Luke 1v49: ‘The mighty one has done great things for me.’
Yesterday, on the fourth Sunday of Advent, we welcomed Rev Dr Jonathan Hustler to Hinde Street. In a sermon entitled ‘‘Magnificat: beyond what the preacher can preach’, Jonathan outlined three sermons that he felt were beyond him to give. These sermons all centred around those histories that are hidden in the most familiar stories of all – histories that can be uncovered if we allow for our perspective to shift and if we embrace the uncomfortable amidst that which is most comforting.
By addressing the lack of women’s voices in the Bible and the Jewishness of Jesus, and by drawing parallels between the Roman suppression under which Jesus and his contemporaries lived and the realities of holding onto a home in the occupied lands of today, Jonathan shone a light onto those aspects of the Bible that elude us and those continuities of suppression that may be easier for us to leave uncovered. He concluded that sometimes it is better to ‘listen more and speak less’ so that we may let the voices of oppressed citizens be heard in the nativity story as well as in the many stories that are being told today.
Thanks to Rev Dr Jonathan Hustler for his visit to Hinde Street!
If you missed this sermon, you can listen to it here – no account needed.