Nicole Partin
Mary Talks Back
December 24, 2006
Luke 1:47-55
You may not know this but the ABS (that’s the Angel Broadcasting System for those of you who are still on earth) but anyway, the ABS notifies you each time a question is asked at the Pearly Gates that has anything to do with you. Yes, it is true -- when you die you get to ask one question and you will receive a straightforward answer – no wishy-washy coded answers at that stop point, only to the point clear as the day answers. So be certain that you want the answer to the question you ask.
It’s interesting to see what people ask. There are people who have been plagued by a persistent question for all or much of their lives which they finally get to know the answer to. Questions like: “Did my loved one experience pain when he/she died?” “Who was my mother/father?” “Did my children know that I loved them?” “Although it was always denied did my spouse have an affair?” Then there are the jokers or perhaps those who don’t actually want answers to real questions and so they ask “Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?” Many people ask questions about individuals whose names and stories transcend time and history. This brings me to why I am talking to you today. You see, when a question is asked about me it is usually a variation of, “Was Mary really a virgin?” or “After the virgin birth did Mary remain a virgin?” I mean really, do you know how embarrassing it is always have your sexuality called into question and discussed?
I know, I know you’re thinking that I lived through the hard part a long time ago. If I lived through telling my fiancée Joseph – not to mention my father -- that the Holy Spirit made me pregnant; and I lived through the communities response to that news their blatant comments and their disdainful looks then surely I can handle a question here and there about the validity of what we who lived through the experience claimed as truth and how that truth has been handed down. The problem with the questions always being the same is the reminder that for the church I have become type-casted. A portion of my life has been taken and that is where I have remained forever. I will forever be the picture of innocence and purity and a mother’s love for her child. Granted I consider giving birth to Jesus the most important role of my life, but from that experience I believe that I left the church another legacy and that has to do with my relationship with God.
Jesus, the child whose birth we are anticipating, came into the world and was heralded as the Prince of Peace and yet the church – the living body of Christ – has never been peaceful. It pains me greatly that I have often been a source of conflict within the church. You may recall that when I went to visit my cousin Elizabeth we were both pregnant. As I approached her home, the child inside her leapt and she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” I’d like the record to show that my cousin Elizabeth said this about me – “blessed” is not a self-made title. A large portion of Christians believe I am blessed and their worship and liturgy reflects their adoration of me as the blessed virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Then another equally large portion of Christians turn away from that practice which they label as “Mary-worship”. I have not come to defend or refute either practice this morning. Instead I have come to draw your attention to another aspect of myself – a side that really has nothing to do with my sexuality or even whose mother I am. It is a side that has to do with my discipleship, my desire to be faithful, and my trust in the power of God who became incarnate.
Luke’s gospel is the place in scripture that highlights this side of me and it is unfortunately overlooked often times. I suppose that amidst the birth of Jesus it is understandable that individuals want to “get to the good part”. After all what value could one woman’s song have? Let me share with you the value and significance it had for me.
When the angel came to me I accepted God’s call on my life. I was the Lord’s servant and so I knew that I had to trust and believe in what was to come. Let me assure you that trust and belief does not equal the absence of fear. And so I ran with haste to Elizabeth’s house, I needed to verify the message that the angel had brought and so when I saw that she indeed was with child I knew for certain that the world was about to change forever. Every emotion there is ran through me in that moment, and I knew that without God none of this would be happening and that since it was happening I wouldn’t be able to make it through on my own. Joseph was a faithful, God-fearing man in his own right but would he accept me as his wife after he learned what had happened? Would the community believe the miracle that happened or would they stone me for infidelity? What about the safety of my family and my unborn child if the community believed that I was carrying the Messiah? If prophesies were being fulfilled there was a lot at stake for many people – people who possessed a lot of power and whose well-being depended upon life going on as usual.
So I did the only thing I knew how to do – offered up praise to God through my song. I rejoiced and gave thanks for God’s greatness in comparison to my lowliness (which was pretty low after all I was poor and came from Nazareth – a place not on the map until the turn of these events, a place about which it was said that nothing good could come from). Not just my lowliness but the state of the entirety of humanity and its lowliness in comparison to God’s majesty and mercy. I knew in that moment that God’s using me a lowly servant as a vehicle for the incarnate was a true testament of God’s grace and mercy. I knew in that moment that the current state of the world was not God’s vision for the world; we were not living out God’s purpose for us. I knew in that moment that what God was about to do would turn the world upside down and would forever change God’s children.
And so I continued my song, giving voice to the ways in which the world had been and would be changed through God’s hand and as a result of God’s mercy. God had scattered the proud, brought down the powerful, lifted up the lowly, and helped servants. I had faith that much more was about to be accomplished through the child growing within me – things that I and the rest of God’s children couldn’t even begin to imagine. These were the images written on my heart at that moment and I needed to give voice to them. I needed to stop all of the chaos that was going on around me and I needed to prepare myself for the journey that lay ahead by praising God for what had been and for what was about to occur.
Your journey through Advent – your time of preparation for the celebration of the birth of the Messiah is quickly drawing to an end. As a final step of preparation, before we are swept up this evening by all of the joy and celebration of the birth of my child and my savior, I invite you to think about what it means for you that God chose me, a lowly and humble servant to be the vehicle enabling the incarnate God to walk on this earth. For I assure you, sense that was possible then nothing is impossible with God. And so you also must ask yourself how God chooses you as a vehicle to give voice to what has been and what will be out of God’s grace and mercy. This evening you will gather back together to witness and testify to the story of the birth of Jesus, but for now I ask you to pause with me and wait with me in anticipation for the birth of the Christ child.
My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
