Gospel text for Sunday 19 December 2021

Luke 1:39-55         In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his 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.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Reflection        For the first half of my life my image of Mary, Mother of God was the tall, slender, blond girl in my Sunday School class wrapped in a pale blue sheet, co-star of the Christmas Eve pageant. She was the chosen one. I was a goat. Fortunately I didn’t have to spend too many therapy hours on Mary, after all in my Presbyterian church Mary’s meteoric cameo came but once a year. The other three hundred sixty four days Hallmark Mary was wrapped in tissue paper and tucked in the church closet.

But there is something about Mary’s song. It echoes in my heart. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.” Yes, yes, that is what I want. I want my soul to magnify the Lord and I want my spirit to rejoice in God... or anything else for that matter! If God “looked with favor on his lowly servant” Mary, might God also look with favor on me? Probably not. Remember, I was the pageant goat, not Mary. 

Who is this Mary chanting a love song to God? Who is this Mary singing a subversive  verse for social justice? I believe this is not the twelve year old Hallmark Mary, wrapped in tissue and stored in a church closet. This Mary is not fragile or ineffectual, neither is she submissive nor impotent. No, this Mary is competent, courageous and fruitful, without being arrogant, conceited or full of herself. 

I like to imagine this Mary made mistakes, even got herself in trouble like me. Nonetheless, when she experiences Divine Presence described as the Angel Gabriel, she does not become speechless or run away. When the angel addresses her as “Favored one,” and affirms, “The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1.28) and her cousin Elizabeth repeats the message, Mary puts her head in her heart and ponders these things. Mary’s quiet acceptance of the angel’s and Elizabeth's blessing suggests she has a sense of worthiness.  

When the Angel proclaims the inconceivable, unmarried Mary will become pregnant and give birth to a son who will assume the throne of King David and his kingdom will reign forever,” Mary responds, “Bring it on!” “Here I am... let it be with me according to your word.” Bold, courageous and vulnerable, Mary consents to her “with God life.” Dare we do likewise?

It is time to take Hallmark Mary out of the closet, remove the tissue paper and reimagine Mary, Mother of God, as a sound and sane woman who is courageous enough to be vulnerable and vulnerable enough to put her head in her heart. It is time to reimagine Mary as a woman willing to stand in her own authority, disrupt the status quo and claim her “with God life.”  It is time to reimagine Mary as a mother who gave her life to bring to life the promise God made to “our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever,” the promise that God is with and for all people all the time. It is time for us to recognize Mary as a venerable model for our “with God lives.”

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Acts of the Apostles on the Feast of St. Matthias, Sunday, 23 February 2014

Acts 1:15-26          Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said, "Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus-- for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry." (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 

"For it is written in the book of Psalms, `Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it’; and `Let another take his position of overseer.'

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us-- one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection." So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Reflection       This Sunday we observe the Feast of St. Matthias. The thing I love about St. Matthias is that most of us are much like him; faithful followers of Jesus whose stories will not show up in history books. Except for having our names engraved on a memorial plaque or written someplace in a family Bible, in two thousand years there is every chance our stories will be unrecorded, unacknowledged and uncelebrated. 

Still, the very fact that we set this day aside to celebrate the feast of a man about whom we know nothing except that he was a follower of Jesus… this very fact reminds us that every single one of our lives matter. Matthias was one of the ordinary people in the crowd who followed Jesus from his baptism in the Jordan to his resurrection in Jerusalem. 

Matthias must have been humble and wholehearted, willing to give up life as he knew it to follow the renegade prophet Jesus. And after three years of being anonymous in the crowd,  imagine how surprised he must have been when he heard his name called as a candidate to replace Judas among the Apostles. When the lot fell on him, he must have been astonished!

Without politicking for position or power Matthias was raised to the ranks of the chosen. Because he was chosen by lots, tradition holds that the Feast Day of St. Matthias is the luckiest day of the year. But I hesitate to concur. Although we do not know the story of Matthias’ life there is every chance his fate was no less dire than that of the other apostles. Being chosen to represent to all the world the social-political views of Jesus, who was tortured and murdered for those views, being chosen might not feel exactly like winning the lottery. 

Here’s the thing. The cost of grace, of being chosen by God, is everything. It puts us crosswise with the status-quo as it invites us to live into our baptismal promises; “continuing in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship: the breaking of bread and the prayers, resisting evil and repenting when necessary, proclaiming by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. (Seeking and serving) Christ in all persons, and striving for justice and peace among all people.” 

Most of us will live out our days as one in the crowd of faithful Jesus followers. The question before us is, how will we conduct our lives as anonymous saints in the cloud of Christ’s witnesses?

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