Sermons

Mary the Mother of God’s Christmas Message

December 5/04

(Reverend Dr Cheri Dinovo dressed as Mary)

Dear 21st Century Christians,

We have the responsibility to assume a holy mountain vantage point to see and describe circumstances as they really are, as bad as they really are but also to remind people of faith of what faith teaches them. We are responsible to hold out for all a vision of God’s world and what that world looks like.

There is a difference between activism and faith. Most times faith only in our brothers and sisters is not enough because they let us down and we let them down. Revolutions are betrayed. We find ourselves incapable of the stamina required or the will. Anyone with a true sense of humility knows that at some point we need to say that we are really powerless against the incredible forces of the world arrayed against those who seek after truth and work for peace.

We wake up and discover all the gray, not the black and white in the world. The truly ethical call seems amorphous, unclear and we reach the end of our reason and ability. Bush gets elected despite everything everyone has done, prayed for, and made films about. The Fallujah massacre continues. Murder in the name of all that is holy continues whether you are a Jew, Christian, Muslim and yes, even Buddhist.

This is where faith begins. Remember the world is always this bleak. The most committed Marxist, or Capitalist in their most honest moments must sense on that day that it isn’t quite working out the way they expected or hoped. Christians in particular have a great deal to be dark about, after all, a new crusade is being perpetuated in our name.

In the 12 Steps one admits powerlessness and this is, in a strange and contradictory way, the first step in regaining control. Addicts get that they are not in control of the patterns that are bred in the bone or as Heidegger said and Nietzche before him, "Only a God can save us now!"
What if there is a God who can save us now? That’s the nagging question even to the most religious atheist. One has to admit the possibility that it might be conceivable, that in the range of our limited reason there might be this limit, this limit where some other source of intelligence, some reason other than ours begins. Some source of life, some creative first point, some cosmic understanding that causes ours to pale in comparison. That this verb, noun, process, whatever, might be responsible for this great, beautiful, world not only of nature but of us, contiguous with nature, and that it might be generative, it might be positive. That just as the world is morphing and changing and evolving, so might history morph and evolve and change with some focus, not like the nineteenth century progressives thought of it, but from we, dare we say it, God’s eye view. God, that is to say, that male/female, genderless, gendered, source of all love and knower of all truth and yes, powerful one,that may be moving us to a new form of tribalism. We can read about this in scripture where Isaiah says, the lion really will lie down with the lamb, which it will if they’re both fed and content enough. Certainly it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that we are not as good as it gets.

So what if there really is a purpose simply one we can never be sure of because we really are very limited beings? What if there is a God?

And what if we can witness glimpses of that purpose, see traces of that God in each other, in the mirror, see even that we, limited as we are, incapable of bringing heaven on earth by ourselves as we have proved to have been? What if we can witness in each other moments of flashes of possibilities of what that heaven might look like? What if we can see moments of, dare we say it, grace in each other, of selflessness, of outrageous kindness and generosity, of dare we say it, love? To imagine, to dream, to hope that there could be a time when those moments join together to become hours, days, months? What if we could imagine a day of peace? If one day, then perhaps two days? What if there is such a thing as heaven and what if Jesus was right, it is among us?
Let’s not stop there, because if there is a generative, life giving, love producing, death defying, force, this God, and we can witness the works of this God in the world and in each other even a tiny, weeny, microscopic bit, then what if we just need to get over ourselves? Get around ourselves, under ourselves, let go, give up, take a breath, relax, don’t worry, be happy, get on board, get off of it, whatever we have to do to finally get, understand, glimpse, see it really isn’t solely up to us? What if we let go of the weight of the world just for a moment? What if we stopped worrying because you know it doesn’t help?

If we could stop worrying we would see that George Bush is a lot less scary than Ghengis Khan or Nero or Hitler, even if he does have weapons of mass destruction. He’s just a guy really, with fears and hopes and ideas and gas and troubles with his kids and troubles with money and stress and he, like all of us, will have his day and then his day will be over and his energy too will be reabsorbed and refashioned and reused, yes Bush too will one day provide fertilizer for a bush. So why worry?

What if there is nothing to worry about?
What if there is nothing to fear?
What if it really will work out the way it’s supposed to?
What if every act of justice and love, forgiveness and compassion is never lost?
What if those who are the peacemakers really will see everything they have worked, prayed and struggled for and dreamed of, come to pass, if not in this generation in ‘a’ generation?
What if this is the promise of faith, of all the faiths?
What if this is that tribal wisdom, of all the tribes and all their wisdom?
The candles of Advent are hope, peace, joy and love. What if these aren’t just words but scripted into our very DNA?
What if hope, peace, joy and love, really are ours if just for moments and guaranteed as our future?
No one’s asking you to sign anything. You don’t have to buy any of this. You don’t even have to give it any more thought than this one, this tiny, microsecond of a whispering sort of passing sort of, little thought…What if?

Yours in Love,
Mary the Mother of Yeshua

Amen.