Luke 1:26-38
26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God." 38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.
Mariology – To Bethlehem: Through Art!
The Christmas Story is one that most of us know extremely well. As Christians, we have been rehearsing this event for over 2,000 years now… you could call it an old hat. It’s beautiful and slightly strange to us… we almost don’t know how to translate it into our modern day understandings. So we play it out as best we can, with little boys in their father’s bathrobes playing shepherds, angels with paper wings, children dressed up as animals, Joseph, the baby in the manger… and of course Mary. Mary is a central figure in the manger scene, but it’s hard for us to know what it was like for her.
Understanding Mary has been something that we have always struggled with. In fact, there has been so much time spent on it and so much effort put into it, that Mary has her very own branch of Theology known as “Mariology.” I’m not even making that up. Throughout history, our views of Mary have changed, have grown, and have been reevaluated. Much like the art we looked at this morning, the views have ranged from an almost godlike Mary to just a normal mother loving and sacrificing for her child.
Mariology:
1) Catholic – Veneration
2) Protestant – Humility before God, her obedience and her openness to the Word.
3) Anglican – the blessed “God Bearer”
It’s hard to get any real grasp on Mary from just our Christmas accounts. Even though her story is tremendously interesting… she is not really the main character. Christ is. And that is the fine line we walk whenever we study Mary. Mary is important, but never more important than Christ. Even Catholics who venerate Mary take this approach: even Pope Pius XII, "the most Marian Pope in Church history” warned against exuberant exaggerations about Mary even as he cautioned about timid minimalism in the presentation of Mary. Anglican’s hold a special spot for Mary as the one who was the actual mother of God but they would never claim her to be God! And we Protestants take the an extremely minimalist approach. We believe she is no different than anyone of us sitting here today, God could just as easily have come to Mary and Joseph of Fairbury. So, we take a different approach, and look at Mary as an example to be followed as she answered her call and lived in service. Holding all of that before us, let us look to our scripture today, and look at this girl Mary.
The very first time that Mary appears in the Scriptures, she is in the presence of an angel. How’s that for a grand entrance. We learn that she was already engaged. Most marriage agreements were made when the children were fairly young. In all likelihood when Gabriel spoke to her, Mary was probably only 13 or 14 years old, still living with her parents.
Imagine that, 14 years old and being told that you would become pregnant… and the father was NOT going to be your fiancé! I imagine at that moment we would not see the quiet, serene, peaceful Mary that we so often adore during Christmas pageants. As Mary listened to the angel she must have wrestled with all of the problems that she would have if she accepted God’s call. How am I going to explain this to my family? What will Joseph say? What about the townspeople? What will they think of me? Am I headed for a life of being a single parent? Mary would probably live her whole life under a cloud of suspicion from her family and neighbors.
We forget that… what it must have been like… to accept this call that God had placed on Mary. As the panic rose, as her fear overtook her, she was able to calm herself, and in verse 38 say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
With this, she willingly accepted all the ridicule… all the contempt… all the loneliness that would come with this decision. It was Mary’s choice to willingly embrace what God had for her. And here is the amazing thing… she made the decision with no assurance… no assurance whatsoever… that anyone except God would ever fully understand. Not her parents… not her beloved… no one.
I think that is why we as Protestants focus so much on her answer, more than we focus on who she was or what her role in salvation may or may not be. This was an extraordinary decision for any 14 year old to make, and it is something we should all try to live up to.
Now, this is not the end of our Christmas account of Mary… after this fateful moment with the angel… she would now have to face the man she loved and tell him that she was pregnant – this would be no easy thing considering their situation.
I think I’ve mentioned before the historical difference between marriage now and marriage back then. Boys didn’t court girls in the hopes of winning their hearts… it was arranged between families. In biblical times marriage was considered a covenant between two families, not just the bridal pair, so there was much to discuss.
There wan an actual contract made up between the two families, and then the couple would be blessed with a benediction and they would drink wine together. This would bind them to one another, in a way that our modern engagements do not even come close to comparing too. Now, only divorce or death could separate the two. That is the situation that Mary and Joseph are in.
We tend to forget all of that. We forget the dirt and the scandal… the heartache and the pain… the fear… the rejection… the shame. We may never fully know how much it cost this young couple to bring our savior into the world. For us today… I hope we are able to remember the price paid and the trust that this couple must have had for God… and the trust they must have had with each other.
Both Mary and Joseph had to say to God, “I am your servant. Whatever it costs, wherever it takes me, I will do it.” Our viewpoints of Mary may change with time, even as the artwork of Mary will continue to depict her in a different light. But today, I hope we can focus on this story of a 14 year old girl, faced with an impossible decision to make… and choosing God! This Christmas season, we will have many things try to pry our attention away from what this season is really about. May we forever focus on God, and follow him… no matter what.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
