Mother(s) of God

Rev. Kyle Clark

Gospel Lesson: Luke 1: 26-38

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Fourth Sunday of Advent

 “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you. Don’t be afraid!” This is how the angel greeted Mary. The previous three Sundays we have heard the prophet, Isaiah, and the voice, John the Baptist. Today we hear another story. Today we meet Mary.

We know the Christmas stories. We have heard many times about angels and shepherds and wise men. We have heard many times the story of Mary and Joseph. These stories are familiar to us. So familiar that we sometimes don’t really hear what the stories are trying to say. So I want to suggest that we, who are so familiar with the Christmas story, look today at the unfamiliar story of Mary and her unique role in the mystery that is God’s salvation through Christ Jesus.

One of the great mistakes, I think, of the Protestant Church is the way we have dealt with -- or failed to deal with -- Mary. Protestant preachers and theologians have more or less tiptoed around Mary. We don’t worship Mary. We shouldn’t. It would be wrong to elevate her to such a position, making her a co-redeemer of humanity. That role is reserved only for Christ our Lord. Yet, in our painstaking efforts to avoid deifying her, we Protestants have, to our loss, somehow managed to neglect Mary altogether. If we take the words of scripture seriously, then we must consider the words of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth. Just four short verses after our text ends, Elizabeth says to Mary, “blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” I think Elizabeth’s words are significant.

The angel comes to Mary. Actually the same angel appears to both Zechariah earlier in this chapter and later to Mary. Both times the angel announces an impending birth. For Zechariah it is the birth of child to him and his wife, Elizabeth. They will have a son and his name will be John and he will “make ready a people for the Lord.” Mary receives an announcement that she will also give birth. He will be the Son of the Most High.

Zechariah, a married man (albeit too old for sex and married to a barren woman), a priest, member of the religious establishment, well-known and respected, had his vision in the Temple of the Lord in the holy city of Jerusalem. He responded to the news in disbelief and was struck silent.

Mary, an unwed, too-young-for-sex, teenage, peasant girl from a working class neighborhood that was known only to her family, had her vision in a little insignificant village called Nazareth (recall Nathaniel’s words to Phillip – John 1:46 “can anything good come from Nazareth”?). She responds with words of faith that have echoed through the centuries: “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.”

Jesus, the son of Mary, is the Son of God – God made flesh. She is no mere woman. This poor, insignificant, peasant, unwed teenage girl, Mary is none other than the Mother of God.

There is a ancient hymn in the Eastern Orthodox Church that reminds us of this special truth: 

Today is the beginning of our salvation,

the revelation of an eternal mystery!

The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin

as Gabriel announces the coming Grace.

Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:

Rejoice, O full of Grace, the Lord is with you!

 Theotokos is the term given Mary by the church in the third century. It means, literally, “bearer of God.” It acknowledges her special role in redemption as the Mother of God. She did not give birth to a mere man. Her child was fully divine. At the same time, Jesus is also fully human because Jesus was not a man who became God; instead, in Jesus God became man, a child born to Mary.

From the Roman Catholic Church, we are reminded that the mystery of the incarnation is the result of the work of God and the will of Mary. Human redemption depended upon the consent of this pregnant teenager. She did not ask to be the Mother of God nor was she compelled to do so. She could have said “no,” or she could have doubted. But instead she participated willingly. Through her all humanity is blessed.[1]

Many of our Protestant sisters and brothers find such honor and such special treatment of Mary scandalous.  But even the great reformer, Martin Luther proclaimed that Mary “is the highest woman and noblest gem in Christianity after Christ… She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures.”[2]

Mary was the only person in the history of the world who had the opportunity to partner with God in this particular way. Her unique and special role however, would never have been were it not for her great faith. We can never forget that her “blessing”, her “favor” of having a child out of wedlock could have led to her execution as a criminal, a violator of the law. She knew this, yet she responded, “Let it be as you have said.” And that is perhaps the most significant thing for us today.

We remember and honor and venerate Mary (or we should) because she was Theotokos, Mother of God and because she is a witness, a messenger, an example to us of great faith. Even so we cannot lose sight of the fact that this story is really not about her. It is about God and what God has done, is doing and what God continues to do.

Thirteenth century German theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart says that, “had the Virgin not first born God spiritually He would never have been born from her bodily.”[3]

You see, Mary had a choice. She didn’t know ahead of time that she would be called by God, invited to do something so completely unfamiliar and unknown and unthought-of as to be the Mother of God. But she did have a choice. We often forget that.

We have a choice. We don’t know what things, good things or bad, might happen at any moment, but we are faced with choices all the time about how we will respond to these opportunities, how we will respond to the divine. Like Mary, our choices often boil down to a simple yes or no; yes, I will live this life that is being held out to me, or no, I won’t; yes, I will accept this call I sense God extending, or no, I won’t; yes, I will receive God’s grace and in turn offer God’s grace to others or no, I won’t. Yes, let it be as you have said, or no, leave me alone.

Make no mistake, God calls all of us, invites each of us to participate with Him in what He is doing. While we will never be Mary (at least I don’t think we will be) we are invited to something that is far more than we can imagine. In one of the most profound quotes from any theologian, Meister Eckhart affirms this invitation we have to choose: 

“We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then is the fullness of time, when the Son of God is begotten in us.”  

Saying yes doesn’t mean we are without fear. Saying yes doesn’t mean that there is not some danger. It just means that, like Mary, we say, “I will be the Lord’s servant.” Saying yes means that we become one of Mary’s people, one more theotokos who is willing to bear God into the world in our time and our culture. Saying yes means we will be part of what God is continuing to do.

 Greetings favored ones! The Lord is with you.

Do you hear the call? Do you sense the invitation to participate in the mystery of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, Son of the Most High? Will you be a mother? Don’t be afraid! Nothing is impossible with God”  

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.