“The Holy Bracket” - March 25, 2018 (Palm Sunday)

Philippians 2:5-11

           

Although they were knocked out of the NCAA finals last Sunday, the sixteenth-seeded University of Maryland (Baltimore Campus) Golden Retrievers got there by overturning the first-seeded University of Virginia Cavaliers by twenty points, 74-54.  Depending on your outlook and your loyalties, that can be a sign either of the approach of the kingdom or the start of the apocalypse.  Or maybe it’s just sports.  The success of the underdog, the turning of the tables, though, in matters far more significant than basketball has long been understood as part of what happens when God’s rule over human life is acknowledged and honored.

            It is what Mary longed for and what she celebrated, as Luke tells us, when she learned that God was sending his Son into the world and that she would have a part in that.  Who was she?  She was no princess or queen, not part of the dominant culture of the world in her time, not anybody with connections, not even married.  She was without status or standing, and in the midst of Jesus’ execution, as he was dying by torture, he would have to assign her a new legal guardian, handing her over to his friend John.  (Why not to his own brother James?  We don’t know.  Could it be that they were estranged?  James came around, it seems, but only after the resurrection.)  Mary would probably laugh to see herself portrayed in so many medieval paintings as a queen in a beautiful robe and wearing a crown.  More likely, she may have just kept her hair tied back in a scarf to keep it out of her face while she did the laundry.  So when an angel appeared out of nowhere and told her that God had given her a unique assignment, she was astounded and she expressed her thoughts to her cousin Elizabeth this way:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, 
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name. 
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation. 
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly; 
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.” [Luke 1:46-53]

God’s kingdom turns things upside-down and inside-out.  The life of Jesus, and his death, show it happening over and over.  Even more, his rising again confirms it and the lives of his people are a constant cycle of humility among the powerful and power among the humble.  God brings down the powerful and lifts up the lowly.

            For the past couple of years I have enjoyed following an online tournament called “Lent Madness”.  Two Episcopal priests who call themselves “The Supreme Executive Committee” pick a bracket of thirty-two admirable figures from Christian history, some of them from the Bible, some of them well-known, and some of them obscure and with unpronounceable names.  Each day they send out short biographies in the first couple of rounds and then people vote for one or the other to advance to the next round, until eventually only one is left standing and is awarded the Golden Halo.  You can buy a coffee mug or t-shirt of the victor if you want.

            Inevitably, what you find throughout the tournament is stories of God’s upside-down kingdom.  This year, for instance, one contestant was Margaret of Scotland.[1]  Her father was King of England and her husband was the Scottish King Malcolm III, who became a character in MacBeth.  Their children included King Edgar of Scotland; King Alexander of Scotland; King David I of Scotland; Queen Matilda of England; Edmund, Bishop of Dunkeld in Scotland; Mary, Countess of Boulogne in France; and Ethelred, who owned extensive lands on both sides of the Firth of Forth.  Now, with connections like that, how would you spend your time?  Queen Margaret spent her time reading the Bible to her husband, who was illiterate, and establishing schools, hospitals, and orphanages.  The usual round of royal appearances and court life took a secondary role.

                Another contestant in this year’s “Saintly Smackdown” is Martin de Porres.  Martin was born on December 9, 1579 and lived his whole life in Peru. He and his sister were considered illegitimate children—their mother was a freed slave and their father was a Spanish nobleman who abandoned the family when he saw the children’s dark skin. Martin endured a life of bullying and abuse. He aspired to join the Dominican monks, but they ruled that “no black person may be received to the holy habit or profession of our Order”.  So at fifteen years old he became a donado, a volunteer who lived in the community and carried out menial, unwanted tasks.  Nine years later, after they had seen his faith and his ministry among them and in the community around them, they desegregated and welcomed him as a brother at the age of twenty-four.  Slavery would only end in Peru in 1854, eleven years before it was outlawed in the U.S., so thanks to his holiness of life the Dominicans were 251 years ahead of their time.

                The mighty become servants.  The servant becomes honored.  The ruler cares for the poor.  The poor man leads his community into justice and equality.  All of this is the work of Jesus, carried out among his people at the center of society and on its fringes.

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross. 

Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father.”  [Philippians 2:5-11] 

---

[1] The thumbnail biographies here are adapted from those on the site, written by Neva Rae Fox.  See www.LentMadness.org .