17 December 2023 Advent 4
We actually know very little about Mary, apart from what we see in today’s gospel. Who is she? Whose family does she come from? The implication that because she is betrothed to Joseph she somehow is linked to the lineage of David may or may not be accurate. And, of course, the big question, what was it about this young girl, this young 13/14yr old, that signalled her out for this visit by the angel and her role in God’s kingdom. And maybe an even bigger question, what was it about the angel’s visit that led this young girl to even think it possible for her to conceive God’s child, let alone raise the ‘Son of God’. Because I am not sure what I would have done if that scenario were put to me. I’m not sure how I might react if God called on me to do ‘impossible’ things. But, of course, we are all called upon by God to do ‘impossible’ things, we are called, at times, to step out of our comfort zones and do what seems totally unreal and unexpected, yet totally achievable. But we probably don’t talk about them in those terms, we just say we ‘felt we had to’ do x or y, or ‘it just felt right’ to do a or b. We don’t phrase it as ‘God called me to do’…., or at least we usually don’t phrase it that way, but sometimes we might. There is no way, 18 years ago I would have thought I would put myself forward for ordination, despite probably feeling ‘drawn’ to study theology since before that but agreeing (to myself) that it was a silly pipedream and unrealistic.
And the thing about Mary’s story is, while we know it very well, there is so much about it we do not know. We know Mary was ‘perplexed’ by Gabriel’s greeting, calling her ‘favoured one’ and she ‘pondered’ this greeting. We know Mary questioned ‘how can this be, I am a virgin’, recognising the bizarre nature of Gabriel’s announcement. And we know that she agreed to God’s plan. But there is a lot we do not know, or at least, there is a lot left out of this story.
The first puzzling piece in this story is the fact that Mary is greeted with the words ‘favoured one’ yet she is given a task which, in first-century Jewish culture would have put Mary in grave danger. At the very least becoming pregnant out of wedlock, she would have been the target for some vicious gossip and scorn, but at the worst she would be at risk of being stoned to death. So, to agree to Gabriel’s message puts her in the firing line for scandal and ostracism, and her reputation, her marriage, and her very life would be put ‘on the line’. So, this ‘special favour’ God gives this ‘favoured one’ is not what most of us would call ‘special’. This is not the God of the New Testament who equates favour with wealth and health and comfort and ease. Mary’s status takes her from scandal to danger to the trauma of seeing her son crucified. God’s call to her required her to be profoundly counter-cultural, and trust an inner vision that flies in the face of everything her community expected. Mary’s ‘yes’ demanded a degree of courage that makes most mothers, in fact most people, tremble.
The second puzzling thing is the link between ‘how can this be’ and ‘let it be with me according to your word’. It is difficult for me, and maybe for you too, to relate to a person who rushes headlong into a dangerous situation without first considering ‘all the consequences’. Someone who rushes into ‘obedience’ in the face of danger. We do not know how quickly Mary agreed to this task, and I hope that Gabriel gave her the opportunity to ‘pause’, to ‘think’, to ‘consider’, before she ‘agreed’.
The third puzzling thing about this story comes at the end of this passage ‘then the angel departed from her’. It is that moment when I am left ‘remembering’ the vision, remembering my agreement, but when my certainty starts to waiver. It is the moment ‘after the yes’ when the mountaintop experience fades into a memory and life in the valley begins. How different might Mary’s situation have been if Gabriel had stuck around to silence Mary’s critics; had been there when Mary told Joseph she was to carry God’s child; when the ‘gossipmongers’ had started their story telling and the ‘morality police’ were deciding on their next course of action. But Mary is left alone to do the work of discernment and discipleship on her own. Her ‘yes’ did not signal the end to mystery – the mystery had only just begun.
There is a popular Christmas song which asks Mary what she knew when she consented to Gabriel’s request. We have no way of knowing what she knew, but I suspect she only knew enough to get started. I suspect that, for Mary, the work of bearing God into the world involved constant discovery and ongoing consent, just as it does for us in our lives. I suspect that every time Mary whispered a trembling ‘yes’ into God’s heart, it changed the world, just like ours does.
And maybe the key to understanding these puzzling things is to notice that, before Mary says ‘yes’, she is blessed. Not only does Mary believe Gabriel’s announcement that she will bear God’s son, but she believes that God ‘noticed her’, that God ‘favours’ her,that God has blessed her and has wonderful plans for her. And this matters because it not only points to the important role Mary plays in the Gospel story, but it reveals a central dynamic of the Christian life. The first thing, and maybe the most important thing we are called to believe is that God similarly ‘notices’ us, God ‘favours’ us, and God blesses us. And when we believe that we can do incredible things.
Blessing is a powerful, albeit sadly, rare thing. Society and the ‘way the world works’ seems to be governed by ‘reward and punishment’. We only get ‘what we deserve’. But blessing is never deserved, it is always a gift. Blessings intrude into, interrupt, and disrupt the quid pro quo world and announces that someone sees us as worthy and special apart from anything we have done. And probably because it is so rare, when it happens it is hard to believe. Certainly, Mary was left wondering what she had done to merit this visit by Gabriel, and especially this unmerited and undeserved regard and favour by God. And it is as the blessing ‘sinks in’ that she finds herself able to open herself to the work of the Holy Spirt who will use her to bless the whole world through her willingness to carry God’s Son. So, it is important for us to notice that before Mary says ‘yes’, she is blessed.
And the thing is, I often have a hard time believing that God favours me, and maybe that holds for you too. It is not easy for us to think of ourselves as someone who God ‘notices’. Yes, we often consider ourselves ‘watched’ by God, but that usually is related to being watched to ‘see how we are behaving’. There is judgement in that ‘watching’. Or maybe we don’t consider ourselves ‘worthy’ of God’s attention, after all, we are not doing anything ‘out of the ordinary’, we are just living ‘ordinary’ ‘mundane’ lives which don’t matter much to anyone except ourselves. But in this morning’s story, we hear of God noticing and blessing someone who, by all accounts, is a ‘nobody’ in the world of the first century. And when this ‘nobody’ girl believes God’s blessing and accepts God’s favour, the world is turned upside down.
This passage does not portray Mary as the exception, but it identifies her as an example of what can happen when we believe that God notices, favours, and blesses us. We are all highly regarded by God, we are God’s favoured ones called and commissioned to hear, believe, and respond to God’s blessing wherever we are. And may our response also be ‘let it be according to your word’.