Blest Mary
Luke 1:26-56
It is the most wonderful time of the year! Or to put it in more sacred terms, Advent is the most blest time of the year. We outwardly express the blessedness of the season with beauty. As Christians, we deck the sanctuary with evergreen wreaths, stunning banners, gorgeous flowers, and candles. As a society, we beautify our towns and neighborhoods with lights and decorations. We seek to make our world more beautiful because it is a blest time of the year.

But what constitutes true blessedness? Human society has always believed that the beautiful, the rich, the powerful, and the famous are blessed, favored by God.

We do not know what Mary looked like, but we do know she was not rich, powerful, or famous. Yet this morning’s text says of her, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

As Protestants, we feel a little squeamish whenever the subject of Mary comes up. We almost immediately think of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, who highly reverence Mary. The prayer of the rosary echoes in our religious subconscious: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” It is the last sentence of the prayer that is a stumbling block for us.

As Protestants, when we think of Marion devotion in Roman Catholicism, we are extremely uncomfortable or at least a little uneasy. This discomfort is deeply rooted in our understanding of scripture and tradition. As 1Tim 2:5 says, “For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, Christ Jesus.”
Our reformed tradition is also averse to overly exalting devout believers. As the Second Helvetic Confession of the Reformation Era emphatically puts it: “The saints are not to be adored, worshiped, or invoked. We do not acknowledge them as our intercessors or mediators before the Father in heaven. For God and Christ the Mediator are sufficient for us; neither do we give to others the honor that is due to God alone and to his Son.”

What we fail to remember is that our tradition goes on to say: “At the same time we do not despise the saints or think basely of them. For we acknowledge them to be living members of Christ and friends of God who have gloriously overcome the flesh and the world. Hence, we love them as brothers, and also honor them; yet not with any kind of worship but by an honorable opinion of them and just praises of them. We also imitate them. For with ardent longings and supplications we earnestly desire to be imitators of their faith and virtues, to share eternal salvation with them, to dwell eternally with them in the presence of God, and to rejoice with them in Christ” (The Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 2).

As John Stott, the great Anglican theologian, wrote about Mary, “If the angel Gabriel addressed her as 'highly favored,' and if her cousin Elizabeth called her 'blessed ... among women,' we should not be shy to think and speak of her in the same terms, because of the greatness of her son.”

Mary is not a semi-divine mother for us, but she is a model of blessedness to be emulated. In fact, Mary is the archetypal model of Christian faith and life for Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. Consider Mary’s experience of the living God.

She was chosen by God. Mary herself attested: “For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Elizabeth recognized it too. “Blessed art thou among women,” she said. The original language is instructive here. The word blessed in Greek is a perfect passive participle. The perfect communicates a present and continuing state that is the result of past action. Mary is blessed because in the heart of God, perhaps before the foundation of the world, God had singled Mary out to be the earthly mother of his only begotten son. Mary was blessed because she was chosen by God.

Mary was also blessed because she carried Jesus Christ in her womb. Mary’s exalted title in the early church was theotokas, which is Greek for God bearer. As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, speaking of Jesus’ incarnation wrote, “Wherefore when he [Jesus] comes into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body you did prepare for me” (Heb. 10:5). Jesus was speaking of his own body, but derivatively, he was also speaking of Mary’s body that would give him human life. Or as John puts it, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.” God became flesh in Mary.

Mary was blessed because she trusted God. As Elizabeth said, “And blessed [is] she that believed; for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45). Mary trusted God when the angel Gabriel announced that she would conceive and bear a child. She said, “Let it be to me according to your word.” But her trust in God did not stop there. Mary continued to trust God, even when her own soul was pierced through with grief at the crucifixion of her son.

Finally, Mary was blessed because she embodied and proclaimed the values of the kingdom of God. In the canticle of Mary, or as it is better known, the Magnificat, we see deep into the heart of God. In the world, the first are first, and the last are last, but this is not the reality of the kingdom. In the kingdom of God, the last are first, and the first are last. As Mary exultantly proclaims, “He has shown strength with his arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. He has put down princes from [their] thrones, And hath exalted them of low degree. The hungry he has filled with good things; And the rich he has sent empty away” (Luke 1:51-53).

The universal testimony of scripture, from the song of Moses to the song of Hannah, from the Psalms to the canticle of Zechariah is that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. When Satan exalted himself against God, God cast him out of heaven. When Adam and Eve sought to become like God, God sent them away from the garden. When Pharaoh hardened his heart, God raised up Moses and brought Israel out of Egypt. God chose pagan Abraham to be the father of many nations. God chose the boy Samuel to be a judge, and God chose young David to replace King Saul on the throne of Israel. God chose lowly Mary for the most exalted honor of all. Indeed, God looked on the low estate of his handmaiden and did great things for her. Mary was a lowly person, but God exalted her above measure so that she could experience and boldly proclaim God’s coming kingdom.

Christian friends, Mary’s experience of the living God is normative for all people of Christian faith. Like Mary, we are elect. This is a mystery. Why do you have an interest in Jesus Christ, while your neighbor has no inclination toward the things of God? How is it that you have gained a deep love for the church of Jesus Christ, while your neighbor can see only a society of hypocrites? As we have all come to recognize during this terrible pandemic, we really need the church. But not everyone feels that way. Why is it that we feel the need for God and the church while others remain indifferent? It is sheer grace in divine election. As Paul said of Jacob and Esau, “Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, not by works but by his call), Rebecca was told, 'The elder shall serve the younger.' [...] So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy” (Rom. 9:11-16). Was there something particularly worthy about Mary? Is there something especially meritorious about you? About me? No! It is only that God has chosen us. We are truly blest.

Like Mary, we are indwelt by Jesus Christ. Paul asks us, “Don’t you know that you are temples of the living God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Speaking of the Gospel, Paul wrote to the Colossians, “I became its servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:25-26). You are no ordinary mortal. God does not live in temples made by human hands. Instead, God lives in human temples made by God’s hands. We are blest.
Like Mary, we trust God. A deep confidence in God is the hallmark of genuine Christian experience. The one thing that I find God calling me to again and again is trust. God wants us to live out of the unlimited resources that come from a deep confidence in God’s good intentions for us. I sense God saying to me continually, “Trust me for Briarwood Presbyterian Church. Trust me to care for your family. Trust me with your health. Trust me with your grandchildren.” Trust! Trust! Trust! As scripture says, “The just (those who are in a right relationship with God) will live by faith (deep confidence).” We can stretch ourselves out and rest on the promises of God. We are blest with the grace to trust in God in this life.

Finally, like Mary, we are called to embody and proclaim the values of the Kingdom of God. Whenever I read the Magnificat, I feel a little uncomfortable. As generally privileged people, (socially, economically, educationally, even religiously), we resemble the proud, the powerful, and the rich more than the lowly and the hungry. We need to take stock of our relationships. Are the humble numbered among those we socialize with? Do we associate with the lowly? God does seem to have a special concern for the poor and the afflicted.

There are so many implications to the values of God’s kingdom that time does not allow us to contemplate them fully now. Suffice it to say that God’s value system has revolutionary implications for how we spend our money, how we use our time, and what relationships we cultivate. There is an inherent challenge in the reality of the Kingdom of God. As Mark Twain wryly noted: “Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those that I do understand.” Mary’s song is a little troubling, but we are blest to know and reach toward the values of the Kingdom of God.

Our society brazenly says, “Blessed are the beautiful, the rich, the powerful and the famous.” But scripture declares that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Scripture proclaims an enduring blessing on lowly Mary. “Blessed are you among women,” the Bible says. All generations have called her blessed. Mary was blessed because she was chosen by God, she was the mother of God, she trusted God’s promises, and she embodied and proclaimed the values of the Kingdom of God.

Brothers and Sisters, we are also counted by God to be among the truly blest. We are elect. We are indwelt by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. We have deep confidence in God. We are beginning to embody and proclaim the values of the kingdom of God.

Let us live out our faith with joy, knowing how much we have received from God’s hand in election and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Let us live with deep confidence in God for all the particulars of our existence. Let us embody the values of the kingdom as we seek to make God’s reign known. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our LORD. Alleluia! Amen.