Advent 4 - Blessed Are You
Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:46-55
Recently, a friend of mine observed a young woman standing in line at the post office to buy stamps. She was wondering aloud why the Christmas stamps she was choosing were called Madonna and Child. MADONNA?!, she said incredulously.
I trust that you, who are in church on the Sunday before Christmas, realize that “Madonna” is another title for Mary, the mother of Jesus, not Madonna, the Material Girl; and who was “like a virgin” and not the Virgin Mary. These are not to be confused. One means “our lady.” One is a pop star. [1]
Today’s glimpse from the birth narrative of Jesus is in the first chapter of Luke which follows Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, announcing that she was the one God had chosen to bring God’s son into the world. Gabriel, God’s messenger, calls Mary to this moment… I’m not sure what is more astonishing – that an angel appears before Mary or that she willingly submits to God’s plan. She consents to be God’s agent in a role she will play - that will change everything. The angel told her that Elizabeth, her elder cousin, is also pregnant with her first child – a son – even in her advanced years. With these two grand pieces of news, the angel reminds Mary, “With God nothing will be impossible.” (1:37)
I want us to pay attention to a few things in Luke’s version of how these things came to pass.
1. Notice that the men are silent. Joseph does not speak a word in Luke’s birth narrative. And Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, is muted when he doubts what the angel declares.
2. Elizabeth is able to see and speak about things that have not been told to her. That’s prophesying. And then she pronounces a blessing.
3. Mary deserves more credit than we give her when we declare her meek and mild.
4. Last, God is at work in each of these lives to bring his ultimate gift of Love to the world.
After Mary’s experience with the angel, she doesn’t waste a minute.[2] She hurries off to the hill country of Judea where Elizabeth resides with her husband - the priest, Zechariah. You might remember the tiny detail that Zechariah has been muted by Gabriel until the time for John to be born (1:20). The two women’s lives are intertwined, not only as kin, but drawn together by shared experience. They are given to each other as companions and it starts as soon as Mary steps on the porch of Zechariah’s house, pushes open the screen door, and calls out, “Cousin Elizabeth?” At the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth feels her baby “leap.” (1:41) As the story unfolds in their wombs, Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks prophetic words. “Above all women, blessed are you! As is the baby you are carrying!” Mary hasn’t had a chance to even tell her this news yet. Elizabeth just knows. “Why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” She says, “Blessed is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her!” (1:42-43, 45) In Zechariah’s silence, Elizabeth finds her voice. She prophesies when she says, “the mother of my Lord.” Elizabeth’s son will close an era. Mary’s son will usher in the next. Even the unborn John knows the difference (Craddock says) and leads in the womb when Mary enters.[3] Elizabeth pronounces blessing upon Mary and the one she carries.
Mary’s response is the song, the Magnificat, we heard read earlier. This is her response to Elizabeth’s “Blessed are you…” Maybe she had been processing her thoughts about it all the way over to Elizabeth’s house. By the time she gets there, she is bursting with good news / God-news. The ways we often talk about Mary is that she is favored by God, thoughtful, obedient, devoted and worshipful. She is a good Jewish girl who of course, would say Yes! when God calls. This is what we assume is meant by “favored by God.” But she is so much more than that revealed in the words of this song, this response to God’s call and Elizabeth’s blessing. We can see that she is not just an obedient daughter of good Jewish parents, betrothed to a nice, Jewish man, but she has chutzpah.
Lutheran pastor, Nadia Bolz Weber describes Mary as sort of a political revolutionary if you read the Magnificat for what it is – a song that includes images of God overthrowing the social order, feeding the hungry, sending the rich away empty-handed.[4] In Luke’s gospel, these are not figurative. This is not spiritual hunger, or the poor in spirit that Mary sings for. She sings for liberation. She sings for the actual suppers of her people. Mary lives under Roman occupation. When we name all of Mary’s attributes, we must include that she doesn’t just see herself as a vessel for God to use, but she sees herself knitted into the promises of this disruptive God! What God has done for Mary - choosing someone like her – anticipates what God will do for the poor, the powerless, and the oppressed of the world. In the song, God is praised for what God has done. To be sure, to speak of what God has done is to announce what God will do! What God has done, God can be trusted to do again! This is what Mary believes. She truly believes in a God who won’t let his people get pushed around anymore. She is playing a part in the fulfillment of God’s life-changing promise to Israel – a promise that will change the whole world.
Can you even imagine being in Mary’s sandals? What would you have said if Gabriel appeared to you and said, “Greetings Favored one, the Lord is with you.” Would you have even made it past “favored one?” So, when the angel came to Mary and presented the outrageous plan, she responded, “Let it be with me according to your word” (1:38). Mary believed the word from the angel. She trusted it when he said she was favored. Maybe, Bolz-Weber says, that trust (or belief) is what made her favored. Maybe… the really outrageous act of faith on Mary’s part was believing that she had found favor with God. This normal girl who comes with all the struggles and strife of a normal girl…found herself saying Yes! What if God’s love is so much more powerful than our ability to become worthy of it? If God can create the universe by speaking it into existence, I think God can make us into God’s beloved by simply saying it is so.[5] In Mary’s Magnificat, we hear the conviction of a voice that is powered by love and propelled by blessing!
Let me tell you about Becca Stevens. She is an episcopal priest in Nashville who is both servant and revolutionary. She has chutzpah like Mary. In her UGG boots and hoodie sweatshirt, she’s often invited to tell the story of how she founded Thistle Farms. Thistle Farms is a home for women survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. In the beginning it was a small house for five women. She simply said: “Come live with me for two years, rent free” and free from what has harmed you in the past. From its small beginning, Thistle Farms now has over 50 sister communities that offer two years of free housing and community to women. Becca says, Initially it seemed a bit ridiculous to think that by starting a small community we could somehow change the world. Now, it seems more ridiculous to her to think that the world will change if we don’t do something. Another reason I wanted to tell you part of Becca’s story today, on this fourth Sunday of Advent when we light a candle for Love, is because Love is what fuels Becca’s mission/passion. I would call it capital L Love. Love that is synonymous with God. She says that she can see that one loving gesture is practically divine. She doesn’t mean practically as in “almost.” She means practical, tangible, actual, like food on plates and heads on pillows. Like feeling safe and living free. “We have to do small things and believe a big difference” will be the result, she says. She talks about the challenges of loving and living the way she does saying, “Love in a world filled with (practically) divine moments kicks our [tales] sometimes, and at the same time feels like a miracle.” Then she said, “I can almost imagine the well of gratitude that sprang from Mary as she sang her magnificat: “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” I could have sung my own magnificat:
For he has looked with favor upon all those who thought there was just acceptance and not healing. It may take generations, but love gets the last word. Love has shown the strength of doggedness that scatters the proud and powerful. Love lifts up the broken, opens them to compassion. Love fills the hungry with crumbs gathered along the way, which have become a feast.[6]
How about that? Love multiplies the crumbs into a feast. A lovefeast. Becca’s magnificat, her song of praise, seems to have Mary’s same courage and conviction.
As Elizabeth’s, Mary’s and Becca’s voices echo in our ears.
What would your life look like if you believed you were “favored by God”?
What if we started acting as if
God has called us;
and Elizabeth has blessed us?
Blessed are you… Harris, Rhonda, Ruth Ann, Bob, Terri, Steve, Dan, Andrew, Will, Lucy, Ray, Drew (Butler)
What response does that evoke from you?
If I could give you a gift this Christmas, it would be the assurance -from the manger- that You are Loved. Blessed are you! Life is too short and the world is too small NOT to believe these things. Here’s why… Because I believe that if we want to share love with others and if we want to be a blessing… THEN WE MUST BELIEVE as Mary did in our belovedness and our blessedness.
Does this mean we are perfect? That we get it right all of the time? Noooooo. It means that even when we get it perfectly wrong, we know in our bones – in the deepest parts of us – that Love gets the last word.
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Madonna
[2] Peterson, Eugene The Message, Luke 1:39
[3] Craddock, Fred Interpretation Commentary Series, Luke
[4] Bolz-Weber, Nadia Accidental Saints
[5] ibid.
[6] Stevens, Becca Practically Divine ©2021