My maternal grandparents were devoted to Mary. They made rosary beads to send to missionaries around the world: Gram would take thin strings, and seal the ends with clear nail polish on each end, draping them over clothes lines in the basement, then count out colored beads into baggies. Pap would sit in his overstuffed rocker-recliner, smoking a cigarette and watching the game, and string these beads together, ten at a time. I grew up with the knowledge that saying three Hail Mary’s was the prescribed penance after a fight with your sister, or the sure fire way to find something that had been lost. It usually worked.
While my devotion to my grandparents never waned, my devotion in Mary did. I became more and more, well,… Presbyterian. Like Presbyterians before me, I prayed to God directly, rather than seeking the intercession of Mary. I abandoned the notion that Mary remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth – thinking that Biblical evidence of Jesus’ siblings was convincing, as was the idea that Mary’s virginity was not what made her special in God’s sight – but rather her willingness to say yes to God’s call. And I walked away from doctrines like the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption convinced that Mary did not have to be perfect in order for Jesus to be.
Yet I have found myself turning toward Mary again – not as an object of devotion, but rather, as a prophetic voice, as a role-model for answering God’s call, and an example of how to participate in God’s saving work in this world. I am keenly aware as a woman in ministry that there are not enough strong female voices represented in the canon of our faith. But I’m likewise aware that God works in and through women too. And so I know it’s essential to tell Mary’s story, and to see what Mary has to say to us.
Today’s story is a familiar one. A girl named Mary receives surprising news from an angelic messenger. Mary has no social standing of her own – she is poor; she is young – about 12 or 13; she is uneducated; and she is a girl. Yet the angel appears in this maiden’s room – no place fancy – and tells Mary that God loves her. In fact, God has chosen her to bring God’s son into the world. With little hesitation Mary says yes to the angel’s invitation. Even though there is little in her life over which she has a say. Even though pregnancy before marriage will put her life at risk. Even though it’s just not possible.
And like that, Mary embarks upon this impossible journey, taking refuge with the only person she knows she can tell – her cousin Elizabeth, who the angel lets her know is pregnant too. The child Elizabeth is carrying testifies to the good news of the incarnation. Elizabeth receives the good news with joy, convinced with Mary of what is possible with God. And then Mary sings a song of praise to God. She sings of the miracle of God’s unlikely plan. And she sings of God’s surprising justice that works for and through the lowly.
Mary is a prophet. She doesn’t speak to burning bushes or eat scrolls, but Mary is called by God out of the confines of her daily life and social state. She is commissioned by God to bring a new revelation of God to the people. Through her God’s redemption comes to creation. Through Mary, God breaks into humanity and brings salvation to all. Through Mary, God comes in Christ so that all may know the fullness of God’s love, and experience new life.
We want to believe this good news. We want to know that hope is not lost, and that the fullness of God’s love has broken into our lives. We need to know that the broken things of this world are going to change. We need to hear the words of Mary’s song, giving voice not only to the kingdom God desires in this earth, but also the life to which we are called. We need a prophet now. We need Mary.
Because when we think of breaking news today, we don’t think of angels. The news today is of mounting stories of young unarmed black men and boys who lost their lives because of a white police officer’s use of lethal force. The news today is of the subsequent refusal of grand juries refusal to indict the police in question. And if we get past those headlines, we read in the background of women suing employers for job protections during pregnancy and of the GOP trying to unseat federal protections to GLBTQ persons.
The news we hear today is disheartening. Frankly, the news today is scary. The news today reminds us that racism (and sexism and heterosexism) still have a hold on our society and that the justice promised to all is not extended equally. It shows us clearly that privilege and power go hand in hand. The news points out how a system created in the name of liberty and justice for all fails to extend freedom or justice as promised to everyone.
But Mary’s words remind us that this broken justice system is NOT God’s brand of justice. Mary sings of a God who strengthens the weak while dismantling the power structures of this world while. She sings of a God who feeds the hungry, while sending the wealthy away empty-handed. Mary sings of a God who elevates the humble while unseating the rulers of the world. Mary sings of a God who refuses to forget those the world has forgotten. Mary sings of a God whose arms are open to those on whom the world has turned its back. Mary reminds us that God cannot be co-opted by the strong to the denigration of the weak. Rather, God is the one who brings redemption into this world through those who have been forgotten.
Mary gives us cause for hope. The God of her song is OUR God too.
But we cannot simply rest in this hope. This hope is not to placate our spirits when we are outraged or discouraged. If we’re taking our cues from Mary, this hope is to be the breeding ground for action. It is the nourishment we need to give us courage and strength for our journey ahead – fuel for our prophetic action.
Like Mary, when God calls, we are to do something. We cannot simply sit idly by and wait for the world to fix itself. We cannot even sit back and wait for God to sweep in and make everything OK. Because we see in our text that God’s work is done THROUGH people. The Incarnation would not have been possible without Mary. Jesus would never have been born in a manger in Bethlehem; he never would have grown up and taught and healed in God’s name; he never would have died for our sins or risen again without a Mother to deliver him into this world. God needed Mary. And God needs us too.
God’s call is not just for the prophets of old. As we see with Mary, God calls ordinary people to prophetic acts. God shows us in Mary how those from whom we least expect courage, resilience, or anything extraordinary can, in one simple word, change the world. Mary’s yes altered the destiny of humankind. Mary’s yes made all the difference.
God works through us ordinary people too. We are called to bring Christ into the world in life-giving and radical ways. The 14th-century German mystic Meister Eckhart wrote: “What is the good if Mary gave birth to the Son of God 2000 years ago, if I do not give birth to God today? We are all Mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.”1
The One Girl, One Voice Movement – a movement to encourage socially responsible teen girls to use their voice for positive change – has on its website stories of how young girls are using their voices to make change.
Sarah, a 15 year old from Doha, Qatar writes:
I use my VOICE to help girls in Tanzania have access to a valuable and essential education. By assisting in building a school for orphans, I hope to better the lives of these girls by paving the way for them to take hold of their right to an education. I also use my VOICE to speak out for the girls in Qatar who feel subjected to and oppressed by the stereotypical gender roles their society enforces, and I try to empower them to be strong women.2
Sonal, a 15 year old from California is using her voice to help literacy. She started a program called “Rescue a Book” where she receives donations of new or used books and donates them to schools, libraries and hospitals. 14 year old Holly Grace is fighting bullying; 11 year old Sophia is advocating for kidney donation. 16 year old Olivia, from South Africa, fundraises for conservation to protect wildlife.
What is YOUR yes to God? What need exists in the world that you have the gifts and the passion to address? What injustice exists in this world that you have the gifts and the passion to fight? How are you being called to give birth to God today?
On this second Sunday of Advent, we are invited to find hope in unexpected places: in a girl; in a simple answer – in the yes within ourselves. We are invited to sit ready, in the quiet corners of our lives – and to listen in the stillness for God’s voice to us. It is possible – perhaps even likely – that it is here that we will hear God’s call. For we too are ambassadors of hope, instruments of God’s grace, called to give birth to Christ in and through our lives.
For nothing is impossible with God.
Amen.
1 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/carlgregg/2011/12/%e2%80%9clet-it-be%e2%80%9d-a-progressive-christian-lectionary-commentary-for-the-4th-sunday-of-advent/#ixzz3L2AjvkZ0
2 www.onegirlonevoice.org/stories