Assumptions

The Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary may have been transferred in the liturgical calendar, but you can feel her parental influence in today's scripture.

Today is actually the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Yes, Anglicans - and Episcopalians - celebrate that feast day. Well, some do.

Roman Catholics celebrate this day as "The Assumption of Mary." Since this "fact" or story of the whole, bodily assumption of Mary into heaven has absolutely no basis in scripture, Anglicans/Episcopalians do not observe this part of Mary's story. We simply celebrate Mary, the "Theotokos" - the God-bearer. The Blessed Virgin Mary.

I think that's appropriate.

I used to have this friend, now living among the Saints in Light, who made his earthly debut in a hospital in "Da Bronx." He was baptized and grew up in the Roman Catholic (or, "Cat'lick" as he used to call it) Church. However, like many people, his heart and mind left the church long before he promised his soul to the Church when he, as he used to say, "made my Confirmation".

He once said to me, "I gotta give you people credit. You don't know a lota tings about God. You juss ASSUME dem to be true. And den, you even celebrate it! You even got the 'Feast of the Assumption.'Dat takes a lotta cajones, ya know? Youse is alright wid me."

I think he might have missed a few classes in the Baltimore Catechism.

Today's gospel lesson (Luke 12:40-56) gives us an image of Jesus we never learned in Sunday School. Back in the day, the pictures of Jesus that hung around the church were of Sweet Baby Jesus, Meek and Mild. Or, Jesus carrying the lost lamb around his neck, bringing it back to the fold. Or, Jesus surrounded by wee children with the words in script printed under the picture, "Suffer not the little children to come unto me."

That's not the Jesus we meet this morning in Luke's gospel pericope.

Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

Well, there it is, then.

As he journeys toward Jerusalem, Jesus becomes a source of conflict and opposition when he lays claim to startling forms of authority and power. His words are marked with a sense of apocalyptic urgency and anguished intensity.

After all, he already knows that the road to Jerusalem will lead him to a violent confrontation with death. No wonder that Jesus’ experience of life comes to be one of "consuming fire" (cf. Heb. 12:29), Here is someone, Luke tells us, who knows the burning bush intimately.

Experiencing the burning bush and the fire within do not tend to make one "nice". On the contrary, an encounter with a burning bush invariably leads to confrontation and conflict. After Moses meets God in the burning bush, for example, he is led not to peace and a resolution of problems, but into conflict with Pharaoh himself.

As a good student of Torah, Jesus knows this story of Moses all too well. As the child of God, he knows it in his bones - in every fiber of his being and deep in his soul. As the son of Mary and Joseph, he knows it because heard the passionate songs of God's justice sung to him as a lullaby.

I have no doubt that Jesus heard Mary sing the Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10)and took special note of these passages:

The weapons of the strong are smashed to pieces,
while the weak are infused with fresh strength.
The well-fed are out begging in the streets for crusts,
while the hungry are getting second helpings.

And:

God's enemies will be blasted out of the sky,
crashed in a heap and burned.

(Sorry if that's a jolt to those who are used to RSV or NIV. I'm sort of partial to Eugene Peterson's translations in "The Message" - especially as he translates the words of women.)

I have no doubt that he heard his mother's own song - The Magnificat - when he awakened each morning, and heard the echo of his ancient Aunt Hannah's words in those of his mother:

He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.

When you've had an encounter with the Living God, there's no holding back.

Your heart practically bursts with joy. Your body dances and you didn't even know it could move like that. Your soul is filled, pressed down and overflowing, with the goodness of God. You are pregnant with possibility.

You become a fiery pillar. You may not ever have another encounter like that, ever again, but your life has been forever changed and transformed and will never again be the same.

Jesus knows this. He's seen it in his mother. He's known it in his father. He's experienced it in his cousin, John the Baptist.

Listen to his words again, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!"

By God, that's Mary's boy!

I think, if we're followers of Jesus and have known the presence of the Living God in and through Him, we're all Mary's children.

Let me give you a for-instance:

Yesterday, during one of the lulls of the Rectory Yard Sale, I got caught up on my reading. I had my iPhone with me, and checked out the stories over at Episcopal Cafe - one of my favorite spots in cyberspace.

I was fascinated by this story from the Columbus Dispatch about "Church vs. Strippers".

Seems as if there's this Strip Joint - The Foxhole, a run-down, garage-like building at a Coshocton County crossroads called Newcastle run by a man named Tommy George - seven miles east of the New Beginnings Ministry Church, pastored by a man named Bill Dunfee.

The article reports:

Every weekend for the last four years, Dunfee and members of his ministry have stood watch over George's joint, taking up residence in the right of way with signs, video cameras and bullhorns in hand. They videotape customers' license plates and post them online, and they try to save the souls of anyone who comes and goes.

Now, the dancers have turned the tables, so to speak. Fed up with the tactics of Dunfee and his flock, they say they have finally accepted his constant invitation to come to church.

It's just that they've come wearing see-through shorts and toting Super Soakers.

They bring lawn chairs and - yesterday, anyway - grilled hamburgers, Monster energy drinks and corn on the cob.

They sat in front of the church and waved at passing cars but largely ignored the congregation behind them.

Likewise, the churchgoers largely ignored the dancers. Except for Stan Braxton. He stopped and held hands with Lola, a 42-year-old dancer who made $200 on her Saturday night shift, and prayed for her salvation.

Lola, who wouldn't give her last name, said she was grateful for Braxton's prayers and his time.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking Stan Braxton has a little fire in his belly. I'm thinking Stan Braxton has probably "known" Lola - or someone like her, maybe a whole lotta someones like her - from his past.

I'm thinking Stan Braxton now knows something more about Jesus - something even his pastor and some other members of his congregation do not know.

I'm thinking Stan Braxton now understands a little something about the objectification of women, and has repented of his former sins and has been changed and transformed and will never again be the same.

I'm thinking Our Mr. Braxton - because of the Lolas in his past life - knows a little something about the real fire and brimstone that Jesus is preaching this morning.

I'm thinking Ole Stan has decided, instead of being the one to heap judgment on Lola's head, offered her exactly what Jesus would - the non-predatory touch of another human being. A kind, gentle word of prayer for peace and redemption.

I don't think Sam Braxton was being "nice". I think he was being very, very real. Having had an encounter with the burning bush makes you like that.

And, I'm thinking that what Stan Braxton may not know is that he may have a harsh word of rebuke coming from some of the members of his congregation - if not his pastor. Unfortunately, he made them all look bad. That's not going to go down well with some of them.

See? When you've had an encounter with the Living God, there's no holding back. And, there's no turning back.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking Stan Braxton is one of Mary's boys.

Oh, I don't know if Ms. Lola will stop her career as a professional, paid exotic dancer. I do know this: Some day, she will. It may be for reasons other than anything she believes about her salvation. It may well be due to the fact that, eventually, you have to stop taking your clothes off in public and dancing half or fully naked because, well, we all grow old.

But, I'm thinking that Our Ms. Lola will never forget the authentic kindness of this one Christian man she once encountered. One man who did not condemn or judge her. One man who offered her his hand in peace and love and prayer.

And, that one man, Stan Braxton, may temper her thoughts about what it means to be Christian. About what she's always assumed it meant to be a Christian.

I'm thinking Ms. Lola may one day celebrate her own Feast of the Assumption.

Because, whether she knows it or not, she's one of Mary's kids too.

So am I. So are you.

We are all God-bearers because Mary said yes.

And, Joseph said yes.

And Jesus said yes.

And, when you and I say yes to the presence of the Living God, when you've had an encounter with the Living God, there's no holding back. There's no turning back.

Your heart practically bursts with joy. Your body dances and you didn't even know it could move like that. Your soul is filled, pressed down and overflowing, with the goodness of God. You are pregnant with possibility.

You become a fiery pillar. You may not ever have another encounter like that, ever again, but your life has been forever changed and transformed and will never again be the same.

And your soul will magnify the Lord.

Even if it's not on the appropriately designated day.