Mary did you know?

 

A Sermon preached on Advent IV Sunday December 20, 2020 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden and St. Christoph, Mainz

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38

There’s a Christmas song – though one we don’t sing here at St. Augustine’s – called “Mary did you know” that causes controversy every year, around this time. Here are the lyrics:

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?

This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would calm the storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?

When you kiss your little baby you kiss the face of God

Mary, did you know that your baby boy is lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy is heavens perfect lamb?

That sleeping child you're holding is the great I am

Why is this song controversial? Oddly two groups you would not normally connect have a problem with the text: Feminists consider this to be a classical example of “mansplaining.” A man – the songwriter – claiming to know more than a woman – Mary – the one who actually experienced this all, who went through Jesus’ birth, brought him up, saw him die, and then return. And Catholics – both Roman and Anglo - who have a problem with the “Mariology” of this song as it contradicts the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which states that the Virgin Mary has been free of original sin from the moment of her conception – so she would not need to be delivered (from sin) or made new. As one Catholic critic writes: “But if Mary is a sinner in need of a saviour, then she cannot be the worthy vessel in whom the All-Holy God takes on human nature as the Word-Made-Flesh.”

Are the critics right? Well, I certainly find the song very condescending towards Mary. It makes her sound very naïve and innocent. I think she knew quite a lot. What did she know? Let’s have a look at the scriptural witness, especially the passage we heard today: The Annunciation from Luke’s Gospel.

Mary knew that the son she would bear would be named Jesus, which means “God saves”: The angel said to her, “….. you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” (Luke 1:31) Mary knew that this Jesus was the Son of God, the Son of the Most High: “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, ….. he will be called Son of God.” (Luke 1:32, 35) Mary knew that his reign and rule would never end: “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:33) And Mary, more than anyone, knew that her pregnancy was special - a result of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High.

She did not know the detail of all the miracles that were to come, but she knew her son would be holy and would have great power from God. We see this absolute trust in his power in John’s Gospel, at the wedding in Cana, when she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” She doesn’t know what Jesus will do, just that he can. And although she did not know how or when her son would die, she knew – from Simeon when he blessed Jesus in the Temple – that pain and suffering would be part of his life and that suffering would be part of her own vocation and ministry as the mother of Jesus: ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’ (Luke 2:34-35)

So, did Mary know? Yes, she did, not every aspect, not every event, not every episode, but she knew and heard and reflected on the fact that she was being invited to play a huge role in the salvation of humanity and all of creation. Sure, God wants complete trust. And God cannot tell those who are called everything that will happen – much of it depends on the reaction of other human beings and their free will. But God also does not leave those God calls in the dark. God told Moses what he was supposed to do – go to pharaoh and tell him to let God’s people go. That’s why Moses was a bit reluctant at first – why me? Today’s Gospel places Mary in that long line of people – not just prophets and priests - who were called by God, directly or through a messenger, an angel. And all of them - Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah – after hearing what God wanted responded with the words: “Here am I.” Just like Mary: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,”

What about the “catholic problem”? Does this song make Mary too ordinary? The Immaculate Conception is not an Anglican doctrine, but we still agree with our RC sisters and brothers that Mary was special, chosen, and blessed. One of the results of the ongoing dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics (called the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission or ARCIC) is a document called “Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ,” that identified many more areas in which we agree about Mary, than where we differ. Luke’s narrative of the annunciation portrays Mary, ARCIC says, as uniquely the recipient of election and grace. ARCIC also argues that the Magnificat is the scriptural basis for an appropriate devotion to Mary, since according to that canticle – which we will hear later in the hymn version “Tell out my soul” – all generations will call her ‘blessed.’ “Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” (Luke 1:48-49)

So yes, the song “Mary did you know” ignores just how special and how unique Mary is. She did not need the cross to be saved. She was blessed by virtue of her election for this role as the bearer of God, or theotokos to use the Greek name. But it is also important not to make her too special or to negate her humanity. Mary’s calling was the greatest, but as I said she still stands in a long line of people called by God. Mary’s humanity is important for two reasons. One is the incarnation, God becoming human. Jesus’s divinity is from God, his humanity comes from Mary and if we negate her humanity and set her too far above us, we negate Christ’s humanity too and that is the basis of our salvation. That Christ became like us, took on human form, so that we might become like him. The incarnation is God’s personal and personified yes to creation and to God’s creatures.

Secondly, Mary is supposed to be a template for us all, a model believer. And a “superhuman” cannot be a model. Coming back to the dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, Mary forms a template because, “The pattern of hope and grace already foreshadowed in Mary will be fulfilled in the new creation in Christ when all the redeemed will participate in the full glory of the Lord.” Mary is unique and Mary is part of an ongoing pattern: God’s plan always involves using ordinary people to bring about extraordinary changes, people – like a young Jewish girl from an obscure village – whom no one would expect to respond so favourably to God’s revelation. In the Gospels she is followed by many other unexpected witnesses and disciples: Lepers, beggars, tax collectors, Romans, Episcopalians  …..

And while Mary’s call to be the Theotokos—the God-bearer—was indeed unlike any other in all creation, are we not all now called to be God bearers? In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) Our first reading from Samuel reminds us that God wants to be among God’s people, not living in a house but in us, in our hearts. And not for ourselves. Just like Mary we know who Jesus is. And like Mary, we are sent to bring Jesus, to bring the Word of God, to bring the Good News into a world that needs it. And like Mary let us respond to God’s call, knowingly and faithfully with the words: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Amen.