Luke 1:26-38
Hillary Clinton, Queen
Elizabeth II, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Frieda Pinto, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Kate
Middleton are all women who are known the world over. Yet as recognizable as their names might be,
there is one woman whose name is better known.
She is certainly the best-known woman in the western world and one of
the best known in the rest of the world.
She was one of the world’s most famous women a hundred years ago and a
hundred years from now when people ask, “Who was Katy Perry” hundreds of
thousands will still know the woman I will be speaking about this morning.
Indeed, there are
churches named in her honor on every continent.
Yes, including Antarctica. Yet,
we don’t know if she was tall and willowy or short and stocky. We can be fairly certain she was not a
golden-haired northern European girl she is sometimes depicted to be in
Christian art.
We Protestants may not
give her much thought outside the Advent season but she deserves our
respect. Alan Richardson reminds us that
Mary’s submission to her place in God’s plan helped initiate the earthly
sojourn of the Word made flesh.
At one point
Protestants may have hesitated to say much about Mary but no longer. We see
her as a woman of faith, a woman worthy of our careful study and, to some
degree, a woman who should be an example for us.
Historian Ruth Tucker
summarizes the appeal of Mary Luke’s story.
Mary has been the object of both excessive
adulation and unnecessary belittling.
But the portrait in Luke’s birth narratives and the further unfolding of
her experiences in the Gospels reveal a woman who both loved God and needed to
grow in faith.
It’s this Mary I want
us to look at this morning.
The Singer Inspired
You know that Mary was
probably no more than fourteen or fifteen at the time of Jesus’ birth.
Of course, a fourteen
year-old in the first century was probably considered more mature than a
typical fourteen year-old in the twenty-first century. She would have been considered ready for marriage
and ready to start a family. Adolescence
has become much longer in the west and in much of the non-western world as
well. We have come to anticipate a woman going to college and possibly starting
a career before getting married. This is
a “modern” perspective.
And, so, when we meet
Mary she is “betrothed” to a man named Joseph, who himself may have been no
older than eighteen or nineteen (though, some traditions suggest he was several
years older).
In the Jewish culture,
betrothal was more binding than our engagement but did not include the right of
sexual intimacy. In fact, to not bring
her virginity to the marriage bed would be a disgrace for a Jewish bride and an
insult to her husband. Mary, who appears
to have been a devout young woman, had lived in purity, anticipating her
marriage.
As we read the story of
Gabriel’s announcement, we can hear Mary’s puzzlement. At first, she very reasonably questioned what
the angel told her. She was a virgin and
virgins don't have babies. But her faith
was strong enough to accept the angel’s assurance,”…nothing is impossible for
God.”
As you read this story,
notice not only what Gabriel said but what he didn't say. It was challenge enough at this point to
accept she would be with child through God's miraculous overruling of the
natural processes of conception. So,
Gabriel said nothing of mangers, of a megalomaniacal king attempting to kill
her son, or of hasty flights to Egypt.
There would be time enough for those challenges later on. There was still plenty to deal with right
now.
At some point she told
Joseph and we know he struggled with about what to do. Matthew tells us he seriously considered
ending the betrothal as quietly as possible so both he and Mary could get on
with their lives. He wasn't motivated by
anger or bitterness; he never wanted Mary to be embarrassed or shamed by his
actions. Perhaps he wanted her to be
free to marry the baby's father, whoever he might be. Just how long he weighed his decision before
he had his own angelic visit we don't know.
As I reflect on the
story, I can only imagine how high the emotions were during this time. It was during this time of high emotion that
Mary visited Elizabeth. Perhaps Mary made
her trip to find the courage and strength to tell Joseph she was with child.
Or, could it be that she had told Joseph and it was during his time of
indecision that Mary went to see her kinswoman? Or did she return from her three-month visit
to Elizabeth unable to hide her pregnancy? We don't know but during that trip to see
Elizabeth something remarkable happened.
Their encounter reveals
something about both women and gives us a snapshot of the hope they had in
their hearts.
Luke recounts their
meeting.
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!"
As soon as she could
after her visit from the Gabriel, Mary headed off to see her older
relative.
The visit was filled
with several emotions. There was joy.
There was wonder. There was gratitude.
Elizabeth revealed her
depth of character as she celebrated Mary's pregnancy. She showed no jealousy or envy that her young
kinswoman should have been chosen to give birth to the Messiah (for whether
anyone else knew what was happening, this handful of people had grasped the
reality that God was at last fulfilling the promise to send a Redeemer).
Luke says Elizabeth was
"filled with the Holy Spirit."
The epistles will give further insight into what this means for a
believer but here it seems to mean that God's Spirit gave Elizabeth special
insight to understand what was happening.
So, she bursts out with a joyous declaration. She declares Mary's great blessing and that
Mary's child would be her "Lord."
In all that she says, Elizabeth is demonstrating the same willingness to
fit into God's plans that Mary had demonstrated when she told Gabriel, "I
am the Lord's servant."
Just how are we to understand Elizabeth's
testimony that her baby "leaped for joy?" Experiments suggest that a baby in the womb
may respond to outside stimulus and react to the mother's moods. Perhaps the level of joy and awe Elizabeth
felt at this moment was sensed by her baby and he did move accordingly. That an unborn Jewish infant in the fifth or
sixth month of development might know he was in the presence of the Messiah is
not necessarily Luke's intent here.
Nevertheless, there are wondrous elements to this encounter and Luke
certainly isn't telling us about an everyday occurrence.
Whatever Luke's
meaning, the account points ahead to John's enthusiastic devotion to what God
was doing in and through Jesus.
The Singer Lifts Her Voice
Mary's response to
Elizabeth's greeting tells us something about her and gives us one of the most
beautiful portions of Luke's gospel and what might be considered the first
example of Christian poetry. Her words are called the "Magnificat," a
term coming from the Latin version's opening usually translated "I
magnify."
Mary's words form a
song of praise. It has two parts.
The opening words deal
with God's wondrous work in Mary's own life.
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.
The focus of her praise
is God who is doing such a remarkable work in her life. She sees God as her "Savior," the
One who is a deliverer and rescuer. She
may have in mind God as Israel's savior but she certainly pictures God as her
savior. She sees nothing in her personal
character to merit his choosing her for the role she will play. She seems
unready to accept any notion of having had an "immaculate conception,"
of being born without sin. Her amazement
suggests she knew she was as unworthy of the honor as any of us would be.
Future generations will
call her "blessed," not because of something inherent within her but
because of God's actions in her life. As
one writer has pointed out an unknown Hebrew teen has, because of God's grace,
become the most honored woman in human history.
As Mary considered her
future--mothering God's Messiah--she must have taken comfort in the fact that
God is "the Mighty One" who can do such "great things" in
the lives of those who trust him.
Because of this confidence she would be able to face the criticism,
gossip, and challenges that would soon come her way.
As her song continues,
Mary turns to the wider blessing God was about to bestow on humankind.
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."
This portion of Mary's
song reflects her familiarity with the Psalms and other prophetic passages of
the Old Testament. The unifying theme
seems to be the notion of a great reversal in which the rich and powerful are
pictured as exchanging places with the poor and powerless. In her song, Mary sees her Son making all
things different. He would change
things.
As we read this we need
to remember that the rich are not condemned because they are rich. Riches are often seen as part of God's
blessings on the righteous. No, the rich
in Mary's song are those who have gained their wealth by crushing the poor or
exploiting them with no regard for their humanity. Mary, a peasant girl, is not promoting the
class envy we have sometimes seen in history.
She is underscoring the Bible's consistent warning against unjust rulers
and the greedy rich who are "proud in their inmost thoughts." They show no fear of God; that is, they do
not recognize God for who he is and order their lives accordingly. If they had,
they would show compassion and care for those less fortunate than themselves.
Mary's song foreshadows
the strong social ethic that marks Luke's gospel. He pictures Jesus as being especially
concerned for the poor.
Some are surprised that
Evangelicals have a long history of activism in dealing with social evils. The Evangelical Awakening in Britain saw the
creation of dozens of agencies and organizations designed to help the poor and
oppressed. Evangelicals led the way in
ending slavery, producing child-labor laws, building hospitals and orphanages,
and opening schools to teach the basics of literacy. You might not believe it when you hear some
of the rhetoric on the radio or in political ads, but Evangelicals were among
the most vocal advocates for the creation of labor unions to make sure workers
had decent wages and safe working conditions.
Above all, they
believed the example of Jesus and the implications of his teachings would
generate the moral suasion to change a corrupt world.
Some of the stories we
retell this season reflect the change Mary's Son made in the world. In A Christmas Carol, Dickens
challenged a notion that was gaining ground among the intellectuals of
nineteenth-century England. He puts this
view into the mouth of the pre-conversion Scrooge who argues that society is
better off without the poor and handicapped like Tiny Tim. Dickens counters this with the view that
every man, woman, and child has value--an attitude shaped by the Biblical moral
vision.
Of course, Mary isn't
suggesting that poverty is to be cured by a handout. At best, that is a stopgap measure. Instead, Mary sings of a time when the
structures will be transformed and the roots of poverty will be
eliminated. How that will happen demands
careful reflection, not chaotic revolution.
For example, some of
America's and the world's most successful retailers pay salaries so low their
employees often must supplement their incomes with food stamps. At the same time, these corporations
sometimes have strategies that undercut any effort by workers to organize. What's the solution? Boycotts and strikes will hurt the workers
long before they hurt the stockholders.
I’m no expert but it
seems to me we might try a multifaceted approach. First, we should tell our
community leaders to refuse special favors to these corporations until they
improve their treatment of employees. I
think this should also include a refusal to honor the stores for “community
service” like giving scratching posts to the cat-shelter as long as their
employees are using food stamps. Second, we should assure the corporations that
we will continue to be customers even if the prices should correspondingly
increase with an increase in salaries.
Jordan Weissmann of The Atlantic says,
“If workers were paid $25,000 a year [instead of the current $19k], with half
the cost passed on to the consumers, the average big-box shopper would pay just
$17.73 extra a year.”[1] Finally, I think we should tell the board
members of these companies, many of whom claim to be Christians, to put up or
shut-up. We should challenge them to
show their faith in real ways.
You can probably think
of other ways Mary’s vision might be realized.
Mary's prayer might
seem to suggest that her Son would bring blessing only on the Jewish
nation. If a first-century Jewish woman
should think that it would not be surprising.
Her Son's closest followers did not grasp the depth and breadth of his
work until after the Ascension. But the
broader vision of Jesus' work would be revealed in other episodes in the story
of the first Christmas story. The song's
reference to the promises to Abraham recalls how those promises included the
expectation that all peoples of the earth will be blessed through his
Descendent, the Messiah, Mary's unborn child.
Long before the first
Christian evangelists were beginning to take the gospel into the world, Mary
envisioned her Son turning the world upside-down.
And, indeed, because of
her Son things have changed. In the
world her Son would create...
The poor are no longer
marginalized but are seen as individuals with value and potential.
The rich and powerful
are no longer a law unto themselves with no fear they will be called to task
for their indifference and acts of injustice.
The sinner--and that
includes us all--need no longer grope for salvation, hoping enough merits have
been earned to please God, but fearing this is not the case; instead that
sinner may rest confidently on the grace of God.
If we truly understood
all the change Mary's Child has brought into the world, we each would join her
in saying, "My soul magnifies The Lord."
