Advent 4

Advent 4 “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.” Luke 1:26-38)

It is important to know who you are. It is even more important to know whose you are.
When the archangel Gabriel greeted Mary he used the formal greeting of the time. The Latin equivalent is “Ave”, Hail. The archangel recognized who Mary was and whose she is.

From scripture we learn that Mary was a young woman, a teen. We see that even as a teen she memorized scripture. And, we have evidence from Mary’s actions that she made worship in the Temple a priority.

Mary was one of the working poor who paid high taxes and lived in a state of constant fear. The working poor feared the Roman occupation army. Even more than the Romans they feared the Tax Collectors Rome hired to bring revenue to the Empire. And, they feared the religious authorities who used their position and power to intimidate and bully the people through a religion of legalism and submission.
People frequently allow the sufferings and the uncertainties of life to define them.
Mary lived in a culture of fear but made a real choice to cultivate the three virtues of faith, hope and love.

Mary made a real choice to use the grace God pours out on all people to define her very being. She chose so completely to immerse her soul in grace that the archangel described her personality as being full of grace.

Grace is a gift. It is a gift of the Real Presence of the Living God. It is a gift not a command. The Bible is very honest in its observation that most people most of the time reject the gift. We reject the gift to preserve our separation from God. In that separation we trade the blessings of God for the illusions of power, prestige, position, possessions and pleasure.

The rich seek more money.

The powerful seek more power.

The poor and dispossessed are paralyzed by fear.

Mary made a different choice. Mary chose to receive the gift and define her life by the gift.

The gift of God is God Himself.

A fundamental principle of scripture is that human beings do not seek out and find God. God seeks out and finds us. Our choice is not formed by our initiative but by our response to God’s intiative.

Mary is the penultimate personality in the plan of salvation. Where so many people for so many centuries said no to God Mary said yes. Where so many people insisted on their right to define God according to their needs and desires, Mary simply acknowledged the core truth of Creation: Behold, I am the Lord’s servant.

The way of Mary is the way of grace. It is the way of faith. It is the truth that God seeks us and finds us.

The issue is not which is the right religion. The issue is not whether every religious and spiritual path is a valid way for human beings to seek God. The issue is how we choose to react or respond to the active dynamic Real Presence of God seeking us and offering us Himself in Jesus Christ.

Mary chose to set aside her fear so that she could experience faith. Mary chose to surrender her self-will to Divine Will so that she could receive God’s gift. Mary used the grace of God to transform the pride of separation back into the original blessing of union with God. Humility is the chalice of the Original Blessing.

Mary sought no position and exercised no rule. She lived and breathed and moved in the grace of God. In that grace she chose the way of faith. In that faith she immersed herself in divine love through worship. And, in that love she fulfilled God’s call for her to become who God created her to be. She became the hagios theotokos, the holy mother of God.

The joy of Mary is that from the moment of his conception, Jesus was fully human and fully divine.

The life of Mary is largely a life of quiet obscurity governed by her care and nurture of her son. God the Father entrusted Mary to bear and raise Jesus because Mary lived from the place of steadfast holy love.

The sorrow of Mary begins as Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism and enters a public ministry that ended in his betrayal, arrest, torture and execution.
The glory of Mary is the reflected glory of the resurrection: the victory of eternal love over death.

The ministry of Mary was to enlighten the teen age apostle John about the ineffable Mystery of the person of Jesus Christ.

The Queenship of Mary, depicted for us at St. Luke’s in the reredos over our altar, is the Queenship of humility, compassion, and the witness of a soul filled with the superabundance of grace and immersed in the infinite and eternal love of God.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent we honor Mary as the person who discovered her true self in the love of God by grace through faith.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent Holy Mother Mary asks us with all compassion and humility to give up our search for meaning, purpose, self and God so we can discover that is it God who is seeking us. It is God who has found us and reveals to us our true self and true purpose in Jesus Christ.

Mary said and continues to say: let it be. Let God be God. Let us each surrender to the Great Mystery of eternal love made flesh in Jesus Christ. Be who God created you to be. Be the living chalice of grace filled with grace. Discover who you are in Christ and then be who you are and whose you are in Christ.

Holy Mother Mary pray for us that we may rejoice in the midst of sorrow and discover the glory of who God created us to be in the proclamation: behold I am the Lord’s servant may it be unto me according to God’s Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Amen.