Sermons on the Visit of The Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth - Fr Sam Rossiter-Peters

BAM

BAAM

BAAM

BAS

in来 dweli

all indirekli in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.

Do you consider yourself a just person? On the 10th of April 1963 an Alabama state

judge grant an injunction which banned all anti segregation protest activity in the city of

Birmingham Alabama. This was the result of a concerted effort by the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights against the segregationist

policies which discriminated against black members of the community. Mass meetings were held

members of the movement's stage sit-ins at segregationist cafes and restaurants. The community

marched in protest on City Hall and there was a general boycott of segregationist merchants.

But on the 12th of April 1963 Dr Martin Luther King and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy led a march

in defiance of this injunction and both were arrested and jailed and from behind bars Dr King wrote

those lines that we've just heard in his famous letter from Birmingham jail. There are a few sat

here today I would imagine who would question the righteousness of Dr King and Reverend Abernathy's

choices the choice to march on City Hall despite the injunction not to yet we know that Dr King

and his fellows were criticised and attacked for their calls for an equal world open to all

regardless of the person of the colour of a person's skin indeed we know that not only Dr King

but many others throughout history have paid the ultimate price for their commitment to God's justice

and were martyred as they fought for a better world in the name of Jesus Christ.

It would be easy to turn such stories into accounts of the unerringly righteous Christians

fighting against an unrighteous world across different times and places. It would be a narrative

that we're familiar with hearing after all we're used to hearing about the early church as an underdog

boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ and serving others against the might of the Roman Empire

which persecuted them. It would be an easy narrative but it would be false because many of those

who have criticised and attacked social justice movements in America many who still attack

social justice movements today across the world claim and have claimed the title Christian.

Are such people denuded? Well surely so God's justice allows no bias there is no grace and

goodness open to some which is not open to all but whilst it's potentially comforting to dismiss

those who disagree with our understanding of justice past and present as deliberately unkind

and unfair we need to remember that it is a very rare person indeed who actually believes themselves

to be unjust. As human beings we are masters of persuading ourselves that we are in the right

even and perhaps especially when we're in the wrong. We turn ourselves into the heroes of our own

stories and this makes it easy for us to justify our position on any number of matters.

When we believe that we're the center of the world how could it be otherwise?

If all the world around us and the people in it are just bit players in our story then everything

naturally fits into a framework which serves our carefully constructed reality. So for example

if a person in 1960s Alabama were to believe that the color of their skin really did make them

the pinnacle of their society their lived reality might very well reflect that from their perspective.

If they automatically got the nice seats in the restaurants had access to the best schools

more easily got promotions got better pays are doing exactly the same work got to live in the

nicer areas of the city in bigger houses filled with nicer things then it would be easy to suppose

themselves superior. It wouldn't be until they stopped and asked why they had these things and

others didn't that the injustice of their situation would become apparent. Why should their group

of people get benefits that others didn't? Why would society automatically place obstacles in

front of others but not in front of them? Why should they be able to expect certain rights

and treatment but others couldn't? Then they would realize that they didn't have better jobs

or bigger houses because they earned those things or indeed had any right to those things at all.

It would be because they got an easy ride to the top. They ran a hurdle race but someone

forgot to add their hurdles. These are very hard questions to ask of oneself in the 1960s

or today because if one finds oneself advantaged where others aren't it's probably because society

favors you and in turn makes life harder for others in ways which aren't just. But as long as

there remains any injustice in our world it is our christian moral duty to ask ourselves these

most difficult questions. We must answer the question of our privilege. An in this letter

from Birmingham jail Dr King explained why injustice anywhere is a problem for justice everywhere.

If we live in an unjust society then we are affected by that injustice because as heirs of

God and co-heirs with Christ we are interrelated with our brothers and sisters not only in our

community but across our world and we have a duty to them especially if they struggle under systems

which unfairly benefit us. In our gospel reading Mary sang her prophetic hymn of praise the

Magnificat and she sang he has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the

thoughts of their hearts he has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the

lolly he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. What caused Mary to

have these hopes they certainly weren't her reality she was a peasant living in Nazareth a tiny town

with very few families who scratched out a living either by subsistence farming or by the very hard

labour and the income that they could get from it. They were taxed extremely heavily first by the

occupying Roman forces who forced them to pay for their own occupation and then by pirate who forced

them to pay immense amounts of tax to construct the temple and his palates so that he could prove

himself a greater architect than Solomon. Mary's life would have been brutal as a woman

she had basically no access to education she was most certainly given in betrayal at the age of 12

and her duty would have been to serve her much older husband with no regard for her own wants

or needs she was powerless voiceless out of no account to the world around her. When we remember

the account of Gabriel appearing to Mary to ask if she would become the mother of God he told her

that she had found favour with God he said greetings you who are fuk highly favoured. Now a lot of us

would answer that kind of greeting with a sense of pride or at very least a kind of demure humility

but Mary didn't she met it with genuine confusion we're told that she was greatly troubled at

Gabriel's greeting and wondered what he had come to say because Mary wasn't a person who was noticed

by anyone and so it must have been the ultimate shock to understand that she'd been recognised by God

yet within the harsh reality of her world and her future Mary focused on the goodness of God

and devoted herself to him in worship what gave Mary the hope that is described in the Magnificat

certainly not what she saw around her no rather the God that she worshiped and her trust in his

goodness the Magnificat is full of scriptural illusions it heavily reflects Hannah's song

in one Samuel as Hannah prays God for giving her the child she's so dearly prayed for who would

go on to be one of Israel's greatest prophets and its final judge but Mary also referred to

promises found in Genesis Psalms Joe Leviticus Deuteronomy Micah though Mary had no formal

education she obviously knew the scriptures she obviously dwelt on them in her heart

this was the only way that she could have constructed a song which so thoroughly weaves

together Old Testament teaching and promises in a way that so demonstrably understands God's goodness

in attending to the scriptures in her worship and prayer Mary clearly came to know and trust

her Lord and in this trust despite her circumstances she perceived that the world that she experienced

was not the world as it ought to be she saw that God's justice had not taken effect in the world

around her but she trusted that through the fulfillment of God's promise of the coming messiah

things would change as we know Mary risks a huge amount when she agreed to become the mother

of God Jesus Christ as a betrothed woman who wasn't yet married her pregnancy would have broken

her vows to Joseph it would have suggested that she'd slept with someone outside of marriage

and the punishment for that was death by stoning even if she wasn't executed in this most brutal way

Mary almost certainly courted ruin which would have turned her very difficult life into a basically

impossible one had they chosen once they found out about her pregnancy Mary's family

might very well have abandoned her and turned her out onto the streets and as a woman of no

repeat without a husband she would have been unable to work except perhaps as a prostitute

and so her choice may very easily have come between selling herself or allowing herself

and her child to starve that was what Mary was risking when she said yes and yet

Mary said yes to Gabriel without a second thought for her own health or happiness

she trusted in God that not only he would bring his justice to the world through her son but

that he would make a way for her and her son to live safely Mary gave of herself gave of her hopes

for the future gave of her need for family gave of her personal safety and committed herself to the

goodness and justice of God because she was a woman of no repeat without a second thought

the goodness and justice of God because he knew who he is

we don't live in a Roman occupied province nor are we facing exactly the same sorts of battles

that Dr King did but our world is still not anywhere near the vision of justice

which Mary described in the Magnificat the poor are still voiceless and forgotten

we need only look at the existence of food banks the mountains of debt which crush people

the number of people who try to live in our world in our country

despite the failure of provision for even basic securities and provisions

the powerful still sit on thrones of privilege we need only look at those people who make

mountains of salary bringing in more money than a person could hope to spend in a lifetime

and yet using their riches to influence policy which keeps the poor poor we still live in a world

in which the weak and vulnerable are neglected and abused in our own town in our own country in our

own community we need look no further than our brothers and sisters who lie on the streets at night

our brothers and sisters who flee from war and violence with their children only to be packed tightly into one hotel room

and then get berated by local communities who want nothing to do with them

we need only look at our brothers and sisters who are told that because of who they love

they are not welcome in certain churches

our then is to ask whether we are willing to take the same risks as Mary and to follow in the footsteps of Dr King

are we willing to address our privilege and realize that the world isn't a fair place

just because it makes us comfortable and are we willing to speak about that

and use what privilege we have been given to try and make the world a fairer place

can we take the risk that people will confront us and disagree with us when we stand up for the

principles of the magnificat in short are we willing to live by the maxim injustice anywhere

is a threat to justice everywhere amen