229): “JOY – AND CONFLICT. The stories of the first Christmas are not only filled with joy, but also with the theme of conflict.”

The pure joy of the Visitation, Elizabeth’s child leaping in the womb, sits alongside our knowledge that John the Baptist will be executed for preparing the way of the Lord. In Mary’s song of praise, which follows today’s gospel, the Mother of God proclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:47). Again, we know that in the next chapter of Luke’s gospel, Simeon will offer cutting word of prophesy to the new mother: “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:34). Joy and conflict.

The two-edged sword is something many of us experience at this time of the year. Family violence is prevalent. Alcohol fuelled tempers flare. Depression often sits alongside the revelry of the party. Even here in church the cruellest of behaviour can sit alongside our Christian observances. Joy and conflict.

But the question is: how do we respond? Mother Teresa of Calcutta, one who knew well the cruelty of a heartless world, puts it like this:

Joy is prayer – joy is strength – joy is love – joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. God loves a cheerful giver. She gives most who gives with joy. The best way to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of as heart burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the Christ risen.

And Mary too is our model of constancy in joy and conflict. The profound challenge of annunciation; the visceral joy of visitation; the pain of birth; the weight of prophecy; the unimaginable conflict of the way of the cross; and finally the eternal joy of resurrection and life everlasting.

Alae Taule'alo December 23, 2018