Advent 4 - The Prophet Mary

Luke 1:39-55

In the 5th century, so 1600 hundred years ago, there was a history-changing debate amongst Christians about what to call Mary, the mother of Jesus. It was very exciting, and full of intrigue and politics and scandals, like all good church debates, and in the end, it was decided that an appropriate title for Mary was theotokos. Which, translated from the Greek, means God-bearer.

Maybe you can imagine why this was a scandal and outrage for certain folks. A young woman, the bearer of God? Sure, we might call her the bearer of Christ, or the mother of our Lord Jesus, which she was also called, but the mother of God? Remember, this debate was happening at a time when women were considered second to men in the eyes of God and the church, because it was Eve who ate the forbidden fruit first. Women were considered the means by which evil entered the human race, responsible for original sin and the great fall. And so, at the time, it was absolutely outrageous to consider that a woman, a young woman of no reputation or status, might host and bear the Word of God, indeed give birth to our very God.

But, that’s what was decided, and since then, we have done our best to rehabilitate Mary so that she is a fit and appropriate woman to be the bearer of God’s Word. We talk about how humble she was, and how obedient and submissive. We talk about how she was a good Jewish girl who loved God. We have images of her looking up to the angel Gabriel with a serene and accepting face, ready to quietly agree to whatever God asks, and we see that God crowns her queen of all the world, and blesses her to be the mother of the Saviour.

Mary becomes our inspiration for what it is to be a servant of God, and at this time of year especially, we might find ourselves yearning to be like her––to be accepting, to be obedient, to embrace the struggles that the world throws our way so that we, too, can be blessed and bear the Word of God for the world.

Except that we’re not very much like that. Or at least, I’m not. It is difficult for me to accept the status quo, to be obedient in the face of injustice, to accept suffering as our lot. I’m neither meek nor mild, if Gabriel had come to me, I would have been like, “What, are you kidding? I have some questions here!”

I wonder, though, if Mary is really as meek and mild as we make her out to be. I’m wondering this because of her words in the Magnificat, the powerful hymn we just heard in the Gospel. We hear these words so often that we sometimes become numb to them, but they really are radical: the Lord has scattered the proud, dispersed them across the land so they have nothing to brag about; the Lord has brought down the powerful from their thrones, thrown them out of their palaces and places of strength; the Lord has sent the rich away empty, stripped them of all their assets and evicted them from their mansions. These are not meek words! Mary is speaking here about a revolution, about a total upset of the system she lives in. Mary is not saying that the Lord helps the poor to get along, or to suffer through their circumstances, or will give them what they need to only survive, she is saying that their situations are completely unacceptable. She is not saying that the rich and powerful are where they are because God has blessed them, instead she is accusing them of unrighteousness. She is not talking about accommodating to her circumstances, or about being submissive to the authorities. She is proclaiming that God is the one who brings about total upset. If we are to take her seriously, Mary’s words are not mild, or accommodating, or obedient. They are radical, subversive, unsuitable.

They are words that could have gotten her into trouble, had the Roman Empire chosen to listen to what a Jewish girl from Galilee was saying. They are words of power. In fact, they are so powerful that during the late 70s, in Argentina, the Magnificat was banned from being sung or spoken (or shouted) in public. While the country struggled under a government that “disappeared” people and burned protestors alive, the Word of God that the Lord will bring “down the powerful from their thrones,” and send “the rich away empty,” was literally subversive. It was banned again in Guatemala in the early 80s, for the same reasons, and it wasn’t allowed to be sung in churches in India during British colonial rule, either. Mary’s words, rather than being the sedate hymn we think of, are the words of a political anthem, a protest chant.

Mary is not so meek and mild after all. In fact, I wonder if we would do better to call her a prophet. Like the prophets who went before her, like Isaiah and Hosea and Amos and Joel, like Miriam her namesake*, God gives Mary the Word to speak to a people suffering under oppression, and she tells them that God is on their side. She is given troubling words to bear to those in power, telling them that their days are divinely numbered. But Mary is even more than the prophets, because she doesn’t just bear the Word of God in her speech, she literally bears the Word of God. God chose Mary to embody the Word, in her body, to give birth to God for the world, in a way that was impossible for the prophets who came before her. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that Jesus was who he was, in part, because of Mary. Mary the prophet uttered God’s radical words while Jesus was in her womb, and then she bore him and raised him to live the truth of those words, to be the embodiment of the Magnificat.

I searched high and low on the internet for a new image for Mary that would help us to see how radical she was as the theotokos, the God-bearer. And I couldn’t find one. So I’m going to have to ask you to use your imagination. Imagine, if you will, a young woman, loud-mouthed and yelling, with her fist in the air. Imagine her today, at a protest, with a placard protesting tax cuts for the rich and tax increases for the poor. Imagine her walking arm-in-arm with marchers, demanding that a corrupt government leader step down, with her six-month pregnant belly in front of her. Imagine her wild hair, or maybe her shaved head, and that look on her face that tells you she is going to fight to make the world a better place for her child and for all of God’s children. Imagine a young woman standing in a federal building rotunda shouting for the government to withdraw from alliances with arms manufacturers and from corrupt business deals. Imagine Mary, filled with the Holy Spirit, demanding justice for her sisters in the #MeToo era. Imagine Mary, the bearer of the Word of God, as a prophet––risking public condemnation, facing arrest, willingly giving God her body through speeches and protests and marches, in order to say, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Now, it may be that you think this version of Mary is kind of outrageous. A loud-mouthed, shaved-head, activist Mary isn’t quite appropriate as the bearer of the Word of God. Maybe a nice girl in a dress with perfectly combed hair who stands in church and sings her hymns might be more suited to be blessed by God in this way. Nevertheless, our original Mary did say these words, and she did say that God looked upon her with favour. No matter how inappropriate we might think it, we know that God chooses “what is foolish in the world to shame the wise,” and “what is weak in the world to shame the strong,” as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:27-28. Mary’s words are God’s words, and God chose her to proclaim them.

If you have ever been told in your life that you are too loud, or too opinionated, or too stubborn, if you have ever been told that you argue too much, that you are too idealistic, that you are disruptive, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.” You are in good company with the prophets, and with Mary, and with all those whom God has chosen to bear the Word of God. If you are “too” anything, take heart––God is not calling you to be meek and mild. God is calling you to be strong, God is asking you to be willing to take on the risks of being a God-bearer, God is blessing you to speak and to embody God’s passion for the lowly, for the hungry, for the powerless.

“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Blessed are you, as you bear God’s Word into the world, for you, too, are filled with the Holy Spirit and the Lord is with you. Thanks be to God, Amen.

*Many thanks to Morah Jenny for reminding me of Miriam!