If John is part of your sermon journey (orator or auditor), you will have fun and challenge! And this week, such confidence given by the special collect for the Third Sunday in Advent.
Yesterday, meandering through google-land, I came across a folk song written by Bob Franke; based on the collect. By a miracle, I arrange for it to be played after the sermon in place of the creed. Bob Franke, the musician, is now 76 and lives in MA. We made contact via Facebook. Thank you, Lord, for Bob! His song, and lyrics are below the sermon text.
The sermon text follows the sermon audio.
Click Here for Sermon Audio: https://zionepiscopal.com/Sermon%20Videos/third-sunday-in-advent-12-17-2023-neale.html
Sermon preached at Zion Episcopal Church, Washington, NC; Sunday December 17th 2023
The Reverend Alan Neale; “The Outlier”
With ringing and clarion words our Collect today begins with these glorious and almost provocative words: “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us…”.
Powerful, trenchant words. Perhaps for some these opening words are spoken with a somewhat plaintive voice… softly, hopefully… “Stir up your power, O Lord”. Spoken with a spirit that is weakened and enfeebled, spoken with a spirit that is discouraged and downcast but, nevertheless, not a spirit alone and isolated. Or, maybe, perhaps for some these opening words are spoken with a strong and expectant voice, requiring of the Lord what is His responsibility… boldly, confidently… “Stir up your power, O Lord”. With which spirit, in which spirit, do you offer these words today… privately, quietly, confidentially?
This third Sunday in Advent (rather like the fourth Sunday in Lent) surprises us liturgically as the solemnity of both seasons are broken into with pink candles and pink roses and, sometimes, even pink chasubles and stoles!!!
These “outlier” Sundays engage us with an element of surprise and call us to pay attention to the depth, breadth, width and height of the Lord’s purposes for each of us. As people of Advent, be attentive and alert but, as people of Lent, be joyful and smile; be penitent and reflective but also be happy and joyous.
This third Sunday in Advent celebrates the presence of the outlier, the stranger, the unusual to be the carrier of the Lord’s message and presence.
If there were an “outlier competition”, surely John the Baptist would win the prize. A children’s song includes these words “He ate bugs for lunch; yuck, yuck, yuck”. Maybe locusts were full of protein but they were likely to alienate and discourage any guests for dinner with the Baptist. John is almost the archetypal outlier for alongside his peculiar diet, there is the peculiar costume – not quite what one expects from an Episcopal tailor. Few words, few graces, few clothes.
And, if all that was not sufficient to argue for an outlier award, we know his family was far from mundane and usual. His father, Zechariah, an elderly priest struck dumb for not obey the Lord; and his mother, Mary, infertile for years and yet pregnant in her… “more senior” years.
And, in yet another effort to secure this outlier award, consider the strange conversation between the respected religious leaders and this weird and outré prophet. They can make no sense of his identity and to their questions he responds “I am not… I am not… No”. And they can make no sense of his mission for, in God’s name, what are you doing baptizing?
Years ago I remember I was visiting door to door in an English parish. One young lady invited me in and I sat with her two sisters and mother. I was asked, of course, “Vicar, would you like some tea?” We had tea, talked a little, I said a prayer and left. Later that week, I saw the mother. She told me, “Oh, my daughters loved your visit. They told me, ‘All the other vicars were so normal’”. John was not normal!
And the outlier theme appears also in our first reading from Isaiah.
Isaiah 61 (as Ann-Marie said last week) is written maybe by the man Isaiah or maybe a school of students and disciples writing in the spirit, in the nature, of Isaiah.
Isaiah 61:1 begins, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” but who, please, is this “me”. And for centuries scholars have debated whether this is the prophet, the people or (with a glorious long-distance view) the person of Jesus. Well, when faced with such choices in Scripture, my tendency is to open arms wide and embrace them all.
The prophet himself, the people of Israel, and the baby Jesus are each of them quite clearly outliers; they carry a message to a surprised, if not shocked, listening community. How absolutely stunning that such outliers (from single prophet to baby Jesus) can carry such ministries to a starving, aching, frantic world…
good news to the oppressed, solace for the brokenhearted, liberty to captives, release to prisoners. Oh indeed these blessed outliers know what it is to pray such a prayer as, “Stir up, O Lord, and with great might come among us…”.
This past week, reading the story of Amos in Morning Prayer (Amos 7:10-17), I encountered that angry passage in which Amaziah (the archetype of tradition, of boring normalcy) is persuading the king to expel Amos – a strange and defiant prophet without standing. To Amaziah’s tirade, Amos utters these priceless words, “Yes, I am no prophet, I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees.” Such occupations were not commonly exhibited at the tables of Amaziah and yet… and yet, this outlier was the one the Lord called, this outlier to whom the Lord spoke and this outlier to whom the Lord gave his message.
In our Advent Devotion Book (Living Well Through Advent), Anne Lamott writes this (December 13); “This is our goal as writers, I think; to help others have this sense of – please forgive me – wonder, of seeing things anew, things that can catch us off guard, that break in on our small, bordered worlds. When this happens, everything feels more spacious.” “Things that can catch us off guard…” – the unique role of the outlier.
Friends, preparing this sermon and thinking about the “outlier” – it occured to me (clearly, strongly, eloquently and with no little pain) that from time to time, if not often, we find ourselves (unwillingly, unhappily) as the outlier… or, at least, that is our sense of ourselves. Please may I, may you, at such times find some comfort (delight may take a little long) knowing that it is in the heart, soul and mind of the Lord to walk with the outlier and find for them a purpose, a goal, a mission.
Yesterday, toward the end of day, I came across a folk song by Bob Franke; now 76 and living in Massachusetts. By the wonders of Jim, we will now hear the song and the lyrics are on the sheet.
In these final days before Christmas, when sometimes great expectations are not accompanied by great resources, when you are feeling in your soul or observing with your eyes an outlier… and you know not what to do… pray this prayer, it matters not whether it is prayed in feeble timbre or with confident tone… “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us”. Let this be out Advent experience. AMEN
Click here for Bob Franke’s song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Nhwo_7lSY
And the lyrics:
Music and Words by Bob Franke
The world may no longer stand
The heart is a desert land,
With horror on every hand.
While the hope of the poor fades away.
Our words have an empty ring
They don’t seem to mean a thing,
With voices too scared to sing
As the night consumes the day.
Stir up Your power, O Lord.
Here is this hour, O Lord.
Stir up your power, O Lord,
Let your living waters roll.
Lord, may your will be done.
Lord, may your kingdom come.
Stir up your power, O Lord.
And restore our weary souls.
We stumble from year to year
Our minds overcome with fear,
With ears that no longer hear,
And with eyes like polished stone.
The earth groans beneath our need
Poisoned by human greed
With too many mouths to feed
That are doomed to die alone.
Stir up Your power, O Lord.
Here is this hour, O Lord.
Stir up your power, O Lord,
Let your living waters roll.
Lord, may your will be done.
Lord, may your kingdom come.
Stir up your power, O Lord.
And restore our weary souls.