MICAH 5:2-4

PSALM 80:1-7

HEBREWS 10:5-10

LUKE 1:39-56

Sermon – 12/21/03

Hail, Mary

She is the most famous woman in the world – and has sometimes been also the most controversial. Her sudden arrival on the stage of world history came when she was young – probably 13 or 14, as most girls of her time, place and culture were when they were betrothed to be married. She lived in a time, place and culture in which hometowns and genealogies were important marks of status. Her hometown was so obscure that it is not mentioned once in the entire Old Testament, and it was in the least prestigious area of her country. Genealogy? Not even the names of her parents are mentioned in the Bible. She was also a member of a conquered people whose homeland was occupied and controlled by foreign, pagan soldiers and bureaucrats who demanded taxes to support an empire her people wanted no part of. And, of course, she was a woman born into a society in which women were considered property, not people.

She was, in short, as powerless, obscure and as low status as a virtuous, righteous, believer in God could have been who was not actually orphaned, homeless or destitute, for as far as we know she was none of these.

By contrast, those who became secondary characters in the drama she became at the center of initially had much higher status, though they shared her status of being disenfranchised subjects of the Roman Empire. Her kinswoman Elizabeth was the direct descendent of Aaron, the first High Priest of Israel and the brother of Moses himself, and Elizabeth herself was also the wife of a priest. Moreover, Elizabeth at last was now pregnant, pregnant with a child who, it was foretold, would be a mighty prophet of the Lord.

And Joseph – Joseph, unlike his betrothed as well as nearly all women of his time, had a good paying job. He was a carpenter, and the word translated “carpenter” also indicates he could have been a master stonemason as well. Given that there were no electricians or auto mechanics in those days, and plumbing was both primitive and rare, Joseph’s profession put him at the pinnacle of the “blue collar job pyramid.” He was a “great catch” for an eligible young woman who, in her society, could look forward to nothing more or less than being his wife, bearing lots of children, doing everything around the home and more besides, and hoping some of their children would live to adulthood.

And Joseph also had the most prestigious hometown in the country – Bethlehem, birthplace of King David, and prophesied birthplace of a future savior. Not only that, he was a direct lineal descendant of David himself. A “good catch” indeed.

Yet we, and the world, have only heard of Joseph and Elizabeth and Zechariah and a host of others because of the greatest woman in History: Mary. Mary, who five minutes before her introduction to the world would have accurately been described as “a nobody from nowheresville.”

Didn’t matter. She had The Right Stuff as far as God was concerned, no matter what her society said. God chose a woman, a woman with no resumé, genealogy, or credentials other than her faith and goodness (which were enough) to be the crucial figure in an event as a result of which all of history would henceforth be divided into the years B.C. or A.D.

Faith, goodness – and guts – she had aplenty. St. Luke’s serene picture of Mary’s encounter with the Angel Gabriel, her acceptance of her revolutionary task to become the mother of the Savior, her visit to Elizabeth and Jesus’ birth understates the extraordinary situation she was in and the extraordinary woman she was becoming. In an extremely chauvinistic culture, Joseph had to accept – and believe – that she had become pregnant miraculously by God’s act and accept his own role as the adoptive father of the Savior (never mind Joseph’s own glittering genealogy). Joseph (and everyone else) had to accept that she wasn’t crazy – and all this happened in part because of her understanding that she wasn’t crazy, that this miraculous pregnancy was happening, that she was destined for a truly historic role.

The greatness of Mary started with her saying “yes” to God when the Angel Gabriel came to her – to her, and not to her fiancé, or father as would have been the custom. Her greatness continued to grow during all the adjustments of her pregnancy, the birth of Jesus and the remarkable events following his birth, his childhood (it’s hard enough to raise a child who thinks he’s perfect – how about one who is perfect), his extraordinary adulthood (by which time Joseph was dead) and the excruciating ordeal of his arrest, torture and crucifixion.

And then, after Jesus’ resurrection, Mary was part of the community of believers without getting bossy or arrogant and saying “I knew him when.” How hard was that?

Mary has been revered and reinterpreted since her earthly life, often in controversial ways. In the Middle Ages, as the image people had of God became more stern and more remote and peoples’ familiarity with actual biblical stories of Jesus’ compassion and care lessened, Mary, for many believers, came to embody the tenderness, empathy and understanding they yearned to receive from God.

For 16^th Century Protestants, medieval reverence for Mary bordered on or crossed the line into idolatry. She became, for some, a “holy footnote”, even as Christmas disappeared from the religious celebrations of the strictest Protestants.

Roman Catholics, in response, underlined their praise for Mary, and just in the last 150 years Popes added two doctrines concerning Mary, both of which the Popes declared to be “infallible” doctrines. That Mary herself was “conceived without Original Sin” (hence the Roman Catholic feast day of the Immaculate Conception on December 8) and that she herself went to heaven without dying (the Roman Catholic feast of the Assumption on August 15).

What does the Episcopal Church teach about Mary? Well, as in some other areas, we aim right down the middle between these two extremes. It is the cornerstone of Episcopal/Anglican theology that “nothing can be required to be believed unless it is in or provable from the Bible.” Neither of the Roman Catholic doctrines I just mentioned have the tiniest bit of biblical basis; therefore they are not part of the Episcopal faith. (The virginal conception of Jesus, on the other hand, is in the Bible – and in our creeds.)

Mary was not and is not superhuman. In fact, to make her so misses the point: that she was an outwardly “ordinary” person in whom God found extraordinary faith, goodness and guts. She was, in short, a Saint, and the Episcopal Church calls her a great Saint: not a perfect person (she and Joseph left Jesus, age 12, behind in Jerusalem by accident, remember) but a wondrous example of faith, goodness and courage.

And more than that. In Jesus’ own lifetime, the community of his followers exhibited, for all their short-comings, extraordinary collegiality and breathtaking opportunities for women in an age and a culture in which women literally were expected to stay “barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen.” Martha and her sister Mary were unmarried women who were disciples of Jesus and hosted the entire entourage in their house. Martha was the first person in John’s gospel to “get it”, to say to Jesus, “You are the Messiah.” Mary Magdalene was healed of a mysterious illness by Jesus and became one of his most devoted followers, one of a handful with the courage to follow him to the cross and the very first witness to his resurrection.

And let’s not forget the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, who was not even a Jew, had been divorced five times and was a social pariah, who Jesus chose to be the first evangelist – the first person to tell the Good News of his coming to the community.

And this revolution started with Mary, his mother saying “yes” to God – without first asking her father or her husband, previously almost unthinkable in the Middle East.

So for a while, the “Jesus movement” offered unparalleled opportunities for women and for people generally who were not famous, not powerful and not rich.

That changed after the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian in the early 4^th Century.

Suddenly, Christianity became the religion of the Establishment – the only one there was in the entire Mediterranean world and Europe. The Establishment was fame, power, wealth and, yes, male-dominated.

So, what to do with this subversive woman who praises God in today’s Gospel for “Looking with favor on the lowliness of his servant”, and God who has “Filled the hungry with good things” while on the other hand Mary says God “Has sent the rich away empty”, “Scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts” and even “Brought down the powerful, from their thrones”!

If you’re humble, obscure and both spiritually and physically hungry, it is very Good News that God is like this. If, on the other hand, you’re rich, proud or on a throne, this is not good news for you. And what’s worse news is that with these words Mary takes her place alongside the great prophets of social justice of Israel, like Nathan, Micah and Amos. These words of hers were and are timeless, could be repeated by another servant of the Lord in any generation, were spoken by someone now revered by millions, and also – might come true.

Not what emperors, kings – or powerful bishops or medieval popes wanted to hear. Therefore, I personally believe, the aspect of Mary which is unique and therefore could never be emulated by anyone else – namely being the virgin mother of God – was emphasized by an increasingly rich, powerful and male-dominated medieval church, while the aspects of Mary which could be emulated – being the prophet and servant of a God who lifts up the humble and humbles the “uptrodden” – were suppressed.

So let’s rediscover Mary for the 21^st Century: Mary, the breaker of the shackles of chauvinism, Mary, apostle of social justice, Mary, virtuous, faithful, devout, meek, uppity woman.

St. Mary – both “one of us” and great. St. Mary – who calls us to be both humble and strong, devout and unconventional in our own time as we serve God. St. Mary: an example and an inspiration to us all.

“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church