Sermon: “Singing With Mary” Last Sunday morning, in the lesson from Romans chapter 13, we heard the Apostle Paul give a rather musical benediction to his readers: May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s a kind of musical benediction - a song - I like to sing. Like most people I like to live in harmony with others in my life, with all of you, with my family and my friends – and how nice it is that “the God of steadfastness and encouragement” is there to help sustain this harmony and this singing with one voice. Harmony is so much better than dissonance - so much more preferred than conflict. Who wants to live in conflict? It makes your stomach upset, and give you a headache. Sometimes conflict is all too present in our relationships during the holidays. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas families often get together, and some relatives come from great distances - and people who haven’t been in each other’s company for many months are thrust together for many hours and days – some of you know what I’m talking about. I have on my desk a cartoon, clearly drawn some years back now, but still relevant. It depicts a family gathered around the Christmas Table, all the food is there, large family sitting around. The top of the cartoon reads: “Ah, Christmas Dinner, when the family all get together to…” And then mother, holding a sheet of paper, announces: Now then, before we start to eat – the following subjects are off limits: the economy, Al Gore, George Bush, Israel, Global Warming, Sean Penn, Saddam Hussein, Trent Lott, Harry Potter, Winona Ryder, Howard Dean, or any of the stuff that was off limits last year.” We don’t want to sing that song of conflict. Harmony is so much more pleasant. This morning I want us to sing another song. It’s a song which Mary sings, here in the first chapter of Luke, when she goes to visit someone in her family, with cousin Elizabeth. Let me say right up front that this is a hard song for us to sing in harmony with Mary. Her song is not like the Christmas Carols we love to sing at this time of year – the songs we know very well. Singing her song may surface some conflict – with stuff on that off-limits list. And if we are able to sing it at all, we are going to need her help. In the gospel Luke does not tell us why Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. Maybe she wants to see for herself what the angel Gabriel told her – that Elizabeth even in her old age, has conceived a child – “for nothing will be impossible with God.” Maybe she goes to visit Elizabeth because she wants to be with another woman who is pregnant for the first time – to compare notes – to talk about how it’s all going. Pregnant women do that, don’t they? Of course for Mary and Elizabeth, both of them would be the “talk of the town” – victims of gossip and scandal. Their pregnancies will surely set the neighbors’ tongues going in rapid motion - certainly so in Mary’s case – for as Gabriel tells her in Luke, and as Gabriel tells Joseph in Matthews gospel - Mary is pregnant in a manner most outside the ordinary. Mary’s song is clearly an Advent song – a song of what is yet to come, of what she and the rest of us must wait for – must “wait patiently for,” as James says in today’s lesson. Notice though that Mary sings of all this as an already accomplished reality. For her it is a realized hope – here already, but not yet fully realized. Following the Latin Bible translation of Mary’s song, we refer to it as “The Magnificat.” Mary sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Updating the language a bit, Mary could have sung it like this: “From the depth of my heart, I declare the Lord’s greatness and rejoice in God my Saviour. For God has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” That part of the song sounds rather nice to us – sing of God’s greatness – rejoicing in God our Savior. We like to sing that too – in great harmony. But then we come to that next line – one we might brush right past – about God “looking with favor on the lowliness of his servant” - Mary – and maybe you or me, when we are humble and self-effacing like Mary. But here’s the problem. The word lowliness sounds and translates as being humble or meek and mild. But the Greek word behind our English word here is not primarily about humbleness and meekness – but about poverty. “Lowliness” is more about being poor. Dr. James Kay, a teacher at Princeton Seminary, puts it like this: Mary is poor -- dirt poor. She is poor and pregnant and unmarried. She is in a mess. It sounds rather harsh to say such things about Mary - the mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – but that’s only because we know who she is, and who her child is. Today if we were to see a teenager like Mary, only 16 or 17 years old – maybe younger - poor, pregnant, and not married? We’d likely say the same thing – at least to ourselves – “Why that girl’s just a mess.” And yet, Mary sings. She sings on – and we wonder why and how she can sing like that, given her situation. Dr. James Kay asks and answers this question: Why [does she sing]? Because [she knows] – and Luke knows -- from the vantage of the end -- that this lowly one, this wretched one, this very woman is the woman God raises up. Mary, despised and rejected, is favored by God and knows that she will bring the Messiah to birth. And so, she sings. Here’s where we have trouble singing in harmony with Mary. Most of us are not poor. Sure, money is tight these days, gas is over $3.00 a gallon – we are spending more at Krogers and Meijers - but relatively speaking, we are not poor – most of us are far from it. So how can we sing with Mary? Singing with Mary gets even harder for us. Mary goes on in her song, singing more of what God has done for her – “great things” she says - and how “all generations will call her blessed.” And then she expands her song, from a solo aria “about her own destiny - to a freedom song, on behalf of all the poor in the land.” She sings because she believes – and she wants others to believe - even in the face of poverty - that God can – and God will make a way where there is no way. The way that God will make will be like the way in the wilderness, like the “highway” which Isaiah sings of in chapter 35. This highway is “the way of holiness - a way for the redeemed of the Lord to walk - a way without danger – a way of joy and gladness – a way where sorrow and sighing will flee away.” Like Isaiah, Mary sings a similar song of prophecy – of God making a way in the wilderness of injustice – of God who “has scattered the proud in the imagination of their thoughts” – who “has brought down the powerful from their thrones” and who “has lifted up the lowly – the poor.” Mary sings out of the God “who has filled the hungry with good things” and who “send the rich, empty, away – with nothing.” She sings of God redistributing the wealth and resources of the world – enabling all to live well and whole and with good things. “This” – Mary sings – “is how God has always worked – for all the people of Israel - even back to Abraham – and how God will continue to work – even “to Abraham’s descendants forever.” I’m not so sure you and I can sing that song. Can we sing with her about a God who is going to throw the powerful from their thrones, who is going to upset the status quo of the world – a status quo in which most of us benefit? Her song is so pointed and sharp that it sticks in our throats. Singing of such pointed things might cause conflict – as we fact the stuff on that off-limits list. After worship about 2/3rds of us will be going to the Ramsey Gym for a big dinner – that most of us could afford. And most of the rest of us know that when we get home, there will be something there to eat. Most of us are sitting fairly close to the top of the economic pyramid – with food and homes and cars and investments – not all – but most. Most of us suppose we have enough and are comfortable enough - we can easily fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t really need God – at least not Mary’s God. “O God of Mary – thank you just the same – but I can pretty much take care of myself.” Mary’s song, on the other hand – sung in poverty and lowliness – she knows just how much she needs God. She also know just how much we all need God – the God who makes a way where there is no way – who provides good things for those who need them – the God who is merciful and compassionate and loving to all – even to those who think they don’t really need God in their life. So if we are going to be singing in harmony with Mary – then we are going to need her help. Mary is going to have to always be the lead voice – to knock us off our self-important and self-sufficient thrones - and remind us of our great need for God - of our need for her son Jesus Christ. With her help, singing with Mary reminds us that the Holy Spirit of God – who spoke to Mary through the voice of Gabriel – is not yet done with us. Singing with Mary helps us to know that the Holy Spirit – who in our baptism began to make us into a new creation - that this new creation is still being formed in you and in me. So with scratchy throats, let us all do our very best to sing with Mary – to sing of this coming and yet to come future – when God will bring about the rule of love and justice for all – of equality and plenty – when rage and violence will be now more – when justice, peace, and well-being will be the reality for all people everywhere. Let us sing with Mary, until her lines become our own. And in harmony, with one voice, all God’s people said. Amen. |