Tell out my soul

What did you go out into the desert to see? What did you see?

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Stir up your power, we pray - and with great might come among us. And, the psalmist warns us, put not your trust in princes. 

Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, *

    for there is no help in them.

When they breathe their last, they return to earth, *

    and in that day their thoughts perish.

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! *

    whose hope is in the LORD their God; 

Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; *

    who keeps his promise for ever;

Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, *

    and food to those who hunger.

(Psalm 146: 2-6, BCP)

The help Jesus gives is the help of Christ the King, a king unlike any other, in fact subversive of the dominant paradigm of monarchy. If he is king, we have missed the meaning of "king" -- Jesus does not come among us like Saul, a mighty warrior, or David, a comely and pious and witty man. 

Jesus does come among us, as healer, savior, and thus king beyond kings. Jesus comes among us and we behold what it means to be king, what it means to be a man; in fact, what it means to be human. 

Remember when he wrote with his finger in the dust? "Neither do I condemn you," he said. Judgement, but judgment in the sense of establishing righteousness. And that meant for the woman accused and brought before him, and for all drawn to his throne, forgiveness of sins. Sin, yes, exists: but beyond it, grace.

“My grace is enough for you, [says the Lord] because power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Today we return once again to the image of the fore-runner, of John the Baptizer, who, having proclaimed that the one who was to come has come, sends for reassurance that Jesus really is that one. 

What did you see? What did you hear? Testify to that, tell John that, says the Lord. 

And the signs he cites say who he is. And who he will be. And what his kingdom, call it that, will be.

Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.

We anticipate what has already arrived. We have outlived our obsolescence. What was old news, that the day of the Lord would arrive, is coming indeed, and in its coming is splendor.

And so today in the midst of Advent, our 'little Lent' of blue, we have a Sunday of rose. We have a day of joy.

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

Various people have asked me, what do you celebrate this season? Hope, peace, joy, love. And truth.

For he is coming, and there is judgment. The word of the Lord, embodied in a baby, is the terror of kings.

This little Babe so few days old 

is come to rifle Satan's fold;

all hell doth at his presence quake 

though he himself for cold do shake;

for in this weak unarmèd wise 

the gates of hell he will surprise.

Robert Southwell (1561? - 1595)

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This past week I was blessed to attend a holiday concert that featured three versions of Ave Maria and three of Silent Night. Sounds like overkill? Nah. Not when this Sunday we sing Mary’s response to the holy messenger who greeted her “Ave Maria” - Hail Mary. “Hail Mary, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.”

Blessed. And then we celebrate the night she gave birth. She does not complain about pain, not focus on the travails she could expect; her attention is on what the Lord is doing, for her and through her.

Mary said,

“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!

    In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.

He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.

    Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored

        because the mighty one has done great things for me.

Holy is his name.

    He shows mercy to everyone,

        from one generation to the next,

        who honors him as God.

(Luke 1:46-50, Common English Bible)

Into the world is coming the kingdom of God, that was and is and is to come. In her womb she carries the paradox of salvation.

How can this be? How can all this holiness, all this grace, all this power, be so fragile and frail in its arrival? The fate of the world, found in a small small thing. 

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In Bethlehem there is a place to think about all this, in a small room under the altar of the church of the Nativity. There is the place, you are told, where she laid the newborn child: the manger.

And soon the vulnerable child and new mother and her husband will be on the road, following the path of Jacob into exile in Egypt.

Soon the powers that be, from Herod Antipas, client-king of the occupying empire, to the quislings whose interest lies with holding the people down, will be searching and seeking to destroy the small hope of humanity.

But as we have been reminded this season, in psalm and lesson, the powers of the earth are nothing next to the power perfected in weakness, the power kept in a cradle, then spread across the earth.

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Wait till you see how Herod reacts, when he hears the Messiah is born.

Wait till you see how Rome responds, when they hear the words, Jesus is Lord (and Caesar is not).

Wait until you hear the words, I follow Jesus, and so I must show compassion to the poor, clothe the naked and feed the hungry, speak for the voiceless and innocent, and do justice in my daily life.

Wait until you see that, you see the hand of God at work in the people around you, the world about you.

Then you will know he is come; for he is certainly near. 

Come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha: O come, Emmanuel. Come among us. 

And let what we wish to see and hear be what is seen and heard of us: the presence of redeeming grace.

Hope, peace, joy, love - and truth.

* * *

Hasten, O Father, the coming of thy kingdom; and grant that we thy servants, who now live by faith, may with joy behold thy Son at his coming in glorious majesty; even Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Make a place for God in your hearts and in your lives, for he comes to you this day and always; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

(David Adam, Clouds of Glory. Prayers for the Church Year, Year A. SPCK, 2000, 11.)

• Isaiah 35:1-10
• James 5:7-10
• Matthew 11:2-11
• Canticle 15  The Song of Mary: Magnificat. Luke 1:46-55

https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Advent/AAdv3_RCL.html

Thanks to the Rev. Colby Roberts for his sermon last Sunday at St Timothy's, Yakima. 

https://www.facebook.com/StTimothysEpiscopalChurchYakima

https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/community-q-a-new-rector-at-st-timothys-episcopal-church-brings-enthusiasm-spectacular-singing-voice/article_f4f3e7d6-e523-505d-a16b-02ca41fe2eb8.html

Patronato Christmas concert at Mission San Xavier, December 10, 2025, at 7:45 p.m. 

A blessed event, announced in the middle of Lent ...

Back on the feast of Epiphany we remembered the visit of the magi to the Holy Family, and the gifts they bring: Gold for the king, Frankincense for the priest, Myrrh for the sacrifice. There is, I submit, one more gift - for us to offer: Praise for the Living One.

Right in the middle of Lent we encounter a part of the Nativity story, nine months before Christmas Day. Raymond Brown, the Roman Catholic biblical scholar, taught that the gospels actually were written beginning with the passion narrative - proceeding through Holy Week, the Passion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and then on around to the Birth narratives.

The birth narratives begin with the visit of the angel to Zechariah, announcing the coming birth of John. Then the focus shifts to a younger woman, cousin of Elizabeth. It is Mary. The angel comes to Mary – and hails her as full of grace: she is to bear a son, who is to be the Messiah.

Mary accepts the burden of birth and the destiny of motherhood to the Messiah, Conception to Assumption, somehow knowing that she must not count her child as hers to keep, but must let go of him, dedicate him to the Lord, as Samuel's mother Hannah dedicated him, knowing he will go from her.

Mary, mother of Jesus, takes this task on herself, knowingly, as God's servant, because she knew that he, her child to be, was sent to set the people free: that at last God's promise to redeem Israel would bear fruit in the fullness of time, and that that fulfillment was coming very soon, and was beginning to happen, quickening even now in her.

The Word would indeed ripen in her own womb. She would bear forth upon the world he who would himself bear the pain of the world.

Like Hannah's son Samuel, Jesus the Son of Mary is one consecrated, set apart for service to the Lord, as a thanksgiving offering to the Lord. Samuel is the prophet who brought justice to Israel, and yet he points beyond himself - to Saul, first, then to David, to David's son Solomon, and ultimately to Jesus.

In the birth story of Samuel, Hannah his mother rejoices that God has remembered the forgotten, and will bring relief to the poor. “My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God,” she sings (1 Samuel 2:1-10).

In the birth story of Jesus, Mary his mother rejoices that God remembers the forgotten and brings relief to the poor. (Luke 1:46-55) And in our prayers, even daily, we join in her song, the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, Canticle 15 in the Book of Common Prayer: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...”

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Anunciation 2012 (March 25)

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what her heart most longed for

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. (Isaiah 40:5)

In the name of God, the merciful Father, the compassionate Son, the Spirit of wisdom. Amen.

The good news of the story of God, the long story of the love of God for humanity, is the story that we tell throughout the Christian year:

• from Advent, the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Christ Child,

• through Christmas season, celebrating the birth of our Lord,

• on into Epiphany – the season of showings, revelations, epiphanies, that make manifest the presence of God in human history, in our lives;

• into Lent, with its sober wisdom that we must prepare our hearts to receive the full assurance of God’s grace,

• into the compressed season of the Church year that is Holy Week – running from the absurd spectacle of Palm Sunday through the horrendous events of Good Friday and beyond hope into the transcending glory of Easter morning;

• absorbing the good news of Christ’s triumphant vitality through the Easter season, and

• then experiencing Pentecost, the long season of coming into the fullness of God’s kingdom, and

• then, again, as December approaches, to find ourselves waiting once again, in hope, in preparation, in anticipation, for the coming of the King.

This is the second Sunday before Advent – in some quarters, this is the Kingdom season.

It is the time of year in which at last we realize that the kingdom of Heaven is with us, within us, around us, waiting to be recognized, lived into as a present reality – it is not some story of a fantastic future but a present which is more than we recognize. God is with us, the glory and the grace are among us; we are called to embody their reality.

This is no easy task. The kingdom is often invisible, even when it is right before our eyes. You lose your job; you contract a disease; you hear bad news from far away or close by.

Where is God in this, in this world? Where is the hope? It is in the whole story of the people of God.

We have a story that will last forever – the story of the love of God for God’s people, and that’s us.

Begin with the child – the child of Hannah.

Hannah, the barren second wife of Elkanah, was mocked by Peninnah, the fruitful one.

Every year she prayed, every year she was tormented. Hannah would not eat she was so upset. And then she prayed – and God answered.

At first the priest thought she was drunk – he was not used to people praying like that.

I am not drunk; I’m desperate. I am praying to the Lord – give me a son! I will give him to you, as a servant in the Temple.

God answered, and gave Hannah her heart’s longing: so she named the boy child Samuel, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

She left him there for the Lord. He would serve the Lord faithfully, as a prophet.

And then she sang: in the exultation of her heart she sang a triumphant song, like the song of Moses, and the song of the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, who took a tambourine in her hand and led the women out with dancing, as Israel was freed from Pharaoh.

And Miriam sang to them:
‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.’
(Exodus 15:21)

Hannah sang, as Mary mother of Jesus would sing, of the victory of her God – a victory long awaited, long prayed for.

For the people of Israel in bondage in Egypt, the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, and the people of Israel in bondage under Rome, prayed too: for their deliverance, their vindication, in the sight of their adversaries – that God would save them, bring them hope – and bring them freedom from what bound them.

The story of liberation, of God’s people released from bondage, is a story of a people, and it is the story of a person, any person who feels enslaved or exiled, a-wander in the desert, unable to find their way, or their freedom, or their home, and then appeals to God.

God my savior – the people cry. God my deliverer – says the one who is freed. God my vindicator, my sure defense – this is the one who brought Israel out of Egypt and across the desert to the Holy Land; this is the one who called them home from exile in Babylon – and this is the one who calls to you and me to come to him now for our own freedom.

For we too seek vindication, deliverance, freedom – and our hope is in our God.

That is the story of God – the story that is told throughout the Bible, the Scriptures. And that is why the collect today reminds us, that the whole story of the people of God, which is told throughout the pages of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, is a story of hope.

This hope finds its final fulfillment in the One that Mary sang about, her son the Savior:

The Song of Mary – Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel,
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.


This is the child of the promise:

This is the One that the people of God were waiting for, through all the ages. It is the Son who God gave, who gave of himself unsparingly, One once offered for the freedom of all.

At last this is the hope of the ages: that God would in the flesh dwell among us. That is what we wait for, too – to know that we are not left alone but that God is with us. Right here, right now, in the midst of our own situation, however glorious, however painful,

Throughout the Scriptures we hear the story of the love of God for the people of God.

God walks with us, beside us, from our beginning to our ending. He is the beginning and the ending of all our days, and in him is our hope. That is the story of the hope of Glory.

That is what the Bible tells us – that is why we pray, today, in the words of the Collect,

Blessed Lord,
who has caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our edification:
Grant us so to
hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that,
by the encouragement the Scriptures give us,
we may embrace and ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


St Alban’s Episcopal Church, Edmonds, Wash., Sunday, November 15, 2009.


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