THE WONDER OF LOVE
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Text: Hosea 11:1-11; Luke 1:39-56
As we have waited in wonder through this Advent season, perhaps we have found ourselves in the company of dreaming Mary, this poor, peasant teenager, who wandered the hills around her home, imagining a different life for herself and her people. What teenager has not at some point or another dreamed of a better, richer life, one in which all will be fair and just, everyone will have enough of what they need, and the world will be full of light and harmony. I have dusty memories of deep desire that God would make this world a better place – right all the wrongs, care for all the needy, heal all the sick, give me all the things that my wealthier friends had, make people understand me and people like me. I didn’t say my desires were not an adolescent mixture of idealistic, compassionate generosity and selfish longing for everything I thought I was missing from my life that I needed to be truly happy. Surely you can remember something of what it was like to be a dreamy-eyed and idealistic youth.
So, maybe it is not surprising that Mary embraces her calling, sees her visions and sings her prophecy. She is filled with the unspoiled passion of the young as she is filled with the Holy Spirit. Centuries of tradition notwithstanding, there is nothing in Luke’s story to indicate that she was a remarkable girl, at least any more remarkable than the girls around her. What is remarkable about this text is the way in which God comes to unremarkable human beings and shakes us up, draws us out of our dreaming, and places us on the path to fulfilling God’s dreams for our lives and for this earth.
“Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” is the King James Version of the angel’s greeting to Mary. Roman Catholic tradition has turned that greeting into the popular prayer that begins “Hail, Mary, full of grace…” Now I don’t want to argue with Catholic Maryology this morning, but I do want to consider that greeting, “Hail, Mary, full of grace…” I know the tradition lifts up Mary’s graciousness to the point that she becomes an almost divine figure, one that God and the angels single out because she is exceptional in her faith and purity. This Mary is the best little girl in the Galilee, if not the world. She is so especially good that she alone is chosen to be the mother of God’s Son.
But what if God chooses her instead for her very ordinariness – because she is alive and open and still able to dream – as so many young people are. “Hail, Mary, full of grace…God’s grace.” And why is she full of such grace? Because she turns herself to God in simple, trusting acceptance of God’s gift to her. Couldn’t this as easily have been any other dreaming girl of Galilee? I’d like to think so. For the truth is that unless Jesus is somehow born in each of us, he has no means to be present in this world. The mystic, Meister Eckhart has said that “We are all meant to be mothers of God. For God is always needing to be born.”
“Hail, Mary, full of grace…Hail, Clara, full of grace…Hail, Joanne, full of grace…Hail, Thelma, full of grace…Hail, Charlie, full of grace…Hail, Bob and Jo and Kathy and Oscar and Daniel and Omar and Linda and Jim and Lynn, full of grace…Hail, everyone of us, full of grace…” “Well, now, I don’t know so much about that.” I can hear the wheels turning in your brains and sense you squirming in your chairs. “I wasn’t meant to give birth to God. I’m not really fit to be the parent of the Christ.” “How can this be? I’m a virgin, I’m too young, I’m too old, I’m too unworthy, I’m too busy, I’m too easily distracted, I’m a realist, I’m not even sure I believe.” The list of defenses is potentially endless. “Not me, God. I’m not ready, not able, not adequate, not good enough.” And still the angels come with announcements for each of us, “Hail, highly favored one…God loves you, God wants you, God needs you.”
Over and over again, Advent offers us the opportunity to get ready, because the baby is coming. The seed is planted. The heavens are opened and love is coming down, ready or not. For God cannot hold Godself back. “When Israel was a child, I loved him…it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them…How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?…My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger… I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.” Hosea’s ancient prophecy makes clear God’s abundant and everlasting love for God’s people, even when they ignore or trample on their covenant relationship. It is a wondrous thing that the great God of the universe would love a rebellious and recalcitrant people as a tender-hearted parent. How often have I heard parents say of their difficult, wandering children, “But she’s my child. How can I not love her, care for her, run after her, forgive her, help her?”
The God of tender mercies enters into the life of a peasant teenager, dreamily wandering the hills of Galilee and the world is changed forever. Her simple response, “Here am I, the servant of [God]. Let it be with me according to your word” is a challenge to each of us to respond in the same way when the angels of God come calling, as they inevitably do. Yes, even to me and you. “Hail, favored one…I have chosen to be born in you this day. Will you open your heart, your life to my coming, to my indwelling spirit?”
The wonder of such love is contained in Mary’s song. As she shares with her cousin, Elizabeth, their amazement and delight at what is being born in each of them, they form a community of the blessed. It becomes increasingly clear to Mary what this visitation of angels and Spirit means to her and to the future. She finally can contain her joy no longer and bursts forth in a song of praise and prophecy. “Me? Yes, me, dreaming Mary of Galilee, my soul magnifies [God] 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.” Ordinary Mary, a simple poor peasant girl has known God and her life has been transformed. If God could do this for Mary, don’t you think God might do something similar for us? Of course, the risk is that, if we take in the Spirit and God is born in us, we may find ourselves singing about how God scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, brings down the powerful from their thrones, lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty. This waiting in wonder for the Advent of the love God in our lives is indeed wondrous, risky business. It may come upon us, turn us around and redeem us yet. Amen.