This sermon is from the fourth Sunday in Advent (12/21)
Luke 1:26-38
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in
Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came
to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she
was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this
might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have
found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a
son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called
the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne
of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How
can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be
called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has
also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said
to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said,
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your
word.” Then the angel departed from her."
This week we hear the sorry of the Annunciation, the story of Mary
hearing that she will become pregnant and bear a son, Jesus. And I'll
be honest I was struggling with what direction I should go in. I didn't
know if I should focus on Mary or her connection with the prophets or
her faithfulness or what. And as I went around and around in circles I
did what I often do when I'm in need of inspiration and I opened up my
computer and headed for the Ted talks website. If you don't know ted,
you should take a few minutes to check it out. Ted stands for
Technology, Education and Design and it's short videos, no more than 18
minutes, of people who are experts in their field talking about whatever
it is they are passionate about. The speakers range from experts in
the medical field with multiple phd's to street musicians and everyone in-between. But I digress....when I sat down at my computer The first
video that caught my eye was titled "my daughter Malala". Malala is the
brave young woman who is the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Peace
Prize, she won it because of her eloquent and passionate push against
patriarchal systems which do not allow women to go to school.
This
man introduces himself as Malala's father and continues his talk partly
telling Malala's story but more so telling the story of his community.
He tells us what it's like to grow up in an undeveloped patriarchal
society. In these communities, the birth of baby girls are not
celebrated and mothers who give birth to girls find themselves sad,
shocked and feeling guilty because in their culture men are known for
their sons, not their daughters. Daughters are expected to hold the
honor of the men in their lives by being quiet, humble, submissive and
obedient and they could be killed if they are even thought to have
failed to uphold one of those qualities. more than that, he says,
throughout history the story of women is the story injustice,
inequality, violence and exploitation. One only needs to open the pages
of our own Bible to see these same stories played out. There are
countless women in the Bible who not only suffer tremendously but are
never even named. This cycle of the treatment of women has not changed
for thousands of years in some parts of our world.
Perhaps that is why this weeks lesson is so amazing.
Today we
meet Mary. She is a young girl living in one of these same patriarchal
societies. And when I say young girl I mean barely a teenager. She has
been promised to Joseph but she doesn't quite belong to him yet, but
she will soon. She has no voice of her own in her daily life and is
probably ushered around From place to place by her brothers, father or
uncles, not allowed to go anywhere on her own. She is not educated.
She is property, the property of her father and the soon to be property
of Her husband.
And one night, in the midst of her good, humble,
submissive, obedient life, an angel visits her. The angel tells her she
is favored, that God is with her, and she is perplexed. She sobs
confused because these are words she has never heard before. She is
confused because an angel is visiting her rather than one of the men in
her household. She is confused because she's never been favored or
wanted in her entire life. She is confused because God has chosen her,
and called her by name, something that her own brothers may never have
done. Do you see why Mary is perplexed?!
God has called quiet,
humble, obedient, submissive Mary out of the comfort of the patriarchal
world she lives in and asks her to be anything but those things. And
what is even more amazing is that the angel tells her what is to come,
that she will become pregnant and bear a son who she will name Jesus.
The angel does not tell her what has already happened, instead there is a
sense that this is ultimately up to Mary to agree to. For the first
time in her life she gets a choice in what will happen to her. And she
chooses God because God has already chosen her. She knows what agreeing
to this divine birth could mean for her. By saying yes she will
dishonor her family, she will disobey her father and future husband, she
will cease to be submissive to the men in her life. This decision could
very easily lead to her death and yet she says yes to God. She breaks
the silence and proclaims, "here am I, the servant, the slave, of The
Lord, let it be with me according to your word,
Jesus' life
begins with a woman who bucks the patriarchal society which she has been
steeped in. Jesus' life begins with his mother who dared to say yes to
a God who was calling her out even though centuries of tradition were
telling her to keep silent and not believe that God would ever speak to
her.
Jesus' life begins with a woman who in order to say yes to god,
to be humble to God and to help to change and bring honor to the world
had to bring dishonor to her entire family.
God chooses for
Christ to enter the world in such an extraordinary way that it shatters
everything we have ever known. So this miracle birth that we quietly
celebrate every year with beautiful songs and thoughts and feelings of
joy and peace has a little bit more to the story than we normally tell.
When we take Mary off the high pedestal we often keep her on, we meet a
young , ordinary girl who did something extraordinary by saying yes to
God. This advent and Christmas season is a reminder to us that God
calls us, the ordinary people that we are, and asks us to help change
the world. Amen.
Here is the video for anyone who would like to see it.
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