Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:39-55; Hebrews 10:5-10
“My soul magnifies the Lord...”
We received new members today; it's always a great day when that happens. Those of us who have attended here for a long time feel encouraged by the presence of new members for a variety of reasons:
· affirmation of the hope that we are a church worth joining
· new friends; people like us
· it means the church is growing
· we have more people to work on committees & suppers
· we will see an increase in our stewardship income
· the sanctuary will look fuller
· the pastor will meet her quota of attracting new members
Whatever the reason, we rejoice...for ourselves and for our newest members. Yet, what has happened here this morning is not about us. Contrary to the reasons listed above, the fact that we have 7 new members today is not because of something we do or do not do; it's only about what God is doing.
God sends these people to us for God's purposes, not ours. It's true, their gifts, as they share them, may be just what we need at the time, but these folks are not here to fulfill our hopes, solve our problems, or relieve our weariness. These seven are here first because God has sent them, and second because we wanted them to come. Learn not to mix up those two things, even though we put them through our paces the last several weeks in our new Exploring Membership class.
One of the questions that came out of this class was, “What do you do about Mary?” I have not been able to get that question out of my mind; and the timing is perfect because lo and behold, we're in the season of Advent, looking at Christmas just five days away, and it's traditionally our time to look for Mary, great with child, appearing stage left, right on cue.
We reformed Protestants don't give Mary all that much attention. She's only the Mother of God, after all. Mostly what we do is take Mary out of the box in December and set her in her rightful place next to the baby Jesus, who is lying in a manger while cattle are lowing and the star in the sky looks down where he lays.
Yet, the question from our friends who grew up Catholic is an important one for us to answer if we are to honor the journey that has led them here today. It's time for her to be delivered. It's time to take Mary out of the box, hold her in our hands, study her face, and listen intently to her song before we obligingly place her in the manger as usual because there is by design no room for her in the “inn.”
In this process, my hope is that we will take off our Protestant or Catholic ears and listen closely as Christians, because it is our faith in Jesus Christ that makes us one.
All that other stuff, like Catholic and Protestant, United Methodist and United Church of Christ, dogma and doctrine, only seems to breed debate, division and dissension, hardly the tone we're after at Christmas time
The challenge today is to make room for Mary in the inn, our inn-er selves, for she was the favored one of God; she was blessed among women and blessed was the fruit of her womb; she was the handmaiden of the Lord, a servant, untouched by the world, a believer in the God of Israel, the vessel between God and God's incarnation ...and a woman with 'tude, Attitude, with a capital A.
Don't be fooled by tradition and think that Mary was meek and mild, an inexperienced girl frightened by angel visitations in the middle of the day. Mary is far more sophisticated, far more courageous than many Christians, no matter the flavor, give her credit for.
Before we can understand Mary's attitude of magnificent joy, we must be acutely aware of the desperate times they lived in.
In those days of Caesar Augustus, an unmarried woman who was expecting could expect to be stoned to death in the streets.
Why does Mary sing of joy?
Those were the days of Herod the Great—great terror and great taxation, that is. Herod was deeply depressed and increasingly paranoid. Herod “had assassinated members of his own family for anything that even smelled of treachery” (Scot McKnight, “The Mary We Never Knew” in Christianity Today, Dec 2006), and he taxed Israel far beyond her means in part to fund the expansion of the Temple… to be called the Temple of Herod and to keep the Jews in abject poverty. He was an ugly so and so; too bad there wasn't a vitamin for that! We all probably know someone who could use such a vitamin!
Why? Why does Mary sing of joy?
I think Mary sings of joy because she has an attitude, an attitude of the greatness of God. God is great in trustworthiness; God is great in righteousness; and God is great in steadfastness.
I think Mary sings of joy because her place in the world, her God-given purpose in life, has been revealed to her and she believes God's word is true.
Mary did not seek the blessings of all generations so that she could be put on display once a year nor was it her idea to be kept in a garden grotto in the yards of the faithful.
I think that Mary sings of joy because the incarnation of God, the Word made Flesh, is the beginning of the end for the powerful and murderous, and it is also the beginning of the end of the suffering for the people of Israel.
They will be saved; God will pay the ransom with his Son, Christ our Lord. So, in the context of those horrific days in 5/6 BC, I now ask you,
How can Mary not sing of a great joy that is for all people?
Her attitude allows for the vision of a new day that God is bringing to pass. If we read the Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary, and identify the great reversals that God has planned for the powerful and the lowly, how can we not hear and see that hers is a song of subversion...subversion against ruthless, heartless kings; the powerful; the proud and all their brutal injustices:
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). Just imagine if King Herod, Great in Paranoia, had heard Mary's song! [Would it interest you to know that Herod died a few years later of kidney disease, gangrene and scabies?] There isn't any vitamin for that! His was a miserable death. Seems fitting.
What doesn't seem fitting is the death of God's son, on the cross. Yet, we know it to be another of God's great reversals. One innocent man, the blessed fruit of Mary's womb, dies for the sins of all humankind. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of Jesus' only mission, “See, I have come to do your will, O God.”
Have we come to this church to do God's will? Let it be done.
Can we sing, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Let it be sung.
Do our spirits rejoice in God, our Savior? Then let us rejoice, for a visible faith in the Word of God made flesh is the best vitamin of all. Magnify! Get an attitude! Sing the courageous song of faith. Blessed are you! Amen.
December 20, 2009
1st Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
