Questions with Mary in late Advent: the end of a sermon

Two years ago, in Lectionary Year B with different readings, I preached on the 4th Sunday of Advent at my congregation, St. Mary's House in Greensboro. (We are a combination of chaplaincy for three local universities and colleges and a "regular congregation.") Since we are not in year B and the sermon was on the long side, I won't share all of it. And this year, the star of the Gospel is the righteous man Joseph, not Mary. Still, Mary is one of our Advent companions, and I thought I'd offer the end of the sermon here.

The sermon began with one of the songs from the magnificent Boston performance of Langston Hughes's Black Nativity and drew heavily (but not in academic style) from Elizabeth Johnson's wonderful book Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints.

The final draft of the sermon (including the final draft of this final excerpt) has footnotes because I used a lot of sources. Obviously I didn't preach the footnotes -- I added them later because I am a compulsive academic who cites her sources and because some members of the congregation wanted a copy. The book author I mention is a good friend of mine here in Greensboro, a theologian member of the congregation who teaches at U of NC at Greensboro, as does his partner, who is a specialist in Byzantine Christianity. The quote is especially appropriate since it comes from the Christian East, from whose heartland I have just returned.


Our brother Gene has a new book out.
In Gene’s book, there is a beautiful passage
from which I want to quote only in part, because that part is so rich.
He’s commenting on an ancient hymn about Mary
from the Christian East
And here’s what he says of her:

As a woman of low estate, she opens up a time for justice;
as a willing recipient of the Spirit, she opens up a site of joy.
In preparing the justice of God’s realm, she plays the role of the prophet. [1]

Let me repeat that; it’s worth a second hearing.
As a woman of low estate, [Mary] opens up a time for justice;
as a willing recipient of the Spirit, she opens up a site of joy.
In preparing the justice of God’s realm, she plays the role of the prophet.

In the era in which the ancient hymn was written,
Mary was often viewed as more than simply a human sister.

But Gene’s beautiful passage can apply just as well
to Mary our human sister, our companion.

Here we are on the fourth Sunday of Advent.
And this year we’ve got a whole week,
unlike some years when we only have two days
between this day and Christmas.
We can spend the week with Mary–
Mary who is “truly our sister;” [2]
Mary who “has to accomplish her life in the midst of the struggles of history,” [3]
despite or maybe because of
her little visit from the Gabriel the angel.

So Mary’s presence on this fourth Sunday of Advent asks us:

Are we ready
with Mary our sister
to open up a time for justice?

Are we
willing recipients of the Spirit?
The Spirit!
Not the shortcut solution.
Not the easy power.
The power of the Spirit:
the Spirit of God;
the one with the messages in the middle of the night;
the one with surprise visits
in broad daylight;
the one who visits the backwaters of conquered lands.

Are we ready
to open up a site of joy?

Are we willing
as Mary was willing
to be that place
where God lives
and where, make no mistake,
neither Mary nor we serve as passive incubator
for a pop-up Jesus?
A living, breathing, choice-making site of joy,
a real being who makes room for the action of the Holy Spirit
whatever it is?
At a really inconvenient time?

I mean, think about it,
You want inconvenient?
This woman –we would call her a girl– is virtually married.
And in what form does the Spirit show up?
A baby who’s not her husband’s.

Let’s see. In her historical situation
she could lose
her husband,
her economic support,
her reputation,
even
her life.

Don’t just look at the fact of the pregnancy.
Look at what it says!

Never mind the miracle and how it happened.
Look at what it says:

God is really really inconvenient.
And really, really risky.
And really, really close
to us.

We’re not in Jerusalem;
we’re not in Washington;

but we live within the circles of power.

Jesus
flesh of Mary’s flesh
and flesh of ours
is coming soon.

And the angel
in some form, in some voice, in some manner,
will come to us as it came to Mary
and ask,

Will you bear my word to the world?
This world?
Will you hold my word in your heart?
This heart, your heart, in this time in history, in this place,
in your skin, in your faith, in your life?
Will you share my word with the world ?
Will you
open up a time for justice
in this place, in this empire?
Will you
be a willing recipient of the Spirit?
Will you open up a site of joy?
Will you, with the help of the Spirit
risk being a prophet?

That’s a little scary.
And you probably heard those questions
addressed to you as an individual.

Let me ask them again.
Hear them asked to us as a community.

Will you
bear my word to the world?
This world?
Will you, St. Mary’s community, hold my word in your heart?
This heart, your heart, in this time in history, in this place,
in your skin, in your faith, in your life?
Will you share my word with the world ?
Will you
open up a time for justice
in this place, in this empire?

St. Mary’ community, will you
be a willing recipient of the Spirit?
Will you open up a site of joy?
Will you, with the help of the Spirit
risk being a prophet?


Let us pray.

O unknown God,
whose presence is announced
not among the impressive
but in obscurity;
come, overshadow us now,
and speak to our hidden places;
that, entering your darkness with joy,
we may choose to cooperate with you,
through Jesus Christ, Amen. [4]


[1] Eugene F. Rogers, Jr., After the Spirit: A Constructive Pneumatology from Resources Outside the Modern West (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2005), 104. For my own rhetorical purposes, I have left out of this quote from Rogers’ elaboration on Hymn XI of Romanos the Melodist a fourth point, which immediately follows the three I quote: “In preparing the joy of God’s realm, she plays the role of patriarch.”

[2] While the phrase “truly our sister” comes from Pope Paul VI, Johnson also notes in the frontispiece of her book that several women theologians, whose writings evoke the words and beliefs of grassroots women in Mexico, Korea, Brazil, and the United States, refer to Mary as a sister.

[3] Johnson, Truly Our Sister, 110.

[4] Janet Morley, Collect, Advent 4 Annunciation, from All Desires Known: Inclusive Prayers for Worship and Meditation, expanded edition (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 1992), 5.