2019 Sermon Series: God Uproots

Grace and Peace to you all,

My name is Katelyn and I am the Program Coordinator this summer at Wilderness. I have spent many years up here on staff starting as a swamper, moving to kitchen staff to guide, to now program coordinator. Through my many years up here the phrase “fake it until you make it” has echoed staff trainings every year. Now this isn’t to undermine our staff training process, but I am convinced that there is no way to fully prepare for taking a group of middle schoolers into the wilderness with out any contact to the outside world.

This phrase has become a comfort to me up here because so many people are in this same mindset, returning staff members and new staff members all can probably relate to the feeling of comfort that surrounds this phrase. I recently learned that this phrase can be attached to an actual psychological theory called the impostor syndrome. This is when people, more frequently people who identify as female, feel like they are an impostor in their position of employment or in a place that they find success. Before writing this sermon, I had some serious feelings of impostor syndrome, now I have never been to seminary; I am just recent college grad with plans of becoming a teacher. Who am I to teach about this incredible woman, Mary and the praise that she sings to God through the Magnificat? Mary is someone in the bible that I find as an incredible role model that is often viewed as a soft nurturing motherly figure. Although in this passage I see her exerting great bravery, courage, and strength. Mary has this unshakable faith that is shown through this passage and that is something that I think is not discussed enough. After reflecting upon her song of praise that we now know as the Magnificat, she definitely did not seem to be phased by the impostor syndrome like many of us would surely have experienced if we were placed in her situation. I like to imagine her whispering to herself “fake it till you make it.”

So I will start by giving a little back story on Mary. She was likely a young teenager when the angel Gabriel visited her and told her that she would become the mother of Jesus. She was also not yet married, and she lived in the small town of Nazareth which would lead to some immense small-town gossip and even put her safety at risk. She was a young woman of low status in a very male dominated society. Previous to this Gospel passage, Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth to tell her the news that she received from Gabriel, however, once Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice she immediately knew that Mary was carrying the Messiah. At the time Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist and he jumped in her stomach due to Mary’s presence. While all this seems like an amazing miracle, it’s very plausible that Mary may have sought out Elizabeth in order to seek shelter because of her pregnancy before marriage, which for woman in that time, could have been punishable by being stoned to death. To fully understand the Magnificat, it is essential to understand the political and cultural environment of the time period.

During this time there was some serious tension between the Jewish people and the Romans because they suffered greatly under Roman rule. At the time Jesus was born, Herod the Great had just died which compelled the Jewish people to rebel against the Romans, leading to many of them being captured and even enslaved by the Romans. Rome was economically exploiting the Jewish people and took advantage of their natural resources causing them to experience poverty, hunger, and disease. The Jewish people were longing for a Messiah to bring them some form of healing from Roman rule and the Emperor, Caesar Augustus. Jesus was born not only to save us from our sins but also to uplift the Jewish people in this time of oppression. God intentionally planned for Jesus to be born in that time period because of this. This is a big reason why Mary praises God’s ability to bring down the powerful and lift up the lowly. This idea invites us to imagine how the world would be if Jesus sat on this hypothetical throne, if the Jewish people had a gentle ruler rather than suffering from the rule of Caesar. In the Beatitudes, also known as the Sermon on the Mount which we heard earlier, Jesus is telling the people to focus on the opposite of what society is telling us. He does not want us to focus on typical things like money or power but instead he is calling us to uproot structures that oppress by blessing and calling us to walk with the peacemakers, the meek, and the persecuted.

Now back to Mary and her song of praise, God chose Mary who was a woman that was of low status to do their great work. The Creator was not only uplifting the Jewish people through the birth of Jesus, but God was also lifting up Mary by giving her this task. This was something that Mary expressed so much joy  in through her song of praise, and one of the reason she refers to herself as a lowly servant of the Lord. I love reflecting on this statement by Mary because I view her as this powerhouse of a young woman and she is presenting this news with great humility and thanks by calling herself a lowly servant. Mary was a servant of Gods work and she conducted it with extreme bravery, resilience and intentionality. Mary was a great leader for the Jewish people during this time of injustice; she was fulfilling God’s call to act as a peacemaker. Throughout her song of praise Mary is echoing how she has been granted this blessing of serving the lord and lifting up the lowly people.

So, how does this translate into today? How could we act to uproot current systems of oppression like Mary did back in her time? This passage makes me realize the impact we could have if we recognized our privilege and our blessings, as Mary did, and use them to become advocates for marginalized groups. Mary was rare in this sense because she belonged to the marginalized of that time period, but she did not let that change how she saw the world. Her bravery helped bring Jesus into the world which eventually helped save the Jewish people from systems of oppression. This serves as a concrete example of how Gods work is done through lifting up the lowly.

As advocates and allies I believe we can learn from Mary’s intentionality. She was intentional about recognizing and being gracious and humbled by the blessings that she had been given, while at the same time, providing love and support for others. Imagine if all of us did that for the marginalized groups of today. Many times, I personally feel stuck in a rut of feeling powerless to create change. This is something that I feel many people struggle with in this time. Up here I feel like our saying of leaning into love us so applicable to working towards change. If we can recognize our privilege and love and support the people that are oppressed against then we will be doing the work the Jesus is describing in the sermon on the Mount and is the example that Mary is setting for us through her brave actions of bringing Christ into this world during a political time period where the Jewish people were in turmoil. By being intentional and recognizing our blessings and privileges we are being aware that there is a problem and that that problem should be addressed. We do not want to be falling into the myth of neutrality which causes us to work backwards due to not stepping up and addressing the problems that we see in this world.  Mary certainly did not have a lot of privilege or rights in this time period, since she was an unmarried pregnant woman that did not stop her from supporting the Jewish people. Again, she was a true powerhouse of a young woman. This is a prime example of the bravery that marginalized activists face in their work today.

I believe the first step towards uprooting systems of oppression is by acting with justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God as our verse from Micah read. Now how the heck do we do that?! There are a lot of actions packed in that one so simple sounding sentence. So we don’t expect people to be perfect, that is why the mantra fake it till you make it is so fitting for this place and for life in general. It allows people to make mistakes and to give themselves a little bit of self-grace. Honestly it is humbling; it allows people to be lowly yet empowered to make it and therefore creating change. Fake it till you make it inherently says that things right now might not be going well or according to “plan” but grants the grace to know eventually it will aka “making it” only if of course we are taking actions to make.  Through this mantra we may be able to focus more on acting with justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God just as Mary did.  I want to encourage you to remember that as you continue your journey both here, and away from this place.  Amen