The Sundays in Advent give us the opportunity to hear anew the story of God's steadfast love for God's people. God has not forgotten the promise of the one who will sit in David's throne to rule with justice and righteousness, the one who will come to liberate God's people from the bondage of sin and the power of death. In Jesus, God's kingdom breaks into history. Through him God's salvific plan is put into action to exercise the reign of God in and through Israel.
Luke's very concise account is that this virgin teenager from Nazareth, Mary, was chosen by God to bear the Messiah, Savior, and Lord. "How shall this be?" asked this young woman. "How is it possible since I have no husband?" The response by the angel elicited even more questions in Mary's heart. "Why me? The Spirit of the Living God? Favor in God's eyes?" God's message to Mary is that God's grace clearly includes persons like her, people that have nothing to show except a willing heart to receive the gift from God. In God's plan no one is a passive observer. Everyone is called to be an active participant because every person has been empowered by God's Holy Spirit and when that Spirit takes hold of you, when in faith you open your heart to its work, you are transformed. You are energized. You can also respond like Mary did.
Mary's response was the word of obedient faith. Let it be because nothing is impossible for you. God bestows favor on Mary who is female and young in a society that honors males and elders. Here we find a girl who will later speak of her lowliness and identify herself with the poor and oppressed. Mary was willing to trust God's judgment. She did not question God's choice. She only asked for clarification of how the task was going to be accomplished. She gave herself up to God's will.
This young teenager inspires us since like Abraham she totally trusted and believed that God's promises would come to pass. She was willing to face the risks that her trust made necessary knowing that God would remain faithful. At a very young age Mary gives us a powerful witness of one that responded to God's call in hope and in faith.
A good friend of mine, Bishop Wayne Weissenbuler, defines hope and faith in the following way: "Hope is the ability to hear the melody of the future and faith is the courage to dance to its tune today." Mary was able to hear the melody of the future and she gave herself totally, willingly, and unconditionally to the future that God was opening before her. She responded in faith. She had the courage to say, "Let it be to me according to your word." No questions asked, no conditions requested.
Luke concludes the first chapter of his gospel with two hymns of praise, one of which is Mary's song, The Magnificat. Mary praises God because what God has done for her is a sign of what God has done and will do for all people especially the poor, the excluded, the marginalized, the voiceless peoples of all ages. Mary's song is a celebration of God, a special kind of God, one who is mighty but who uses that might in mercy toward the weak. This is the God that "... has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree;" the one who "... fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty."
The social, economic, and political consequences of this impending birth are profound. No dimension of human life or culture will lie beyond the lordship of this Messiah. All systems, ideologies, and social structures will be judged by this new standard of divine justice and mercy. This does not mean that Jesus' reign will simply displace all the social, political, or economic systems of the world--at least, not yet. But their claim to ultimacy or divine right is limited. Their ability to justify the rights and privileges of all their subjects have been challenged by the prophetic voice of Mary's song.
What a wonderful melody Mary hears. It is like a symphony in two movements; first God re-establishing the relationship with humanity and, second, that new relationship changes the way we are to relate to one another. This is the melody Mary hears. This is the gift that she and the generation after her have received. It is the gift of community. Psalm 133 tells us of God's joy when God sees that God's purpose for creation is accomplished. How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity.
The God of Mary is not a distant God who stays away from God's people. It is the God who hears their cry, who knows their suffering, and who decided to come down and deliver them. It is the God that "...emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness." And once God breaks into our history and assumes our humanity, God stays with us for good. God becomes Emmanuel, the one who is present "...where two or three or gathered in God's name" and who continues to be present with us "...to the end of the age."
Having restored the community with us, God challenges us to accompany one another in the same manner, building community among ourselves. How hard and difficult this is. We can hear God's wonderful melody but it is really hard to dance to its tune. When we take a look around us into our world, our nation, our communities, and even into our families, we see how fragmented a life we live. We are divided by race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, political and religious beliefs. But the good news is that in Jesus, this Jesus that is announced to Mary, we have the power to overcome these walls that separate us. In Jesus we have the opportunity to live in a reconciled diversity and in our baptism we were and continue to be empowered to live and to enjoy the radical nature of this community.
Like Mary, Paul was able to hear the melody of the future and he challenged the community of Galatia to dance to this new tune. Reflecting on the radical nature of baptism, informing this community of the new people of God, Paul writes, "For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."
Robert Wuthnow, Professor of Social Science at Princeton University, underscores the importance of the gift of this kind of community. He writes, "Community is the way in which the church gets things done. It embodies the relational character of the divine, providing a tangible vehicle for the manifestation of divine love." From the Flossenburg concentration camp in Germany, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer witnessed to the incredible power of the community as God's instrument for sustaining life. In his book "Life Together," he wrote, "Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ; no Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief encounter or the daily friendship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ." Like Mary, Dietrich heard the melody and danced to its tune.
This young woman from Nazareth, of whom not much is said in the gospel stories, dances with great joy in faith to this wonderful symphony that God has orchestrated in Jesus. Because she listens, in hope, Mary becomes a powerful witness of God's promises of old.
As the end of a century approaches and the beginning of a new millennium rises on the horizon, it is my prayer that we face it in hope and in faith, listening to the melody of the future that has broken into our history in Jesus Christ and dancing to its tune today.
Can we respond like Mary? Yes, we can. "Let it be with me according to your word."
Let us pray.
Almighty God, draw our hearts to you, guide our minds, feel our imaginations, control our wills so that we may be wholly yours. Use us as you will, always to your glory and the welfare of your people. Through our Lord and Savior born of Mary, Jesus Christ. Amen.