Expectations

Musimbi Kanyoro

There is a joke that says ‘the reason mountain climbers are tied together is to keep the sane ones from going home’. Think of the same image for the church - you may know the popular chorus ‘bind us together Lord’. Imagine a description of the church as a people tied together to keep the sane ones from going home, from giving in to easier explanations and more rational choices. No one can do that alone. We need one another to help us live out our expectations.

I was intending to open up the story of Mary and Elizabeth but I lost my sermon. It all began when I met Nahed. Sean Hawkey, a staff member of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), introduced me to Nahed. Nahed is a young Palestinian woman. Listen to her story as Sean Hawkey tells it:

“When Nahed Fawaregh became pregnant earlier this year she and her husband felt blessed, she was due to give birth in the first days of December and would travel to the nearby maternity hospital in Bethlehem.

Nahed and her family live in a small village called Ma'sarah (meaning Olive Press). There is no maternity clinic in Ma'sarah so she would travel to nearby Bethlehem to give birth. Nahed's husband drives a taxi, so getting to the hospital wouldn't be a problem.

Nahed, who just turned 20, was the subject of family affection as her baby grew, friends gave her small gifts, old ladies knitted little jumpers and everyone made sure that she ate what she wanted. Nahed was a radiant picture of health and happiness.

At midday on November 27 Nahed went into labour. She had already prepared a bag and she set off with her husband in the taxi for Bethlehem. They went on the only road that isn't dug-up and blocked-off with piles of earth and rubble by Israeli bulldozers. But only certain people are allowed on this road: Jewish people who live in the heavily guarded settlements. The Fawareghs knew they were forbidden to travel on the Jewish-only road but it was an emergency. They prayed that they wouldn't run into an Israeli patrol, but they did.

A jeep with four soldiers of the Israeli occupation forces caught them and held them at gunpoint. The soldiers said nothing even though it was obvious that Nahed was in pain. Her waters broke and Mr. Fawaregh pleaded with the soldiers, they told him to shut up. Nahed began to bleed but the soldiers still said nothing, they just kept them waiting. Finally, after two hours, they let them go. This was neither a mistake nor an isolated case. It is Israeli policy.”

For Nahed, it was too late for her expectation of a baby boy. Nahed told her story personally to Sean. Sean concludes this story by saying:

“Nahed tells me her story quietly, she is full of grace, and she says ‘ I offer up my suffering to God’.”

Nahed offers her suffering to God!! Which God is this? I could find no other God than the God of Mary another young girl from the region who years ago sang her praise to a miraculous God. We know it as the magnificat, a song about change so profound that we cannot but name it “radical change.” She sang this song in the past tense as though it had already taken place. She told of God who had brought down the mighty, filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty, (Luke 1: 52-53). She sang her song with confidence, fully embracing a liberation to come although Rome still ruled and the emperor Augustus was still on the throne.

Mary sang the magnificat at her time of uncertainty as to the meaning of all that was happening to her. It is her courage to accept the much she knew, and to trust God for the rest. For Mary, God’s grace was good enough for her to depend on. When Nahed says she offers her suffering to God, she too is saying that she accepts God’s grace to carry her through these uncertainties. Freedom, liberation, having a baby is not assured but they are expectations that she is choosing to trust God with.

Mary dared to face the stigma and responded with courage when told she was pregnant. She answered “ let it be with me according to your word”. God’s words tell us many things about our lives. To choose to obey God’s promise is not to deny death, but to rather to embrace death with grace. The song of Mary illustrates the rebelliousness of faith. It is faith which refuses to give in or give up. Such faith requires community. It requires those willing to bind themselves up or to be bound up to keep the sane ones from opting out. To choose life is to struggle on believing that God can change things, even those which govern the life of Nahed and her people. To choose death is to give in.

Mary sings of the mighty being brought low and the lowly uplifted. The epistle to Peter told: “ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (Peter 2:10).

Mary’s song of praise is an acceptance of what God has done for her, a clear indication that for the people of faith, change doesn’t just happen. The magnificat warns that change is controversial, but it is God’s controversy.

Mary’s song responds to her experience of God’s controversy, which we in the church call grace. She could never have predicted God’s grace breaking into her life in such a profound and unexpected way. God did not bestow favour on Mary after she had fulfilled certain conditionality or prerequisites. God’s grace just came to her in her lowliness, her youthfulness, weakness and inexperience. Mary’s song is grounded in her deep assurance of God’s Grace and God’s deep regard for her. For many people this grounding in grace is not a reality because things must be earned. It is believed that people must deserve what they get. There must be set criteria to fulfill- just like a project to be funded.

The language of rights is very intimate to our daily lives so that even we who are in the church find ourselves far removed from the language of grace and mercy, which the Bible offers to us. The pages of the Bible hum with God’s grace from the doxology of creation in Genesis to the new heaven and new earth in revelation.

God’s grace is hearing your name attached to God’s name: I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah.43: 1)
God’s grace is the assurance of God’s presence in the midst of despair and emptiness: Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven you are there; If I make my bed in shoal you are there…(Psalms 139: 7-10)

God’s grace is a gift so unexpected that it interrupts our normal lives and changes the course of history: Surely from now on generations will call me blessed: the magnificat (Luke 1:46-56)

This is what Christmas is about. Our expectations are for God’s grace to come and reign in our lives and the life of Nahed and her people. Whatever your expectations this Christmas, May God’s grace assure you that “ you are blessed”. Amen.