Micah
5:2-4
Psalm
80:1-7
Hebrews
10:5-10
LUKE
1:39-56
4th
Sunday of Advent
December
24, 2006
In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Blessed are you among women, … blessed is she
who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the
Lord.” (Luke 1:42 and 45)
In a religious tradition that has been so
heavily dominated by men and masculine images and words, it is rather a shock
on this Fourth Sunday of Advent to find ourselves in a situation where women
are front and center. There are no
adult males present. In fact, the only
males present have not yet been born.
We also find ourselves in a rather mundane
setting. The scene is in the small home
of a priest in the Judean hill country.
Just two expecting mothers are present.
There are no angels, no shepherds, no wise men or kings, no shining
lights or guiding stars. There are just
an older woman, who had been barren, and her young cousin, who finds herself expecting
under rather unusual and somewhat embarrassing conditions. On the surface, all seems to be very common.
There are no spectacular miracles. A huge crowd is not fed; no one is healed or
raised from the dead; the seas are not calmed.
But God is present, and God’s word is powerfully proclaimed.
It reminds me of a quote that I once
read: “If you cannot see God in all,
you cannot see God at all.”
Tonight we will celebrate the Nativity, and we
will get the shepherds, and the angels and the glory of the Lord. But this morning we need to be deeply
grounded in the glory of the Lord in two women in a small town.
In the Baptist tradition in which I grew up,
Mary was devoutly ignored. To pay too
much attention to her was a sign that you were on the wrong track. One of the sure signs that Roman Catholics
were verging on being pagans and idolaters was all of those statues in their
Churches—especially of Mary and their devotion to Mary. It was almost as if they were making her a
second god. Even though I developed a
considerable knowledge of scripture in that tradition, I do not believe that I
ever understood who Elizabeth was or that she had any importance. Mary was basically the woman in the manger
scene. As I began to stray from that
tradition, I remember my first time on a retreat at a Benedictine monastery and
hearing the “Hail Mary” and “Song of Mary” being recited. I was somewhat horrified and refused to join
in the recitation. I was dumbfounded
when I later realized that all they were doing was reciting passages from the Bible.
With time, I came to a better understanding of
the Roman Catholics’ veneration of Mary.
I also came to realize that in their own way, they devoutly ignored Mary
nearly as much as the Baptists did.
They just used more words, doctrines and statues to do it.
“Blessed are you among women.” When I quoted the scripture above, I
purposely left out the next phrase “and blessed is the fruit of your womb” to
make clear what Elizabeth said to Mary.
She did not say to Mary “You are blessed because of the baby you
carry.” Too often when we include the
phrase “and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” Mary becomes a cipher, a means
to an end. Mary is, of herself, of no
importance. She is mentioned and has
importance only because of the baby she carries and to whom she will give
birth. To a great extent, I believe
that making Mary a cipher, a means to an end, is the basis of both Protestant
and Roman Catholic piety about Mary, and the role that they have traditionally
given to women. But that is not what
Elizabeth said at all. The words that
Luke has Elizabeth speaking are that Mary is blessed because she has “believed
that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” The baby in her is, in a sense, secondary to
Mary’s faith. Without Mary and her
faith, there is no Jesus. The Christ is
not born. God’s plan of salvation
cannot go forward.
In the Third Order Principles there is
this sentence: “This can only be
achieved in a spirit of chastity, which sees others as belonging to God and not
as a means of self-fulfillment.” This
is true for us because it is true for God.
God does not just use people for his self-fulfillment. God did not just decide to become incarnate
through Mary and then through one means or another rapes her, as perhaps some
Greek or Roman god might have done. God
through Gabriel came to Mary and said I want to do this for my people, my
creation; will you be my partner? God
treated Mary as a full human being not as a cipher or object to be used. And Mary responded as a full and powerful
person who chose to have faith in God’s promise and said “yes”!
In the Christian tradition we have Jesus
Christ and the Virgin Mary. Well,
Christ is not Jesus’ last name, and Virgin is not Mary’s first name. We proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the anointed
of God. We proclaim that Mary was a
virgin to ascertain that the child to whom she gave birth was the child of God. The Greek word used in the Gospels is from
the Greek translation of the Old Testament and only refers to her sexual status
as one who has not had intercourse. But
as Matthew makes clear in his gospel, the tradition finds its roots in the
prophecy of Isaiah. The Hebrew word,
which Isaiah uses, is far richer in its meanings than the Greek word. The Hebrew word basically refers to a young
woman and implies many qualities—one who is not yet fully created; one who
still has an innocence about her, one who is still open to the new, willing to
be shaped and formed. So it is with
Mary. Elizabeth does not say to Mary,
“Congratulations on signing that great contract for which you will be given a
spectacular house, a brand new car, a very adequate income for life with no
strings attached and great happiness if you just have this baby.” She says: “Blessed are you among women, …
blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken
to her by the Lord.” And what had the
Lord spoken to Mary and to what and how did Mary respond? Gabriel said, “‘The Holy Spirit will come
upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the
child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. … For nothing will
be impossible with God.’ Then Mary
said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your
word.’” Yes, she said yes to the baby,
but she said yes to so much more. She
was open to God. She was open in faith
to what God was about to do and was willing to be God’s partner whatever it
meant. There was a certain innocence
about Mary. I think there is a certain
innocence about anyone who is open the new, especially to the new of a
creating, loving and redeeming God. But
Mary was not naïve or stupid. The words
of her Song make that abundantly clear.
In tonight’s Gospel we hear “Mary treasured all of these words and
pondered them.” She had great courage
and the wisdom to observe and wait for God’s work. God was doing something new, and she was open to it, believed it
and was willing to be a part of it.
In the Orthodox tradition, the primary term
used for Mary is Theotokos, the ‘God-bearer’. Treasure that word.
Ponder it in your heart until it breaks you open. It is at the heart of Christianity, and yet it
is so counter-intuitive to everything we think we believe. A mortal woman, one who was born, lived and
died just as we are and will, bore God.
God, who created all things and in whom all things have their being was
a small group of cells, so fragile, so dependent was becoming in the womb of
Mary. Suddenly everything we know and
everything we believe is shaken.
Reality shifts. As the Orthodox
Vespers of the Feast of the Incarnation sings:
“He who is without flesh becomes incarnate; the Word puts on a body; the
Invisible is seen; He whom no hand can touch is handled; and He who has no beginning
now begins to be. The Son of God
becomes the Son of Man.” If by the
overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, the one who is to be born is Holy, through
Mary, he is fully human. If through the
Most High he is divine, through Mary he receives his humanity. He is made one of us. Through Mary he is able to grow, to learn,
to feel, to know, to experience, to laugh, to eat, to serve, to be served and
to die as one of us. Through Mary, God
is able to act to redeem, to remake us and all of creation.
And Mary said,
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.”
Hail
Mary! Blessed are you because you have
believed that what God promised would be fulfilled.
Amen.
The Rev.
William O. Breedlove, II, TSSF
St.
Barnabas Episcopal Church
Monmouth
Junction, NJ