39 In
those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill
country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted
Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in
her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed
with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes
to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in
my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there
would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46 And Mary
said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, 47 and my spirit
rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on his lowly
servant. From this day all generations
will call me blessed; 49 the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is
his name. 50 He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. 51 He has
shown the strength of his arm; he has scattered the proud in their conceit. 52 He
has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly; 53 he
has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He
has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise
of mercy, 55 the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children
forever.”
Well, the Advent journey is almost over...Christmas is
almost here. The collect for this Sunday is: Stir up your power, Lord
Christ, and come. With your abundant grace and might, free us from the sin that
binds us, that we may receive you in joy and serve you always, for you live and
reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The
traditional schema is that Advent 1 is about the 2nd coming, Advent 2 and 3 are
about John the Baptist; and Advent 4 is about Mary. Yet, I find it interesting
that John the Baptist has 'snuck' into this year's Advent 4 setting. The
prophet is prophesying even within the womb. A lot can be said about this... in
terms of what I would call a 'healthy Marian piety.' For, it seems to me, a
great many people have fallen overboard on either one side or the other when it
comes to a proper veneration of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Roman Catholics, for
instance, have Mary immaculately conceived (conceived without the stain of
original sin); they have her as 'Mediatrix' and even 'Co-Redemptrix'...
meaning, she mediates on our behalf with God and she has contributed to
humanity's redemption. Besides being biblically and theologically unsound,
these views do not square with the ancient (and highly venerating) views of
Mary; they're innovations. And, sadly, they're innovations that detract from
the glory and majesty that belong solely to Christ.
Yet, if the Roman Catholics are guilty of falling over one side of the boat,
90% of Protestant Christians are guilty of falling over the other side. Under
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Mary joyously proclaims that all generations
will call her blessed, yet all we've heard on the Protestant side is
generation after generation of deafening silence. Sometimes worse--Protestants
seem prone to go out of their way to "prove" that there was
"nothing special" about Mary. This too, is biblically unsound,
theologically incorrect, and obviously not in keeping with the ancient church's
veneration of this blessed saint.
The Lutheran confessions are the only Protestant documents that come to my mind
that actually do a good job with Mary. They refer to her as the Mother of God,
which of course, she must be. There is no part of Jesus that isn't God. To
proclaim Mary as theotokos (the ancient church's designation, meaning,
God-bearer) is to guard the full divinity of Jesus. Mary is the first in
stature and greatest of all of the saints. The Bible always portrays her as
pointing to her blessed son; as engaged in acts of worship, etc. In seeing Mary
we are pointed to Jesus, hence all of the best Marian art/statuary etc. depict
her holding the Savior.
And so we honor Mary; we venerate her; we put her on a pedestal. This is
biblical. It's precisely what's going on in today's passage: the child leaps
(to his feet, as it were) in honor
(vs 41), and Elizabeth magnifies her (vs 42). We honor and venerate her for the
favor that God has shown her and no one else... and we honor and
venerate her for the example she is to us all.
Consider: she bore Christ into the lives of others (vs 39-40). Aren't we
called to do the same....called to also be Christ-bearers into the lives of
others? She also bore Christ openly even though it must've meant some degree of
hardship. We're all familiar with what Matthew chapter 1 reports about Joseph
and Mary: Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came
together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because
Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public
disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered
this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. The intervention of the angel is
all well and good when it comes to Joseph and we readers of Matthew's gospel,
but there's nothing to undo the fact that she
was found to be pregnant. Undoubtedly she faced the same public
disgrace and stigma that any unwed mother would in her day. Again, could we ask
for a better example? Elizabeth also mentions Mary's faith: Blessed is she
who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her (v45). Blessed
is she who believed God's promises!
The ancient church was correct to venerate Mary, and we do well when we follow
their example. A more perfect template of Christian faith could never be found:
she bore Christ into the lives of others; she bore up under the hardships of
her faith made public; and she unwaveringly trusted God's promises.
cheers,
TM
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