THE THIRD MIRACLE
Rev, Dr. Joyce Antila Phipps
Old First Church December 12, 2021
Texts: Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11; Luke 1: 46-55
In the film The Third Miracle, Ed Harris as Father Frank Shore sets out to disprove so-called miracles associated with a now deceased Slovakian immigrant who, among other things, did not lead what some religious people would consider a traditionally saintly life As a postulator, a person appointed by church authorities to examine the veracity of purported miracles, Father Frank has destroyed the faith of many people, including his own. And now he is asked to look into a statue of the Virgin in the schoolyard where the Slovakian woman worked.
Based on the novel of the same name by Richard Vetere, a novelist and playwright on the New York scene pits the aging Cardinal Werner, who as a young German soldier in Brystrica, Slovakia, did indeed witness a real miracle, which forms the basis of this movie, exploring questions of faith and belief.
What is a miracle and how do we define it? How can we who are twenty-first century skeptical Americans believe in stories of bleeding statues, saints talking to a young girl in the French countryside, or a virgin births? Martin Luther who did believe in the literal story of the virgin birth once quipped that there were three miracles of the Incarnation: First that God loved us enough to devise a plan of salvation; second, that God chose this particular ways to save humankind from sin; but, third, and the greatest miracle of all, that Mary believed the angel.
We may smile at such a statement but we should not throw the baby out with the bath water. Looking beyond our understanding of scholarship and theological import, we need to ask ourselves what are the real miracles, those events in our lives that defy rational explanation? And perhaps we should consider how we can participate in creating miracles of love and justice.
Our reading from the Gospel this morning gives us some clues as to how we can and should participate in the miracle of justice. Is a miracle an event that cannot be merely explained by natural causes but only attributed to something supernatural, beyond our comprehension as human beings, or is a miracle an event or a process in which we, as human beings, can share in its creation? In her song, known as the Magnificat, Mary sings of a miracle, namely, that the existing structure of the world as it existed at that time should radically change: that the rich have been thrown down from their thrones and the poor have been fed. The miracle here is the total inversion of the social order.
For many, and not just in the Third World, this is a real miracle, for the poor of this world have always understood that power rules their lives and that they really have no say in creating their futures. The real miracle in this song of praise to God for fulfilling the promise of inverting the social order is that it will not be done by the sword but that it will be done through the love and mercy of God.
Today is the day many in Mexico and Central America celebrate as a miracle, for on December 12, 1531, an indigenous Mexican peasant Juan Diego had apparitions of the Virgin. The church authorities, of course, did not believe him. Why would the Virgin appear to some indigenous peasant, instead of me, the Archbishop? Why would God have chosen a poor Palestinian teenager?
And, just as church authorities in the film opposed the real miracle of life over death, so too, will the powers and principalities, as Paul described them, oppose our attempts to create justice and mercy without violence and death. We witness such events every day, calling them miracles, for something inexplicable and totally unexpected happens in someone’s life. A man convicted of rape and murder is exonerated by DNA evidence and is given a chance to build a new life. A woman, beaten down by abuse and violence, is able to gain asylum here in the United States for her and her children. A family from Afghanistan fleeing the Taliban finds hope in being admitted as refugees.
Although each of these events and thousands more involved human actions, it is the combination of circumstances that leads us to call such events miracles. For the prisoner who has experienced the loss of his freedom for a crime he did not commit, why is it his case that the Innocence Project has selected? For the woman who has pled and won her case before an immigration judge, was it only sheer luck that she was represented by a nonprofit service? For the Afghan family, how was it that they and not someone else were admitted as refugees?
Each of these and so many more involve so many factors that came together at just the right moment, that it certainly seems as if divine intervention was involved. And each of these cases and so many thousands more attribute their changed circumstances to such intervention because the persons who assisted them worked as servants of God -- whether they would use that language or not -- to radically alter their lives.
For us as servants of God, the God of justice and mercy, we are able to participate in the miracle of radical transformation reflected in the Magnificat. We become instruments of God’s grace, which indeed is miraculous, for without such grace, we would not be able to do more than merely despair. There are indeed three miracles of the Incarnation: that God loves and cares for us; that God’s love is reflected through the One whose birth we celebrate at Christmas; and that we believe the message of which Mary sings: that through God’s mercy and grace we can transform the world into one of justice and peace.
May we become instruments of that third miracle. In the name of the One who gives us the faith to transform the world, even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.