15th August - Reverend Jo Jones

15^thAugust 2010 – Blessed Virgin Mary – Luke 1:46-55; Gal 4:4-7 Mary’s song

Prayer: Abba, Father, open our hearts to your gospel words that we might grow in faith and be ever moved to proclaim your praise for Christ’s sake. Amen

If I asked you to picture Henry the 8^ththe chances are you’ll be thinking of a large middle-aged ginger-haired man wearing a doublet and hose and an ermine cloak but when he became king he was a very good looking, athletic young man. Henry’s image is fixed in our minds as he was at a particular point in his life story. When I browsed images of Mary on the net most of them were very similar – Mary holding Jesus, wearing her traditional blue cloak, often looking like a fragile renaissance princess rather than a first-century Jewish peasant girl. Like Henry and other historical figures, Mary can become fixed in our imagination at a certain point in her life story. But if we concentrate too much on the familiar image, we can overlook some important connections between Mary’s journey of faith and our own.    

Today’s gospel reading focuses our attention on Mary before Jesus was born andbefore she shared as a mother in the joy and pain of her son’s life and ministry. When she sang this song of praise to God she was a teenage girl, utterly dependent on the decisions of her male relatives and her fiancé, - suddenly she’s pregnant – and all she has in her defence is a crazy story of being visited by an angel and a conception by the Holy Spirit – she goes to see her cousin Elizabeth, a much older woman who has another crazy story of her post-menopausal pregnancy and her aging husband being struck dumb by an angel. Luke begins the story of Jesus’ life with these two women, both with seemingly impossible stories to share, both reeling from the effects of being looked favourably on by almighty God.

Out of Mary’s shock, her fear for her future with Joseph, her worries about what pregnancy and giving birth might be like, as well as her excitement and wonder, out of all this comes not a psalm of doubt or distress or a petition for help but a hymn of praise, a song of God’s glory telling out the greatness of the Lord, a Magnificat which is still spoken or sung every day at evening prayer. So what does this outpouring of praise tell us about Mary which we might take into our own Christian lives?

I think the first thing to notice about Mary is – she’s a theologian – in this Magnificat Mary takes what’s happened to her, her narrative, her story and she interprets it theologically – that is – she uses her the events of her own life, her experience and the inherited wisdom of her Jewish faith contained in the scriptures of the people of Israel, to speak about God – his character, his nature and his action in the world. Theology is just that – talking about God – and Mary is doing theology – using the circumstances of her life to understand what the coming of Jesus means, telling us that God is a God who especially seeks out the poor and the overlooked in society; God reveals himself to Mary as one who reverses the accepted order of things, sharing his life with the weak and the vulnerable, nurturing the faith of those who have no value in the world’s eyes and humbling the proud and powerful, those who think that life is a party thrown just for their benefit.

So in Mary we discover that age or circumstance or academic ability – none of these are a barrier to becoming a theologian - we too are called to the undertake the task of theology, speaking and learning about God, as individuals and as a church together; it isn’t something just for academics to study or Bishops to write books on; relating what we read in scripture and what we are taught through church tradition to our own and other people’s experiences, using our God-given intelligence to make connections to discover what this all tells us about God and his presence and activity in the world – this is one way in which we can grow to maturity in Christ.  

Of course, it’s quite possible to be a theologian without necessarily having a personal life-transforming faith in Jesus Christ. I can describe a freshly baked loaf in detail, but if I don’t taste and eat it, and benefit from its nourishment, do I really know what bread is like? Well Mary is not only a theologian, she’s also the first Christian disciple. It is her YES to God, her willingness to co-operate with his purposes, her partnership with God, which makes Jesus’ life and ministry as a human being in that time andthat place possible. Without Mary’s yes we cannot have the incarnation of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man in the fullness of time, when God intended it. Her obedience and her openness to the Holy Spirit - she makes herself extremely vulnerable for Jesus’ sake – this is the pattern of true discipleship. We have to remember that at this stage Mary has no human guarantees that it will all work out for her but she decides to trust in the promises of God. So the Holy Spirit enablesus to trust in the faithfulness of God however vulnerable we might feel - it’s from that decision to trust, and keep on trusting, moment by moment through our lives, that all our discipleship flows.

As Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, if we are Christians then we, along with Mary and all the apostles, disciples and saints through the ages, we are all children of the same heavenly Father, filled with the Spirit of God just as Mary was when she praised his mighty acts and glorified his name. Sadly her place in the ministry of the whole church is something that still divides Christians today. As much as she’s venerated and adored by some Christians, she is almost denigrated and ignored by others.

Rowan Williams suggests that she has at the very least a unique role like that of an elder sister in our family of believers. Elder sisters who know what’s what can help their younger siblings to grow up, to learn and discover things on their way to maturity. Mary is a source of holy inspiration and example to us as we take our own steps of trust and growth in faith, and we are in communion and friendship with her and all the saints through prayer in Christ’s name.

We can seek the same determination, obedience and openness to God’s Spirit that led Mary to find favour with God. And whenever we say the evening office, perhaps we can open ourselves to the challenge of Mary’s words and ask what part we have played in filling the hungry with good things and uplifting the weak, and taking notice of the people that society overlooks? How far have we come in dethroning our pride, our desire for control or self-sufficiency?

As we celebrate the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and reflect on her as an important role model for our faith and trust in Christ, let’s keep in mind Luke’s picture of Mary and Elizabeth, meeting together in such startling circumstances at the beginning of his gospel. Two women, unimportant and powerless from a social perspective, but of infinite value to God, alive to God’s Spirit which has turned their world upside down. John the Baptist cannot become the prophet who prepares the way for Jesus without Elizabeth, who speaks prophetic words over Mary.

Jesus’ life, like every human being, begins with his mother sharing her own life with her child; before Jesus can nurture or minister to others, he is nurtured and ministered to by his mother. Before he teaches any disciples, he is taught by her. Before he carries the weight of human suffering or cherishes the weak, Mary carries and cherishes him. Jesus cannot become the fully human being he was meant to be without the support of another human being. To be human is to depend on others to help us become who we are - children of God and inheritors of his promises, those same promises which Mary trusted in and praised God for.

Mary’s trust made it possible for Jesus to share completely in our human life so that we might share fully in his divine life, and be changed and renewed by the power of his saving love.