In 2010, I worked at United Way in Seattle. They had a great ad campaign that year, with each ad featuring two identical pictures, with two different captions. Below the pictures and captions was one tag line, “Choose the way”. The implication was that you, the viewer and donor, could be the difference in the in someone’s story. You could be the difference between the narrative of Homeless or Housed. Abused or Safe. You choose the Way. The ads were on billboards and busses. They even make cameo appearances on the walls of the elevator scenes on Grey’s Anatomy, to give the show an authentic Seattle feel. The ads were everywhere.
One was a particularly grey December day, my bus pulled up with another ad in the series on the side.
This was two identical pictures of a beautiful and simple young woman. Beneath the pictures, the captions read, Hungry. Filled. This ad did not make me think of United Way. Because of the imagery and the choice of words and the time of year, it reminded me immediately of the song of Mary we read together earlier.
He has filled the hungry with good things.
The song of Mary is a beloved and beautiful song that Mary delivers during a pretty exciting time in her life, which we hear about and celebrate today, the fourth Sunday of Advent.
In the Gospel reading, we hear the account of the angel Gabriel arriving and telling Mary that she will bear a son. Mary is a teen ager, unmarried and poor. “But how will this be?” Mary asks. Gabriel responds that the power of the most high will “overshadow” her. The whole episode sounds unnerving and risky. To this kind of request, Mary could have responded with fear, or with sarcasm, or with anger. She could have responded with all of those responses we know too well, that we offer when we are afraid, or scared, or feel at risk. We respond that way when others scare us, and we respond that way when God asks us something hard.
Instead, Mary responds with the gracious and simple words, : “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."
Wow. What a response. Simple. Mary willingly and obediently received God into her life, despite the risks and difficulties that it most certainly would bring to her, an unmarried, poor teen.
Obedience is not something we tend to value in this culture and at this time, but look at what obedience looks like in this story of Mary. She is asked by God to do something hard, and something counter-cultural, and something risky. And with unimaginable grace and trust in God, she says, I am a servant of the lord. She basically is saying, yes, I’ll be obedient. Not only obedient, but blank-check obedient. Let it be with me according to your word. In other words, whatever you say.
Maybe Mary’s obedient response comes from Gabriel’s simple opening line, Do not be afraid. Or maybe it comes from a deep seated faith in God that preceded Gabriel’s visit. Or perhaps it came from Mary’s willingness to accept God’s grace which includes the gift of faith. She said yes to God, in an unambiguous and obedient way. And while obedience is counter-cultural, when it comes to God calling us, obedience is surprisingly easier than resistance. Like Mary, obeying and affirming what God is calling us to do can be hard, and equally can be beautiful and freeing.
Mary’s response to Gabriel is simple and powerful. I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be with me, according to your word. And we could do well if we could learn this kind of simple, unambiguous, obedient response to God.
After this surprising exchange, Gabriel tells Mary she is to go see her relative Elizabeth, by now an old woman, who also was to bear a son, John the Baptist. Mary heads off to see Elizabeth. Given the distance of about 100 miles, the journey would have taken her about a week on foot.
While Mary’s thoughts on the journey are not recorded, she surely had some, and I imagine she played the recent events over and over in her mind. Did God just send me an angel? Say I’m going to have a child – and not Joseph’s child? And did I just say yes? Did I say “let it be with me according to your word?”
When she sees Elizabeth, she has much more to say than her original response to Gabriel. To Elizabeth, she fills in details about her response to Gabriel. This is the Song of Mary, also known as the Magnificat that we read earlier in the service.
And where Mary’s response to Gabriel is powerful, simple and demonstrates obedience, what she says to Elizabeth is powerful, complex and demonstrates defiance.
She starts by providing insight into her initial and visceral response to God’s request. She tells Elizabeth that her soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and that her spirit rejoices in God. When God asks us to do something hard, something risky, what is our response? What does your soul do in God’s presence? Does it rejoice and proclaim God’s greatness?
She then proclaims the great things that God will do to turn the world back right-side up. This is where her defiance and power are shown. She speaks about two traits that she, an unmarried poor teen girl, didn’t have. Two traits that had turned the world upside down, and separated people from God. And these two traits contribute to a third that is equally problematic, and Mary speaks to that too. She names the ill, and what God will do.
She speaks to power. God will cast down the mighty from their thrones.
Power without compassion corrupts. It creates inequities and imbalances. Power without embodying God’s love of all, creates the lowly. When the powerful believe they are entitled or better than others, with that power, we intentionally or unintentionally create the powerless. Mary speaks to this imbalance created from unchecked power. God will lift up the lowly. Not because the lowly are better than the mighty, but because they are no worse. God’s love is equal, and if doesn’t look equal on this earth, Mary is proclaiming that God will fix what human power has broken.
She speaks to wealth. God will send the rich away, empty.
Riches without compassion corrupts. Riches without embodying God’s love of all, creates the hungry. When the rich believe they are entitled or better than others, with that wealth, we intentionally or unintentionally create the hungry. Mary speaks to that injustice created from uncompassionate wealth. God will fill the hungry with good things. Not because the hungry are better than the rich, but because they are no worse. God’s love is equal, and if it doesn’t look equal on this earth, Mary is proclaiming that God will fix what human wealth has broken.
Finally, Mary speaks to pride. Pride comes when we feel personally responsible for something good. For our advances, our accomplishments, our wealth, our power. Pride has the risk of obscuring our reliance and understanding of God’s role in our life. After all, it is God’s grace and love that allow us to advance, accomplish, gain wealth and power. Mary speaks to pride, and the distance it creates between us and God. God will scatter the proud in their conceit. Mary is proclaiming that God will fix what human pride has broken.
In less than a week, we celebrate the arrival of the human God in our human lives. Today, we are given some powerful examples of how to respond to that arrival, and I’d urge you to think about your response this week.
Are you more apt to have the strong simple response, like Mary’s response to Gabriel? If so, what is your response? Here I am. Enter here. Re-read the Gospel reading today and think about how you would have responded. How you would want to respond. How you will respond to Christ’s arrival.
Are you a person of more words? Is your response more like Mary’s song? What would you say about how your soul responds in the presence of God? Does your soul sing? Is it quiet? Is it on fire?
What injustices would you name, and what do you believe God will do about it? Racial tensions. War. Hunger.
We are in the same place as Mary was in the readings today. God is inviting us to make room, to invite God in our lives.
In the next five days, think about how you would respond to God’s invitation to enter your life. I’d even encourage you to write your own canticle. The song of Shari. Song of George. Is it long or short? It doesn’t matter what it looks like. It matters that you think about God’s arrival, and that you think enough about your response that you actually have one. Because in less than a week, we are invited to let Christ enter our lives again. Actually, in about 20 minutes, we are invited to let Christ enter our lives again in the Eucharist. Every week we are invited to let God into our lives. Every week, we can practice our own song.
If you put some thought into your response, into your Magnificat, several things happen. For starters, you have a response. You are an active participant in the incarnation story. The other thing that happens is what happened to me in Seattle. You begin to see God’s hand everywhere, even on billboards on the side of the bus. In songs, notes from friends. God’s hand is everywhere, even in the craziness and busyness of the Christmas season.
Today, let’s obediently, powerfully and defiantly follow Mary and prepare our own personal response to God’s invitation to enter our lives once again.
Amen.
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