“Mary’s Audacious Song”

Luke 1:46-55

A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

December 11, 2005

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            We come to this day with a myriad of images dancing in our heads.  We have the reminder that four people from the Christian Peacemaker Team are still under threat for their lives because of their peaceful witness in Iraq.  They are trained in nonviolence and committed to making peace from the deepest part of their Christian commitments.  At least one of them, Norman Kember has been active with the Baptist Peace Fellowship.  Their captors have vowed to execute them unless all Iraqi prisoners are released.  They stand alongside so many who do not know what will happen next as elections and warfare continues to loom over the face of Iraq. 

            We come to this day with great joy that Esther, Lay Taw Du, Luckee, Darkee, Jackee, and Htadee have all arrived safely from the refugee camp in Thailand and with the help of the good people of UBC and Woodbury Baptist Church have set up home in St. Paul.

            We are frantically getting things ready for Christmas and there seems like not enough time to do everything we wanted to do.

            We are trying to make it through finals and all of the challenges that such high-pressure brings.

            Many of us are dealing with tragedy, injury or disease of some kind or another which puts a murky cloud over the tidings of comfort and joy and general façade of merriment that besets us as we approach Christmas.

            Some of us are strapped financially and having to make the difficult decision over which bills to pay, the heat or the groceries.

            Others are filled with joy at the reunion of family and friends.

            And then there is Mary and her audacious song that makes us thrilled and scared to death at the same time.  Such is the paradox of Christmas, lived out by all of us.

            Mary, we know has been given an offer she could not refuse when she found out that she was in a family way.  Gabriel’s words that the Spirit of God was with her helped, but not as much as finding out from the angel that Elizabeth was also unexpectedly pregnant and would know what she was going through.  Mary went to cousin Elizabeth during her first trimester and got the support she needed from Elizabeth.  I imagine them talking late into the night, planning what they would teach their children.  How they would make sure that they were different than others. 

I imagine Mary and Elizabeth changing roles toward the end of their visit.  Mary likely assisted at the birth of John the Baptist, holding Elizabeth’s hand and sharing a bond that only they could know. 

It was this encounter that changed Mary from a seemingly insignificant child to a woman of power and prophetic prowess.  You might have ignored Mary as just another single pregnant poor woman.  That is until she spoke.  For when she spoke she spoke with power, passion, purpose that had not been heard since the prophets of old. 

            In fact, her song was almost word for word the song of Hannah which she sang when she was pregnant with the mighty Samuel. 

Mary channeled Hannah and Elizabeth and every other woman who would be ignored with a subversive and audacious speech about how things ought to be in our world.  Look at it, it’s full of turn-arounds:

            God’s mercy extends to all (not just the privileged, not just those who are the right gender, the right race, the right sexual orientation, who speak the right language, who can afford to pay the temple tax.)  No, God’s mercy is to all people.  That is the true tiding of comfort and joy.  Here’s what it looks like to Mary:  The lowly will be lifted up; The proud are scattered in the imaginations of their hearts; The rulers are pulled down from their thrones; The rich are sent away empty.  That’s Mary’s all but forgotten song.

            But think of the Christmas plays you have seen.  Mary plays a different role doesn’t she?  First of all she’s not the pregnant woman in her second or third trimester who is feeling good for the first time and has something to shout from the mountaintops.

In the nativity plays, she’s the quiet nursing mother exhausted by labor and relieved by the birth of her child amongst the friendly beasts. 

The Nativity plays also leave out the other powerful women that lurk in the shadows of the geneology of Matthew.  You may remember who they are:

Rahab, the woman who helped shepherd Joshua and his minions in Jericho, providing safe space for God’s people;

Ruth who secured the land of Bethlehem and restored her mother-in-law Naomi to her rightful place in society and set scripture and tradition on its end by marrying into the Hebrew line and exposing its racism;

Tamar who declared herself as a person of worth.  She was not to be denied what was truly hers.  By her actions, she uncovered her own family’s injustice.

            Finally, there’s Bathsheba, scorned widow Queen who bore the brunt of her rude second husband David and who ensured that her son Solomon was rewarded with royalty even though he was not the first born of David.

            These four women like Hannah and Mary are central and forgotten players in the nativity story.  They are forgotten or at least minimized because their words and their messages are so audacious, so subversive so life-giving to the poor and humble and so life-challenging to people like us who are in positions of power and relative wealth. 

            This week I received a letter from Drs. David and Laura Parajon American Baptist Missionaries from Nicaragua who told of the plight of their people.  Nicaragua is already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.  And now because of the horrific hurricane season, many of the Nicaraguans have lost their crops and thus their only hope for income.  So hunger heaps insult to injury.  And yet David and Laura remind us during Advent of their faith that good people from around the world will do great things for the Nicaraguan people because of the Christmas story—because of Mary’s audacious song. 

            Do you have a song in your heart? 

            Have you heard such a song from a Mary?

            Do you have something that is taking hold inside of you that is itching to break forth and simply won’t hold back?

            If so, maybe that’s the Christmas gift we need in this day and age.

            Ken Sehested used to direct the Baptist Peace Fellowship and now co-pastor’s a small church in North Carolina with his wife Nancy.  He wrote this about his friend Norman’s detention in Iraq as a member of the Christian Peacemaker’s Team:

            "In a way, Advent is a preparation for conflict. The climax of this season comes with Christmas. And Jesus' birth isn't like the coming of Santa Claus. Santa brings toys to all the good little girls and boys. Jesus, on the other hand, brings scandal, brings a threat to our customary ways of living, challenges those in seats of privilege and power, turns things upside down.

Herod could have handled Santa Claus just fine. No problem. It was Jesus that threw him into a murderous fit.
            "And the world continues to work itself up into a murderous fit at the coming of Jesus. And all who go by his name, who claim allegiance to his mobilization, had best be prepared, had better stay awake."

Of course, as with everyone, most of our boundary-crossing commitments are decidedly more ordinary and unbeknownst to editors and courtroom judges. (Just as, in the liturgical calendar, "ordinary days" are far more common than the special pomp-and-circumstance fiestas that grab more attention.)

William Blake once wrote that anyone "who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars." Similarly, Dostoevsky wrote, "The more I love humanity in general, the less I love [anyone] in particular." Every now and then, however--like Norman's decision to visit Iraq--particular commitments take on extraordinary significance.

In this sense, what makes the news and what doesn't is neither here nor there for us. In God's economy, nothing is wasted; no one is anonymous; and everyone is implicated. Mostly, our job is simply to stay awake.”

 

Sisters and brothers, when we stay awake, we remember that Jesus’ life-giving ministry was foreshadowed in Mary’s audacious song.  The life and messages of Rahab, Tamar, Ruth, Hannah, Bathsheba and Mary are the foundation of Jesus’ mission—and ours, too.

May we ever be awake to Mary’s audacious song whenever and wherever we hear it.  For when we do, although it may scare us, God may be preparing to visit our human world once again.  May we recognize it, praise it, believe it and may it truly bring tiding of comfort and joy to all people who love God.