Luke 1:46b-55 and Ancestors by Ada Limón
December 22nd, 2024
By Rev. Nicole M. Lamarche
Welcome again on what is in our expression of Christianity fourth and final Sunday in Advent. And I know I am not the only one who feels so grateful to be held by rituals, where we mark time together, the coming celebration of Emmanuel, God with us. Welcome in whatever shape you are in, whatever you are bringing into the room. For some of us this is the happiest time of year, but not for all of us, so if you feel some sadness that’s okay too. Welcome just as you are. And welcome to all of you joining online too.
And as you are moved, I invite you to join me in this prayer from Psalm 19.
God of many names and many expressions, may all of us hear whatever we need to hear today, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our Rock and our Redeemer.
Amen
“For each child born
A morning star rises and sings
To the universe who we are
We are our grandmothers’ prayers!
We are our grandfathers’ dreamings!
We are the breath of the ancestors!
We are the Spirit of God!
We are Mothers of courage
Fathers of time
Daughters of dust
Sons of great visions
We are sisters of mercy
Brothers of love…
We’re makers of peace wisdom of ages…”
These are lyrics from the song We Are by Sweet Honey in the Rock and I thought of them this week- especially that line about our grandmother’s prayers. When I shared pictures of my grandma in her younger years and pictures from her memorial service on social media last weekend, someone commented about how she will always be with me because I am part of her legacy. I have been pondering that. I am guessing there was a lot that she would have done, could have done, had she been born in another time, a different era, and still she found ways to live for herself, playing tennis, sailing, sewing and yet… her life was mostly centered around my grandfather’s dreamings.
I found myself wondering what were her prayers, beyond what she was ever willing to say out loud? What were her dreamings that only she and God knew? All I know for sure is that her state, how she showed up to and for me, made things possible that wouldn’t have been without her, it allowed long held dreams by those who came before me to come true in me. Part of the legacy of any of us I guess is us living our dreams.
At the gathering I attended in Washington DC recently there were faith leaders from lots of people from other traditions, there were moments throughout, where we paused to acknowledge not just the land that we were on and whose shoulders. There was a ritual to give thanks to and for our ancestors. At one point, I sort of giggled and sighed knowing that some of my ancestors were white colonizers, in parts of my family people still celebrate those were part of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, those who were authorized to kill indigenous people. But I do know that there are some good ancestors in there too. Some of them faithful and fierce, resourceful, and kind, good and justice focused people. So I have been thinking a lot about all of the things that I have gotten to do, especially the things that women before me didn’t have access to- everything from lots of education to travel to the freedom to be able to share my gifts in settings beyond just my home and my family. And I have also been thinking about all of the people who came before me, whose names I don’t know, those who cleaned up messes on all of our behalf, those who held on through hard things or were a light for others or who carried on being channels of love. I want to give thanks, to them. And if you are moved, even if you don’t know the names of your ancestors, I invite you to give thanks too.
We are the breath of the ancestors!”
In the text we heard from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ mother Mary sings out a song called the Magnificat and as you heard she proclaims that what is going to happen is connected to and according “to the promise that God made to our ancestors…” She says that she is blessed and that this moment is something special, and that the Great Mystery that we call God, is showing up at this point in history, in part because of her. And in the translation I used, you will notice it says, state, state of being.
The text says that God “has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed” and we often interpret lowly to mean low status, marginalized, powerless, oppressed, are you with me? And while that might have been true, another maybe more accurate translation would be something like, “For God has looked with favor on Mary’s ego-checked state…” On Mary’s openness.
God has looked with favor on Mary’s vibe.
It’s perhaps something like an ancient way of saying that in our co-creating with God, in our efforts to join God’s work in the world, part of how God pushes and pulls us toward what is good and right and true, is when we make room for it. I have seen when we become so focused on our little worlds, managing all of that, there’s often not space for something else.
And I have seen what happens when the wind of the Spirit, the Ruah, the breath of Life comes to us, at our backs. I have seen what happens when we let our hearts lead instead of our egos, letting ourselves be guided by something bigger, making room for mystery and love and all that is not yet.
What if that is part of the message from our ancestors, part of the message that Mary has for us today? God looks with favor on our states of being that are open enough to make room for something grander, something that isn’t just about us and sometimes it’s even a vision that is so big, it cannot possibly even be accomplished in one lifetime. That’s part of how we know something is holy.
Mary is able to live the prayers and dreamings of her ancestors, she is able to live out God-sized dreams, to fulfill the promises made to her because she was open and not just living for herself, she was living for a dream that the Universe held with her, something that was so much bigger than her life. And it was also for all who come after her. She says, “Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed…” And now here we are. Look around.
So with all that is happening on planet earth that doesn’t feel aligned with God’s dreams for us, it feels like there is a lot that is off track, out of line from our sense of decency and common good, with some of our previously established world order crumbling, with so much uncertainty, it feels important to remember we are here and held up by so much that is beyond our perception, including our ancestors.
We are not just the legacy of our ancestors, I believe we can call upon them for strength. We are not just the fulfillment of some of the promises made to them, we are also the keepers of the vision for those who come after us. We hold a beautiful thread that connects us through time. “We are sisters of mercy Brothers of love. We hold our history, our present, our future together. And we are stronger when we never forget this.
So let us feel free to embrace the subversive and essential call of discipleship, to reach toward what is not yet, insisting that the thread that brought us here, will also lead us onward, as we dare to invest in those whose names we do not know, along with Mary. “God has shown strength, scattering the proud in the imagination of their hearts. Bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly…
I believe Advent is making space for God, for mystery, for love to work in us, knowing if we are being faithful, there is always the unfinished business of hope. We make promises to those yet to be born, our ancestors in time just as they did for us. So however any of us have come here, either from rocks of obsidian and lava, from trees of chestnut, bay laurel, toyon, acacia.
Beloved of God, what a gift that any of us are here; we are our grandmothers’ prayers and our grandfathers’ dreamings!
We are Mary’s descendants, and even now we can join her in co-creating with God, joining God’s work in the world, making space and room for love to be born. For God looks with favor on all who are open enough to make room for something grander.
Beloved of God, let us never forget that we are Mary’s descendants. We are our grandmothers’ prayers. We are our grandfathers’ dreamings. We are promises kept. Thanks be to God. May it be so. Amen.