Sermon: St Mary's Thorpe

Preacher:

Date:

Sunday 8th September 2013

Venue:

St Mary's Thorpe

Readings:

Isaiah 61: 10-11

Galatians 4: 4-7

Luke 1: 46-55

It is very good indeed to be able to join with you as you celebrate your patronal festival in worship and fellowship; and I bring warm greetings from your Cathedral Church as together we seek to share the love of God in this Diocese.

In February 2012, five members of the Russian feminist punk-rock protest group staged a performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.  Their arrest, trial and imprisonment has attracted the attention of human rights groups and celebrities such Madonna and Sting. Public opinion in Russia was less sympathetic and Putin himself said that they “undermined the moral foundations” of the nation.

The Slovene philosopher and cultural critic Žižek sums up their message as “ideas matter”; their coloured balaclavas hid their identities making them embodiments of an idea, which unlike an individual cannot be imprisoned.  Such a bold anonymous protest has the capacity to generate mass interest – Facebook likes, newspaper columns, re-tweets and media coverage. 

Yet, perhaps the most powerful aspect of the whole incident came months later as we saw images of three women, unmasked, in the dock. It was their faces and their own words which enabled us to see beyond the shock factor of conceptual art; to reflect on the many faceless, nameless and anonymous victims of brutality.  Even in an age of 24 news coverage, victims can so easily be wordlessly suppressed.

Some commentators, exploring the religious and political dimensions of protest, have made links between the Punk Prayer and the Magnificat. In doing so, perhaps we move away from the question of what if: what if Pussy Riot had performed in Guildford Cathedral or Thorpe parish church. Instead we face a far more challenging proposition.  What are Mary's words calling us to attend to? What are her words inviting us to share in?

Pussy Riot call upon Mary as Mother of God to put Putin away; they call upon her to become a feminist; they identify her presence with them in protest.  In challenging the trust and belief placed in the Russian President, they say better believe in God instead.  Their words are an impassioned plea for justice and a naming of collusion with oppression.

Pussy Riot’s big idea is a feminist critique of the Russian State; Mary’s big idea, expressed in the words of the Magnificat, resonates in a different register.  It is not a specific and urgent protest – one issues in one context – but a compelling and challenging vision about God’s universal purposes.  It is not an anonymous act of defiance; but a moment of both praise and protest in which she is known by name and blessed for all generations.

Mary’s words well up in her because she has known the call of God in the most profoundly intimate and demanding way.  Her response does not just draw her personally into the narrative of salvation, but opens for us a way of adoption and redemption.  Her story of bearing and loving the Christ-child, to the extent that her soul will be pierced, is one of the most extraordinary risk and vulnerability – human and divine. In her yes, the liberty of heaven is made manifest on earth; in her yes, the chains of binding the weakest are to be released.  The scope of God’s grace is extended in Emmanuel, God with us.

Mary’s words well up in her as both praise and protest; it is her rootedness in God that enables her to sing out in hope for God’s world and for all humanity.  She is not acting as a social commentator or as a conceptual artist. Instead she is responding in trust to God’s faithfulness.  Thus her words of protest are not merely a frustrated angry description of the status quo in terms of might and influence; as they flow out of praise they become words of prophecy.

She articulates afresh a vision of God’s Kingdom – where the lowly and neglected are raised up; where the abundance of good things are a blessing on the many not the few.

We like Mary are called to embody that rich double attentiveness; being deeply rooted in our world and also deeply rooted in the love of God.  It is that double-attention that enables us to turn concern into prophetic protest and compassionate action; it is that which enables us to respond with a spirit of generosity and hopefulness.  We, the body of Christ, are formed by both our worship and our mission; our praise of God and our service in the world – wherever we find ourselves tomorrow or in the rest of the week.

Mary’s words challenge us to attend to God – to listen to his voice; and to respond when he calls us by name. She gives us an example of how to live in assurance however terrifying the scale of the work, however weak and inadequate we might feel.  Mary’s words invite us to share in the work of making known God’s mercy, righteousness, faithfulness and compassion. 

We too are to respond to the out pouring of God’s love and grace in our midst; we too are to commend his righteousness and loveliness to others.  Isaiah and the psalmist exhort us to rejoice – on this festival day.  We are to rejoice in the good things happening in this parish because they are signs of God’s Kingdom.  We are to rejoice that the seeds have been sown; a vision is welling up.  We are to look for the shoots springing up around us – changed relationships, renewed commitment and deepening engagement.

The one who calls us is faithful in all his deeds.  Mary responds with joy and trepidation because of the awesomeness of the vision set before her – and her place in it.  Sometimes we can feel paralyzed with fear at the scale of the challenge facing our communities at a time of austerity which touches even leafy Surrey. Some of you may have already responded to Bishop Christopher’s urgent call to prayer following Bishop Ignatius’s abduction in Nigeria; the seriousness and uncertainty of the situation reminds us of the urgency of our prophetic witness and its cost; that colleagues from that Diocese are visiting us this month, reminds us of the hope and vision that we share and of our rootedness in God.

It is both in the ordinariness of the day to day and in the radical upheavals of our world that we are to people of praise and protest. We do not do this in our own strength however. The psalmist calls us to wait patiently on the Lord.  He is our help and our shield; his steadfast love is the source of our hope.

In the fullness of time, God sent his Son to dwell among us; born of a woman.  A woman depicted as the joyous, youthful and vibrant young woman in Ely Cathedral – arms flung high in praise; a woman depicted  as the older, grief stricken and determined woman sculpted by Frink, seen last year almost striding out of Guildford Cathedral to engage in the world.  Likewise our embodiment of the Gospel will take a different form and shape for each in the course of our life, whether we are called to something contemplative or active.

Her Son, our Lord, brought us redemption.  He gave himself for us in love – bringing liberty to those held captive by fear, status and oppression; bringing forgiveness to those who clung to power and might; bringing grace in the midst of all that dehumanizes us.  He broke bonds of sin and death in order that we might be adopted as his children; and as such, his Spirit wells up in our hearts crying “Abba! Father!”

That Spirit wells up in our hearts in praise and protest; in assurance of love and in longing for hope.  For we are caught up in a time of waiting for the time when God is all in all; when his Kingdom is fulfilled and all things are drawn into the unity of God’s purposes. We wait with eager longing and praise; we wait with groans and sighs too deep to bear. 

That Spirit is at work in us – transforming us and aligning our desires and longings with God’s will.  Your Cathedral Church is dedicated to the Holy Spirit: reminding all of us of our utter dependence on God as we walk with Mary in the joyful, challenging path of obedience.  That Spirit fosters relationships that are generous, merciful and Christ-like; that Spirit ignites in us a passion for justice and human flourishing.  That Spirit, in the words of Sarah Coakley, is the constant overflow of the life of God into creation: alluring, delighting, inflaming, in its propulsion of divine desire.  

May that Spirit equip you as you celebrate this festival day: giving you wisdom in your use of resources; exciting you as you engage deeply with your community; energizing you as your grow as a congregation; challenging you as you seek to include all in your life and worship; cultivating imagination as you work with the young.

As we prepare to receive Christ in broken bread and wine outpoured, may we taste and see that he is good; may we be renewed as his people of praise and prophetic vision.

Living God, by the guidance of your Holy Spirit, make us heralds of good news in Thorpe. Stir us your people, that in Word and Sacrament, prayer and service we may be inspired to share your love for all, with generosity and joy; imagination and courage; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.