Today's Sermon:

Throw Open Your Windows
Well we have reached the final Sunday of advent. Let's take stock of where we have been these past four weeks. In week one we discovered all that had clouded over our windows. We took note of the dust and cobwebs that build up in our heart and our souls over the course of a year or a lifetime. It may be greed or anger or jealousy. Violence or injustice. Whatever it is it prevents us from seeing a story of hope. Instead we see a story of fear. Remember we talked about the apocalypse and how that story that was intended to be one of hope of a second coming has been turned into one that makes us fear the very return of the light. It turned this story of a little baby being born into a manger into one that is dreaded because it involves shopping and cards and baking and family. There is much in our lives that clouds over our windows, obscuring what is beautiful.
In week two we sought ways to clean off those windows. We heard that in order to look forward we had to look back. We looked back to John the Baptist who looked back to Isaiah and to Elijah. We looked back to all the valleys that needed to be lifted up. We looked to the sin, both personal and corporate. And we looked at how that sin was not necessarily the dancing and drinking that many of our parents had said. Perhaps sin was the ways that we had focused solely on ourselves instead of focusing on the world around us, the people around us. The ways we had "tried to protect others" but in reality were merely protecting ourselves. The ways our ego prevent us from being fully who God wants us to be and caring for the people in our lives and in our world. And we looked at cleaning those cobwebs away by being fully human, by pointing all people toward the beauty and joy in the world. The calling that we all have to be artists, priests, window washers. Clearing away the dirt and decay and pointing instead to the love and life.
Then last week we lit a candle in our windows. We sang songs and read words that pointed us to the light. We lit a candle to remember. As we place a candle in our windows in solidarity with the victims, the missing, the returning. We place candles in our windows as beacons of sort. It is an anticipation of a homecoming. And it is a way of saying we have not forgotten. We have told the story and we will continue to tell the story.
This week we return to the window. And finally this week we get to a character that we recognize. Actually one of the main characters in the story that we have been building up to. We get to talk about Mary. Mary who will be the wife of Joseph. Mary who will be the mother of Jesus. Mary, the one who will stand at the foot of the cross as her son is crucified. This is the character that we are introduced to today. She is someone who I think is a little more complex than we give her credit for. Usually the way she is described is a virgin, meek and mild. We see her as the chosen one. The one who is fated to this deed and passively goes along with whatever is expected of her. But I really think that is not quite an accurate depiction. We have to believe that she had some freedom of choice, some free will. I mean otherwise she is not human right. And we hold to the fact that Jesus came from human and that he was fully human so Mary had to be also. Right? She gave birth like every other woman before and after her. She raised children--which means she probably potty trained and cleaned up all sorts of bodily fluids. She was a mother and a wife. She did the things that wives and mother did during that time. And she did the things that were expected of women of her day. She was a human.
So we have to assume that she had a choice in the matter. And I wonder how many times had the angel been there before. Was this the first time or had he asked before? Had she been too afraid? I mean that would certainly be understandable. Remember I just said she was a woman of her day. So there were ways that things were done. And getting pregnant before you were fully married to your husband was not one of them. And really who is going to believe that you were impregnated by God? Certainly not the man you are supposed to be married to. He would be fully within his right to turn you out or even worse. And what was a woman without a husband? She was destitute and alone. Disgraced. Out on the street.
I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. This was a television series that aired from the mid to late nineties until oh 2003 or so. I had friends who watched but I had never seen an episode until recently. It is really good. There is a character named Angel who was a terrible vampire but eventually he was cursed with a soul and so could no longer kill. He also fell in love with Buffy. Ironic, eh? Well anyway at some point in the second season the curse was broken and he lost his soul again. So in order to prevent him from entering their house Buffy had to seal the doors and place crosses and garlic etcetera at the windows, the primary place he had entered the house. Incantations and the whole shebang. I've only made it through season two so I can't really tell you how it all turns out. But this felt very familiar to me. And I think it would feel pretty familiar to Mary as well. She was afraid. Perplexed it says. And the first words that the angel said were do not be afraid. You do not have to close me out. What I bring you is good news.
We all are at times like Mary and like Buffy. We are trying to protect ourselves. So we lock our windows. We might even cover them up. We let jealousy and anger and our egos cover up our windows. Because at least inside in our protective cocoons we are safe. The world is a dangerous place. We can get hurt out there. But if we just stay in here then we are okay right? And we are right to believe that the world out there is a dangerous place. It is risky to step out.
I heard a story a few years ago about a transgender woman who decided she wanted to look for a church. So she visited a church in Tennessee where she lived. And while she was living her life as a woman, I don't know what sorts of surgeries she had had, but she still had some mannish features. And so she walked into a church, a church that she had grown up believing would offer her God's love and acceptance. She walked in and sat down in the back row, and inconspicuous place, a place where she might blend in. As she was waiting for the service to begin she noticed that a group of people had circled up and were having what looked like a fairly intense conversation. And eventually the conversation broke up and one of the people came over to speak to her. The man informed her that she would have to leave because her presence in the service was too disruptive. Just being there was too disruptive! Stepping out into the world is risky. You run the risk of being hurt and rejected. So it is easier to just stay inside and board up the windows.
But something happens when you board up windows. The air begins to become stale. Dust begins to settle on the furniture. Things begin to decay. You become more and more afraid of the outside world. The plants don't have light to survive and they begin to wither and die. You become more and more afraid of other people And pretty soon you are merely a ghost of your former self. The kids in the neighborhood view your house as the one to be afraid of. In the end you stop living--you stop loving. You begin to die.
And so Mary had a choice. She finally opened her window. And let the angel in to bring the good news. She knew it was risky, but she knew that was the only way of living, of loving. That woman in Tennessee that I told you about eventually left her house again and went to another church, a church where she was fully accepted. A church where she was able to be real and to be loved. She was telling this story in a large group of people gathered for the Alliance of Baptist Convocation. She was no longer sitting on the back row trying to blend in, no now she was telling her story. She was telling the good news to others. But first she had to throw open her window and risk being loved by someone else.
Today we are being called to throw open our windows. To risk being loved. To risk living. Because it is only when we do that are we able to fully see what is beautiful. That is the only way to let the fresh air in. That is where all the new growth happens. That is where new life happens. The flower blooms outside the window. You become more of what God desires you to be. You bare the gospel for a hurting world. Throw open your window. It is scary and risky. But it is also full of beauty. It is full of love. It is full of life. This season of advent has been leading us to a decision. We must make it every year, every day, every minute. Will we choose darkness or light? Will we choose war or peace? Will we choose despair or joy? Will we choose hatred or love? Will we choose death or life? What will we choose? What will you choose? What do you say that this year, this day, this minute, we choose life? Amen.