2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Canticle 15
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
Mary on the move
Canticle 15
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
Mary on the move
This morning instead of a Psalm we read together The Song of Mary, found in Luke’s Gospel chapter 1, verses 46-55. Mary’s joy spilled out into a song that has been repeated for almost two thousand years. Almost every major composer has set it to music. Our Gospel reading tells us what Mary’s excitement was all about.
If we go by the Church calendar, it was late March or early April, approximately 4 B.C., when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary of Nazareth. After the angel departed from her, she hastily traveled at least four days to get to a town in the hill country west of Jerusalem. If Mary traveled alone, she took a big chance. It was scandalous for a woman to travel alone. But then, it was also scandalous for Mary to be pregnant out of wedlock.
Mary and Elizabeth were both going through enormous changes in their lives, and this time of bonding was surely a great comfort to them. Elizabeth was a much older woman, married to a priest, whose standing in her community had been diminished because she had no children. Mary was a teenage girl with a lot of spunk and the good wisdom to say yes to God. Mary must have had a lot of questions to ask Elizabeth, such as: “What do the neighbors think?”
What the neighbors would think would weigh heavily on Mary and on Elizabeth. For Elizabeth, the birth of her son, later known as John the Baptizer, would remove the social stigma that had been hanging over her head for years. It would give her status in her husband’s family and in her community. For Mary, being in this delicate condition would be cause for execution.
We can’t help but wonder: when Mary said yes to all this, did she think it through in that split second before responding? Theologians have speculated that between the Angel’s announcement and Mary’s response, the universe held its collective breath. God held God’s breath.
Mary was a human being with a God-given free will. Mary could have said no to God. We wonder how many virgin girls said no to God before Mary said yes. But Mary’s heart was at home in God. She said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” Saying yes to God is always huge and always has consequences of cosmic proportions. Mary had cause to be afraid, but she did not let it get the best of her. Once she said yes she could not contain her joy.
Mary stands in the tradition of Abraham, who gets honorable mention in Mary’s song. That’s because Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, believed God. His belief and faith were accounted to him as righteousness.
For Mary, who was a young teenage girl, this pregnancy signaled the end of her childhood. By saying yes to God, Mary took on full responsibility, not only for her own life, but also for the life of this Precious Baby she would carry. The possibilities were mind-boggling.
Elizabeth, older and wiser, grasped the idea that through Mary’s holy child, God would give the gift of salvation to the entire world. When Mary went to see her, Elizabeth expressed herself as a prophet in the classic sense. That is, she “was filled with the Holy Spirit” and spoke for God. Elizabeth recognized Mary as the mother of her Lord. No wonder Elizabeth’s son John the Baptizer was a prophet. The apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.
Mary wisely sought out this kinswoman – this wife of Zechariah the priest. Mary needed a place to hide away. She needed a spiritual director. But Mary also had her own set of strengths. Mary recognized herself for who she was, and recognized God for who God is and what God can do. I like to call this worship. When the going gets tough, the tough go to worship.
Mary’s situation might not have looked so good to her society at large, but she believed that God would lift her up and bring her to honor. That took an amazing amount of trust. It took a lot of faith. For Mary and Elizabeth, it was their faith, steadfast and strong, that grounded them in God and propelled them into the future with excitement and joy. Mary and Elizabeth’s reactions to these changes in their own lives have affected the Church for almost two thousand years. In any time of transition and change, it is good for us to look at this Gospel reading and remember that “nothing will be impossible with God.” And that “The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.”
As a church, and as individuals, we can no longer live in our own communities without realizing that our decisions and actions affect the world at large. Ever since the late 1960’s when NASA was able to get a picture of the earth from outer space, we have had a growing awareness of our responsibility to our global community.
The good news is that, like Mary and Elizabeth, we are not on our own. God is with us, guiding us and loving us. God is always bringing new life in the most unexpected places and in some surprising ways. The miracle is that the Church is still functioning as the Body of Christ despite all the upheavals throughout the ages.
Mary the mother of Christ is accorded first place among the Saints because she was literally the first Christian. As Mary and Elizabeth both were going through an astonishing transition in each of their lives, their first thoughts were of God. When we are going through transitions in our own lives, I hope that our first thoughts are of God. I hope that we find solace in the Word and Sacraments.
Our scripture readings every Sunday are as ancient as the church. Our celebration of Holy Eucharist goes back to Jesus Christ who instituted it on the night before he was handed over to suffering and death. If our heart is at home in God, changes can swirl around us and never shake our faith. We can say with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” Amen.
In peace,
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
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