Vulnerability and celebration

Today has been a day of vulnerabilty and celebration. The new ACT alliance was launched at lunchtime with a simple service focusing on the Magnificat and then a screening of the new ACT video (which is fabulous). At the service Olav Fykse Tveit preached on the Magnificat, you can read the sermon here, here's an extract.

The Magnificat has a strong message to us: In the lowest we find the highest. In the smallest we find the greatest. In the most vulnerable we find the power of God. We are called to magnify, for the benefit of those who need it, for the glory of God.
Some of us have had the experience and some of us can experience the great miracle of magnifying the Creator by carrying the life of another person into life. In these days, nine months before the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we sing the words of Mary with joy and with trembling awe. The vulnerability of life comes so close to us. This was also the reality of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In this vulnerability is the power of life. Here is God the Creator, here is the promise for the future, inside the body of a woman.

Personal tragedy touched members of staff today and we have wept and prayed and sought to find meaning even as we continued with our work ... it has been hard, we have worked and prayed and cried and hugged and celebrated and supported one another, that has been a celebration of the essential vulnerability which is at the heart of our faith but also somehow part of our work and professionalism. Expressing incompression at life's cruelty and tragedy has to be part of faith. I end the day giving thanks yet with tears still falling, knowing deeply that this is how life is ... joy and sorrow, pride and incomprehension, rage and rejoicing, fear and faith.