Visitation of the Virgin Mary

 Today, the Church remembers the the visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary the mother of Jesus to her cousin Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 1:39–56.

Traditionallly, Mary, a young Jewish girl who was little more than an adolescent by today's standards, (probably around the age of 13, the traditional age of transition from child to adult and the age for getting married) when she left Nazareth after the Annunciation of the angel Gabriel that she, though a virgin, would bear the Son of God, and her pregnancy had become visible. 

Her pregnancy was complicated for many reasons, mostly because she was unmarried, though betrothed, and Luke records that she went "into the hill country...into a city of Judah" to attend to her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth was in the sixth month of her pregnancy before Mary came. Mary stayed three months, and most scholars hold she stayed for the birth of John. Given the prevailing cultural traditions and needs for security, etc., it is probable that Joseph accompanied Mary to Judah then returned to Nazareth, and came again after three months to take Mary back to their home. The visitation of the angel Gabriel to Joseph, mentioned in Matthew 1:19–25, may have taken place when she was with Elizabeth to end the tormenting doubts of Joseph regarding Mary's maternity.

It is traditionally held that the purpose of this visit was to bring divine grace to both Elizabeth and her unborn child. Even though he was still in his mother's womb, John became aware of the presence of the Son of God, Jesus, and leapt for joy, being filled with Holy Spirit. In this one line of Scripture, we can see the clear teaching of Scripture that unborn children, no matter the stage of development, are fully human and capable of knowing and responding to the presence of God. The ongoing clinical murder of unborn children is an unspeakable evil, and we must pray for God to have mercy on us and give us his Spirit to transform our minds to recognize this truth, that at conception we are fully human, made in the image of God, and must be protected and nurtured in love. 

Elizabeth also responded similarly and recognized the presence of Jesus, at which she [Elizabeth] spoke out with a loud voice, and said, "Hail, Mary, full of grace! Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord."

In response to Elizabeth, Mary proclaims the Magnificat:

"My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.

He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."

Blessed indeed is she who believed the promise of the Lord, and blessed is he, Joseph, who also believed the promise of the Lord. 

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Bearer of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Father in heaven, by your grace the virgin mother of your incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping your word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

Pentecost

 Fr. Troy Beecham 

A Sermon, Pentecost 2023

Today the Church celebrates the great Feast of Pentecost.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God promised that in the “last days”, inaugurated by the coming of the Messiah, he would pour out his Spirit upon all people. In Acts (2:14 to 18), the apostle Peter quotes this promise to explain what is happening when the disciples of Jesus are suddenly, miraculously able to speak and understand multiple foreign languages starting on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost as a name was first used in the Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament into Greek created roughly 300 years before Jesus. The translation became necessary because only scholars could read Hebrew by that time and Greek was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean, including in Israel. It was primarily the Septuagint that Jesus and the apostles knew and quoted. The first synagogues began to appear only a few decades before the birth of Jesus. Hebrew scholars gathered together and decided that the people of Israel needed to be able to read the Old Testament in Hebrew, and so synagogues started to be formed, places where men were encouraged to come and learn Hebrew and to be able to read the Old Testament and talk about it intelligently, and to begin to live into the covenant that God made with Israel with understanding and devotion. The Pharisees were the prime movers of this effort, and they were the community in which Jesus was raised. The origin of the bar mitzvah ceremony began during this time, when a boy became an adult at age 13 he had to be able to read a portion of the Old Testament and discuss it with the teachers.

The name Pentecost was so given to the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot in Hebrew, which is the day when Jews around the world remember the giving of the Torah to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai after they had escaped slavery in Egypt. It is also the day when they remember that God called them to be his chosen people and the day on which they said “yes” to God and accepted the covenant with him. Pentecost means “50 days”, indicating that Shavuot is celebrated 50 days after Passover. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit 50 days after the Resurrection of Jesus is how the early Christians, who were mostly Jewish, came to call it Pentecost, a second Pentecost, marking the beginning of the age of the Messiah promised so many centuries before, the giving of a new covenant between God and all humankind, and the giving of the new law, “Love one another as I have loved you”.

Why would God mark this great new beginning, the beginning of the Messianic age, the start of the Church, by giving Jesus’ disciples the supernatural ability to speak in all the many languages of the world? Later, filled with the Spirit, the apostles would also heal the lame, cure the sick, and cast out demons, as Jesus had said.

Just as he is ascending into the heavenly realm, Jesus commands his disciples, saying “As you go into the world, make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." There it is, the Church’s reason for being, its essential identity, and it is all about making disciples of Jesus among all peoples and nations, bringing them into communion with God through Jesus. And this requires language, communication. This is why the first manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Jesus’ disciples has to do with the communication of truth.

Language, communication, is about so much more than simply understanding words. Language, spoken or otherwise, conveys the totality of a person’s identity, be it cultural, religious, economic, class, and every other kind of social identity. At the surface level, language depends upon the spoken word and

that word is always in a particular language: Hebrew, Greek, Chinese, Sign Language, etc. At this level words can express true things, but they can also deceive and lie. Beyond the spoken word, we communicate through body language, tone of voice, volume of voice. In fact, 65% of what we communicate is non-verbal (which is why texts, emails, and even phone calls can never replace in person interaction). Our bodies, our unspoken communication, often speak louder and more honestly than our words. When our lives speak through our actions, our affiliations, the way we spend our time and money, etc., we are revealing what is true about ourselves, truths that sometimes are not congruent with our words. Words can fail us just when we need them most, especially in situations where tragedy, death, and betrayal render us mute, and especially in times of cultural turmoil as we are witnessing today in our country, and around the world, as demagogues, political elites, religious leaders, news media, and anyone with access to the hearts and minds of millions, are waging a war for our souls with words.What will our mouths and our lives say in the midst of such fear, rage, hopelessness, and yes, for some, exultation in taking advantage of this maelstrom, stoking it to further their dark ambitions? 

This is why God gives us his Holy Spirit, that we might continuously be born again, sanctified moment to moment, so that our lives and our words are congruent, full of integrity, full of God’s love, and given the supernatural gift of discernment to understand what people are really saying with their lives, to see through the lies of those who seek to control us, enslave us, and keep us living in fear. Through the Holy Spirit we have still yet a deeper language and ability to understand. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God we are equally able to communicate with each other true things like compassion, humility, generosity of spirit, joy, peace, patience, goodness, long-suffering, fidelity, gentleness, and chastity, even if we do no speak a common language. These things speak through us more loudly and clearly, either by their presence or their absence, than do all our words and gestures. This is the language of God given to us by grace, a language that the human family so desperately needs to hear spoken with fluency by the Church, by each disciple of Jesus.

We deceive ourselves if we think that we are fooled by each other. We all, subconsciously at least, hear beyond spoken words and bodily gestures. The heart reads the heart and the Holy Spirit recognizes itself wherever it sees itself manifest in us. The Holy Spirit teaches us the Truth, and teaches us the truth of all the things that we hear and see. Many of us talk passionately about our love for those who suffer: the poor, the alien in our midst, those living under generations of prejudice and violence. But if they are not already part of our lives, our parishes, they do not hear us, understand us, or desire to gather around us, even when we think that we speak perfectly in their native tongue. Unless we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, our words and our lives cannot speak with integrity of the love of God in Jesus. This is the language of God and the ability to discern the Truth given at Pentecost by God to all who will receive him through his Son Jesus.

God offers all people salvation from their sin, individually and corporately, through his Son Jesus. In this age of the Spirit-filled church, all people are invited into communion with the Lord and with each other, first communicated through God’s language of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. As we become part of the earthly Body of Jesus, his Church, through grace by faith and through the waters of Holy Baptism, we can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who will give us power to live in mutual love, forgiveness, humility, and reconciliation. We can gain the ability to discern the Truth if we invite him into our lives. 

What God is asking for are people like you and me to be willing to give our lives wholeheartedly to him through Jeus, that the Holy Spirit might live in us and through us, speaking the language of God through our lives and our lips, and by revealing the Truth in all things to us so that we might know the Truth and then communicate the Truth. As we are witnessing the violence in our own country, or the violence perpetrated against the people of China who are seeking liberty and freedom from oppression, or the ongoing plague of civil war and mass disease and starvation in Yemen, we need disciples who can fluently discern the Truth and speak and live the language of God more than ever.

I pray that God will touch your heart, and mine, and help us with his grace so that we might be filled with his Holy Spirit for the sake of our human family that is so lost in the babble of our brokenness and deceived by the lies of the evil one. Pray with me that God’s Son Jesus will be known, heard, and received by all who live, who may then be filled by his Holy Spirit so that we might truly come to love, respect, and honor each other.

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, to speak only the language of your Spirit, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen