(a sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent - 21 December 2014)
“Let it be,” said Mary.
About forty-five years ago, there was a man whose business
was failing. He was still a member of an amazing partnership –one of its two great
stars, in fact—but he knew the partnership was crumbling. In fact, everyone in
the business knew it.
The year was 1969. The partnership was the great rock band,
The Beatles. The man was Paul McCartney. As he worried about the break-up of
The Beatles, McCartney tried more and more desperately to take control of the
band.
One night, Paul McCartney had a dream, a dream that featured
his mother, his mother Mary. In the dream, his mother, who had died when was
fourteen years old, came to him and said just a few words, “Let it be.”
When I find myself in
times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me,
Speaking words of
wisdom, Let it be.
McCartney has said, since, that he did not intend the song
to have any explicit religious meaning, but he has also said that people can
interpret that song in any way they like, including the religious. And many of us do just that.
It is my belief that, in the church, today is Mother’s Day.
I know that the rest of the country counts the second Sunday in May as Mothers
Day, and we here in the church usually make a nod in that direction on the
Second Sunday in May. But, in the Christian Church, we already have a Mothers
Day, built into our lectionary, our schedule of Bible readings through the
year.
It’s today. On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, the Sunday
before Christmas, the Church usually hears the faithful story of the one of the
great mothers of our tradition. Mary. Mother Mary. The one who heard the angel
announce a miraculous conception. The one who received the Word. And, then, the
one who said, “Let it be to me according to your word.” The one who said, Let
it be.
Hail, Mary, we say
today. Full of grace. Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Many of us know that powerful prayer from the Roman Catholic
tradition, and say the prayer to Mother Mary. But we might well speak it to all
mothers today. We hail mothers today, those who say yes, those who allow the
miracle of new life to be conceived in them. Mothers, who whisper words of
wisdom to those they love, especially in times of trouble. Mothers, who speak
words of truth.
When I speak “Hail Mary,” today, though, I do not mean that
today is just a Roman Catholic day. It is a Protestant Catholic day, too, just
as powerfully, because what we observe today is the power of the Word. It is
the Word that comes upon Mary. It is a powerful Word, aggressive, energetic –
maybe even a male generated – word.
It is the Word which fills Mary today, and it is the Word
which fills us. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became
flesh. And the Word fills us.
At some point in every mother’s life, at some point in every
father’s life, at some point in every parent’s life, they hear one of the most
feared questions of parenthood. “Mommy, Daddy, where do babies come from?”
No matter how old the questioner is, there is always one
answer that works. There is one correct answer for the question, “Where do
babies come from?” They come from love. Babies come from love. When two people
love each other, new life happens. When the divine and the human love each other, new life happens!
And the signs of that love are often words. Words are
important. The way we speak to other people matters. The way we speak to our
lovers matters.
What did the Word say to Mary? “Greetings! Favored One! The
Lord is with you! Do not be afraid!”
The word “Greetings” really means, “Rejoice!” It is one my
favorite words in the Bible. The Word of God is always, at one level, a word of
rejoicing. What if that were the first word we greet folks with every day?
Rejoice!
“Favored one.” Ah, what if each of us called our lover, “favored
one.” “You have found favor,” says the angel to Mary.
“Do not fear,” says the angel. Indeed, that is what Love
says in every generation. You need not fear. Perfect love casts out fear.” When
you find yourself in times of trouble, do not fear.
And Mary accepts this miracle, this sign of divine love,
Mary accepts this Word, with her own words. She says “Let it be. Let it be to
me according to your word.”
But Mary is not the only person in this story who accepts
the Word of new life. The angel says that her “cousin, Elizabeth, in her old
age, has also conceived.” And, the gospel of Matthew tells this story another
way entirely , with the angel announcing the news not to Mary at all, but to
Joseph.
It’s not just Mary’s day today. It’s not just Mothers Day
today. It’s Fathers Day, too. It’s cousins day. It’s relatives day. It is a day
to welcome the power of grace into our lives, no matter who we are. It’s All
Flesh Day.
When the angel hailed Mary as favored one, the angel was
announcing favor to all flesh. When Mary said “Let it be to me according to
your word,” the Word entered all flesh. That word said, “You are favored. You
are graced.”
The mighty, inseminating, conceiving Word of God is always
about grace. And there’s not a person in the world who does not need it. Your
child needs that word. Your lover. Your friend. Your stranger. Your other. Your
enemy. The Annunciation is a word of grace. You are favored, and so are you and
you and you.
Do not be afraid! You
have found favor with God. The Holy Spirit has come upon you with grace.
The power of God’s grace is that it makes us all feel like
virgins. The power of grace is that every time is the first time. It is a new
beginning every time it enters into us. It’s like celebrating New Year’s Day.
The story is not just about accepting the seed of life
inside us. That’s important, to be true. But the Annunciation is about
announcing. It is about speaking the Word. It is about God speaking good words
to all flesh. And then it’s about our speaking good words to all flesh.
Speaking good words. The scholarly among you know what the
word “benediction” means. Bene means good. Diction means speaking. A
benediction is a good word. Believers in the Annunciation are meant to
proclaimers of grace and good words. The Church, the community of faith, is
meant to be an announcer of blessing and grace to the world.
“Hail, favored one. Rejoice, you have received grace.”
What kind of blessing, what kind of grace, will we give
today, tomorrow, and Christmas itself? It is what our children need. It is what our friends need. It
is what our parents need.
It is what we need. And when we have received grace, it
grows. The nature of grace is that it grows. The proof of grace is that it
grows. The way others know you are pregnant with grace, is that it grows. It
starts with a whisper, and it grows into a song.
Let it be. Whisper
words of wisdom, let it be. That which is conceived in you is holy. It is
grace. And it will be the salvation of all flesh.
AMEN.
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