David J. Goa

Our Common Calling:The Icon of the Human Vocation

Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:5-10; James 5:7-10; Luke 1:46b-55

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your god will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

• Isaiah 35:1-10

[Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in Princes nor the sons of men, in whom there is no help.]  Blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that there is: which keepeth truth for ever: Which executeth judgemet for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous: The Lord preserveth the strangers: he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. The Lord shall reign forever, even they God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord.

• Psalm 146:5-10

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, unto he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

• James 5: 7-10

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty had done to me great things; and holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath send empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his see for ever.

• The Gospel of Luke 1: 46-55

May the words of my lips and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight oh Lord of all that is.

Today the Church, from the northern Russian city of Vladimir that gave its name to this icon, from Vladimir to Camrose, we remember the Birth-giver of God, the Theotokos. This new images that graces your church is an Icon of the Incarnation and, as such, the Church’s great image of the human vocation and call to us to claim that vocation. Who we are and how we are to then live all in one simple image of our common human experience.

We are coming close to the Feast of the Incarnation, to Christmas.

There is danger in this time: that we make a fetish of virginity and the birth of a Palestinian baby; his mother and would be father; that we fill the emptiness with the glamour offered from all quarters; that we turn this feast into a family occasion: freeze frame our familial affection.

There is danger in this time.

And the danger is here because the revelation is upon us; the mystery unveiled before us, through us, in us.

The Incarnation of God in Jesus of Nazareth is the greatest story ever told in human culture.

    It is not the greatest story told of gods walking the earth and having intercourse with human beings; of them there are many and varied examples. The human problem seems to be that we all too easily imagine deities, including the one we call the One Lord of all History, and see the divine living out our own passions for justice, power, triumph and everything else under the sun. The Incarnation, God becoming a human person and dwelling among us is the greatest story every told because it reveals to us the dignity of our nature, who we are.

    That is why the Church Fathers and Spiritual Mothers along with the beloved Luther and many of our spiritual ancestors treasured the early creedal formulation that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. For us human beings it seems impossible to grasp the one without the other. When we do grasp one without the other we either confine God to the world of ideals or human beings to the world of ideals. Disaster and destruction follow.

    The Incarnation is a revelation of who we are. It is a retelling of Genesis chapter 3 and that is why, in this season of retelling this story, we enter a dangerous time. The mystery of the Incarnation of God in Christ is our mystery, a revelation of our created nature and a call to its fullness. Isaiah opens this mystery too us: it is found in the wilderness and solitary places of our lives; our deserts, our dry places. The Prophet tells how the Holy One turns everything upside down: those with weak hands have strength; the ones with feeble knees stand firm; the fearful, act; the blind see what others cannot; the deaf hear what is unspoken; the lame leap as a hart; those with no voice, sing a new song.

“For in the wilderness [of our lives] shall waters break forth, and streams in the desert . . . the parched ground shall become a pool.”

    Isaiah opens this mystery too and says that in the dry and empty places of our lives a highway “shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness.”

    We cannot become holy, without the wilderness, the empty places, the dry places, the places without seed. Today she who is the way of holiness stands before us. She is the most intimate part of the revelation of the Incarnation. She is the revelation of the human vocation. She is teacher and model. Her voice joins with Isaiah for his words have become her reality. Her voice is the Psalm sung out of the depth of experience. Mary goes to visit her older cousin Elizabeth, who in her old age, has conceived. Mary goes to Elizabeth with the hidden mystery of new life growing within her. Two women. The world turned upside down? Upside down, yet beyond right, more than right. There is no terror here. No ambiguity. A turning too. Rather, when they meet, we hear a song. Mary brings Isaiah and David the Psalmist together and James along side. Her song is our song for we have all been where she is.

The image we have before us today, the image of The Virgin of Vladimir, treasured by the father of our friend Dittmar; the image we have in word and narrative speak to us of our vocation. The Icon of the Virgin and Child is, for the ancient Church, the Icon of the Human Vocation. It reveals to us our capacity as persons, as women, men and children. When Orthodox Christians around the world enter the church they bring a candle to this icon and bowing in a prayer of gratitude to God who clothed them in flesh and ask that they too, like the Theotokos, may be open to be a birth giver of divine love in a fractured and suffering world. But first, of course, we must empty ourselves. There must be room for the new birth without seed, without the seed of our passions. The desert land of our lives, as familiar as it sometimes becomes, must be claimed before we may find the way of holiness (of wholeness) through it. The parched ground that is the habitation of dragons, our dragons, will only yield to the new birth of wonder when our pride and the fear that shapes the imagination of our hearts is scattered.

    Mary sings of it. She invites us to poverty of spirit, hunger, service, and the remembrance of mercy. She invites us to presence.