Mary Was a Radical

“We are all meant to be mothers of God … for God is always needing to be born” – Meister Eckheart, 13^th century German philosopher, theologian and mystic.

Imagine a picture or image you have seen of Mary.  Chances are you are picturing a demure woman with downcast eyes and a serene expression.  Likely she is draped in blue or white with a gentle illumination around her head.  Now I want you to take this picture and tear it into little pieces so that we can consider Mary with new eyes, fresh eyes. 

We often present a very wrong picture of Mary a picture that portrays her as passive, blindly obedient and her YES to God as something sweet, small and feeble.

I recently heard an interview with a woman who is in currently in divinity school.  One of her classes, from a womanist perspective, suggested that one might apply a hermeneutic[1] of suspicion when reading scripture.  Why would we consider scripture with suspicion?  We might consider the layer after layer of understanding and misunderstanding that has distorted the stories.  We might consider the message we read with modern eyes might not be the message received in a culture 2000 years ago.  We might consider that scripture was written by men, for men and about men with women and women’s experience being pointedly excluded. 

Let’s look at the story:

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most Highwill overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called^[b] the Son of God. ³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”

³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

One thing to note that the pattern of this encounter follows a traditional call narrative that follows the same arc as the call narrative to Moses as well as to Isaiah when they were called by God to speak and act prophetically.[2]  This would have been recognized by those who first heard and responded to this passage.

Mary’s responses to the Angel Gabriel are not powerful and confident, she says yes to God, but you can hear the reticence in her response.  We are told she is troubled and by his words, she questions how his prediction is even possible and her acceptance does not sound like those of excitement “I am the Lord’s servant, May your word to me be fulfilled”

Mary reminds us of what it looks like and sounds like when God shows up in your life – unannounced, unexpected, unplanned and maybe even unwanted.  The annunciation to Mary helps us remember that God becoming human should always unsettle and upset.

With her YES to God Mary faced an uncertain future.  Her yes meant that she would find herself pregnant and unmarried in an ancient culture where coercive control of female sexuality was a primary measure of masculine honor.  She could expect shaming, retribution or even stoning  as her pregnancy came to the awareness of her family and community. 

I want to take us past the lectionary, because I don’t think you get the full measure of Mary’s story if you end here. The angel, as part of his proclamation, told Mary that “Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”

So Mary goes to another woman, an older, wiser family member who has also experienced a miraculous conception.  Elizabeth greets mary with honor and in doing so overturns social expectations.  Mary is an unmarried pregnant girl, she could expect social judgment, shame ostracism from her older kinswoman, instead she receives honor and praise. 

³⁹ At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰ where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³ But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Mary needs community, relationship, guidance.  It isn’t the angel that gives her strength and confidence and power, it is Elizabeth that inspires Mary to step into a place where she can voice the Magnificat.

I am about to read Mary’s song, the first advent hymn, the first Christmas carol and it is full of defiance and protest and fire.  This is a protest song calling passionately for justice.  This is a dangerous passage, so dangerous that on at least three different occasions it was banned from being sung recited or displayed:

During the British colonial rule of India it was prohibited from being sung in church.  The caste system had been exploited by the British presence as a way to control the population and the Magnificat challenged that system.

The Magnificat was banned in Argentina in the 1970’s after the Mothers of the Disappeared used it to call for nonviolent resistance to the ruling military junta.

During the 1980’s the government of of Guatemala banned its public recitation. 

Here is the Magnificat:

⁴⁶ And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

⁵⁶ Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

Just like Mary, sometimes we are called to wait and allow for God to grow in us.  Sometimes it’s hard not to be worried that fruition is not RIGHT NOW!  Sometimes this is serene waiting and sometimes it is patient angry waiting. 

Perhaps there’s something here that we should look into.  The Magnificat hasn’t been banned, we can speak it, post it, sing it.  But maybe it is just rattled off without thought or passion.  What we sometimes do is give it a totally ‘spiritual meaning’ and in doing so cut it off at the knees.  The tendency to spiritualize problems in this world right here, right now is a constant temptation faced by religious people.  It can actually be a way of not having to deal with them.  It is easy to pray for the sick and the poor and then head to our warm beds in our warm houses with our bellies full of food.  It is also easy to write sermons about the injustices of the world and then be unwilling to put effort and energy into fixing the very real problems that are rife within our own communities.  Because of this we must all build our own capacity to sing for justice as Mary did, sing in preparation for doing, for action. 

I have brought a “Modern Magnificat” written by Fred Kaan[3] that is sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree) so that we can practice raising our voices for justice:

Sing we a song of high revolt;

make great the Lord, his name exalt!

Sing we the song that Mary sang

of God at war with human wrong.

Sing we of him who deeply cares

and still with us our burden bears.

He who with strength the proud disowns,

brings down the mighty from their thrones.

By him the poor are lifted up;

he satisfies with bread and cup

the hungry ones of many lands;

the rich must go with empty hands.

He calls us to revolt and fight

with him for what is just and right,

to sing and live Magnificat

in crowded street and council flat.

In these passages Mary has gone from young girl to prophet, from Mary to mother of God. This is the transition from Advent to Christmas.  Mary’s story moves us all from who we think we are to who God has called us to be.

Reverend Carolyn Sharp says “Don’t envision Mary as the radiant woman peacefully composing the Magnificat.  Instead see her as a girl who sings defiantly to her God through tears, fists clenched against an unknown future.  When we do this Mary’s courageous song of praise becomes a radical resource for those seeking to honor the holy amid the suffering and conflicts of real life.”

So I end as I began, with Meister Eckhart’s words:  “We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.”

---

[1] Definition of Hermeneutic:  a method or principle of interpretation  

·       a philosophical hermeneutic

[2] Call narrative:  Greeting 28, startled reaction 29, exhortation not to fear 30, divine commission 31-33, objection 34, reassurances 35, offer of confirming signs 36-37

[3] Fred Kaan (1929-2009) was a prolific hymn writer and it was only after I gave this sermon that I realized he has eight hymns in Community of Christ Sings including two of my favorites:  210 The Love of God and 309 Put Peace into Each Other’s Hands.  He was born in Holland and lived through the Nazi occupation, seeing three of his grandparents die from starvation in this time.  His family was part of the Dutch resistance and sheltered a young Jewish woman in their home for two and a half years.  After the war he became an ardent pacifist and entered the ministry, these influences can be seen in his beautifully worded hymns.