Below is my sermon: Be like Mary. The image attached is an icon I wrote called "First Communion." Permission to copy or use this copyrighted image must be obtained from me. Thank you.
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En el nombre del Dios: Padre, Hijo, y Espiritu Santo. Amen.
Today we are celebrating the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday AND the fourth Sunday of Advent. (Reference to Advent wreath candles and rose colored vestments.)
On the 3rd and 4th Sundays in Advent, we pray together the Magnificat – Mary’s radical, powerful prayer of praise to God and her voluntary gift of herself - her body, her soul, and her life – to be God’s partner in the plan of salvation, the reconciliation of the whole world to God in Christ.
For centuries the descriptors most often used about Mary are: meek and mild. Mary was probably meek, that is submissive, in the same way her son, Jesus was, for example, at his trial. Jesus was submissive to God’s plan but not to the Roman prefect. Likewise, Mary submitted herself and her life to God and God’s plan, but she was anything but mild about it. She was downright courageous and probably a bit directive, as most good leaders are.
I think of Mary sitting at the cross as her son died – the men having high tailed it to safety… and the wedding at Cana when Mary solved the wine problem by telling everyone to do whatever her son told them, despite Jesus’ own reluctance to work that miracle just then. Like a good son, he obeyed his mother and the feast fairly overflowed with fabulous wine.
The Greeks call Mary “Theotokos” which means “God-bearer.” Mary opened herself to ridicule, exile, even death, so that the Savior could grow within her unmarried body. Then she birthed him into manifest reality. Hers was, therefore, the first communion – she literally gave the body of Christ to the world… making her the first sacramental priest of the Christian universe.
I think it was medieval priest and mystic Meister Eckhart who said we are all called to be ‘theotokos.’ We are all called to grow Christ within us - in our bodies, our souls, and our lives – and give him to the world. This is the ministry of all the baptized (not just the ordained) as a royal priesthood.
Be like Mary: submissive to God’s will, courageous, directive, willing to grow the Christ within you, then give him to the world.
Our church calendar offers us a rhythm of penitential-preparatory seasons followed by the celebratory seasons… Advent to Christmas and Lent to Easter… then time to rest and grow. Advent is one of the penitential-preparatory seasons. It’s a time when we, like Mary, offer to God our whole selves – our bodies, souls, and lives – as God’s partners in the continuing work of reconciliation.
It’s penitential because during Advent we summon up the courage to notice where sin exists in us and how it is manifested in our lives. For example, wherever a relationship is disrupted, there is sin. Whether that relationship is with God, another person, or our treatment of creation, sin disrupts relationship. We repent when we change ourselves and what we do in order to restore right relationship, or as the Bible calls it: righteousness.
We are the bearers of the Spirit of God in Christ in the world today. This identity is given to us in our Baptism, therefore, we like Mary, are partners with God in the reconciling work of salvation. Are we willing to be like Mary: submissive to God’s will, courageous, directive, willing to grow the Christ within us, then give him to the world?
Mary’s Magnificat was her manifesto – her public proclamation of her theology, grounded in her tradition. Think about that, this woman raised Jesus, and this is the theology he learned from her:
• that God is great, merciful, strong, and protective
• that God brings down the mighty from their places of power and lifts up the lowly
• that God feeds those who hunger and sends the self-satisfied away empty
• that God helps God’s people
• that God keeps God’s promises which are handed down through the tradition of the prophets in Scripture
This is our manifesto too. Do we have the courage to proclaim it? …to live it?
Some of us do. Look at what’s happening right now with the #MeToo movement. Women are proclaiming with courage and men in every arena of our common life are finding themselves brought down from their places of power. Women are finally being heard and acknowledged in their demand for respect, dignity, and justice.
I give thanks for this uncomfortable moment in our cultural narrative. I give thanks that racism is being called out – again; that sexism is being called out – again. Courageous people are proclaiming their Magnificat and God is acting to make all things right again, and this time, we are given the grace to see it beginning to happen.
It’s cataclysmic. Transformation always is.
By God’s great power and bountiful grace and promised mercy, everyone and everything that is out of step with God’s will, is already being transformed; and justice and peace are already being restored in our hearts, in our relationships, and in our world.
So then, we aren’t the only ones who are waiting during Advent, are we? God is waiting too. God is waiting for us to be like Mary and welcome the transformation God is already working in us.
It will be cataclysmic, but as St. Paul says, God will strengthen us until we, like Mary, can say: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Let us pray…
Stir up your power and with great might come among us now, O Lord. We welcome you. We trust you. We love you. We know we put up roadblocks. Let your bountiful grace and mercy… help us to take them down – to take down all barriers between us and you, and between us and one another. Deliver us from all our barriers to Love, so that we may be like Mary: submissive to your will, courageous, directive, and welcome the continuing growth of the Christ within us, that we might give him to the world in an eternal holy communion. Amen.
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