That Verse 56 Life

This homily was delivered in the Kaeppel Chapel at Saint Paul Lutheran High School on December 14, 2021 and TBH, I needed to preach it to myself after a rough couple of days leading up to it.

Luke 1:56: “And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.” 

One of the greatest gifts that God has given to humanity is the ability to create something. No, we don’t create that same way that God did, making something out of nothing, but using what God has given us, our talents, materials around us, teachers, coaches, guides he places around us – we can experience the joy of making something that wasn’t there before or enjoying a moment that you and others created. If you’ve ever been part of a drama production and felt the amazing feeling of opening night or closing night on your play when you and the whole crew just absolutely nailed it – you’ve felt that creative moment. If you’ve been part of the choir on spring tour and wrapping up with that final home concert – you’ve been part of that creative moment. If you’ve been on the volleyball team, basketball team, football team, or the American football team, and come from behind, dug out that victory, won that district, you’ve been part of that creative moment, if you’ve ever written a song, produced a video, made that sculpture, painted that painting, you’ve experienced that creative moment. And it’s exhilarating, it’s energizing, it’s the stuff that ranks among the highlights of life – memories you’ll look back fondly on, and especially with the unrestrained joy you had in that moment of victory, that moment of accomplishment, that moment, however fleeting when all was right with the world even for just a moment.

In a very real sense, Mary, the mother of Jesus, experienced a moment like that when she was inspired to sing the song that is recorded in Luke 1:46-55. This song, often called ‘The Magnificat’ after its Latin translation, is one of the most familiar songs in the history of Christianity – it has been sung loudly from cathedrals, whispered in slave camps, prayed in monasteries. Our family sang it regularly in our evening worship in our little house in the remote African village where we lived for several years. The words of the song are rich in theology and God’s activity on behalf of those who fear him throughout history. The words swell from Mary’s overjoyed heart, “My soul magnifies (or glorifies) the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.” And here we are over 2000 years later. You’ve all heard of Mary. We’re still talking about her and her song, and more importantly her son. Mary was experiencing the joy of that creative moment when she realized all that God had done AND was doing for her in that very moment.

But rather than dig into the deep theology and richness of the rest of the words of the song, I’d like to think a little about Mary. Because Mary is a lot like most of you at the time she has this creative moment. Like you, her life at this time is complicated and sometimes awkward. Most folks who study the culture where Mary comes from agree that she was just a young teenager, 14 or 15 years old, the age of most of you freshman and sophomore students. She was engaged to be married, but was found to be with child. What would she do?

Luke 1:39 tells us that pretty much immediately after the angel left Mary she quickly went to ‘the hill country’ to visit her cousin Elizabeth and its on this visit that they exchange joyful and probably fearful stories about these strange experiences they have had and how God might be at work and there’s this deep moment of faith that bursts forth in this song – this creative moment. But after the song comes verse 56, “Mary stayed about three months and then returned home.” And that’s the thing right – no matter how great a creative experience we may have, or how deep a faith experience we’ve had – verse 56 always comes and we have to go back to ‘normal life’.

And normal life wasn’t easy for Mary. I have five kids so I can tell you that If you’re like me and can do math and have ever spent any time around a pregnant woman, you’ll know that by the time Mary gets back home three months later, it’s becoming obvious that she is with child. And most folks aren’t as understanding as Elizabeth. It was normal for a young woman of her age to get married at that time and in that place, but Mary wasn’t all the way married yet and had had that little announcement from the angel that she was going to become pregnant. “How can this be?” she had said, “Since I am still a virgin?” Yeah, what about that? If we’re honest, we know that she probably had trouble convincing others who had not been there. “You see what had happened was this angel came and talked to me and he said….” “Yeah right! There’s only one way teenaged girls get pregnant and angels don’t got nothing to do with it.” Even Joseph, we are told in Matthew 1:19 when Mary was “found to be with child” resolved to divorce her – albeit not with a bunch of shame or a big show, but still, prospects for a single divorced mother aren’t even good today much less at that time, in that culture. Life was hard, life was awkward. It’s hard to keep faith in God’s promises when around you everyone is pointing and whispering, shaming rejecting. And it didn’t get any easier. Verse 56 always comes.

People can be mean. People can be nice to your face and stab you in the back. Maybe it feels like your friends aren’t there for you when you need them. Maybe your relationship with your parents is distant or unhealthy. Maybe you don’t feel like there are a lot of people here who understand you. Maybe you’re far from home trying to navigate cultural surprises and nobody really gets you. Maybe you’re here because your old school was having trouble navigating COVID so you’re trying to find new friends and a way to fit in. Maybe you’re really good at everything and are popular, but still feel all alone when you’re trying to get to sleep at night, maybe nobody ever talks to you or even worse folks go out of their way to help you see that you don’t fit in. Even on your best day when everything is going well, we all know that verse 56 is coming. And whatever your verse 56 situation, you have the same thing Mary had in that moment:

You have the assurance that God is on your side. You have the assurance that the mighty one had done great things for YOU and that his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. And look, I know it’s not cool to show many people that this faith stuff means anything to you, but I’m telling you, it will be what gets you through. And for those of you who may be far from God right now, or have never believed, I gotta be honest with you, I don’t know how someone without faith gets through a single day trying to get by on your own power, skill, talent, charm, good looks, etc. I’m telling you it runs out eventually and when your verse 56 moment comes if you only have yourself to depend on, you hit an identity crisis that you won’t believe. But if at the bottom of all that is Christ, that changes everything.

Many people struggle with their faith because those Magnificat creative experiences don’t last. Those moments of closeness with God seem to fade quickly and be few and far between. Others never come to faith because they see that Christians have all the same struggles that unbelievers have, maybe even worse. But the reality is that Verse 56 is what it’s all about. In the normal messed up every day life and struggles we all experience whether as teen aged high school students trying to make a way or at some other stage in life the mighty one who did great things for Mary is there doing great things for you in His way and in His time. He is there for you to put your faith and trust in – to ask Him for wisdom and strength and to assure you that when all human relationships and creative moments fail that He is all you’ll ever need. I pray that in your high school life and more importantly in your life you’ll have plenty of awesome creative, praise God moments. But more importantly, I pray that when you live your verse 56 life, you’ll live it walking confidently in faith in the one who Has also done great things for you, Jesus Christ. To Him be all honor, glory and praise now and forever, Amen.

Campfire Therapy - originally posted March 11, 2011

 
(3/9/2021) A friend recently posted of her experience with anxiety and depression and how God works through His creation to remind her of real truth and it made my mind think of this post from my old blog.

It's two days shy of being ten years old, but still just as true. To all who struggle with anxiety and depression: Jesus is with you. <3

Title: Campfire Therapy
Added Date:3/11/2011 8:52:03 PM
 
Blog Entry:
As I write to you, oh faithful blog reader, I am sitting next to a small campfire in my yard under a gorgeous blanket of stars on a cool Kalahari night. Campfires are therapeutic for me. This one has been very refreshing. These last couple of weeks I have felt overwhelmed at times with all that there is to do, the various hats that I wear as part of our LBT organization and the various tasks I juggle as a dad, teacher, neighbor, and pastor. I have experienced depression in my life, a sort of empty feeling devoid of feeling - it was horrible. Depression can come for no apparent reason, sometimes brought on by stress, sometimes not. After I faced a season of depression a few years back, I sat with my grandmother and also my mother through their own dark times, wishing I could help and understanding to an extent what they were experiencing. 

I felt myself slipping back into that feeling of no feelings about a week and a half ago. I decided I needed to assess what I was trying to do and step back some where I could. I had been working with a language helper to try to take Setswana to the next level, and while I have been learning a ton, I have not had time to synthesize it in a way that sticks for me and that was leading to great frustration in class and when trying to speak. I decided I needed to step back from that some and that helped. But the week has still been long and taxing. I finally had to just sleep all afternoon yesterday to try to break the funk. Last night I sat down with the family for our evening devotion and realized we had been unable to gather in the evening for almost a week. It made a difference. Today, I spent a little time in my own personal reading and realized it had been a number of days since I carved out some time to read and pray. It makes a difference. Maya insisted that I go for an afternoon run each day even though it was the last thing in the world I felt like doing. It made a difference. 

This afternoon the boys said something to their mom, you know, the kind of thing that is funny, but you're not supposed to laugh because it isn't right and you're the dad. And I laughed. I felt the humor. It felt so good. Tonight I built a campfire for the first time since November. It happened like it always does. Everyone came out and we sang familiar campfire songs and read campfire stories from 'Grandfather Tales' a ridiculous collection of tales from the American South. Rob and Eshinee Veith came and provided some outstanding fireside music. One by one the kids drifted off to sleep or just went to bed and I am now enjoying the cool Kalahari air and the stars and the glowing red goals of the slowly dying fire. And all feels right. The feelings of no feeling are far from me now and I am reminded that I have an amazing life, given to me by an amazing God, the opportunity to live and work in this place, to share these experiences with the love of my life and our wonderfully unique children is so precious. The campfire reminds me of all that I am thankful for. It is healing and renewing. And now I am going to close my computer screen so I can see it better and enjoy the stars and the cool air a little longer before heading off to bed.Talk to you soon.
 

Tales of Texas Househusband (originally published 1/17/2008)

 

Yep. It's true. With Maya and all the kids back in school - I have assumed the role of the househusband. Which I actually love.I had huge plans of house cleanliness (getting it nearer to godliness instead of godforsakeness) and all that jazz. However, the first three days of Maya's new class were somewhat disastrous. She was under the weather with this weird flu we have this year - the one that makes you feel tired and achy with a slight fever but nothing else so you question if you really are sick or just being wimpy. On top of that this is the first time this particular class is being taught so there are a ton of bugs getting worked out of it. It is an introduction to Language Structures class, the goal of which is to teach support workers enough about linguistics to get them into second language and culture acquisition class (SLACA). The instructor is using this AMAZING book from the Ohio State University Department of Linguistics called Language Files version 10. It's amazing if you have some knowledge of linguistics or have a tendency to pick up stuff like that pretty well. If you don't it makes you want to bang your head on a wall to feel better. (OK, it even makes me want to bang my head on a wall sometimes but it is pretty good). Anyways, so I ended up trying to interpret all that to Maya while still getting Chris's schoolwork taught to him and managing the rest of the house while Maya slept to try to get over being sick. Then - on Monday morning, when I was actually supposed to go to class with Maya at the instructor's invitation I was sick as a dog! And I have been in bed all week until this morning. But man! What a day it's been today. Today the househusband kicked it into high gear to clean all rooms that have carpeting including under and behind everything as well as clearing off dresser tops and desktops cuz tomorrow the CARPET CLEANERS COME and man is this house gonna shine! Thankfully, SIL is providing the carpet cleaners (it's their house). Because of the MLK holiday the kiddos are all off school Friday - Monday. What's a TX househusband to do? Pack em all up and drive 10 hours south to the Mexican border-town of McAllen TX where my aunt and uncle live and have pleaded with me to come for almost 30 years now (they moved there when I was like 4). So on the coldest weekend in TX since we got here we are going south where it will at least hit 66 or so (which is cold to them but good for us). And the carpet cleaners will come and go and the whole house will be brand spanking new and clean when we get home! How cool is that?!?! Go househusband! Go househusband! It's your birthday! When do my classes start again? . . . .

Indignant (originally published 5/10/2010)

Every Monday morning at family devotion we watch a short video clip about a city in the 10/40 Window that we then pray for the rest of the week. The 10/40 Window is geographically located on the map in the eastern hemisphere between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude and includes most of the world's unreached people and actually, most of the world's people period. 2/3 of the world's population lives in that window. Anyways, today before watching our clip on Pyongyang North Korea, we watched a short clip introducing the 10/40 Window to children. I was watching my kids who were all viewing the video with varying levels of interest, as you might expect, except my son Josh who was completely riveted on the screen. When the narrarator said "most of the people have never heard of Jesus" - he gasped "WHAT?!" and was just so in shock that such a place existed! It is so funny how little minds work - here we are in a place - not in the 10/40 window, but a place where the name of Jesus is used but His message is not understood the way it is revealed in Scripture. That is what motivates me to do the work I do. Joshua, it seems, is motivated by the people that have never heard of Jesus at all! He was indignant, in fact, that such a place should exist. That is the beautiful thing about missions - there is work to be done everywhere and for all different people with all different interests. Humanitarian aid, discipleship, evangelism, prayer and encouragement, on and on - there is something for every Christian to do to be involved in missions. As one good friend of mine says, "Across the street or around the world, the mission is still the same." That is true and yet the mission is also beautifully diverse so that we may all be involved in some way. But, may we all be indignant that there are places where Jesus the Messiah is still not known as He is revealed in the Scriptures.

In their own words (originally published 7/21/2010)

The following is the closing remarks at the end of the July 12 meeting of the Board for the Shekgalagari Bible Translation Project given by Chairman Nelson Lekutlane. I wanted to share with you because each of you partnering with our ministry is a part of what is happening here and we want you to know that while things are moving slowly there is a firm foundation being laid and God is going to do big things.

"I want to close by letting you know that by this meeting, I am inspired.I am ins pired at your commitment. Mr. Machao, I am inspired at your passion. Mr. Mogapele at your wisdom. To all of you I am inspired at the way you engage the issues and seriously address and discuss them. I am inspired that we shall continue to go forward in this project. And I hope that you are also inspired Richard, that you have come from so far away and have found that there is a need and that there are people who need your help. Gentlemen, I want you to think about the sacrifice this man and his family have made to come here. To come here so they can help us. It is like Paul having the vision of the man saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Come to my Kalahari*, come to my desert and help us. Help us to find the living water that will quench the thirst of my people's soul. And I know that one day my people will drink from the living water here in this desert, my people - Bakgalagari - will have this living water. I know it. Thank you."

* 'Kalahari' means 'thirsty ground' in Shekgalagari