Luke 1:39-45
So… here we have a young woman…likely between 13 and 15 years of age.
- She is a peasant…and she is engaged to a religious man.
- An angelic figure visits her saying that she has found favor with God and is going to conceive a son by the Holy Spirit.
I know that there are many who have a difficult time believing that Mary was a virgin.
- But…for crying out loud…for me…the harder thing to believe was that the Angel Gabriel found someone to say yes!
- If I ever would have said yes to something so bizarre…
- I would have done so…only…if I knew what was in it for me.
- Namely…how am I going to be blessed by this God who wants to use me.
- But Mary…based on very little solid evidence or information…said:
- I am God’s and let it be with me according to God’s Word.
- She said yes.
The Lord be with You.
Oh…but I wonder…how many young women said no that night before the angel Gabriel found one who would say yes?
- And if there were a string of young women saying no that night you really cannot blame them…can you?
- I mean…here’s the thing…a few verses later Elizabeth calls Mary blessed.
- And Mary sings that for generations to come people will call her blessed.
- But think about how the story played out for Mary.
Is that what being blessed looks like?
- We usually use that word a bit differently.
- You’re so blessed to have that new boat.
- Well…how exactly is Mary using that word?
- Did she feel blessed as her unwed belly grew under the gaze of disapproving others.
- Did she feel blessed when laboring amongst sheep and straw?
- Mary…common and favored and from a nothing town.
- Did she feel blessed when her heart dropped realizing she left her 12-year-old in Jerusalem?
- At his arrest did she feel blessed seeing ropes dig into the wrists of God made flesh and the flesh of her flesh?
- Did she feel blessed when they lifted him up?
- Blessed are you among women.
- But if that is what blessing is…I might have to pass.
- It was hard enough sending my kids to middle school.
- Golgotha is a whole other matter.
But I think Mary of Nazareth had a particular wisdom from God.
- I do not think that she was always and forever full of nothing but virtue and pure acceptance.
- But I am sure she was not just another Jane Doe.
- That…yes…she gave…was fierce.
No one else was his mother.
- Just Mary.
- Blessed is Mary among women.
- Common and favored.
- And blessed is the fruit of her womb…Jesus.
- God and Man.
- This is why Martin Luther said:
- We hail Mary…Queen of Heaven…because in her we come to know that ours is the God who comes nearest to us in our brokenness.
I think Mary deserves our devotion because…
- In her we see what casting our lot with God really looks like.
- And we see what being blessed by the God of Israel really looks like.
- Namely…that being blessed means seeing God in the world…
- And trusting that God is at work even in things we cannot see…or understand…or imagine.
Mary saying: God…I am yours. Let’s do this thing…She said yes.
- She did not say yes because she thought by doing so God was going to shower her with cash and prizes.
- No…here is where this girl had some serious savvy.
- She got something I struggle to understand:
- Getting a blessing is not the same as getting a present.
- She said yes not based on the expectation of things being awesome for her.
- She said yes based on the expectation that God can create something out of nothing.
To be a people marked by the faith of Mary is to be a people who say Ok…
- I do not understand what is going on…
- And I know that my life is not going to end up looking like one I would choose out of a catalogue…
- But I trust that God is at work in all of it.
- Blessedness is being used for God’s purpose more than it is getting what I want…or things being easy.
Christmas itself is not about getting what we want…
- Or making sure we are giving others what they want.
- To experience Christmas is to trust that God can do this thing again.
- God can again be born in me…in you…
- In this broken and gorgeous world.
In the 4th century St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote:
- What was achieved in the body of Mary will happen in the soul of everyone who receives the Word.
- God is at work in us in much the same way God was at work in Mary.
- So…may the God through whom nothing is impossible help us to be Mary.
- Saying a fierce…or timid…or quiet…or confident…YES.
- May it be with us all according to God’s Word.