Pr. Joseph Crippen

God’s way is the right-side-up way, and Mary follows it, inviting us to join her.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The feast of St. Mary, the Mother of Our Lord
Texts: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52; Romans 8:26-39

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Mary doesn’t sing of the world turned upside down in the Magnificat.

She sings of the world turned right-side-up.

When the Triune God asked Mary to bear the Incarnate Word into the world, it was to begin restoring the creation to God’s way. Mary sings of the hungry being fed, the rich emptied, the mighty set down, the lowly lifted up. That’s the way God meant the world to be from the beginning.

We turned it upside down.

We’re created in the image of God, Genesis says.

When God takes on human flesh in Jesus, we see humanity the way it was meant to be, the Triune God’s true Image. In Jesus’ teachings, compassion, and most vividly in his vulnerable love, Jesus reveals a way of life for us and the world that seems upside down. But it’s right-side-up to God.

God created this universe to live in peace and harmony, with all creatures loving each other and God, even human creatures. In God’s design, power isn’t used to harm others, in fact, “power” itself is vulnerable love.

Look at how the Triune God created humanity. We were given the freedom to choose our path, the freedom to love or hate, the freedom to obey or disobey. God’s vulnerable love exists from the moment we took breath. God risked everything hoping we’d become the loving, caring creatures God envisioned.

But, created in God’s image, we also have the temptation God must have felt.

Surely God was tempted to control humanity, tempted to use power to make us good creatures. Instead, the Triune God chose vulnerability and openness, risking all, even death on the cross.

Humanity chose differently. We’re the only creature that manipulates our environment to the degree we do, that has an impact on all creatures and all life that share this planet with us, and often that manipulation and impact harm our fellow creatures. We use power to control others, we hide our fear of vulnerability behind aggression and greed. We build systems and cultures and structures that consistently benefit those in power while equally consistently crushing those who don’t have power.

What we see in our world today has been repeated throughout history. People go hungry because others hoard resources. People are killed because others violently maintain power. People live in poverty because others create systems to generate wealth for those controlling the systems. People are oppressed because others who are threatened by them use their power to control their lives and never worry if harming someone else to benefit themselves is a problem.

But Mary sings that in this child, God is starting to turn the world right-side up again.

And God achieves this the same way as at creation: through vulnerable love.

Scattering the proud, removing the powerful from power, filling the hungry, sending the rich away emptied of their wealth, is not done by divine power and might. God still will not force the creation to follow God’s right-side-up way.

Instead, God comes as a vulnerable baby, born to a vulnerable woman willing to sacrifice her hopes and dreams to be a part of God’s healing. A baby who will fulfill his mother’s vision and his divine heart and invite people to follow God’s right-side-up way, willingly, lovingly, and join God in re-shaping the world.

This is why we honor Mary: not to put her on a pedestal, but to see her as our forebear, our leader, our mother.

She lived into the image of God she was, she dreamed of God’s right-side-up world, and bore a child to bring that world into being.

Jesus very clearly taught us God’s right-side-up way, the way to justice and peace through vulnerable love and sacrifice for each other, even letting us destroy his life, in order to break open our hearts to God’s way.

But Mary is our sister, who walks ahead of us, first to follow in Christ’s way. She’s our mother in this life of Christ, whose giving birth makes it possible for all of us to walk Christ’s path, whose willing “let it be as you will” is our model for our own response to God.

In God’s way, no one is hungry.

No one is oppressed. No one is trampled upon. No one holds power over another. No one is rich, but all have what they need.

Mary shows us we can live this way, we can say, “let it be so with us.” And start turning the world a little right-side-up in our own places. And when we, and eventually all creatures, follow this way, the world will turn fully right-side up as God dreamed all along.

And then our spirits, like Mary’s, will truly rejoice in God’s healing of all things.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

The true gift, the miracle Jesus gives, is to be in the boat with you and me, giving life and strength and hope for our calling to be Christ.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 19 A
Texts: Matthew 14:22-33; 1 Kings 19:9-18

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Wouldn’t this have been great to see?

Jesus walking on water in a storm, a group of terrified disciples, Peter trying it for himself? Ever since I was a child, I’ve wished I could have been there to see that.

But I’ve come to realize it wouldn’t necessarily strengthen my faith if I could. After all, some of the religious leaders who witnessed the raising of Lazarus didn’t come to faith in Jesus. They saw it as a last straw, the reason Jesus and even Lazarus had to be eliminated.

In the Upper Room on the Sunday after his resurrection, Jesus said, “blessed are those who trust in me without seeing.” Faith is trust without proof.

So if we can’t go back in time and see, and even if we could it wouldn’t help, and if faith is trust without evidence, how will we ever find faith?

Well, in this story the answer is in the boat.

Jesus climbs into the boat, after pulling Peter out of the drink. And the storm calms. He’s no longer a scary figure on the water that makes them think of ghosts. And for the first time in the Gospel narratives, people are said to worship Jesus.

Faith is found in the boat with Jesus, not looking out at the water for miraculous things to see. It’s Jesus’ way – and part of the reason he often tells people to keep quiet about the miracles.

Jesus came to restore the relationship between the Triune God and the people of this world, but not by by flashy miracles and interventions. He came to do it by relationship with us. With the believers, the searchers, the frightened ones, the doubters, the ones just looking for help, the lost and hurting ones.

Jesus creates a community out of love – the people in the boat with us – to surround us and support us and help us in our faith. And in the middle of the boat sits God-with-us, the One whose love is the reason for all in the boat to live.

And really, that’s the only way any of us have come to faith, isn’t it?

We call this room where we all sit the “nave” – it’s from the Latin for “ship.” And here in the boat of the Church we have met Jesus, have met God through him, have known the deep and abiding love of the Triune God, and been given the gifts of God for faith – bread and wine where God’s very presence dwells; water which not only cleanses us but brings us into new life from death; Word of God which guides and shapes and teaches and comforts and challenges.

Here, in the boat with Jesus, we can let go of our fear and marvel at what we know and see, and worship: “truly you are the Son of God,” we say with the disciples

See, this part of today’s story is always your truth. You may not see or experience identifiable miracles. But the Son of God is always in the boat with you, with me. Bringing you to faith. Calming your fear. Teaching you. Loving you. There is nothing to be afraid of if Jesus is in the boat. That’s the true miracle today.

But the boat isn’t Jesus’ ultimate goal for us.

It’s where he shows up to be with us, where he’s put us together, and helped us to faith. But it’s a boat, not a fortress. That means it’s going somewhere. Jesus and the disciples today are traveling to another place to do ministry.

Our nave, our boat, isn’t a sanctuary for us to hide in from the world. Paul says to the Romans today there are so many places who need to hear this Good News, so many places of ministry we need to reach – some literally neighbors to our boat, others that will take a little travel.

That means a few things.

First, you’ll want to pay attention to Jesus, to where he tells you your next place of ministry is, where he’s sending you to go, when Jesus teaches and guides and leads you and me in this boat.

And second, we’re not always going to get along inside the boat. The first disciples didn’t, so we shouldn’t expect that we will. Because Jesus fills the boat, not us, and brings whatever people he wants to. It’s his boat, after all. That can be hard. We naturally want to pick and choose our boatmates, and that’s just not our call.

And third, it’s a much bigger boat than just this nave – it’s the whole Church on earth now and throughout time. And especially with the Church on earth as it is now, that means that there really will be lots of folks in the boat with us that we just don’t like. But the thing is, Jesus knows our strengths and abilities, and brings folks into the boat who have differing gifts and abilities, all so the work that needs doing can be done. So he asks us to learn to love each other. And everyone else in the boat, as big as the boat is.

Because Jesus loves you. And all of them, too.

Not everyone gets a vision or a miracle to see.

But with God-with-us in the boat, like Elijah today, like Peter and the others, everyone gets the strengthening of faith and the gift of the Spirit’s power to do their ministry.

I’ll take that trade-off any time.

And I rejoice that all of you share this particular boat with me. And pray that together we’ll find the joy of seeing where Jesus will take us next.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen