Mary the Mother of Christ

Cheddington Sunday 21 December 2008

On 4^th Sunday Advent, we traditionally remember Mary Mother of Christ. Mary who said “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Mary who willingly co-operated with God’s plan for her. Mary, who was given a choice but was not coerced. Mary who sang the Magnificat – a song of praise to God and obedience to his will. The same Mary who was at the foot of the cross, when all seemed hopeless and lost, when all the promises seemed to have gone for nought.

Mary the Mother of Christ has been treated very differently by the various traditions of the churches throughout the ages. On the one hand, she is depicted as the Blessed Virgin Mother of God. As Queen of Heaven she is painted with a crown on her head. Some parts of the church believe she was conceived without original sin, and that when her earthly life was over, she was assumed bodily into heaven. She has her own branch of theology, called Mariology. Mary holds a venerated position in Islam. Narratives of her life have been further elaborated: her parents were named as Joachim and Anne, and there has grown up over centuries a vast body of doctrine and veneration which overshadows the few but important times she appears in the gospels. On the other hand, all these traditional but non scriptural accretions have resulted in an opposite reaction and meant that other parts of the church have been reluctant to refer to Mary in any meaningful way at all.

The truth is that little is known from the New Testament about Mary’s personal history or life. What we are told is this: she was a relative of Elizabeth, wife of the priest Zechariah. She lived at Nazareth in Galilee, and was betrothed to Joseph. This was the first stage of Jewish marriage. A legal contract with her parents had presumably been drawn up, and she would have moved from her house to that of her future husband’s family. The marriage would not be consummated until sometime later – possibly as long as a year or more, depending on her age when she was betrothed.

Luke in his account says she was a virgin. He uses the Greek word Parthenos to describe her. Many people have argued this is a mistranslation, because the Hebrew word almah that appears in Isaiah 7.14 can just mean a young woman, just like the English word maiden, rather than a virgin, and it is the Hebrew word almah which is translated parthenos. Isaiah 7.14 in our bible says Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. That’s the NRSV, and there is only a footnote that says Gk: virgin. The gospels of Mark and John, and the rest of the New Testament do not specifically mention the virgin birth at all.

Mary appears throughout the infancy narratives of course, but apart from that she is only mentioned once when Jesus was an adolescent – that was when Jesus was found debating with the teachers in the Temple at the age of 12. She may have been widowed, because after the infancy of Jesus Joseph is never mentioned again.

Mary then takes a part in the wedding that Jesus attended in Cana. This is where she persuaded her son to perform the first miracle, that of water into wine. Subsequently there are events when Jesus’ brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas are with their mother Mary and their unnamed sisters. Mary is also of course at the crucifixion, and at the beginning of Acts is in the Upper Room with about 120 people after the Ascension.

No one should have any doubts about the special place she occupies, whatever our tradition – and today we have the chance of celebrating her unique position and her example of unquestioning obedience to God, whatever the cost to herself as a person and a mother.

In today’s reading she is hailed by the angel Gabriel as the favoured one of God. Gabriel tells Mary she will bear a son and call him Yeshua – the LORD saves. This name became Ἰησοῦς in Greek, and Jesus in English. Mary is told her son will inherit the throne of David. He will be the Messiah – the anointed one – in Greek Χριστός. Joseph, you will recall, is also of the family of David from the tribe of Judah. When Jesus inherits the Kingdom, Gabriel says, it will be forever. There will be no end to the kingdom from that point on.

Gabriel goes further, and says Jesus will be Son of the Most High. This makes clear his special relationship with God. In calling Jesus Son of the Most High, rather than Son of God as many kings were titled, Luke stresses Jesus’ divinity.

Faced with the same apparition, Zechariah the priest had doubted Gabriel and disbelieved. Mary on the other hand had stated the obvious, but acted with greater faith. Mary is told she will be ‘overshadowed’ by God. So, unlike John the Baptist, Jesus will be special and unique. He will be holy.

So those are the facts from scripture – and anything else people believe about Mary is in addition to what it says in the Bible. It may be passed down through the early church. It may be oral tradition, but it’s not scriptural. What position you take is a matter for you yourself, and I am not going to be the one to tell you what you should or should not believe.

What I do think, however, is that Mary is a supreme example of obedience to the will of God, and never seems to have doubted even when faced with the gory death of her son and the seeming failure of all her hopes, and everyone else’s too. At the very outset, she said:

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Then far from being overwhelmed by the enormity of what was happening to her, she sings one of the greatest hymns of praise anywhere in our liturgy, which is still repeated daily and has been set to some of the most sublime music ever written. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant. 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.

It’s this example to us of Mary’s simple acceptance of God’s will that we want to celebrate this morning, as we pause once again in our season of expectant waiting for the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas. We wait, just as Mary waited. We will rejoice as she rejoiced, and sorrow as she grieved at the impact of the world’s brokenness on her son. We live in the same hope that Mary hoped – the full knowledge of our salvation through his one sacrifice made once for all on the cross, and his resurrection to the new life of the Kingdom of God, both now and at the end of time. So this Christmas, we pause to give thanks for Mary’s quiet obedience and steadfast determination. Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. May we this year and from now on be able to emulate Mary and do likewise. Amen.