PREACHING THE LECTIONARY: THE McGREGOR PAGE
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Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 22, 2002
2 Samuel 7: 1-11, 16
Luke 1:47-55 or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
Preaching the mystery of the incarnation is not magic. People want magic, and so we are tempted to offer ourselves as magicians. Watch me while I turn bread and grape juice into the body and blood of Christ. Watch me while I turn a winter solstice bacchanal into a deeply spiritual event. This is a trap for both preacher and congregation.
Mystery is neither magic nor an escape from reality. Mystery is the witnessing of reality beyond all comprehension. Scientists are supposedly the most rigorous disciples of reality, and yet they lead us to reality beyond all comprehension. The night sky has always been a mystery to human beings. Science has made it more mysterious still. Science has added the mystery of time and space. "See that white haze. It is a galaxy over a hundred million light years away." Rational terms have become a metaphor for the mystery of the vastness of time and space. A year, I know. Light, I know. A
hundred million light years, I don't know. Einstein demonstrated that light bends and proposed that space is curved. Who knows how many pirouettes that light has done getting to earth. So, how far is that galaxy as the crow flies? It is a mystery. I can only stand in awe in the presence of a hundred million light years. (Could "I Stand In Awe In The Presence" be a Christmas hymn?)
Baby, I know. God, I know. Baby who is God, I don't know. Bread, I know. Wine, I know. I can only stand in awe in the presence of the incarnation.
The scientist says, "Stand over here and look at the universe, you'll be led beyond the rational into mystery." The preacher invites, "Stand over here..." We don't make the mystery. We bear witness to it, and a mystery properly witnessed elicits worship from both head and heart. The message of the child who is God is not irrational or anti-rational. It takes our rationality out to the end of its diving board and says, "Jump."
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
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