Readings
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38
Growing up first as a Roman Catholic and then as a high church Episcopalian, for many years I had a very romantic notion of the Virgin Mary. Hers was an image of perfect humanity. I was taught to think of her as ever gentle, ever meek, a real innocent. She is the most highly favored lady of God. She is the Queen of Heaven. And while it was both comfortable and comforting it robbed me of the deeper truth of who Mary was and the realities she faced.
Take for example our Gospel story from today. In it the angel Gabriel appears before Mary and says “Greetings favored one. The Lord is with you.” The scripture then says that she was “much perplexed” by his words and wondered what sort of greeting she was being given. The angel told her to not be afraid and that she was going to bear the son of God. And Mary, still perplexed, asks how this can be since she is still a virgin. And the angel tells her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and God will overshadow her, and she will be with child. And then as if to prove the miracle possible the angel tells her of her cousin Elizabeth who is thought to be too old to conceive a child being pregnant. And Mary says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” And the angel leaves.
Many paintings have been made of this event and they always show Mary as this pious, mature, young woman. The scenes are always calm and marked by a certain holiness. They buy into the romantic notions that I held as a child and a younger adult. But if we pay attention to the story I just recounted there are things to note.
First off an angel appears to Mary with an astounding greeting. This is an ordinary teenage girl from a backwater town. There is nothing special about her. And, if she is even in the slightest like any of us, in the face of such a fantastical appearance we can imagine that she would have been overwhelmed, confused, and more than a little bit frightened. Why else does the angel tell her to not be afraid?
But then he goes on to describe something that makes no sense. How can it be that a virgin can conceive a child? Mary asks as much. Now rather than thinking of this girl as meek and mild I am struck by how brave she is. I am struck by how she does not cower and simply accept the word of the angel. This is a girl who is thinking about the implications of what the angel is saying. What will this mean in terms of her betrothal? What will her family think and do in the culture of honor in which she exists? Who will believe that this child is conceived of God and not the product of promiscuity? In such a little question it is likely that all of these other questions are nested. They would be assumed by those who first heard this story, and they would have been the backdrop of the engagement.
But then the story turns. The angel explains how such a thing will happen and proves the possibility by sharing the news of her cousin. The angel is now trying to convince Mary to accept what has moved from a declaration to an invitation. The boldness of this young woman to not simply acquiesce has brought into focus the graciousness of God in not forcing God’s self on her. Unlike many ancient stories of divine conception this is not the declaration of godly rape, but the invitation of a God who patiently waits for her agreement.
And then, she responds with her yes. She accepts not only the conception of this child, but all that she expects will go with it. We know that there is far more to come in this story that has implications for Mary, but her bravery and faith are unparalleled.
Now let’s be clear. This story, if we are to take it as a true event, is making explicit that without Mary’s consent the incarnation might not have happened. God has placed her on her a very high place. Through God’s patient waiting for her answer, God has elevated her in her humanity to being a co-creator with God. So, to be clear God has taken a young teen girl from a backwater town who is precocious, at the very least, and elevated her to the status of co-creator.
By all the standards of her day, Mary is about as low as you can get on the social pecking order and powerless by all accounts. And yet, in the face of patriarchy and misogyny, it is this powerless young woman who becomes a co-creator with God and ushers in the incarnation of God into the world through her consent.
If we but stop to think about this the implications are huge! What it means is that God is not concerned about social status. God is not concerned about the power structures we create. God is not concerned about whether we are meek and mild, agreeable, and obedient. In fact, God is not even put off by us being precocious, questioning, or bold. The romantic images of Mary I outlined at the beginning are not romantic at all. They deny the witness of scripture and they, in regard to her femininity, participate in the chauvinism and patriarchy of our culture.
No, the implication of this story of the Blessed Virgin Mary is that all of us have the potential to be co-creators with God. And our acceptability to God is bound up in our humanity and not some arbitrary set of expectations we or others may place upon us. Is there a basic morality to which we must ascribe? Absolutely. But our society, our traditional practice of religion, and we ourselves regularly place a whole host of expectations that have nothing to do with the truth of Divine engagement.
Even in the midst of our imperfections, errors, and brokenness God is regularly reaching out to us as God did to Mary. God is regularly through the angels we encounter inviting us to become co-creators with God and participants in the ongoing in-breaking of Christ into the world.
You may say in response to such a statement “I’ve never seen an angel, much more talked to one.” But I would invite you to recognize that the word “angel” simply means “messenger,” and that God regularly, through ordinary people, sends messengers with invitations to us all the time. Those invitations are wide and varied but each of them is an opportunity for us to participate in the ongoing incarnation of God in the world. As I said last week, through our witness, we participate in Christ’s incarnation. Through our active following in the way of Jesus we make manifest the Body of Christ in the world.
And so, I would invite you to imagine with me that the angel Gabrielle has come to you and says to you “Hail favored one, the Lord is with you.” And while you may not be being invited to be pregnant with a child, you are being invited to imbue the world, through work and witness, with the living presence of Christ.
We are blessed. We are favored. The Lord is with us. What will be our response?