"You Are a Blessing"
Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 1:26-38
After a lovely Thanksgiving afternoon and evening with my extended family in Eureka, Paula, Sam, and I went to see the book-turned-Broadway hit musical turned-movie Wicked the next day. I was excited to see this movie because I fell in love with the original story, written by L. Frank Baum, beginning in 1900. My passion for that story started by seeing the movie when I was around five. Around the age of 13, I found out that it was initially a story from a book and that there were fourteen books in total. I remember riding my bicycle down to the library in Vallejo, CA, every weekend one summer, checking out each book, reading for a few hours, and then heading home with my head filled with the land of OZ.
So, with that background, I was excited but also a bit concerned that someone had added to the story. OZ is a somewhat sacred space for me. Fortunately, it turns out the story/musical/movie is good. It isn’t as good as the original book or movie, but I'm glad I went.
For those of you who aren't familiar with OZ (I won't hold that against you), Wicked is a prequel to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz story - the story of Dorothy from Kansas, who is taken up through a tornado to the land of OZ over the rainbow. In Wicked, we learn of Glinda the Good and Elphaba - she who becomes the wicked witch of the West. Elphaba wasn't always mean and nasty. The movie deeply dives into how she becomes who she becomes, partly because of her green skin, which makes her different than everyone else. In addition, her father hates her, but you’ll have to either read the book, see the musical or watch the film to find out why. No one likes her for who she is, and in time, she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
Her identity as the Wicked Witch of the West was molded and shaped by other characters who mistreated her. No one ever told Elphaba she was loved or accepted. It's a shame the Bible isn't floating around somewhere in Baum's OZ universe over the rainbow, and Elphaba couldn't read Isaiah 43. Maybe her destiny would have been different had she known she was precious in God's eyes.
The theme for this Advent season is a bit different than you may be used to. The scriptures chosen for this series, interwoven with the season's familiar stories, are often used in weddings, ordination services, and baptisms. I hope that, by the time we gather together on Christmas Eve for our Lessons and Carols service, you, too, will know you are precious in God's eyes and that you are a blessing called to bless others.
We begin by looking at the background of the passage in Isaiah 43. The Israelites were taken into captivity approximately seventy years before God's proclamation in this passage. Their unfaithfulness to God's ways got them into their current situation- living in captivity in a foreign land. Imagine that somehow, all of us Ashlanders, Phoenixandrians, Talenti, Medfordians, and Central Pointians were taken by hostile forces and forced to march some 900 miles to just past Tijuana, Mexico, and told by God to hunker down, learn a new language and assimilate to an unknown culture.
Perhaps they had lost their identity as God's people and had forgotten they were precious in God's eyes. Maybe they were on their own now and would fade away, assimilated into Babylonian culture.
Yet God did not abandon them. We learn in this morning's Hebrew scripture that God knew them each by name and loved them. The prophet then encourages them to return to Israel and promises to be with them as they pass through deep waters, fast-flowing rivers, and fire. It was a gift for the Israelites to remember that they were formed and made by God who loved them, was with them, and would help them through times of trial. Eventually, the exiled returned, rebuilt, and rededicated themselves to the God who considered them a blessing to the world. They had a part to play in God's divine story.
Our familiar story from Luke's Gospel from this time of year has a similar theme. God and the angel Gabriel know of Mary, an obscure teenage house servant. She was not cloaked in power or prestige, yet she was favored, loved, and blessed by God. She, too, had a part to play in God's divine story. It was an essential part to play, as her yes to God brought forth the Messiah, the Redeemer of humankind. God knew she was a blessing, loved, and called by name.
These two passages have a message for us here this morning as well. God knows us and calls us by name. God sees us as beloved and will be with us in the difficulties that come our way. And, like the Israelites centuries ago, like the house servant Mary, we too have a part to play in God's divine story.
We are blessed by God, loved by God, and called to take our part in God's divine story. We all have a part to play, all pieces in a larger image.
Consider this quilt, one of several that hang on our sanctuary walls from time to time. Many years ago, a group of women from our congregation made them at a retreat. Hundreds of pieces of fabric were put together to form this divine image of the cross. Each piece in this quilt is important, and they all help tell a part of God's sacred story.
In her commentary on this passage, Theologian Kayla Craig writes, "We can't work our way to receiving God's compassion. It is already there- as present as the twinkling stars in the sky, as near as the clouds of breath on a cold night. You are a blessing because the One from whom all blessings flow sees you, knows you, and calls you by name."
How do you receive this message? Do you believe it? Do you embrace it? Do you reject it? Did the people in your past shape you into something you weren't meant to become, like Elphaba? As we begin this Advent season, we are reminded that, although we may think of ourselves as discarded unimportant scraps, the Maker of heaven and earth calls us beautiful and blessed, inviting us to continue God's story, working for the kindom. Like the Israelites and Mary, God invites us to be an important piece in God's divine quilt- no matter how small or ordinary we might feel- so that each of us can carry God's blessing into a weary world.
Embracing our inherent blessedness is the starting point. Once we see ourselves as blessed, we can open our hearts to recognize and affirm the blessedness in others, which can transform our interactions and communities. Theologian Kayla Craig continues, "God's perfect love invites us to live out our belovedness by transforming our world with love and entering into the good work God's hand began stitching many eons ago."
This Advent, consider your sacred place in God's divine quilt. What part of the story are you called to tell? You are a blessing- known by God and called for a purpose. We all have a part to play. May you boldly live into this truth, trusting in your belovedness as you continue the story of God's redemptive work in the world.
In closing for this morning, I invite you to hear a poem written by Rev. Sarah Speed,
"Joy And Celebration"
You are a blessing.
If you hear nothing else, if the wind howls
If your brain runs amok,
If rebuttals and denials line up like little toy soldiers,
Then hear this-
YOU are a blessing.
For our Creating God
Breathed life into your being
And there is simply no way that,
Along with that life,
Some of God's goodness didn't slip right in.
So tell the rebuttals to rest.
Tell the toy soldiers to find another hill,
Because this one is reserved for joy and celebration.
You are a blessing.
Breathe it in. Alleluia! Amen.
Closing Breath prayer (X3)
Breathe in: In You, O God,
Exhale: I find my worth.
