Mary

Mary

Luke 1:26-56

There are a lot of people who tell the story of Mary as if the most amazing thing about her is that she got pregnant.  This morning, I want to disagree.  At the end of the next twelve or so minutes, I want you to think about her differently.  Are you open?  Are you ready?

Here’s what we all need to know from the start.  The ancient world was not kind to women.  Heck, let’s be honest…fifty years ago, when I was a boy, women were still only beginning to challenge the limits of traditional roles. (A woman couldn’t have a credit card in her name.  A woman couldn’t have her own mortgage.)  In Jesus’s day, women couldn’t testify in court.  They couldn’t hold a job.  They were not to speak to strangers in public.  They were to be accompanied wherever they went.  Women were to be passive and silent and accommodating.   Women were considered unclean and were often looked at as temptresses, from Eve in the Garden to Bathsheba, bathing on her roof.  Human sexuality was a problem for the authorities so they decided that the source of that problem was women which shouldn’t shock us at all, given that the authorities were…men!

Without belaboring the point, one of the most revolutionary things Jesus did was that he treated women with respect.  He touched them and healed them and listened to them and not only argued with them but let them know that they were right when they won the argument.  He lifted women’s actions up as acts of faith.  Although the Gospels and church history have focused on the disciples and shaped expectations about men in leadership, it is hard to actually read the Gospels and not be struck by the fact that it is the faithful women who make it all the way to the empty tomb with Jesus while the men are running for their lives.  If we got a “do-over” and read the Gospels with non-chauvinistic eyes, we might end up with a matriarchal leadership.  It might have been the women who showed us the way.  

If we want to look with new eyes at women of faith, the place to start is with Mary.  Those who would say that the most interesting thing about Mary is that she got pregnant are usually coming from a need to separate Mary from all other women.  She was different than all the other mothers in history because she got pregnant in a different way.  Therefore, it is okay to put Mary on a pedestal because she was “unsoiled.”  Not only did this keep other women in their place but it allowed the church for centuries to treat human sexuality as something less than wonderful which has really had a lot of terrible fall out for us all.

I think, miraculous as it was, how Mary got pregnant might be the least interesting thing about her.  Here’s the truth.  If you follow God’s calling in this life, sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself in an uncomfortable, inexplicable place in life.  Things are going to get awkward.  People are going to judge what you are doing and they are not going to necessarily see it as a faithful thing.  In that moment, you join the long line of people in history who know in their hearts that they are doing the right and faithful thing—the thing that they are called to do—who are misunderstood, who are suspects as a result.  If you do the faithful thing anyway, then faithful people like Mary are right beside you.

Mary is pregnant and unmarried.  God’s messenger has told her that this is exactly the way that things should be, that this son is going to be amazing, that his name will be Jesus.  That’s not what anyone else sees.  Everyone else sees a young girl who is pregnant and engaged but not married.  They know enough to understand that at the very least this fact should end her engagement to Joseph.  They also know that Joseph, as an upstanding man, would have every right and, perhaps, even an obligation to make sure that Mary was punished for this crime.  She could have been stoned to death over this pregnancy.

Did Mary cower at this news?  Did she argue with the angel like Zechariah argued with his?  Did Mary shake her head and say, “No thanks!” and move on?  No!  Mary hears the angel’s announcement and says, “Yes, I am the Lord’s maid and ready to serve.  Let it be with me just as you say.” Again, remember Zechariah last week.  The net result of the angel’s contact with him is that the man who was ready to “mansplain” all day is silenced in the face of awe.  Men were never silenced!  Now, in a similar reversal, Mary, a young woman who had been taught to be silent, speaks up!  A woman who had been taught to defer is unflinchingly brave.  She knows that there will be nothing easy about her lot but she says, “Bring it on!”  

Even though I’ve been taught to look for the Mary who is demure with her hands folded on her lap, the Mary that I meet in the Bible is fierce.  Consider this…after the angel has made his announcement, after she has risen to the occasion, where does she go?  In a patriarchal society, you’d think she might head straight to Joseph to try to explain:  “My day?  My day was “interesting…”  Or, maybe she would go to the religious authorities and try to make the case for the miracle with them.  The truth is that we are often so anxious to get Mary to the manger that we don’t see where she went first.  She went straight to Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant with John.  Remember, when Elizabeth became pregnant and Zechariah was left mute, Elizabeth went off by herself to enjoy the first six months of her pregnancy!  She wasn’t hanging around to wait for her husband to find his words.  Mary does something very similar.  She finds out she’s pregnant and seeks out the company of another woman.  This would have broken every norm and expectation.

Now, we need to pause.  Let’s acknowledge something here.  If Mary getting pregnant was a miracle, here’s another one:  Luke starts his whole Gospel by telling us the story of two really strong, norm shattering women.  It shouldn’t surprise us that some of Jesus’ most faithful followers are going to be women because Luke wants us to know that Jesus and John were surrounded by strong, faithful women from before they were born.  It is an extraordinary thing that in those ancient times, these women’s stories were included.  We know their names.  Imagine all the faithful women’s names that we don’t know…

Let’s pause just a second more.  As I suggested last week, one of the challenges for Luke to solve was to articulate how John the Baptist and Jesus were connected.  Both had ministries.  Both died terrible deaths as a result.  Both were faithful men.  The minute that Mary comes into Elizabeth’s presence, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb—John—leaps with recognition.  The babies are that connected!  Clearly for Luke, John will prepare the way for Jesus but they are inseparable.

Back to Mary and Elizabeth.  Elizabeth used to be a faithful old lady whose heart was broken by the fact that she had never been able to have a child.  People would have seen her and shaken their heads and wondered what she had done or her ancestors had done to offend God.  After all, in that incredibly limiting world of chauvinistic expectations, what is the worth of a woman who cannot have a child?  Mary was a young girl, full of potential, until the day she turned up pregnant.  Now?  Now, she’s of little value to anyone.  She’s someone to be shunned and judged (because that’s what faithful people do, right?)

Look again…Who is Elizabeth?  She is the same faithful person that she’s always been, even when she couldn’t have a child but now she’s is glowing.  Here’s the thing, though.  In the company of Mary and carrying John, Elizabeth doesn’t just become a mother.  Rather, she becomes a prophet.  She speaks God’s word:  “You’re so blessed among women, and the babe in your womb, also blessed! And why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord visits me?” Unlike the world that would be so ready to judge Mary, Elizabeth sees a woman of faith.

Look again… Who is Mary?  She too is so much more than an unwed, pregnant girl.  She is the one who has a vision of how God is about to reshape the world:

I’m bursting with God-news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

Mary’s words soar to the same heights as the greatest words of any of the prophets.  This is not a woman staying in the role defined by her society.  This a human being burning bright with the Spirit of God.

Then, Mary runs off to find Joseph, right?  Nope!  After this exchange, Mary settles in and spends another three months with Elizabeth!  For as many times as you’ve heard this story, have you ever noticed that?  These two women are on a maternity retreat together without a man in sight.  Then, when Elizabeth is near ready to deliver, Mary heads back to Nazareth.

Luke gives us a picture of what happened when Elizabeth gave birth to John.  After lots of sign language during his silent days and a little help with a tablet on which he could name the child, Zachariah becomes a prophet in his own right.  He finally speaks the truth about his son:  “And you, my child, ‘Prophet of the Highest,’ will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways.”  He’s not wrong.  John will do amazing things.  Zachariah’s words are just incomplete.  He tells the story of what God has done and who his son would be but he never even mentions his wife.  How telling is that?

What we don’t really get to see is the moment when Mary found Joseph, when he saw her condition, when he began to put “two and two together” until Mary told him to stop.  Not only was she not charged or stoned for this disgrace, he stood by her.  Matthew tells us that from the start, before he knew anything, Joseph was looking for a way to help Mary save face.  And yet, somehow, in ways that we will never completely comprehend, Joseph became the faithful man who stood by the faithful woman.  For this grace, he was undoubtedly judged harshly by a world that resented him, letting her get away with such things and setting such a terrible example. What in the world would happen next?

Ultimately, they would make their way together to Bethlehem, to the city of David, to be counted, just like everyone else.  Before Emmanuel—God with us—was ever born, God would be with them. And the fierce woman who would hold that child in her arms would a be a key to the unfolding revolution.