December 21, 2008

We know that an individual can affect our lives deeply in a negative way. We know that one other person has the capacity to make our lives miserable on a daily basis. Think of the ugly neighbor that you either have or have heard about. Ponder that toxic family member who is at every holiday gathering. What about the disgruntled co-worker who you see every day at work, undermining what you are doing? Or, how about the stranger who just happens to stand next to you in the mall and who passes on the flu virus to you? We are influenced and affected by the individuals who surround us on a daily basis.

On a broader scale, we are all reading and hearing about the influence of Bernard Madoff in people's lives. One person's decisions rippling through thousands of people's lives. The papers have been profiling the people who have lost money because of his Ponzi scheme. Yes, there are the mega-rich who have lost a large percentage of their portfolios. But there are a lot of not-so-rich folks who have lost all of their retirement savings. And that's not all, many wealthy folks have set up foundations to serve the poor and marginalized, and now those organizations are discovering that their funding has been totally dried up and lost. We are learning that the actions of Bernard Madoff are very broad and very cruel and very personal.

One person has the opportunity to influence many lives.

We affect each other. We rub off on each other and bring each other down. And? we also have the capacity to raise each other up and affect each other in positive ways. Time magazine has an article this week about how a portion of your happiness may be transmitted to you by "how cheerful your friends' friends' friends are." Yes, that means that people with three degrees of separation from you may have some influence on your degree of happiness. Two researchers, Dr. Christakis of Harvard and Dr. Fowler of UC San Diego engaged in a 20 year study among people to show that emotions pass between people. Turns out that happiness is infectious and contagious, just like a virus!! As Dr. Christakis says, we are learning that, "We have a collective identity as a population that transcends individual identity." ("Time," Dec. 22, 2008, p. 40-41)

We know this from history books. We have learned that often the largest social movements in history have at their inceptions one person who had an idea, who shared it with another and it grew and grew from there into a larger movement that changed the world. So, none of us can sit here and just say, nothing I do counts. We have the capacity to affect and influence a wide array of people.

Which brings us to our person of influence today. Mary. Just Mary. Kind of like Beyonce, Cher or Liberace. A person so recognized, so famous that we know her just by her first name. Not a single word in scripture describes the qualities that explain why God chose her for her role as the mother of Jesus. We know she was young, Jewish, from a modest family, unmarried yet betrothed to a man. We Protestants don't usually pay to much attention to Mary - in the Catholic Church they have held her up and revered her as the ultimate saint, and we have all-but ignored her. And yet she stands in the middle of the Christmas story in such a way that she cannot be ignored. For she is the woman who bore the Messiah, the Savior, God's Chosen One. She is the one who nurtured and raised this young boy who would grow up to be an extraordinary man, called by God to be a: teacher, prophet, mystic and revolutionary.

I remember one day in seminary when my professor was talking about great leaders in church history; he was talking that day about John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodist, and the influence of his mother, Susanna Wesley, on his life. He used the phrase, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world," in reference to Susanna.

In case you haven't googled Susanna Wesley in a while, here are a few facts about her life. She was born in 1669 and was the 25^th child in her family. Her father was a dissenter of the established Church of England. When she was 13 she dropped out of her father's church and joined the Church of England (Wikepedia). She married when she was 19 and had 19 children, of which 8 survived to adulthood.

Susanna experienced many hardships throughout her life. Her husband left her and the children for over a year because of a minor dispute. To her absent husband, Susannah Wesley wrote:

"I am a woman, but I am also the mistress of a large family. And though the superior charge of the souls contained in it lies upon you, yet in your long absence I cannot but look upon every soul you leave under my charge as a talent committed to me under a trust. I am not a man nor a minister, yet as a mother and a mistress I felt I ought to do more than I had yet done. I resolved to begin with my own children; in which I observe, the following method: I take such a proportion of time as I can spare every night to discourse with each child apart. On Monday I talk with Molly, on Tuesday with Hetty, Wednesday with Nancy, Thursday with Jacky, Friday with Patty, Saturday with Charles. "?although she never preached a sermon or published a book or founded a church, is known as the Mother of Methodism. Why? Because two of her sons, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, as children consciously or unconsciously will, applied the example and teachings and circumstances of their home life." (Pellowe)

We should not underestimate the influence of a mother on a child.

Today we get a glimpse of Mary, through the annunciation and the Magnificat - two famous writings about the mother of Jesus that recall the announcement by the angel Gabriel and the song of Mary as she responds to God's invitation. Everywhere in both of these writings is the theme of reversal:

The Great and almighty God selects a young woman of low estate
A Virgin shall bear a child
Cousin Elizabeth will accompany you as she goes from barren to fertile
The Mighty shall be put down
Those of low degree shall be exalted
The Hungry will be filled
The Rich shall be sent away empty-handed

Scholars debate whether Mary was an active participant in God's work or whether she was a passive player in this Divine drama that disrupts her life; we will never know for sure, but what we do hear is a young woman who articulates the transformative power of God. The mother of Jesus, who raised him and influenced him, understood God's vision for the world. Through her words and actions she describes for us this vision

Through her magnificat she shows us that God's power breaks into our lives and brings forth a power that will turn the world's values on their head. She voices the liberating spirit of God that doesn't accept the selfish ways that we devise to live in this world. Mary doesn't ever expect to profit from this calling. She understands on some level that this is not about her but about being a holy vessel, a channel, of God's grace and power.

One person has the opportunity to influence many lives.

Two women who lived in very different times, made their mark on the world through their roles as mothers. Every one of us has a calling from God. For some of us, it is in our family lives as parents or grandparents, or siblings. For others of us it is through our paid work or our volunteer work. There are many arenas for our influence, but it all starts with us and God. Do we hear the voice of God calling us to our role in history? Are we willing to be a vessel of grace and transformation for our God as Mary was? Thanks be to God for this young Jewish woman who said Yes to God and inspired our Yes as well. Amen.