If you were here last week for our incredible Christmas Cantata, for the scripture reading you also heard the passage known as the annunciation, in which Mary is told that she will give birth to a child and she is to name him Jesus. Additionally, we lit the third candle of Advent, the candle of joy. The other candles of Advent are purple, which represents royalty for Jesus, and the coming birth of the king, but also for repentance and suffering, which like Lent, are part of the season of Advent, although they are now greatly downplayed in importance. The pink of that third candle also comes from a Lenten practice, in which on the fourth Sunday of Lent, there was, and is, a pause from the theme of repentance surrounding Lent, and also the color purple, with a change to pink, or rose and it was a Sunday of rejoicing, a break from the penitential practices of the season. It is seen as a day of hope as we approach the darkness of holy week and then the celebration of Easter. Traditionally no one could be married during Lent, except on this day, it was a day of celebration. And so, when Advent came into being as a liturgical practice, it followed the time of Lent, and the third Sunday too was represented by pink, and the theme of joy, that no matter what is going on in our lives that we can have joy in the presence of God and in the expectation of the coming of Christ.
I think that idea is important as we think then about the stories of Elizabeth, whom we have been hearing about since the first Sunday of Advent with the announcement to Zechariah that she was to bear a son in her advanced age, and then with John the Baptist preparing the way for the coming of Jesus, and even in the annunciation, Mary is told that her cousin Elizabeth is with child. Now it’s not clear why Elizabeth plays such an important role at the beginning of Luke’s gospel, and he is the only one to mention her, and she disappears after the birth of John the Baptist. Perhaps it’s to emphasize that John is not as great as Jesus, after all he leaps in his mother’s womb in praise of Mary, not the other way around. And then, of course, John says that one who is greater than he is coming. Or perhaps Elizabeth is seen as playing the mothering role for the young Mary, as there is no mention at all of Mary’s family. But whatever the reason, Elizabeth clearly plays an important role in Mary’s life at this time, and her response to her pregnancy, and to Mary’s pregnancy, perhaps gives more indication to Mary of how she too should feel and approach the coming birth, as will then be seen in Mary’s song of praise, known as the Magnificat.
But, before we dig into their responses, I do want to highlight one important thing, especially in this time when we are hearing so much about men forcing themselves onto women, which is nothing new, although I am truly hoping that we are getting to a new awareness and perhaps a change in how we treat and view women, not just in the workplace, but in every place. And so there has been some criticism that Mary does not have any choice in the carrying of Jesus, that God simply chooses her, and she has to go through with it, and thus, some have made the accusation that this is sort of forced onto Mary. But, that’s not what the story says. So, to jump back to what we heard last week, the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is favored, and that the Lord is with her, and that she will conceive and bear a son. Mary asks how this is possible, since she has not been with a man, and Gabriel says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you: therefore, the child to be born will be holy: he will be called Son of God.”
Now, notice that he does not say that this has already happened, but that it will happen. It’s still sometime in the future. And then we hear Mary’s response which is “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” That means, at least the way I am seeing this, that Mary had a choice. Gabriel tells her that she is favored and what will happen to her, but only if she chooses to go along with it. That she can say no. I think that for many reasons, but the most important one is because of that response of “Here am I.” That is a familiar response in scripture. When God asks whom shall be sent to the people to deliver God’s message, Isaiah, whose prophecies play a critical role in our understanding of the coming Messiah, says “Here am I.” Similarly, when God calls Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, and Jeremiah, these are the people on the Mount Rushmore of important Biblical figures, what do they say, “Here I am.” Many of them have lots of excuses first of why they can’t do what God is asking them to do, but eventually they come around and say, “Here I am.”
While Mary initially has questions, they are more sort of logistical, before she too says, “Here I am.” So, Mary chooses to take on this important and, what we know, will become a difficult role. And remember simply by becoming pregnant outside of marriage, Mary is risking her life, because the punishment for such a happening is to be stoned to death. She is not just a passive participant in this story, someone with unquestioning obedience. Instead, we should see in Mary the story of a strong women, active in the process, who questions Gabriel, and one for whom Gabriel waits to hear her response before he leaves her. Mary is taking on this choice and this role consciously, just as many other giants in the faith have done before her.
Perhaps that is why John leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary greets her, because she has chosen to be a servant of the Lord, although I’m sure that Mary has quite a bit of trepidation, and perhaps even some fear, although she and Joseph are the only two who have angels appear to them that we are not told that they are afraid, but I do wonder if she truly thinks of herself as “blessed among women” as Elizabeth tells her. But her response to Elizabeth brings us one of the most unique passages in scripture, in what is known as the Magnificat, because of the beginning of Mary’s song, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” when translated into Latin is “Magnificat anima mea dominum,” and it has been set to music by some of the greatest composers, people like Back, Vivaldi and Mozart, to name but a few. This is the longest speech by a woman in the Gospel of Luke, and I’m willing to guess the longest in any of the gospels. But it is set up first by Elizabeth’s comments to Mary.
We are told that before Elizabeth speaks, the Holy Spirit comes upon her, which indicates that she is about to make a prophetic utterance. This is important because there are four prophets, or prophetic statements, made in the first two chapters of Luke, and three of them are by women, which continues to emphasize the good news and who it is for. That the coming of the Messiah is coming not for the rich and the powerful, and the announcements are not to the rich and the powerful, but it is to those who have been excluded from society, those who are told they are not worthy. I encourage you to go back and read Mary’s song, and pay attention to what is says. Mary sings of God’s dramatic reversals, that the proud are scattered, the powerful deposed, the rich are sent away empty, while the lowly are exalted and the hungry are fed. The Magnificat is the prelude to Jesus’ message. If you are familiar with Luke’s narrative, you will hear echoes then of what Luke records as Jesus’ first message when he is in the synagogue, and he picks up the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because it has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. It has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:18-19)
But, what makes Mary’s statement even more significant, is that she does not say this is something that is going to happen, but as having already been fulfilled. She does not say that God will fill the hungry, but that God has filled the hungry. The prophecy, the promises have already been fulfilled, as her words also echo the prophecies and promises made through the generations to the Israelites, thus Jesus quoting from Isaiah. The promised one is here, and he will overthrow the power structures of the world not through violent revolution, but through a proclamation of peace and love and forgiveness and sacrifice. The announcement of Jesus’ coming, and his birth and his ministry mirror the Kingdom of God, which has come, and yet is also not quite here, but it’ not yet here because of a failure on God’s part, but because we have not yet brought it about.
That is why I am always struck by Mary’s statement that her soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God who is her savior. Claiming someone as savior says that we cannot save ourselves, that what we need is greater than we are, it’s bigger than us, that our strength is not enough to get us there. That our will and desire are not enough to save us, that we need someone else, that we need a savior. It’s like Leia’s cry, “help us Obi Won Kenobi, you’re our only hope.” Sorry, just had to do it. And what Mary says is that it has to be with our whole being. It’s not just that what we do and say should glorify God, and I’m working hard enough on that, but that our very souls should glorify God. Mary is our example of the faith not because she is so extraordinary, but because she is so ordinary, and yet what makes her special is that she was willing to say, “Here am I, a servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.”
Linda and I have a friend who just had a baby last week, and in the week’s leading up to it she kept posting on Facebook about how this would be the last time she and her husband ever did some activity and it was just them. That sense of expectancy that certainly every mother knows, that sense of joy and yet also anxiety that comes with the birth of a child. That anticipation is upon us once again for the coming of the Christ child and we rejoice not because he will redeem the world, but because the world has already been redeemed through him. So, let us respond in kind, “Here am I,” and may our souls magnify the Lord. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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