December 24, 2017 am              Mary’s Story                                                                      

         Saturday morning, I got up and enjoyed my morning newspaper online. Of course I went straight to the sports section and read what I wanted, then to the national page, and last of all to the food and entertainment section. This week I saw, that in St. Louis, the Order of the Veiled Prophet had selected the daughter of a local politician to be the woman of beauty and intelligence for the new year. As I read the story I was quite impressed, graduated from the top local private school, attended Brown University, and had a long list of community accomplishments. And I thought to myself, this young woman is one of the favored one’s of our society.  She had been blessed with all the good things in life, and made good use of them as well.  And that’s where I connected to our gospel lesson this morning.

         In our gospel lesson, the angel of the Lord, Gabriel comes and says to Mary, “Greetings, favored one!” Now, I don’t believe that Mary’s parents were well known politicians, or that she attended a private school, and she certainly didn’t go to Brown University. She was not 21 years of age, with a whole list of community service projects under her belt. Mary was a thirteen year old girl. She was not wealthy, in order to help the household, she worked as a servant girl. Those of you from the depression era will remember that. There is no mention of her beauty or intelligence, and she was not a citizen of the roman empire, which occupied and ruled her land. She would have been considered a foreigner, a third class citizen, no one of importance. She was certainly not favored by the world. But she was favored, by God.

         In first century Judea, she would have seen the poverty of her family and those around her, she would have seen the prejudice of the roman soldiers and ruling classes, she would have seen injustice and cruelty on a daily basis. As a young unmarried woman, she had absolutely no power whatsoever, no say in anything that happened to her. Even worse, she finds out she is going to have a child, and not by the man she is betrothed too! She is about to lose any power she might have had as a mother. And so I think, she has nowhere else to turn, no one else but God! And so, in humility and obedience, she placed her trust in God! And that is the real beauty of this story.

         Now I know that listening to the pastor at times can be a real bummer. I prattle on about injustice, prejudice, cruelty, and violence in the world, perhaps a bit like a broken record. As I do this, I do intentionally try to contrast the hopelessness of the world, with the hopefulness of world that comes from faith in God, and in God’s Son Jesus Christ. In my years, I have met many people who have been in the same position as Mary. People who are powerless to alter the forces of the world around them, but they do have a choice – they can despair and die, or they can believe and have life!  And that is the choice that Mary made!

         If you read the magnificat, you will see the choice she made. She chose to believe in a world where the hungry were fed, the prideful were pulled down from power, where there was justice for the powerless, where those in mourning were comforted, where God cared about the sparrows, the little one’s like herself. This is what the birth of Jesus Christ is all about, God didn’t come into the world to be one of the favored one’s, nor did he come into the world for just the favored ones. He came into the world for you, each one of you, to meet you in your sufferings, to show how much he cares, and how much he loves you. God came into the world to give you a choice, and God prays for you, that you will choose life!

         Now I know that many, look at the world around them and say it is totally beyond saving. But I look around and I see people of faith, standing against the powers of darkness in their lives, their families, and their communities. We cannot do what God does, but we can be a part of God’s work, simply in the living of faithful lives. We are not the favored ones of the world, but through faith we are the favored ones of God. God is called the Lord of Hosts for a reason, for it is the Host believing in God that has the power to overcome the darkness of the world! And if we all choose, like Mary, to place our trust in God, God will work through us, to bring his Son into our lives, and God’s kingdom into our world. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ!