Micah 5:2-5a; Canticle 15; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)
The Rev. Candice B. Frazer
Its been a difficult year—for the world at large, for the church, even for many of us, personally. But strife and suffering are not necessarily bad things. Don’t get me wrong, challenging times are not fun but they can play a clarifying role in how we understand our purpose and our hope. That is the great witness of Mary—a pregnant, unwed, teenager who says “yes” to God even at the risk of public shame and outcast or possible stoning. When the angel Gabriel delivers the news of God’s call to Mary, she simply responds, “Let it be with me according to thy will.” Without hesitation, remorse, or doubt, Mary relinquishes her own agency in order to allow God’s work in the world to unfold.
Blessed is she who believes….
Elizabeth is no less a witness to the power of a faithful response in the face of suffering and shame. She was said to be barren, but now, in her old age, she has conceived a son “for nothing is impossible for God”. Elizabeth herself gives credit to God for her pregnancy not knowing that the same angel who came to Mary had also visited her husband, Zechariah. Unlike Mary’s visitation, the visitation between Gabriel and Zechariah was marked with doubt and resistance for which Zechariah was struck mute. No doubt, Elizabeth knew something had happened to her husband in the Holy of Holies where Gabriel visited him but she did not know that he had experienced a theophany—a divine encounter—much less what had transpired between her husband and this heavenly messenger. Instead, of doubting or resisting, Elizabeth, like Mary, simply accepted it as the work of God—a blessing in the midst of her disgrace.
Blessed is she who believes…
It is not only Mary and Elizabeth who serve as witnesses to God’s inspiring work in the world. The songs and stories of women are sprinkled throughout the pages of scripture testifying to the great hope of God in the midst of their own sufferings and pain. Miriam risks everything to hide her baby brother amongst the reeds and rushes of the Nile River in order that he might be saved from Pharoah’s cruelty. After Moses leads the people through the Red Sea, Miriam dances and sings to glorify the Lord and his triumph.
Blessed is she who believes…
Ruth refuses to leave her mother-in-law, Naomi, when she has lost everything including her sons and husband, declaring, “where you go, I will go…your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
Blessed is she who believes…
Hannah sings the glory of God after discovering that she has conceived. She is a precursor of both Elizabeth and Mary, serving as inspiration for Elizabeth’s joy and Mary’s song. Like Elizabeth, Hannah is barren and thus ridiculed by her husband’s other wife. She is shunned and abused—even by her own family—and marginalized in a society where God’s favor is associated with a woman’s ability to bear children. But Hannah’s prayers are answered and in response to the birth of her son, she dedicates him to the service of the Lord and offers a song of praise to God. “He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. He guards the…faithful ones, but the wicked he cuts off…” In her song we hear the testimony of one who believes that God’s justice is extended to those with faithful desire. It is Hannah’s song that inspires the same witness and testimony of Mary.
Blessed is she who believes…
Mary’s Song, or “The Magnificat” (meaning to magnify), echoes Hannah’s song of joy and dedication. We do not hear fear or worry about what might happen in the world or even to a young, unwed mother. Instead, we hear a piety and righteousness that far outweighs the evils that may lie ahead. In Mary’s song, we hear liberation and mercy which demonstrates a certain irony.
Mary is not a barren woman of old age, finally blessed by God with a child like Elizabeth or Hannah. Her ridicule, shunning, and shame is her teenage pregnancy. While Elizabeth and Hannah bore the abuse of not being favored by God, Mary is highly favored by God and yet remains outcast, poor, and lowly. In her world, a woman’s worth and value were directly related to her ability to conceive and bear children—but only if she met certain conditions. To bear children under any condition that remained outside of marriage was anathema. What sets Mary apart from Hannah and Elizabeth is not her song of hope or faith in God—it is that faith and hope in a God who puts her in this compromising position.
The God that Mary’s soul magnifies and in whom her spirit rejoices in is a God who has called her to live on the outside of the accepted norms of society. No longer will Mary live within the norms that humanity defines, for that is a world that God will defy. God will bring down the powerful from their thrones and send the rich away empty not because they are rich and powerful, but because their trust is centered in their wealth and influence and not in God’s abundance and desire. God scatters the proud because only then can they learn the grace of humility. The lowly are lifted up and the hungry are made full. In God’s world, people are cared for because they care for one another. They do not live in fear of the world but in the fear of God which has nothing to do with being afraid and everything to do with a reverence and deep, sacred trust of the Almighty.
Mary’s trust in God allows her to say “yes” even when everything about this experience would scream “no.” She will become the medium through which God will enter into the world, and she will face the shame and judgment of a world that cannot understand the divine purposes of
God. She will stand as a witness to us in helping us to understand what it means to partner with God and one another in building up the kingdom.
Our response to God’s call to us, is not simply to say, “Let it be,” but to recognize what it means to release our own power and desires and embrace God’s. Mary did so by becoming the Theotokos – the Mother of God – but we too are called to reveal God to the world. We have spent the season of Advent preparing for Christ—not just as a babe in a manger, but also for his coming again. That coming will be marked by the love and mercy of the first coming—why should it be any different? If we are to truly embrace the word of Christ in the world, we must relinquish our own agency and allow God’s work to unfold through us. The blessing of the believer is not that they are given greater power and glory but that they, themselves, serve to glorify the Lord in greater ways and acknowledge his power in their lives—just like Miriam and Ruth and Hannah and Elizabeth and Mary.
Blessed is she who believed… Amen.