Blessing or Curse? (Mich 5:2-5a, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:39-45)
Listen.December 20th, 2009
Rev. Dr. Craig A. Wagner
Introduction
There are things that happen in life that can be looked at either as a blessing or a curse; consider Christmas. Christmas can be a blessing as we focus on Jesus’ birth or it can be a curse as we stagger under the weight of holiday expectations.
The comic strip “Pickles” illustrated the blessing/curse principle. The wife was lamenting the fact that her daughter and family would not be coming home for Christmas this year. They would be going to the husband’s family for the first time in many years. The wife was so upset that she told her husband that she didn’t even want to decorate the house for the holidays; no point if no one was coming home. Her husband said he would and so he puts on a Santa Claus hat. She said, “Is that it?” His response, “I’m going to put a red bulb in the porch light.” The curse of a Christmas spent without people!
As funny as that comic strip was, I think it touched on a significant issue for us; Christmas celebrations are to be shared with others. This is true not only for the joyous times in life, but also for those times of struggle and hurt, we need to share; we need community around us. If there is a supportive community with whom we can share our joys and sorrows; our highs and lows; then we often find blessings in the midst of what first appears to be curses.
Our passage about Mary is a great example.
Mary: blessing/curse
We normally like to romanticize the story about Elizabeth and Mary; two women who found themselves having a child when neither had thought or even wished to be pregnant at the time. We usually think that this was such a gift from God that the women would without doubt feel blessed and yet, at first blush it would appear that they probably felt the pregnancy was a curse.
Look at the facts: Elizabeth was elderly. She was “getting on in years.” Her husband Zechariah had a position as a priest in the temple. Both were righteous and devout people; they had a strong faith in God. However, they were without children. This fact in itself would have been considered a curse in their life; no descendants to carry on the lineage. Without descendants they would be forgotten.
Into the life of this elderly couple, the angel Gabriel arrives and brings them a startling message from God. The message came to Zechariah while serving in the temple: Elizabeth would bear a son. Zechariah did not believe him and for this lack of faith was unable to speak until the child was born. The son, John, would arrive and would in his lifetime turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord. But she was elderly, what a shameful condition for her to be in. Why not someone younger? Would this be a blessing or a curse?
Mary is then visited by the same angel, Gabriel. He brings the same message to Mary; she will conceive and bear a son. After Mary’s initial response of fear in the presence of the angel, she eventually responds with words of faith and obedience to the will of God. Again, we usually focus on Mary’s faithful response in the words of the Magnificat but this morning, I suggest that there was some anxiety, concern over this predicament. This could certainly be a curse for her in her life. She was not married. She was young, a teenager perhaps at 14 years of age.
What would the community say? What would her parents say? How would she endure the scorn and the contempt of her relatives and friends? What would Joseph say? She was engaged and so a divorce could happen. Would he divorce her quietly or would he have her stoned for adultery? These were serious questions, not sentimental thoughts. The whole event was a curse at first.
From our passage this morning, we find Mary hastily traveling to see Elizabeth. Elizabeth was related to Mary in some manner: first cousin; second cousin, we’re not sure? But the interesting thing is that Mary left Nazareth quickly and traveled into the Judean countryside to see Elizabeth. Whatever emotion she had, drove her to seek out someone with whom she could share what had happened to her. Who would believe this story? She goes and shares.
Even before she says a word, joy begins to break into the story. The unborn baby, John, leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb and in that time when these two relatives; one old and one young and both pregnant are together for support and encouragement, the events begin to appear as blessings!
Life’s blessings or curses
Whether something is a blessing or a curse in a person’s life depends on our attitude, our faithfulness, our perception of the issues. Often when there are struggles, hurts or some sort of problem, we view the issue as a curse. For example, if a person loses a job due to downsizing or simply not being able to do the job, the lose feels like a curse, but as other offers are presented, or a different type of job opens us, often the new position is better suited for that person and the anxiety about the old job is gone. What at first is a curse becomes a blessing as new doors open and opportunities present themselves.
How do we respond to serious issues in life? Do we dwell on the issues as curses and allow them to become a debilitating aspect of our life? Do we focus on the negative or do we allow the spirit to touch our hearts and move us to see blessings in the midst of the struggles, the heartaches, and the problems? We need to take our cue from Mary and her response to a very serious message from God. She was faithful and that faithfulness proved to be a blessing and to bear the blessing for the entire world.
Then we take another cue from Mary’s response. The first is faithfulness in all areas of life and in the presence of all issues. The second is that she went to find someone with whom to share her news. She went to seek out a friend; someone older and wiser, someone she knew would listen to her. This is important in our own life, isn’t it? When we have problems, struggles, hurts, illness, loneliness, other issues, great and small, we need someone with whom to share our thoughts, our struggles, our hopes our dreams.
We need community. God created us to be in community with him and with one another. This is why it is so important to be a part of a small group, a support group, or simply have Christian friends with whom we can speak freely and honestly… this is Christianity!
The theologian/philosopher, Blaise Pascal commented, “one Christian is no Christian.” In other words, we can not be a Christian alone; we need others around us. Even Jesus had his inner core of disciples. Christianity is always lived in community. Even in our baptism, we are baptized individually, but then we enter the community of the saints. Mary needed to go to Elizabeth to share her story and her problems. I’m sure Elizabeth shared her plight and her joy with Mary. We need one another.
One of the most important things we do in confirmation class is to divide into two groups where students can share their highs and lows; their joys and sorrows; their frustrations and achievements. In community we find that what at first appears to be a curse is often a blessing!
Blessings and joy
Joy breaks into Elizabeth’s life with the leap of the baby in her womb, Mary responds with those wonderful words of the Magnificat. These words reflect the song of Hannah in 1 Samuel. The words magnify what God is doing in her life and how the good news will come into the hearts and lives of all people. The words brought blessings and joy into the hearts of people who were struggling, poor, and powerless. People who felt cursed were given new hope in this magnificent song. People who were powerful, rich and ignored the poor and ignored God’s presence would be brought low and empty… they would experience the true curse of God.
We see in the song that God’s presence and blessing breaks into the lives of people who were struggling and in difficulty and experienced heartache. This good news brings hope into our lives today even as we experience the anxiety and pressure of this season. The good news is that God in Christ Jesus is with us in our celebrations and in our community of faith.
Elizabeth and Mary focused on God’s presence in their lives. They knew the blessing of God in a very real way – they both responded faithfully and obediently. God is with us. He was born into the world, took on humanity in Jesus whose birth we are about to celebrate once again. Our celebrations are community oriented: we worship together, we fellowship together between services and on Christmas Eve. We have our relatives over. We share the joy of the season and a bit of ourselves. We are community; that is a blessing.
Conclusion
Some suggest this is a season to survive! It appears that way whenever I’m shopping. I always get in the wrong line at the checkout aisle. It’s agonizingly slow. I wait and wait and wait and then when I’m just about to the counter, someone opens a new line next to me and the person right behind me is ushered over there and moves through quickly. It seems like a curse, this season. Yet, through it all, we patiently remember to focus on Jesus, his birth and the wonderful celebrations around that birth and it makes it all worthwhile; and the suddenly I realize this season is a wonderful blessing.
May it be so in your life, too! Amen.