15 August 2010

Isaiah 61:7-11
Psalm 45:11-16
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 1:46-55

In the traditional, Swedish congregation where I grew up, a person couldn’t be anywhere in the worship space without being encountered by Mary – a whole section of the north wall there was – and still is – dominated by a huge stained glass window of Mary cradling her child Jesus in her arms. And in the church of the traditionally Swedish congregation I served in Southwestern Minnesota, to the side of the nave there was a small altar presided over by none other than Mary. With all that in my background I was surprised one day when a visitor to my office strenuously objected to the statue of Mary sitting on one of my bookshelves – and that this visitor was even further incensed when, as I was explaining Mary’s presence, I referred to Mary as the Mother of God rather than the Mother of Our Lord. But on another occasion and on the other end of the spectrum there was the Lutheran who was highly offended that I had referred to Mary as a woman of low degree; rather, said this person, I should be referring to Mary as the Mother of God and with highest reverence and honor. No wonder we hear in Luther’s Table Talk that the life of a preacher is one of getting picked to bits from every side while pleasing no one.

Well, now having invoked the Reverend Father Martin, as some of his students called him, let’s hear what our spiritual forebear has to teach us concerning Mary. We’ll start with how Luther always refers to Mary as “the Mother of God.” When I told my objecting friend this – the reply was that Mary was Jesus’ mother, not God’s Mother. One of the reasons the Nicene Creed is traditionally used with the Eucharistic liturgy is to remind us of what we are receiving in Holy Communion – the body and blood of Christ – who is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God” who was incarnate from young maiden Mary – God who became our flesh – born just like us, of a human mother, just like us.

With that in mind, conventional religious thought might then lead us to expect God to choose as God’s Mother someone of noble status. Or at least someone important. But that’s not what God does, explains Luther in his commentary on this morning’s text from Luke. Mary herself says she is but a lowly handmaid – a woman of low degree – nor, says Luther, are “those of low degree are not . . . the humble, but all those who are contemptible and altogether nothing in the eyes of the world . . . . those who are willing to be nothing, and lowly of heart, and do not strive to be great.” And so it is that Mary sings the praises of the God who chooses to the everlasting horror of the Somebodys a total Nobody to be the Mother of God. Dr. Luther paraphrases Mary’s song: “God has favored me, a poor, despised, and lowly maiden, though He might have found a rich, renowned, noble, and mighty queen – or the daughter of princes and great lords. He might have found the daughter of Annas or of Caiaphas, who held the highest position in the land. But He let His pure and gracious eyes light on me and used so poor and despised a young women . . . I must acknowledge it all to be pure grace and goodness and not at all my merit or worthiness.”

And with that as his warrant, Luther lets loose his venom upon “the vain chatterers who preach and write so many things about her merits. They . . . spoil the Magnificat, make the Mother of God a liar, and diminish the grace of God. For, in proportion as we ascribe merit and worthiness to her, we lower the grace of God and diminish the truth of the Magnificat.” When we honor Mary, we aren’t honoring her in herself, but are honoring the God who favors – yes, favors – the lowly over those who are proud in their hearts – who sit in judgement of others. Looking upon Mary – pregnant out of wedlock – judged by others to be guilty of something for which she deserves to be executed by stoning – there we learn that only the lowly, those who have reached the bottom, can fully treasure God’s grace. Those who trust in themselves, their good names, their stature, their responsible actions – they have themselves and their own great abilities and haven’t much of any need for God’s grace. The comfortable prefer a deity who approves of their good taste, their good behavior, and their good works; and the comfortable wish above all things to remain comfortable and will fight with all their might and even kill to insure that they not be brought low, for they cannot stand the true God, the God who wills to be born in humiliation and die in humiliation and who rises from death not to become an emperor but to be known in humble bread and wine. Only by being brought to the level of a lowly Mary can the comfortable ones be found by the God who chooses to be most intimate with the cast down. Note too that it is God who does the finding here – never we ourselves.

Luther also contends that while those who elevate Mary as an example of meritorious behavior have erred in one direction, those who ignore Mary err in the opposite direction. These ones, “make us timid and afraid and hide” the pictures and images of her – the pictures and images that are nothing more nor less than images of the grace of God being showered upon those who are a scandal to the comfortable. The comfortable must keep the Mother of God far from sight so that they not be reminded that God finds us not when we are upon the heights but best when we have been brought low. A truly faithful image of Mary should be an example that provides us comfort by showing God’s grace toward the downcast and by giving us knowledge of God’s desire to embrace with overflowing love those who are shunned by the respected and respectable. This is why Our Lady of Guadalupe, little and brown, la morenita, was looked at with horror by the Europeans who had come to conquer and annihilate the native population of the hemisphere – and why over the years, in order to placate the conquerors, the little brown one has bit by bit become both taller and whiter. All is not lost however; a fine Anglo lady remarked one day concerning the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that sits in my office, an image little and brown and crudely painted on the rear of a decorated orange-crate shrine, “I would never want that any place where I could see it – it just looks so . . . so trashy.” Well then, praise be to God – Our Lady of Guadalupe may be doing her work after all.

Perhaps though we do not need a plaster or painted image of Mary, the Mother of God, the young woman of low degree – all we need do is look upon anyone who is brought low, anyone who is in the depths – be it the person who suffers from mental illness; the one who has received diagnosis of stage four cancer; the white-collar criminal humiliated in front of all; the unwed, teen mother who can no longer hide her pregnancy and shame; the young man beat up by his father because he is gay; the transgender teen-ager living on the streets after being kicked out of the house and disowned – there in each of these is the one whom God regards with favor. Or maybe even, we can look in the mirror for Mary – like her, none of us on our own merits any consideration by God – for we have tarnished the creation, judged one another, and shared relatively nothing of what we have been given, fancying it ours and thinking we’ve earned it. No – we are all unworthy of God’s favor. Yet here this day, God enters into our bodies even as God entered the body of his Mother. And, just as everything in her life was changed when Mary became Mother of God, so also with us. Once God gets inside a person – nothing will ever be easy again. So if we want to remain comfortable – well, by all means we had better stay away from the Eucharist, stay away from the cross. We had best go sit on a mountaintop – which will be great until we get struck by lightning. But then again – being struck lightening might just bring us down from our heights so that now, sorely wounded, we can see at our side the God who is also wounded and who wills to be found with the broken. So – on this day when tradition holds she was brought to heaven, Hail Mary, full of grace – for in your lowliness you teach us that we too shall be filled with good things, that we too, with you, shall be raised. Thanks be to God! AMEN.