Have you ever watched an aquarium? They can be wonderfully relaxing. It’s almost like staring into a fantasy world – a world of bright vivid colors; a world of soothing, peaceful motion; a world of blissful joy. But if you’ve ever owned an aquarium, you know that they’re actually delicately balanced ecosystems. If the fish are fed too much, you have problems; if the fish are not fed enough, you have problems; if the filters or pumps stop working, you have problems; if the water temperature gets too hot or too cold, you have problems.
But the most interesting troubles happen when you mix species of fish that don’t get along in the same tank. If a new aquarium owner makes the mistake of mixing aggressive fish – like ciclids, with mild fish like mollies or guppies or gouramis, the whole nature of the aquarium changes. It becomes a battlefield instead of a peaceful environment. The fish that get picked on began to look really ragged. As a rookie aquarium keeper, I had a beautiful sail-fin mollie that I mixed with some aggressive fish and pretty soon that beautiful sail became ragged. The poor, bedraggled mollie lost its vivid colors and eventually this beautiful fish just spent it’s time hiding in a corner.
Life can be that way too, can’t it beloved? I’m sure we’ve all come into contact with a “ciclid” or two during our lifetime. Maybe we are the ciclids – I’m sure not everybody sitting here is a mellow mollie. Regardless, it doesn’t take very long to realize that the world in which we live is not necessarily a soothing, peaceful place. In fact, at this time of year, tempers tend to run short and many people get stressed out. Many of our interactions with others leave us feeling a bit ragged. People sometimes feel so beat up that they withdraw to their own little corners to hide.
Ciclids and mollies – these two groups seem to distinguish themselves - even among people: the mighty and the strugglers. Let’s talk about the mighty – the ones that are often perceived to be powerful. It is tempting to want to be in this group. The temptation is to have the power and wealth at any cost. The toys that money and power bring are so shiny and attractive. Because of this, doing whatever to get power and money can be very, very enticing.
The second group of people, the strugglers, are the people on the outs. These are the folks that feel that they are powerless and useless and unloved. As we look at the world around us, the strugglers are easy to see – there are the people who don’t have enough to eat; Some live under freeway overpasses; A new pair of sneakers is a luxury that many strugglers will never know. Strugglers come from families that are divided and in conflict on a daily basis. We could go on and on listing the conditions and characteristics in which strugglers find themselves.
The big surprise in all of this is that all of us – both the ciclids and mollies - are strugglers. Every one of us is needy. Maybe some don’t have need for material things, but they are needy of soul and spirit. Failure to recognize the need we have places us in danger of missing God by seeking after all the wrong things.
Here’s a true story: A seminary professor retired early because of his health. He died at the relatively young age of 58. The last 10 years of his life were spent in and out of hospitals. After his death, his wife gathered some papers that her husband had written. In one paper, he had written: “When I began, I thought of myself as standing upon the bank of the stream of life, shouting instructions to the swimmers who were down below. I was the expert. In the second stage of my ministry, I thought of myself as the rescuer. If I saw someone going down for the third time, I would plunge into the water, rescue him, get him started in the right direction again, and then I would return to the bank. But the last 10 years of my life, I was in the water. And we were fellow strugglers with arms around each other, trying to help one another make it to the shore.” (Adapted from an illustration in Homiletics Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 6, p.64 – contributed by Wesley Taylor)
Beloved, we are all strugglers. We all live in that aquarium that has all sorts of problems: nipping, downright attacking, illness, separation from others, pain, lack of joy, hiding in the corner. We are all strugglers with great need. Our sin contaminated lives prevent from loving the way God has called to. And we all need to be cared for and loved. Mother Teresa once said, “The poorest of the poor are those who feel that they are unloved.” (From SermonCentral.com, contributed by Francis Neil Jalando-on)
She was a very young girl – maybe only 12½ years of age when the Angel Gabriel came to her. No one would have paid any attention to her because she wasn’t wealthy or important. She was a simple peasant girl living in a small insignificant village. Had she died, probably few would have noticed – except for one thing. God chose her to be the mother of the Savior of the world. By the age of 13, at most 14, this simple peasant girl had given birth to a baby boy that was named Jesus. She knew that God had especially blessed her among all people. She was one of us - a struggler – and yet she became, “Theotokos” – the Mother of God Incarnate. Our Gospel Lesson records the words she spoke to her cousin Elizabeth. They are what the Church has called the Magnificat – Mary’s Song - for many centuries.
1 My soul doth magnify the Lord:
1 and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior.
2 For He hath regarded:
2 the low estate of His handmaiden:
3 For, behold, from henceforth;
3 all generations shall call me blessed.
4 For, He that is mighty hath done to me great things:
4 and holy is His name.
5 And His mercy is on them that fear Him:
5 from generation to generation.
6 He hath showed strength with His arm:
6 He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
7 He hath put down the mighty from their seats:
7 and exalted them of low degree.
8 He hath filled the hungry with good things:
8 and the rich He hath sent empty away.
9 He hath holpen His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy:
9 as He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever.
And so, beloved, with these words Mary – in great wonder and awe – shares with us how God takes the struggles we face and addresses them. She tells us that God, in the birth of Jesus, sends us the only solution that will make any difference – a Savior, born to die on the Cross for our forgiveness and to rise from the dead to give us hope. She shares with us that being a struggler doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care or take notice.
This seemingly unimportant peasant girl becomes the quintessential example of how God takes nobodies and changes them - changes us, us beloved - into forgiven and loved children of the Living God. The world and its system of values was turned on its head as God chose a peasant girl and not a princess to give birth to the Savior of the World.
And for us - who live in the aquarium with all those problems – we have hope because of that Baby born in a manger some 2000 years ago. We know that God cares about the strugglers – about us. Amen.
