What Mary did (and didn't) know
The following is a message I preached today at St James, Painesville, for the 3rd Sunday of Advent.
If you’ve been listening to Christmas music on the radio, you’ve probably heard a certain song a few times by now. It’s called “Mary Did You Know?” by Pentatonix. If you haven’t heard the song, let me tell you how it starts:
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Etc. The song asks repeatedly if Mary knew what was going to happen when she said yes to God at the moment of the Annunciation. And if you really read the Magnificat, you’ll see that she did. Mary was a Jewish woman who believed in a God who had made a covenant with his beloved people. A God who keeps his promises, no matter how long it takes for them to be fulfilled. The promises God makes are repeated throughout our readings today, and indeed throughout all of our scriptures.
What does it look like to see God’s promises fulfilled? Go back and look at the lesson from Isaiah again. “… they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Look at today’s Gospel: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”
And then, look at the Magnificat. “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
As you might imagine, this is good news to some and scary news to others. The news of the coming Messiah was joyful for Mary, a lowly, poor young woman. Her response to God was one of joy and praise. Contrast this with the reaction of King Herod. His response to God’s promises was fear. He was deeply afraid of losing his power, and his wealth, and he went to horrific lengths to maintain that power. He was willing to murder every baby boy in Bethlehem to make sure that none of them would grow up to become king and steal his throne.
The evil powers of this world that work against God want us to lead with fear. They want us to clutch onto what we think is ours, and fight off anyone who might try to take it away. They close up our hearts and make them smaller, less able to love. Mary’s yes to God was magnifying to her soul: love enlarged her heart and she was able to work with God to bring forth the Incarnation into the world. But it wasn’t without great cost. A sword would pierce her soul when she saw her son nailed to the cross. In that moment, I wonder, did she feel any regret? Did she ask God “why?” Did she realize how hard it is to say yes to God when there is the very real risk that you will have your heart broken? That part isn’t in the Pentatonix song.
What does this mean for us today, as we wait for Jesus to come again? If you look at things that are happening in the world right now behind the lights and the tinsel, you will see an abundance of suffering, fear and pain. I recently read a post by a Christian blogger named Sarah Bessey, and the title of her post was “Does Advent even matter when the world is on fire?” When I saw the headline, I immediately thought, “yes! Precisely because of that!” The world was on fire when Jesus came into it. There was suffering, and pain, and oppression all throughout the Roman empire. The same can be said for our world today.
But here’s another quote from that post: “Advent holds the truth of what is right now up to the truth of what was and what will be.” I believe the same is true for the Magnificat. Mary’s song of praise holds the truth of what is right now up to the truth of what was and what will be. It links the promises God made in the past to the promises God has made for our future.
We must go forth into the world, with our hearts magnified by love, and live the way of Jesus as we await his return. Meister Eckhart once said, “We are all meant to be mothers of God… for God is always needing to be born.” That means that every one of us has our own part to play in helping God to fulfill the dream. We are meant to work with God. When we make our baptismal covenant, we promise to do the work that God calls on us to do with God’s help. God needs each of us to say yes, too. It’s not easy – we, too, experience heartbreaks along the way. But our resurrection faith shows us time and again that it’s worth the risk. We know how the story ends.
Author's Note: originally, this piece was quite a bit longer. It was nearly 1400 words; my rector challenged me to shorten it to 800 (or at least, under 900). In the editing process, I realized that in order to find my focus and make the message clearer, I had to give up the parts that made me sound "scholarly". All the extra stuff that made me sound like I knew what I was talking about, in other words. It was a good lesson on letting go of pride. The important thing isn't waving my knowledge of scripture around, it's letting the Holy Spirit speak. So, even though I worried this was too short, I think the message comes across much better now than it had before. Thank you, Mother Vanessa! 💗
(Statue of Mary of Nazareth in the Sisters of Notre Dame chapel, Chardon OH)
If you’ve been listening to Christmas music on the radio, you’ve probably heard a certain song a few times by now. It’s called “Mary Did You Know?” by Pentatonix. If you haven’t heard the song, let me tell you how it starts:
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Etc. The song asks repeatedly if Mary knew what was going to happen when she said yes to God at the moment of the Annunciation. And if you really read the Magnificat, you’ll see that she did. Mary was a Jewish woman who believed in a God who had made a covenant with his beloved people. A God who keeps his promises, no matter how long it takes for them to be fulfilled. The promises God makes are repeated throughout our readings today, and indeed throughout all of our scriptures.
What does it look like to see God’s promises fulfilled? Go back and look at the lesson from Isaiah again. “… they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Look at today’s Gospel: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”
And then, look at the Magnificat. “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
As you might imagine, this is good news to some and scary news to others. The news of the coming Messiah was joyful for Mary, a lowly, poor young woman. Her response to God was one of joy and praise. Contrast this with the reaction of King Herod. His response to God’s promises was fear. He was deeply afraid of losing his power, and his wealth, and he went to horrific lengths to maintain that power. He was willing to murder every baby boy in Bethlehem to make sure that none of them would grow up to become king and steal his throne.
The evil powers of this world that work against God want us to lead with fear. They want us to clutch onto what we think is ours, and fight off anyone who might try to take it away. They close up our hearts and make them smaller, less able to love. Mary’s yes to God was magnifying to her soul: love enlarged her heart and she was able to work with God to bring forth the Incarnation into the world. But it wasn’t without great cost. A sword would pierce her soul when she saw her son nailed to the cross. In that moment, I wonder, did she feel any regret? Did she ask God “why?” Did she realize how hard it is to say yes to God when there is the very real risk that you will have your heart broken? That part isn’t in the Pentatonix song.
What does this mean for us today, as we wait for Jesus to come again? If you look at things that are happening in the world right now behind the lights and the tinsel, you will see an abundance of suffering, fear and pain. I recently read a post by a Christian blogger named Sarah Bessey, and the title of her post was “Does Advent even matter when the world is on fire?” When I saw the headline, I immediately thought, “yes! Precisely because of that!” The world was on fire when Jesus came into it. There was suffering, and pain, and oppression all throughout the Roman empire. The same can be said for our world today.
But here’s another quote from that post: “Advent holds the truth of what is right now up to the truth of what was and what will be.” I believe the same is true for the Magnificat. Mary’s song of praise holds the truth of what is right now up to the truth of what was and what will be. It links the promises God made in the past to the promises God has made for our future.
We must go forth into the world, with our hearts magnified by love, and live the way of Jesus as we await his return. Meister Eckhart once said, “We are all meant to be mothers of God… for God is always needing to be born.” That means that every one of us has our own part to play in helping God to fulfill the dream. We are meant to work with God. When we make our baptismal covenant, we promise to do the work that God calls on us to do with God’s help. God needs each of us to say yes, too. It’s not easy – we, too, experience heartbreaks along the way. But our resurrection faith shows us time and again that it’s worth the risk. We know how the story ends.
Author's Note: originally, this piece was quite a bit longer. It was nearly 1400 words; my rector challenged me to shorten it to 800 (or at least, under 900). In the editing process, I realized that in order to find my focus and make the message clearer, I had to give up the parts that made me sound "scholarly". All the extra stuff that made me sound like I knew what I was talking about, in other words. It was a good lesson on letting go of pride. The important thing isn't waving my knowledge of scripture around, it's letting the Holy Spirit speak. So, even though I worried this was too short, I think the message comes across much better now than it had before. Thank you, Mother Vanessa! 💗
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