Mary’s Vibe: Perplexed and Pondered
Preached on December 4th, 2022
At Wollaston Congregational Church
Scripture: Luke 1:26-38
Our scripture reading this morning tells of the Angel Gabriel’s visit to a young woman named Miriam or Mary. This story, known as the annunciation, immediately follows our reading from last week, in which the Angel Gabriel visited the priest, Zechariah, while he was serving in the inner sanctum of the temple. The angel told Zechariah that he and his wife Elizabeth would have a child, even in their old age. This child would be named John and would be the one to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.
Mary couldn’t be more different from Zechariah. She is young and unmarried, living in the little village of Nazareth, in the northern region of Galilee. Mary is not burning incense in the Holy of Holies at the moment of the angel’s visit. Perhaps she is sweeping the dirt floor of her family’s humble home or stirring a pot on the fire. Mary is hidden and insignificant, far from the Jerusalem the seat of religious and political power in Judea. And yet God notices her.
“Greetings favored one!” the Angel says “the Lord is with you.”
Mary is much perplexed and ponders what sort of greeting this might be. Perplexed and pondered are words of reflection, not reaction, mild reactions to an astonishing apparition.
Still, the angel gives his customary reassurance “Do not be afraid …” Mary has found favor with God. She will conceive and bear a child, she is to name him Yeshua or Jesus, if you will. He is also to be called the Son of the Most High. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, there will be no end to his Kingdom.
This is a lot to take in. Mary’s question is practical “how can this be, as I am a virgin?” How can it be an angel of the Lord in my kitchen? How can it be that God favors me and has found me in my village, Nazareth? How can it be that I am chosen?
The power of the almighty will come upon Mary and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. Her youth and inexperience is not a problem. Nor is her lowly and unmarried state a problem. In fact this is all a part of the plan. “Nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary is not only reflective, she is also brave. She consents, saying “Here I am, servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” Mary says “yes” to a calling that requires her whole body, her fullest response, her utmost dedication, that will last for her entire life.
There’s a Christmas tradition in the small semi-rural town where we raised our children. On the evenings of December 22nd and 23rd, at the Downing Farm on Washington Street, there is a live nativity. The traffic on the busy route 16 slows down and many cars stop to park on the verge and in nearby lanes. A police detail manages traffic and pedestrians.
This an ecumenical event, although the priests and pastors are not involved. People just come along – Protestant, Catholic, agnostic – people of many faiths and none. It has become a tradition in the community. Christmas would not be Christmas without the live nativity.
Parents who usually meet on the soccer fields greet one another on this wayside field. They push the smallest children to the front of the crowd where they can see or lift them onto their shoulders. Early arrivals go to the farmhouse to pull angel dresses and wings or shepherd’s cloaks over their winter jackets and mittens.
The Downing/Shanahan family of Sherborn is Catholic: they have fostered and adopted many children over the years. The live nativity began in 1978, when they wanted to tell the Christmas story to a foster child who was deaf. The farm is the perfect setting, with a donkey and a few sheep brought by neighbors.
As the crowd gathers, the sound system plays cheery Christmas songs and carols. Then the music shifts to a minor key with “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. The first scene is the annunciation.
The angel visits what appears to be a small humble home. Mary and Gabriel can be seen in silhouette. The narrator begins “Mary was a pious girl, diligent in her household chores” the scene ends with the words we read today “Let it be with me according to your word.”
This story of the annunciation is most important in the Roman Catholic Church. It even has its own feast day. Catholics focus on Mary as a figure of reverence. They lift up her obedience and her virgin state.
At its extreme, this kind of thinking has been used to limit women’s roles and influence in the Church. If Mary is sinless and to be revered as a virgin and because she birthed Jesus, then a woman’s role in life is to remain sexually pure in service to God, or to give birth to and raise many children without complaint.
And yet, Mary may be held in high regard and even revered, without insisting she is a perpetual virgin. Catholics are onto something, I think, when their reverence focuses on Mary as the favored lowly one chosen by God to bring the Christ into the world.
By contrast, we protestants have largely ignored Mary. We have held a certain distaste for the story of the annunciation and any discussion of the virgin conception. We begin our Christmas stories with Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem, Mary balanced uncomfortably on a donkey.
The Wollaston Congregational manger scene was always set up and supervised by our beloved church member, Ellie Cleveland. Which figures would be displayed each Sunday was Ellie’s purview and a mystery she did not wish to share.
The Advent after Ellie died, I took out the stable and the figures. I figured that the first scene would involve Mary and the angel. Then I emptied the whole box of carefully wrapped figures but could not find an angel. It has only just occurred to me that this is a protestant creche. It begins with shepherds in the field at night and ends with the scene in the stable.
And yet, we need the angel so that we may tell the story that begins at Mary’s home in Nazareth. We are reminded that Mary was poor and insignificant in the eyes of the world, and yet held in the highest regard by God. We are reminded that Mary is reflective and Mary is brave.
Before our sermon this morning here at Wollaston Congregational Church, we heard from a guest speaker, B. Jae from the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC). B. Jae attended youth group here in our church, back in the day, and he is a fellow Christian. He came to talk to us about BCNC’s work in the Asian community here in Wollaston and Quincy. [1]
But B. Jae also came as a messenger, an angel in our midst. He reminded us of recent hate crimes in our community: the brutal abduction and rape of a 64-year-old Asian woman from the Wollaston T station. He told us about a 77-year-old man who was deliberately hit by a car, following racist verbal abuse, just this past Friday. B. Jae answered our question “what can we do to help the Asian community in Quincy?” by calling us to be allies of our Asian neighbors. He called us to stand up for them and offer them kindness and friendship, even by simply smiling and letting them know that they are safe in our company.
We have not been given a task as great as Mary’s, but still we are called by the angel to be bearers of Christ in our community. And so, this Advent time, may we, like Mary, not fear, but simply be perplexed by the angel’s message, pondering its mysterious meaning. And then, perhaps, say “yes” to God “… let it be according to your word.”
Here are the words of Pierce Pettis’s song, Miriam:
No banners were unfurled
When God stepped into the world
Held in the arms of a little girl
Named Miriam
Who would ever believe
Your fiancé, your family
The teenage pregnancy
Of Miriam
But laws of nature were suspended
Death sentences rescinded
Throughout all the world
And all because of a little girl named Miriam
Medieval paintings glaring down
Stony figures judge and frown
Wearing a halo like a crown
Could that be Miriam
Gentile temples stained glass swirls
Cherubim with golden curls
How unlike your Hebrew world
Miriam
I don't know if you ascended
I don't care what's been amended
There was one sure miracle
The faith of a little girl named Miriam
Oh you are blessed indeed
Blessed is the fruit of your tree
Yeshua kings of kings
And son of Miriam
No banners were unfurled
When God stepped into the world
Held in the arms of a little girl
Named Miriam. [2]
Amen
[1] https://bcnc.net/
[2] https://www.newreleasetoday.com/lyricsdetail.php?lyrics_id=50675