| May 9
- May 9, 2010
At church we spend a lot of time talking about God: the invisible, unknowable mystery of the universe. How do we learn about a God we can’t see when we don’t even know those around us whom we can see? For most of us, the first thing that comes to mind goes back to our Moms. I’m not equipped to tell you how to be a mother, because I’m a father. But I live with one of the best mothers on earth. I’m no expert on either God or mothers, but I can tell you where to find one.
The Fourth Gospel says if you want to know about God, look at Jesus, whom he called “father.” “I and the father are one.” He also had a pretty fair mother, whom some have elevated to divine status. I can’t go that far but Mary has a lot to teach us. Mother’s Day is a good time as any. God saw something outstanding in Mary, for when he went looking for somebody to be his mother – he picked her. How ‘bout that? We didn’t get to choose our Moms. They just had us and that’s how we ended up belonging to them. But God hand-picked his!
Protestants, unlike the Catholics, have been slow to pay much of attention to Mary, and that’s to our detriment. Because Mary had quite a career, as mother of Jesus and midwife of the church. She was the first one to bear the Good News, when she enabled the “Word to become flesh.” When the star shined over a Bethlehem stable, Mary literally delivered God’s Son to the world. She is unique in that regard. From then on, she spent the rest of her life teaching the baby Jesus about God. “8 days later,” she took him to church for dedication. By example, Jesus’ mother taught him worshiping God was important.
Remember, Jesus was not born as an adult in a baby’s body. Gods “word” became “flesh” as a helpless infant in every sense of the word. And Luke said he, like us, had to “increase in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man.” Jesus didn’t pop-out on Christmas knowing everything. He grew and learned, and much of what he learned, was colored by his mother.
It’s hard to imagine Mary’s staggering role. An angel shows up and announces that she’s going to have a baby. That’s tough enough for an unmarried youngster, in a culture where she could be stoned for her predicament. So she laid her life on the line for God, come what may. She’s been chosen by God, not to just deliver the Savior to the world! That’s the easy part. The hard part was to raise him. That’s tremendous pressure on an adolescent. No matter how you put it, this is heavy stuff, and that’s not even counting the “virgin birth” thingy. But Mary’s response suggests to us one reason why God selected her to mother his Son. And this in turn, provides some clues about what God is like; what he values and what he wanted passed on to Jesus as Mary “nurtured him in the fear and admonition of the Lord.”
This is not some sort of sub-deity. God did something wild and free when he “emptied himself” of himself! To become one of us, to show us how to be like he is. Human language is unable to convey the depth of it. We call it “incarnation,” but humanity struggles to speak of divinity, so the gospels will have to suffice. And they’re all in one accord -- God didn’t start out as a mature adult. God had to forget who he is, wipe the brain clean, and become a newborn baby, totally dependent on those around him to hopefully rediscover his own identity and purpose. It wasn’t a sure thing.
So God looked around to see who was best suited to portray what God is like and what he wants to do to straighten out the world. Lo and behold, God picked humble Mary of Nazareth. As the angel makes his “birth announcement,” we see another reason why God chose her. In spite of the unlikely nature of it, Mary’s response is acceptance. “Let it be with me according to your word.” The messenger says “What do you think? And Mary says “OK.” That deserves at least a big “Wow!”
Mary could live with not having to know everything. And it’s one of the first things she’d have to teach her special baby-boy. “Let it be.” Even when you can’t understand, or can’t see the end from the beginning. God calls you to do something that can get you killed. Trust God anyhow. Let it be! In her famous words to Elizabeth that musicians and theologians have come to call “The Magnificat,” she saw this weird stuff happening to her as a blessing. Yeah it’s scary, and dangerous; but it comes from God. And God’s call is never easy, but always a blessing. Can you think of anything more important for a mother to teach her kids?
Mary breaks out in praise to God because he chose her, and that allows us to see some of her theology. She sings about God’s mercy and about the strong arm of the Lord, whose “everlasting arms we lean on.” But God’s strength is directed in a particular way. “He socks it to the haughty and brings down the powerful a notch or two, and lifts up the lowly. He feeds the hungry and elevates the poor.” This isn’t a lullaby she’s singing. Everything right-side up is turned upside-down, in her revolutionary lyrics. Mary believed God is prejudiced. He’s on the side of the little people and the downtrodden. God has a heart for the unfortunate. And he saw that quality in Mary, who would pass it on to Jesus through her example. She’s pretty accurate for a teenager! I always wondered who her mother was? You know, Jesus’ Granny?
Somebody taught them the things that are important to us are not what’s important to God. It’s not about power and control and wealth. It is about humility and servanthood. Jesus learned this lesson well at his mother’s feet. Again and again his own teaching and example mirrored hers. And way back at the beginning, before he was born, in “Mary’s song,” we see where he got it. From his Mamma. Everybody needs a Jewish Mamma! She carries him in her womb; caresses him in her arms and ponders it in her heart. She preserves it from distortion and misrepresentation and “in the fulness of time,” delivers it intact. We celebrate it every year at Christmas.
But Mary shows up at other critical moments. After a run-in with her Boy at the temple when he was twelve, another formative time came at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus is resisting the beginning of his ministry. Mary gently moves him back to one of her lessons: accept it; let it be. And he listened to his Mamma; he gave-in and “changed the water into wine!” We can’t bring new life to a party, but Jesus can. That’s when she put Jesus front-and-center: “Do what he tells you!” That began the “basic training” for his eventful life. He’s done with the water. It is time for the transformation; for the gospel wine.
By the time the water of youth changed into the wine of adulthood, Mary was hearing some harsh things about her Son. Some folks thought he was “beside himself.” So her over-protective instincts kick-in and she tries to take him home. Jesus had to set her straight, when he posed a harsh question: “Who is my mother?” His answer was “Whoever does the will of my Father.” And their relationship maintained that tension from then on.
We don’t hear from Mary again until she’s at the foot of the cross, with the other Marys and the disciple whom Jesus loved. By then the wine had become blood and returns full circle in the water of his mother’s tears. But she stood by her Boy till the end, embodying the love of God that accompanies us through “the valley of the shadow.” Jesus knows that well by now. Even in the agony of crucifixion, Mary’s presence revealed something beautiful about God’s behavior: he keeps vigil by our side when we need him most. But it’s minimum protection; maximum support, as always.
The last time Mary shows up is described by Luke in the book of Acts: in the upper room on Pentecost, still bearing the message until it’s able to be poured out into every heart through God’s Spirit. On that day, her job is done; her witness complete. Ascension Day is “graduation Day” for Mary; when she received her diploma, for an impossible job well-done. Because her faithfulness as a mother was rewarded when her Son was elevated to “the right hand of God the Father in heaven!” He gave Mary the greatest gift any child can give their parents: a life that matters. Would that we could all give our mothers that today.
She has embraced God’s Son within her body, delivered him to the world, taught him the truth about life, launched him into ministry, walked with him to the cross, and witnessed his love spread to the world through the Spirit of God. No one else in the Bible has such an astounding role. But we don’t talk about Mary just to remember a great woman or even to learn the technicalities of how to be a mother. We preach about her because she taught her Kid what God is like.
She taught by living it. She lived it when it was scary. She lived it when she got to watch miracles. She lived it through the confrontations and rejections and the dead places where there’s so much agony and the Easter places where God never runs out of life. She lived it with humility and courage, and whatever else it takes to make Jesus known to those who need him most. There is no better way to teach people about God. We teach God is love by loving. We teach that God is merciful by forgiving. We teach that God cares for the all people by treating them fairly. We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, liberate the handcuffed, because that’s what Mary taught Jesus ... what God is like.
They’re watching out there. What are we teaching them? I learned more than I ever could about the heart of this church going through my own “valley of the shadow of death.” All I gotta say is, “this place will make a believer out of you!” That means everyone of us is a teacher. We are the “living letters” others read, to learn what God is like. If we don’t get it right today, we can try to do better tomorrow. But we’re all called, as Mother Mary was, to carry the message, and deliver it when the time is right.
It was my own mother who first taught me the importance of preparing to live a life that matters. To be sure there were negative lessons that I learned from her too, because parents are human. But she took me to Sunday School, saw that I learned to play the piano. I can still play one of the hymns of the faith:” What a Friend.” She never sat me down and said, “OK this is how it’s done.” But I learned a lot by observing. And that’s how Mary taught; that’s how the best mothers teach, and by their example all of us can learn how to tell others what God is like. Let it live in you … or as the Paul McCartney put it, “Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”
Providence Prayers: (5-9-10)
In many ways O Lord, Thou art like a trusting mother, who knows us well, who believes in our dreams and teaches us to develop tough minds and tender hearts; who sees all our weaknesses and loves us still.
On this day of worship we celebrate all good parents in the world, who take their influential role seriously and their power to make or break the future through their training or lack of it in their children. Mothers everywhere struggling to mend broken hearts, giving it their all and then some, to hold their families together, even as their own private words fall apart. Bless ‘em all!
We would not conclude our prayer time without thanking Thee for allowing us to belong to Thy family, those alive and those who’ve gone before us, as part of “that great cloud of witnesses that even now surround us on our journey,” so we may develop the mind of Christ and let it rule in our hearts and homes. This is our prayer on this special day...through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
