Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B                                            2 Samuel 7:4, 8-16
December 18, 2005                                                                Psalm 132:8-15
St. Margaret of Scotland Episcopal Church                              Romans 16:25-27
The Rev. Linda McCloud                                                         Luke 1:26-38

What Mary Did Next 

     September 8, 1939 was an unforgettable day for my maternal grandparents.  Both of their daughters gave birth.  That morning my Aunt Pauline had her second little girl.  Not to be outdone, my mother Bonnie had her first bouncing boy that same afternoon.  My cousin Mary Rose Martin and my brother Everett McCloud Jr. grew up having a special bond between them.  They called each other “my twin cousin.”  My mother is fond of remembering that this was cause for great rejoicing in their family and in their community.  With the birth of these two children, all their lives were forever changed.   

            Jesus and John the Baptist were not born on the same day, and they were not born to sisters, but when their pregnant mothers got together, there was much rejoicing. With the birth of these two children of Elizabeth and Mary, the world was forever changed.     

If we go by the Church calendar, it was late March or early April, approximately 4 B.C., when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary of Nazareth.  After the angel departed from her, she hastily traveled at least four days to get to a town in the hill country west of Jerusalem.  If Mary traveled alone, she took a big chance.  It was scandalous for a woman to travel alone.  But then, it was also scandalous for Mary to be pregnant out of wedlock. 

Mary and Elizabeth were both going through enormous changes in their lives, and this time of bonding was surely a great comfort to them.  Elizabeth was a much older woman, married to a priest, whose standing in her community had been diminished because she had no children.  Mary was a teenage girl with a lot of spunk and the good wisdom to say yes to God.  Mary must have had a lot of questions to ask Elizabeth, such as: “What do the neighbors think?”   

            What the neighbors would think would weigh heavily on Mary and on Elizabeth.  For Elizabeth, the birth of a son would remove the social stigma that had been hanging over her head for years.  It would give her status in her husband’s family and in her community.  For Mary, being in this delicate condition would be cause for execution.  

We can’t help but wonder: when Mary said yes to all this, did she think it through in that split second before responding?  Theologians have speculated that between the Angel’s announcement and Mary’s response, the universe held its collective breath.  God held God’s breath.   

Mary was a human being with a God-given free will. Mary could have said no to God.  We wonder how many virgin girls said no to God before Mary said yes. But Mary’s heart was at home in God.  She said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”  Saying yes to God is always huge and always has consequences of cosmic proportions.  Mary had cause to be afraid, but she did not let it get the best of her.   

            Mary stands in the tradition of Abraham, who gets honorable mention in Mary’s song, which we sang last week.  That’s because Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, believed God.  His belief and faith were accounted to him as righteousness.   

            For Mary, who was a young teenage girl, this pregnancy signaled the end of her childhood.  By saying yes to God, Mary had taken on full responsibility, not only for her own life, but also for the life of this Precious Baby she was carrying.  The possibilities were mind-boggling.    

Elizabeth, older and wiser, grasped the idea that through Mary’s holy child, God would give the gift of salvation to the entire world.  When Mary went to see her, Elizabeth expressed herself as a prophet in the classic sense.  That is, she “was filled with the Holy Spirit” and spoke for God.  Elizabeth recognized Mary as the mother of her Lord.  No wonder Elizabeth’s son John the Baptizer was a prophet.  The apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.   

            Mary wisely sought out this kinswoman—this wife of Zechariah the priest.  Mary needed a place to hide away.  She needed a spiritual director.  But Mary also had her own set of strengths.  Mary recognized herself for who she was, and recognized God for who God is and what God can do.  I like to call this worship.  When the going gets tough, the tough go to worship.   

            Mary’s situation might not have looked so good to her society at large, but she believed that God would lift her up and bring her to honor.  That took an amazing amount of trust.  It took a lot of faith.  For Mary and Elizabeth, it was their faith, steadfast and strong, that grounded them in God and propelled them into the future with excitement and joy.  Mary and Elizabeth’s reactions to these changes in their own lives have affected the Church for almost two thousand years.  In any time of transition and change, it is good for us to look at this Gospel reading and remember that “nothing will be impossible with God.”   

            Here at St. Margaret’s, this year of 2005 has been a time of transition and change.  You have gone from having a long-time vicar, to having an interim priest and supply priests, to having a full-time vicar.  There have been subtle shifts in the liturgy.  You have been gracious about singing hymns that are unfamiliar to you.  And—did anyone notice that the four Jerusalem thorn trees have been removed from the front entrance?  Last Sunday we had people from other denominations here for the 4:00 O’clock service.  We can see that we are affecting our community by our very presence.  I hope we will continue to be open and welcoming.   

As a church, and as individuals, it is no longer possible for us to live in our own communities without realizing that our decisions and actions affect the world at large.  Ever since the late 1960’s when NASA was able to get a picture of the earth from outer space, we have had a growing awareness of our global community.  What happens to the cotton farmers in Colquitt County, Georgia affects the cotton farmers around the world, even (and maybe especially) those in third-world countries.   

            Like Mary and Elizabeth, the Episcopal Church USA is in a time of transition and change.  This is at once the most exciting time and yet the most trying time that the Church has experienced for many, many years. I am keenly aware that the next General Convention is less than six months away.  It is time for us to elect a new Presiding Bishop.  Who will he or she be?  What will this mean for the next nine years of being Episcopalians? 

There are lots of other stirrings afoot that could change the face of the Episcopal Church in new ways.  I’ll keep you posted as I hear more about that.  All I know is that changes in the Episcopal Church have far-reaching effects in the Anglican Communion around the world.  As nothing is impossible with God, let us begin now to pray for our Bishop and for our delegates to the Convention.  Please pray for unity in the Church.  Let us pray daily that the Body of Christ will not be further fragmented. 

            The good news is that, like Mary and Elizabeth, we are not on our own. God is with us, guiding us and loving us.  God is always bringing new life in the most unexpected places and in some surprising ways.  The miracle is that the Church is still functioning as the Body of Christ despite all the upheavals throughout the ages.      

            Mary the mother of Christ is accorded first place among the Saints because she was literally the first Christian.  As Mary and Elizabeth both were going through an astonishing transition in each of their lives, their first thoughts were of God.  When we are going through transitions in our own lives, I hope that our first thoughts are of God.  I hope that we find solace in the Word and Sacraments.  Our scripture readings every Sunday are as ancient as the church.  Our celebration of Holy Eucharist goes back to Jesus Christ who instituted it the night before he was handed over to suffering and death.  If our heart is at home in God, changes can swirl around us and never shake our faith.  We can say with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”