Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

Insignificant person...

Unimportant...

of no consequence...

We've often heard folks being dismissed in those ways.

Fortunately, God doesn't operate like that.

He does not fall into the traps that we set:

--college students regarding “townies” with disdain.

--and city dwellers who return the dis-favor!

--persons of one skin-tone regarding ones of another skin tone as lesser.

--those who eat dismissing those farmers who actually produce the food.

--on and on goes our list.

Today we're going to hear some stories about insignificant people,

and, let us hope, throw away that adjective.

(1)  There is a marvelous story in the Old Testament which we name the book of Ruth.

The story takes place in the ho-hum little town of Bethlehem.

When famine strikes the area, one family moves to the foreign land of Moab, not a particularly friendly place for Hebrews.

They stay there for ten years, and during that time the sons marry local women, but then the father and both sons die.

It this great crisis, Naomi hears that the famine is over back home, and so she decides to return.

One daughter in law stays with her family in Moab, but the other, Ruth, casts her lot with her mother-in-law and goes to Israel, giving up her country, language, religion, and customs in order to be with Naomi in an uncertain future.

Such devotion!  Se didn't have to do this!

In order to get enough to eat, she gleans in the fields, picking up any stray grains that have fallen to the ground, and anything at the margins of the field.

In so doing, she attracts the attention of Boaz the owner.

He “redeems” her;

that is, he goes to Naomi's next of kin, who would normally have been appointed to care for her affairs, and asks to assume responsibility, eventually marrying Ruth.

It is a story of trust, and faithfulness,

            --an eager grasping of opportunity,

            --a story of waiting.

It is a marvelously positive story for us in Advent.

It is a story of insignificant people; there are no kings or matters of state here, just the story of personal crisis and wonderful resolution to the crisis.

It is about insignificant people whom God blessed and gave another chance for life.

(2)  One day the prophet Samuel was given a difficult job by God.

King Saul was doing such a lousy job that Samuel was told to search out and anoint a person other than Saul's son who would become the successor to Saul.

Samuel was directed to that ho-hum little town of Bethlehem,

to the house of Jesse, descendant of Ruth and Boaz.

It is quite an occasion when the great prophet comes to that home in humble Bethlehem.

We might imagine that there would be a feast in honor of the great prophet.

And then Jesse was asked to line up all his sons for Samuel to see.

They are tall, strong, and handsome young men, but one by one the seven sons were passed over by Samuel.

“Don't you have another son?” Jesse was asked.

“Yes, the youngest, David, out tending the sheep.

“Get him”.  He was summoned, and then Samuel announced that David would be the one to save his people, and Samuel anointed him by pouring olive oil on his head.

But David is just a boy, an unimportant, smelly shepherd boy.

In those days, children were usually rated like nuisances, like dogs, always underfoot and mostly useless,

but this one is chosen to save his people.

We remember one who laughed too soon at this unlikely choice of an unimportant boy.

Goliath scoffed at the boy who was armed only with the slingshot, while the giant was in full armor.

“You...pipsqueak from Bethlehem, save your people?”  he sneered.

But the giant fell dead at David's feet.

(3) The prophet Micah lived in another chaotic time, when the second city of David, Jerusalem, was under siege by the Assyrians.

They waited anxiously for a new ruler who would be able to save them from this calamity.

The prophet's thoughts return to that provincial town, Bethlehem, birthplace of David.

A minor town, but one from which will come another redeemer, he asserts.

The wait for the savior continued.

Micah's vision of a grand new ruler was not fulfilled quickly, but in God's good time and way.

The disastrous national and personal policies that Micah saw in person led to the collapse of the nation and the destruction of its capital Jerusalem 100 years later.

(4) Many generations came and went after Micah, and some still held onto the old hope from the prophets.

Included among the watchers were Zechariah and Elizabeth.

They are old and childless, which in that time was a particular point of dishonor.

In that society, to be old and childless

            meant that they were alone, nobodies,  useless, failures....

and yet God gives them good news,

            a son, John, who become the baptizer.

(5) And then there is Mary, another of those insignificant people of Bethlehem,

just another peasant girl engaged to be married.

Nothing at all exceptional about that,

and yet, what a wonderful and strange task she has...to bring the Savior to birth.

She sings with Elizabeth,

            “My soul magnifies the Lord”

            (Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord, in Joseph Gelineau's translation.)

We might well call it the song of the insignificant people, the “little ones”.

The song is one of hope,

of confidence that God will act,

            even as he has already done;

of expectations that the world will yet be changed.

Some have found it to be a dangerous song.

It has been banned and various point in history, most recently having been forbidden to be sung in several South American countries.

It stirs revolutionary tendencies, the dictator-types often say.

Are there people who are unimportant  to God?

Mary sings:

            --he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden;

            --he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,

            --he has exalted those of low degree,

            --he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.

What a change in the status quo it proclaims!

No wonder tyrants want to ban Mary's Song and its uncomfortable assertions.!

Who are the “insignificant” ones today, the ones whom God loves here and now, in spite of their low rank in the estimation of some?

--refugees of all sorts, easily despised.

--the retired who some call useless,

--the aged who use more health care than others

--the victims of abortion who never were allowed a chance at life

--those who coast along looking for handouts without expending much effort in the struggles of life.

And then also I hear folks talking about themselves in a dismissive way.

“Oh, poor little me.

You can't expect much from me.

I'm too ...old, ...young,

            ...busy,...inexperienced

            ...don't know enough, etc.

I've heard it either as a complaint or as an excuse.

Fortunately, God doesn't give in to this kind of false modesty,

and by his promise he sets out to change us and our situations, and to make use of our skills, time, and relationships for the coming-together of his kingdom.

Are we, and all those whom we denigrate, ”insignificant” people in God's judgment?

Resoundingly, NO!

Each of us by baptism is a called-out person  with specific things that are appropriate for us to be saying and doing.

It is our task to be looking for those opportunities wherever they arise, and to act on them.

Perhaps one of the dramatic big jobs lies in our future, perhaps not,

but all of us have roles in God's will for the world, roles which need to be discerned, prepared, and practiced;

this makes each of us important!

We honor and remember Mary

as one of those insignificant ones,

not society's bigwigs, ordinary people

who heard  that summons to faith,

            trusted the promise,

            held onto it through difficulties,

            and believed that God would yet save his people.

In that tradition may we stand,

            and wait the Lord's coming among us with joy and expectation.

Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come.

Amen

St. Mark's Lutheran Church

142 Market Street

Williamsport, Pennsylvania

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