Weaving Promises: A Savior to Restore Justice by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Patti Lusher)

At the beginning of Advent I got this idea. I would set up my loom with a weaving project and have it here in the worship space every Sunday during Advent. I figured that during the Thanksgiving holiday, I could teach Becca how to set up the loom. Ever since she was about three, she has noticed my loom sitting in the corner of the living room gathering dust. She asked me what it was. When I told her it was a weaving loom she of course said, “Mommy, would you teach me to weave.” I learned to weave when I was in seminary and I wove for almost 10 years. Then I got busy having babies and planting churches and there was no time in my life for weaving.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving weekend. I pulled out my weaving notebook, with the instructions on how to put the warp on the loom and I realized this was going to take longer than I remembered. And there were some auxiliary parts that I had lost along the way. I had to call Rock and Beth and ask them to cut me a piece of wood because we don’t have a saw. Then a week later I realized I needed two more small pieces of wood. I finally went to Lowe’s and bought a saw.

One Sunday, you may recall, we brought some bobbins of yarn and put them on the table here as a display. That was a teaser. We talked about different colors of thread being woven together like the different aspects of God that we need in our lives.

You see, Advent is the season of waiting to celebrate the birth of Jesus. (Bringing this loom to you has become my symbol of waiting, and that was not even the point.)  In the Old Testament we have many prophecies, or promises, about a Messiah who will come and change the world. These promises are woven through the ancient text. And then they are woven into the New Testament. As Jesus comes onto the scene, people refer back to the promises in the Old Testament and say, “Hey, remember? We were told this guy was coming. God must be in this man Jesus.”

The people waited a long time for Jesus, but he was worth the wait. You did not even know that you were waiting for me to get the loom here as an illustration of weaving the promises. But I knew. I was beginning to fear I would not get it ready in time for the last Sunday of Advent but finally on Thursday night of this week, I got the warp on the loom and was ready to weave. My advent waiting had ended.

One of the things I liked most about weaving was this: even though you are bound to make mistakes, there is always a way to fix them. My teacher Laura taught me that. Weaving is a human art and so by human nature it is imperfect, but the imperfections in the fabric can almost always be corrected. She taught me that sometimes if I caught a mistake while I was doing it, I could unweave a few rows, go back, and fix my mistake. But even if I did not find the mistake until I took the fabric off the loom, I could take a needle and hand weave to correct the mistake and restore the pattern. There was always a way to fix things.

I love that about weaving. You can always make it look better with some handiwork.

Today’s scripture is about the handiwork of God making our world better, taking things that are messed up, and making them right. This text comes after Mary has found out she is going to be a mother. You could say this is kind of a big mess up because as you may remember, Mary is not yet married to Joseph. Being an unwed mother in 1^st century Israel is not a good thing. But God sends an angel to Joseph in a dream and tells him to stay with Mary – because God has chosen them to be the earthly parents of God’s own Son. Joseph complies.

Mary might want to try to hide this pregnancy as it would cause a scandal. So she goes to visit her older cousin Elizabeth who also happens to be pregnant. Elizabeth’s child is also something of an amazing gift because Elizabeth is well beyond child bearing years. She and her husband know that God has a special purpose in mind for their child too.  When Mary arrives at the home of Elizabeth, scripture says that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps at the sound of Mary’s voice. We believe there will be a strong connection between these two cousins; and in fact, Elizabeth’s child, John the Baptist, will preach and baptize and prepare the way for Jesus and his ministry.

Mary sings a song of praise as she greets her cousin. This is our scripture reading for today. With this song she weaves in the promises of the Old Testament with her predictions about what her son will do. And she does something really interesting. She talks about Jesus as if what he will do has already been accomplished. This is a literary device meant to show her deep faith. “I’m not going to talk about what he WILL do, I’m going to tell you what he HAS DONE because I am that sure of what this child will accomplish.” Then she alludes to promises made in Deuteronomy and in the Psalms.

Mary says:

“Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; ⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. ⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. ⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. ⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; ⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, ⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Jesus is coming to correct everything. He can make everything right. We don’t have to see the world broken and messed up, like a piece of fabric woven on a loom that has imperfections. Every mistake on a loom can be fixed. Mary says that Jesus can and will fix everything. That is the promise. This is the promise made to Abraham and to all those descendants – as many as the stars in the sky.

Jesus comes to lift up the lowly and to bring down the powerful who lord it over the rest. Jesus fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty. Jesus turns upside down the values of our world. Or rather, he turns them right side up. For too long we have allowed those with money and power to rule the world. Jesus comes and says: “Enough.” We don’t have to give in to these false gods of power and might.

So what does this mean for us? It means that we really can put our trust in Jesus. We can trust Jesus to feed the hungry and send the rich away empty. That is the Advent promise woven through both the Old and the New Testaments. We can trust that the way of Jesus is to take the outsider and make them the insider. Because to Jesus, we are all insiders. We are all inside the circle of God’s mercy and God’s love.

So in the places where we are outsiders, we are called to put our trust in Jesus and claim our place as insiders. Everyone is included in the circle of God’s love and God’s abundance. If we are being denied our rights then we need to stand up for ourselves (together – because there is power in numbers), and claim in the name of Jesus, that all God’s children are to be free and all God’s children are to be treated justly. All God’s children should have what they need.  That is the message of the gospel.

Now, in those areas where we are insiders, we are called to look at those outside and invite them in. This means that if we are inside the circle of those who have enough, and we see those outside who do not have enough,then we are called to bring them in to the circle of those with enough by sharing what we have.

There are countless ways to help others.

·      You can simplify your life so you have money to give to our Good Samaritan Fund. We use that to help people right here in our congregation who need emergency aid with basic needs.

·      You can give up something you want so that you have money to give to our Christmas offering. That money goes to give life-saving malaria bed nets to people living in Africa. Yes, I know Africa is far away, but if we want to talk about people who are outsiders when it comes to wealth of this world, let’s talk about Africa.

·      As insiders we can give our time to help those who are outside the circle of basic food needs being met. Patti organizes times for us to serve at the local food bank and at Food for Thought on a regular basis so that we can provide emergency food for hungry people. Yesterday we filled 600 boxes of food at the food bank that will be taken to senior citizens in need. These are just a few examples of ways we can follow Jesus and live out the promises of scripture to lift up the lowly.

·      After Christmas Karen Shepler is going to be leading a class called “Faith and Finance.” This is a class to teach people how to manage our personal finances better. This will be a great tool to help those with the least, learn how to get out from under debt. Anyone can participate in the class. It will be another way to lift ourselves up.

Christmas is coming. We will once again celebrate the bursting of God’s love into our world. The promises have been woven throughout scripture. Jesus comes to turn our world right-side up. Will you put your trust in Jesus? Will you follow the way of Jesus and stake a claim for justice? Will you share your resources so that all the outsiders will be inside the circle of God’s abundance? I hope your answer is yes. Get ready to celebrate his birth again.  Get ready to follow Jesus and change the world.