“The Prophet Mary”

Luke 1:46-55

Dec. 8, 2019 

Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS

Mary, the mother of Jesus, goes by a lot of names. Mother Mary. Blessed Mary. Virgin Mary. Holy Mary. Saint Mary. Mary, Mother of God. 

She’s got titles in other languages. Mary, Theotokos in Greek, meaning “God-bearer.” Or in Latin, Regina Caeli, “the Queen of Heaven.” In Eastern Orthodox churches she is sometimes depicted as Mary, Platytera meaning “the one who is more spacious than the heavens.” The one who contains Love, brings forth Love into the world. 

No wonder she has so many names. 

A name that I don’t hear as often, but is absolutely appropriate is the Prophet Mary. A prophet, in the Jewish and Christian traditions, is one who speaks a word of truth from God….often convicting, always with the hope of bringing its hearers closer to God’s Realm of justice and peace for all creation. 

Prophets are those rare people among us who are able to both hear the whispers of the Spirit AND are brave enough to repeat what they hear to others...even when it comes at great cost to the speaker. 

Prophets speak to groups of people (think of William Barber bringing down the house at the Poor People’s Campaign launch in Topeka) and they speak to individuals (like Nathan did when he condemned King David for his selfish actions). Prophets speak in literal words, of course, but they are also known to speak through their actions (like when the Prophet Miriam led the Israelites in singing and dancing as they escaped from Egypt.)

Prophets exist in a space where time seems to collapse on itself. They usually have a visceral understanding of where we have been, name the world as it is, and paint a picture of what the world could be if we would only get our acts together. 

Mary was a prophet. Through her words and actions she called the people forward into God’s Realm. 

Author William Paul Young says the vision of Advent he has in his mind is this: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit standing together in a tight circle, scheming and dreaming together as they have been since before the dawn of time. One day, the open their circle and invite a teenage girl to stand among them. And they say to her, “Here is what we want to do. What do you think?” And the young girl pauses and says, “Okay. Yes. I’m in.” And they smile and say, “Alright. Then we’re going in too.” [1]

From Mary’s “yes” new possibilities are born. Mary’s simple but profound “Let it be with me according to your word” sets the wheels in motion for Love Incarnate to come and dwell among us. Mary pauses only a moment before saying, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” Whether she already had a profound trust in her abilities or had been taught to “fake it until you make it” Mary never questions why God chose her to be the one to bear Love Incarnate to the world. 

Thanks be to God for Mary’s quiet confidence and faith. 

Having received the news and after giving her consent, Mary “makes haste” to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant. In this way, she does what many expectant parents do: she turns instinctively to others, surrounding herself with a support network as she prepares to bring new life to the world. 

And after she has delivered the news to Elizabeth, Mary, like Miriam before her, sings a song to and about God. A song of thanksgiving. A song of praise. A prophetic song about the world as it has been, in now, and will ever be. The poem that bursts forth from Mary’s soul in the first chapter of Luke is commonly known as The Magnificat because Mary begins with the words “my soul magnifies the Lord.”

Mary’s outpouring of praise is for who God is and what God has done. Her spirit rejoices because God has looked upon her with favor, though the world has called her lowly. God is the one who give the proud a much-needed dose of humility and brings forth confidence in those who have been cast aside. God lifts up the lowly and brings the lofty ones down to safer heights. In God’s Realm, the rich finally have enough sense to know they are satisfied and they take no more...while the hungry are filled with good things. 

At least two things about Mary’s words fascinate me endlessly: first, she doesn’t say “God will do these things.” She says, “God has done it already.” God HAS BROUGHT the down the powerful and lifted up the lowly. God HAS FILLED the hungry with good things…” In a world every bit as messed up as ours, this young woman looked out at all the mess and said, “God is good.” Mary’s faith in God was profound. And, like all good prophets, she looked at the world and saw where and how God was already at work. And it was to those deeds that she testified with her own words and actions. 

The second thing about the Magnificat is this: it is a song of peace. Unlike her ancestor, Hannah, who sings a very similar song in First Samuel, there is no war imagery on Mary’s lips. Even the calling to account of the rich and powerful is peaceful. This is not a story of reversals, where the rich become poor and the poor become rich. Instead, it’s a leveling. The low are raised and the high are lowered….it’s the world Isaiah spoke of generations before: “Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain made low.” [2] Instead of violent revolution and further division, Mary imagines a world where people find the image of God in the Other. A world where there is enough to go around because we finally come to understand that, as Dr. King taught, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” [3]

The Prophet Mary spins a vision of God’s Realm where we turn to one another. A world where we lean into that network of mutuality and give thanks that we are woven together in a single garment of God’s love. The Prophet Mary, through her words and actions, invites us to turn and turn again. To turn inward as we look for deep reserves of strength. To turn heavenward as we give thanks to the God who calls us beloved and invites us into the miraculous work of bearing Love to the world around us. To turn to one another as we seek the sacred image of Love in our family, friends, co-workers, strangers. 

Mary turned her face towards God and said, “My soul magnifies you for who you are and my soul receives your blessing for who I am.” Mary, who lived in a time every bit as chaotic as ours, breathed in uncertainty and fear and anxiety….and she breathed out courage and hope and peace. She shows us a world where we turn towards one another in mutual interdependence and love. “My God has already built this world,” she said. “Come. I’ll show it to you.”

Thanks be to God for the Prophet Mary. 

NOTES:

[1] William Paul Young in the film Adventus, theworkofthepeople.org 

[2] Isaiah 40

[3] MLK, Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail.