Delivered at Holy Cross Episcopal church in Poplar Bluff, MO, on December 24, 2023 (4th Sunday of Advent)
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Canticle 3: The Song.of Mary; Roman’s 6:25-27; Luke 1:26-38
Welcome to the 4th Sunday of our minimalist Advent season. We don’t even get a full Advent Sunday today! Tonight, we will come back to the church to celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation. Most years we get a least a couple of days between the two.
But before we can get to the Incarnation, we have to talk about the Annunciation, an event that the church, as early as the sixth century, considered important enough to have a feast of its own. But we also get the Gospel reading for the Annunciation on this day. For a couple of weeks we’ve been hearing John the Baptist talk about the coming Messiah. Now we are getting down to actual events, with the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary to tell her how God’s plan for the birth of the Messiah would proceed.
Which means we need to talk about Mary.
You may not know this, but the Order of Preachers has a special devotion to the Virgin Mary. Traditionally, the Dominicans are under Mary’s special protection, and tradition has it that she gave the gift of the rosary to St. Dominic. Since becoming a Dominican I have been spending more time thinking about Mary.
Now, I have heard it said that the Romans make too much of Mary, and Protestants make too little of her. I can certainly speak for that last bit. As a Southern Baptist, I was really never taught much about Mary. She seemed to be an afterthought. And I think in many ways this was a reaction to the Roman Catholic doctrines such as the Immaculate Conception, which likely doesn’t mean what you think it means. To avoid giving Mary too big a role in the salvation story, we minimized her. What we ended up doing to her was just as bad as giving her TOO prominent a place.
I have become much more comfortable with Mariology over the past couple of years, so much so that I now recite the Angelus as a prologue before Morning and Evening Prayer, in which I actively ask Mary to pray for me. If you’re curious, I will gladly tell you about it later. I have become comfortable with using the title “Mother of God” for Mary, because I finally got it through my head that this historical title tells us more about Jesus than it does about Mary.
Most of the time we argue about side issues with Mary. We can argue about whether she was born sinless (THAT’s the Immaculate Conception), we can argue about whether she stayed a virgin her entire life, or whether she had other children. But none of these speak to the real point about what makes Mary special. The point is not whether she was born without sin, or any of those other things.
The point is that she said “Yes.”
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
In stories of others being called by God, we get a variety of responses. Moses, from instance, declares he’s unworthy, then tries to weasel out of God’s call by saying that he has a speech impediment. Isaiah, too, when he sees his first vision in the temple, at first protests that he’s not worthy, as though anyone can be worthy. And Jonah…Jonah just flat runs away.
Mary…did something different…something different and wonderful.
She didn’t ask “Why me?”
She didn’t ask what the cost would be. And yes, there is ALWAYS a cost to doing what God wants.
She didn’t try to weasel out of it.
She asked one question: “How is this possible?” Mary knew perfectly well how conception and childbirth work, so it was an innocent and understandable question. And when given the answer, she just said “Yes.”
She said “yes” to whatever plan God had for her. To give birth to the Messiah, yes, but also “yes” to whatever came about as a result of that birth. She had no way of knowing that she would see her son die a slow, excruciating death, executed as a common criminal. But she still said “yes.”
She said “yes” and became so excited by what was happening to her that she got together with her cousin Elizabeth and had what I have seen described as “the best girl talk ever.” Something about pulling down the mighty, feeding the poor and sending the rich away hungry, basically toppling the entire social order.
Can we follow her example? In the very short time between now and our Christmas Eve service, can we meditate on her “yes” to God? Can we make her “yes” OUR “yes?” Can we do it without trying to weasel out of whatever it is that God wants us to do?
Can we be as excited as Mary about what is happening to us here at Holy Cross? I really believe we are experiencing new birth here. But in order for that new birth to continue, we have to say “yes.” We have to say “This is what we want.”
I imagine that very few of us will be asked by God to do something as cosmically important as giving birth to the Savior of the human race. Most of the time God asks us to do something much simpler, and yet we still seem to want to try to talk him out of it, like Moses. Or we give an excuse, like Isaiah. Or we just run away, like Jonah.
Jesus, the Messiah is about to born. He is eternally born in us if we are willing. Will we run away? Will we make excuses? Will we try to talk God out of it? Or will we echo Mary and say “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Amen
Becoming Dominican 