Luke 1:46b-55
- Has Mary, the Mother of Jesus, been an important part of your faith?
- She was not a big part of my faith in my upbringing in my faithful Lutheran family and context. Venerating or even acknowledging Mary was “too Catholic.” But I have come to appreciate Mary first of all because of what I learned about Martin Luther’s regard for her: he referred to her as the Theotokos (that’s Greek: the bringer or bearer of God) and Mater Dei (that’s Latin: the Mother of God). That made me think anew about her role in God’s redemption of the world.
- And then the deciding factor: For years I was puzzled about the ending of Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil – a composition for choir that is all about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (I first sang it about 25 years ago.) It concludes with a hymn of praise to Mary. At first I thought it was because in the Orthodox faith she occupied a position above Christ. But then I learned something new: in Orthodox sensibilities, Mary the Mother of Our Lord is a symbol of Christ’s church. Her faith is the ideal of faith for all followers of Christ. That’s why Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil ends like that.
- I have a new appreciation for the role of Mary in the faith of the church. I don’t worship her; I don’t pray to her. But I do honour her because of her faith in God’s redemptive work.
How strange are God’s ways. In Christ, God turns the world upside down.
In order to set into motion the divine plan for a New Creation, God chooses two women … and this in a culture where men predominated, where male privilege and male muscle-power and male influence drove the economy, and male leadership operated the official institutions of religion. Because of this cultural fact, socially speaking, Elizabeth and Mary were virtually invisible.
And yet, throughout the Bible, women had always been an important factor in the relationship between heaven and earth. Rarely were their roles public, but always were they instrumental for God’s goal – that the chosen people might be a blessing to all nations.
And so in the episode preceding today’s gospel reading, St. Luke tells us of a very personal exchange between two women who are utterly crucial to the dawning of the New Era in Jesus Christ, followed by Mary’s sublime poem in praise of God.
The incident takes place not out in the open, but inside a dwelling. No surprise. In the world of the Bible, interior space is private space. And it’s usually women’s space, not subject to public scrutiny. Even so, St. Luke shares it with you and me, the hearers of God’s saving Word, for the sake of our faith.
Elizabeth is the wife of the priest, Zechariah. The priestly class was highly respected in ancient Jewish society, and I imagine that whatever Elizabeth’s origins, she gained status by her marriage to Zechariah. Even so, she suffered shame: in a society where producing children was not only highly valued but also commanded, they had no children. She was unable to conceive. It seemed inevitable that this shame would cling to her to the grave, for she and Zechariah were past child-rearing age.
But look! Through this socially-disgraced but faithful servant, God acted for the sake of all. By God’s Spirit, she conceived.
Meanwhile, Mary is a young woman from the insignificant town of Nazareth in Galilee. It’s probable that she is in her early-to-mid-teens, and thus is able to conceive and therefore is eligible for marriage. And in fact she has just become pregnant. But she has had no intimate relations with her fiancé, Joseph.
Of course, we who read and hear the Gospel story know why she is pregnant. The angel of the Lord had come upon her, and the power of the Most High had overshadowed her. Thus she conceived a child — a holy child, the Only Beloved Son of God.
We don’t know much about the response of either woman to these miraculous conceptions, but we do know that Elizabeth expressed gratitude that, in her advanced years, God had taken away the disgrace she had suffered all her married life because she had not borne children. As for Mary, in addition to her initial fear and bewilderment, we know of her faith: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
That sets the scene for today’s gospel reading. Mary has set out from her home in Nazareth to an unspecified Judean town in the hill country. No doubt she has been compelled by God’s Spirit, because God’s Spirit has been propelling the story from its beginning.
The trip probably took several days. It’s likely that Mary went with other travellers. In any case, God ensured her safety, for this young peasant woman was now carrying within her the Saviour of the world.
As soon as Mary voiced her greeting to Elizabeth, John-in-the-womb bore the world’s first witness to the identity and presence of the incarnate Saviour. He didn’t say anything; he just jumped in Elizabeth’s womb. He was followed closely by his mother, Elizabeth, who proclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
And that leads to the powerful poem that has become Mary’s signature song of praise, the Magnificat. She thanks God. She praises God for saving grace, especially bearing witness to God’s special attention for the hungry, the poor, and the weak.
According to Mary, God turns the world upside down. She should know: God’s saving action is beginning with her and her kinswoman, Elizabeth. They’re women, not men! God’s redemption of the world will begin not with men, but with women.
But that’s only the beginning. Jesus, the Saviour of the world is coming. In her womb, Mary carries God’s salvation for all. And he will indeed turn things upside down.
About 30 years later, the truth of Mary’s words will take flesh in the person of her firstborn son, no longer wrapped in swaddling cloths, and now walking through the streets of the towns of Galilee. Through Jesus’ authoritative word, his openness to all people, and his redemptive works, he brings to fruition his mother’s description of God’s mighty acts and her praise of God’s saving grace.
- Jesus will welcome one and all to his table – even the marginalized, the ones who were considered impure, unclean, disreputable, and undeserving.
- With a few loaves and fish he will miraculously feed thousands gathered around him on the Galilean hillsides.
- He will heal the incurably sick and even raise the dead from the grave.
- He will welcome and embrace the sinner, and will forgive sin with all the authority of heaven itself, even though those who arbitrated righteousness considered it blasphemy.
In short, Jesus will carry out the program that Mary prophesied in the Magnificat, her sublime song of praise … including upsetting the ancient applecart of religious propriety and political power. Of course, that will lead to resistance and opposition. And even Jesus’ mother — the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God — even Mary would begin to question her son’s spiritual status and righteousness.
No wonder, then, that the world tried to get rid of him. The cross was inevitable. It was an instrument designed certainly to inflict terrible pain, but more importantly to heap maximum shame upon the naked convict before his inevitable death. It was a powerful tool for social control in a world where shame-avoidance was instrumental in relationships, economics, and politics.
For all appearances, Jesus’ execution by the cross brought to a crashing, dismal halt God’s program of turning the world upside down.
But even the cross was part of God’s program! Jesus’ death would mark the end to the old era in order to make way for the new. For from the grave God called forth the Only Beloved Son, Jesus, as the First Being of the New Creation. God called forth “grace on the loose.”
By our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection – by the power of the Holy Spirit poured out together with that water – God brings an end to our old ways so that God might raise you and me to new life – new life according to the vision prophesied by God’s faithful and willing servant, Mary of Nazareth.
We now live by the righteousness of faith — faith in God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ, faith in God’s good purposes for you and me and all people; the same faith that elicited those sublime words from Mary, as we heard in our gospel reading for today: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.”
And so we thank God for Elizabeth and John the Baptizer and all who prophesied a new era of faith; and for Mary, who carried salvation-incarnate and delivered him into the world. Together with Mary, we praise God for turning the world upside down, beginning with otherwise unnoticed women and, in short order, the birth of the Saviour of all humanity, whose first bed was a feed trough for animals.
Thank God for Mary, the Mother of Our Lord. Thank God for Jesus Christ, through whom God grants you and me forgiveness of sins, faith, life, and salvation – all because of the unmerited love and favour poured out upon a waiting world.
Peace be with you all.