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August 15, 2004
Sermon preparation
Preparing a sermon is, for many of us, a bit like resitting an exam. You have to study the chosen lessons, you have to look at the Season or the Feast, and then you try to say something, if not original, at least fresh about the message of the readings and how that relates to the seasonal theme or the Feast and its commemoration. Some preachers don't prepare, some can get away with that, most can't. I find I spend several hours thinking about the themes and the readings, doing a little background research and reading - and then sit down at my keyboard and spend about 2 hours composing a sermon of about 10 minutes duration.
My good friend and Spiritual Director, The Venerable (Sometimes aka The Venomous - purely after the book "1066 and all that" which refers to "the Venomous" Bede) Peter, likes a little challenge when preparing a sermon. He reckons to spend an hour for each minute of his sermon on the preparations for it. And, when I think about it, this is about right. But Fr Peter likes, as I said, a challenge, so various people suggest a word or phrase that they challenge him to include in his sermons. Talking to him last night, as he prepared to preach on the Assumption (also known as "The falling asleep of the Virgin Mary"), today's Feast - the day that Mary died, and, according to legend, was taken up whole into heaven. It is often confused with the Annunciation, the day the Angel came to Mary and informed her that she was the Chosen One, chosen to bear the child that would be the Son of God, the man who would be that part of God whom we know from St John as "The Word", he shared with me his 'test' for today. Indeed, this confusion is easy to understand since the one is inextricably associated with the other.
I shall await with interest to see how he works his Churchwarden's latest challenge into the Assumption theme. The phrase he is dared to include today? "Septic tanks". It should be a hoot, but, knowing Peter it will be relevant, and there will be a serious message underlying his humour.
The Assumption is one of those feasts in which you find yourself asking a number of questions. The most important one is probably "what if Mary had refused?" After all, God does not compel, He invites; He does not force, He offers. Mary could have said no. She could have spared herself the lifetime of whispers - visible in the Gospels by the references to "Son of Mary" and "Son of Man" among others. She could have spared herself the threat of death by stoning and the shame on her family when it became known that she was pregnant and that her espoused husband was not the father.
Had she refused, it is very likely that God would have approached another, and another, until He found someone willing to be mother to His incarnation in human form.
You have to admire the courage of this young woman, and recognise the contribution she has made, the example she has set for us all to follow. Where God called, she followed, even to the foot of the Cross, and the ultimate, the empty tomb. How terrifying it must have been, how difficult to deal with. She would not have been supported by any Rabbi, the Pharisees would have shunned her. Only her immediate family provided the support and the comfort, even if they didn't understand the full import of her condition.
The Gospels give us a sanitised version of her story. A vision that is almost all "sweetness and light", but if we read carefully, we learn that she suffered for her faithfulness, often in ways we can never understand. According to the Orthodox tradition, she was rewarded on earth by never aging, in their tradition, she was taken up into heaven still the young maid the angel addressed at the Annunciation.
It is right, therefore, that we should acknowledge her, celebrate her faithfulness, and give thanks for her sacrifice. And I feel it is right to quote from the angels greeting to her at the Annunciation:
"The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God."
Posted by The Gray Monk at August 15, 2004 08:37 AM