Sermon preached by
the Reverend John E. Kitagawa at a service of Advent Lessons and Carols, and celebration
of the Holy Eucharist on 6 December 2009 (Second Sunday of Advent), at St.
Philip’s In The Hills Parish, Tucson, Arizona
WE ARE ALL MEANT TO BE MOTHERS OF GOD
Proverbs 8, 1,
22-31; Genesis 3: 8-15; Isaiah 11: 1-16; Luke 1: 26-38
In Testimony:
The Word Made Flesh[1], Daniel Berrigan, S. J., frames these propositions:
Is
it not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and
poverty, death and destruction?
Is
it not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and
loss?
Is
it not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war
and destruction rule forever?
Is
it not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule
the world?
In keeping with
the subtitle of the book, Berrigan refutes each of the propositions by pointing
to Jesus as the source for hope, and the inspiration for a vision of redemption
and reconciliation for “creation and the human family”. Berrigan leads us to meditate on another
profound theological and spiritual truth by way of this proposition:
Is
it not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are
the prophets of the church, before we can be peacemakers?
Mary is the emphatic rejoinder that the
opposite is true—that God counts on ordinary people like Mary, you and me. Of Mary, Fred Buechner has written,
She
struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone
this child, but he’d been entrusted with a message, and he gave it. As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn’t
notice that beneath the great, golden wings he himself was trembling with fear
to think the whole future of creation hung on the answer of [this] girl[2].
None
of the Gospels offer an explanation as to why God chose such an unlikely
candidate for such an important and improbable role. To my mind, it is THE example of the way God
calls the least likely, and often unsuspecting, people to carry out God’s
purposes. Mary’s response makes her a
powerful and inspiring example of obedience, servanthood, faith and absolute
trust in God. For this, generations have called her blessed (Luke
The Annunciation took place in a particular
place and at a particular time.
Gabriel’s message endures and has been taken to heart by Christians
throughout the ages. Listen, for
example, to medieval mystic, Meister Eckhart.
We
are all meant to be mothers of God. … What good is it to me, if this eternal
birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within
myself? And what good is it to me if
Mary is full of grace and if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give
birth to His Son if I do not also give birth
to him in my time and my culture?[3]
Without a doubt,
Mary was a vehicle for the Holy Spirit to overcome human limitations in order to
do God’s work in the world. Eckhart serves
to remind us that everyone is called to offer ourselves as humble vessels to be
filled with God’s grace; and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish
more than we could ever imagine on our own.
We honor and call Mary blessed because she
clearly and unambiguously said “Yes” to God.
Of course, she was alarmed by Gabriel’s sudden appearance; and, of
course, she was startled by the message she was God’s choice to bear the baby
Jesus. Contemporary theologian Barbara
Brown Taylor has imagined questions Mary could have asked Gabriel before committing
herself.
Will
Joseph stick around after he hears about all this?
Will
my parents understand—and still love me?
Will
my friends stand by me, or will I be the laughing stock of my high school?
Will
the labor be hard?
Will
there be someone to help when my time comes?[4]
According
to Holy Scripture, such questions did not occur to her. She said, “Yes”.
God is asking you to say “Yes” too. Put your books, magazines, iPhones and iPods
away; or, turn off your computers, TVs and Gameboys. Instead, pray, meditate and listen for God’s
call, and then say “Yes”. Sure, there
are lots of reasonable questions you could raise before making the
commitment. After all, God is asking you
to participate in a plan you had no part in formulating; and, it is likely that
God is asking you to do things beyond your comfort level or sense of competence,
and all this for reasons you are pretty sure you not fully comprehend. On top of that, there are no guarantees of
success, no blueprints or scripts—only handfuls of examples, like Mary, to
emulate.
As Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us,
Deciding
to say yes does not mean that you are not afraid. It just means that you are not willing to let
your fear stop you[5].
To
say “Yes” to God is to live in “what Martin Buber aptly called ‘holy
insecurity’—a daily walk of faith in which you do not know even the next step,
let alone what the end product will be”[6]. But, this I know, this I believe. This is what makes it possible for me to
overcome fear, to live in “holy insecurity”, and to be open to the Holy Spirit
working through me to do God’s work in the world.
God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John
AMEN.