Mary: Bold, Eager, Confident, Revolutionary

 Luke 1:26-38  Advent 4 12-24-17

 

Mother and Child
Pablo Picasso

The words we usually hear to describe Mary are “meek and mild”

I’m sure people mean it as a compliment,

but if you called me “meek and mild”,

I think I might wonder what you meant by that,

and then stew over it for the rest of the day.

The classic image of Mary

(the woman who gave birth and raised Jesus)

is of a silent, obedient woman who passively

allows herself to be used without objection.

Who cowers quietly and accepts her fate.

And this has been put forward to many Christian girls

as the perfect example of what to be:

Obedient, quiet, submissive.

But is that who God would have chosen

for this awesome and difficult task of raising the savior?

And is this what we find in the little story that we have?

Not really.

First off, earlier in the Gospel,

the angel Gabriel comes to Mary.

Seemingly out of nowhere.

Now I’m not meek or mild but

I’m not sure I could get through that experience

without hiding under my bed.

But Mary really takes the whole encounter in stride,

with a calmness and self-control.

 

And then the Angel tells her some pretty heavy news,

that she will be pregnant, and she will have

an enormously important child.

And that child is the one that everyone is waiting for, the Messiah.

 

And not only is Mary not hiding under the bed,

but she has the presence of mind to think the situation through

and she actually comes up with a sensible question,

“How are you going to work this out?

Exactly how am I going to get pregnant?”

And she gets a sensible answer.

 

And another thing about Mary’s conversation here,

the question that I think a lot of less self-assured

people might ask, “Why me, Lord?

Why are you asking ME to do this thing?”

Some of us might stammer through our short comings.

“Oh no, not me. I’m not worthy.”

All the male prophets before her like

Moses , Jeremiah and Isaiah did that when

they were called, they all said things like

“I can’t do this important job, why don’t you pick someone else?”

 

But Mary doesn’t. She doesn’t question her favor.

She accepts it. It’s almost like she had been waiting for it.

She tells Gabriel in a short, succinct, very positive  tone,

“Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let’s do this.”

I wouldn’t call her meek and mild,

I would call her confident and ready.

 

And then, to top it all off,

when she goes to visit her relative Elizabeth,

who is also pregnant with the child who would be John the Baptist,

Mary breaks out in song,

(like many of the people in Luke’s gospel do)

and her song is not meek or mild at all

It’s frankly kind of un-mild, it’s actually revolutionary:

 

In it, she summarizes the whole of God’s mission:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

⁵⁰ His mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
⁵² He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
    and lifted up the lowly;
⁵³ he has filled the hungry with good things,
    and sent the rich away empty.

 

These are not mild images, these are challenging images.

The hope of a God who favors the poor,

and who will overturn the strong and rich,

and scatter the proud.

It’s not the song of a nice, gentle,

submissive, ethereal salvation.

This is about a real-life hard transformation and change.

 

The Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez argued

 that any reading of Mary’s song is just wrong if it

"attempts to tone down what Mary's song tells us about the preferential love of God for the lowly and the abused, and about the transformation of history that God's loving will implies."

 

And other people can hear it too:

During the 1980’s, the corrupt government of Guatemala

banned the public recitation of Mary’s song

knowing how strong and powerful it was.

 

Bearing God in the flesh is not for the meek or mild.

And Mary, despite what popular culture has told is,

was never meek and mild.

She was bold, eager, confident, revolutionary,

and ready to do the work God called her to.

 

So Mary is a good example for girls,

and for boys, and for women and for men.

Be like Mary:

trust in God’s presence with you,

Accept God’s favor for you,

jump eagerly into God’s plan,

anticipate God’s transformation,

be part of the change God has in store.

 

Advent is a time of waiting.

We are waiting for God’s reign on this earth.

Waiting for God’s plan to become truth.

Waiting for new life and transformation.

Waiting for God’s mercy, and strength.

Ready for the proud to be scattered,

for the powerful to be brought down

the lowly lifted up and the hungry filled with good things.

This is not a meek and mild waiting.

We are waiting with Mary and Elizabeth

for God to turn this world around.