The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself

Mary's Availability
Fourth Sunday in Advent

Week of Monday, December 23, 2002

Lectionary Readings
2 Samuel 7:1–16
Luke 1:47–55
Romans 16:25–27
Luke 1:26–38

There are three important songs in Scripture written by women: the song of Miriam celebrating the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20–21), the song of Hannah upon the birth of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1–10), and then Mary's Magnificat, which is one of the lectionary readings for this week (Luke 1:47–55). When I worshipped at Evensong every night for two weeks when I was in Oxford, I was struck how the daily liturgy assigned such a prominent role to Mary's Magnificat by singing it every night without exception. I was also struck how Mary has no place or role in my Christian discipleship.

What is so special about Mary and her Magnificat? Protestants typically have little to no place for the veneration of Mary, and there are some good reasons for this. In popular devotion the cult of Mary easily drifts into excess and superstition, as in the thousands of claimed Marian apparitions. Heretical notions that she somehow contributes to our redemption as a co-redemptrix have also crept in. From a Protestant perspective questionable doctrines like her Immaculate Conception (1854), her Bodily Assumption (1950), and perpetual virginity seem to have little or no Biblical warrant.¹ But for many Christians in the world Mary is a powerfully inspiring figure who merits our devotion.²

As Luke tells her story, Mary was a virgin pledged to marry Joseph when the angel Gabriel visited her with the mysterious words, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” I love what Luke writes next, because to me it reveals an entirely human and appropriate response. He writes that Mary was “greatly troubled” by these angelic words, and that she “wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” I should think so. The angel explained what would happen to her and with her, and then told her not to be afraid, to which Mary offered herself to God's service with these memorable words: “I am the Lord's servant, may it be done to me as you have said.”

She then hurried to the house of Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptizer. Elizabeth blessed Mary, for “she believed what the Lord had said to her would be accomplished.” Mary exalted the Lord. Her song gets its name, the Magnificat, from the first word of the Latin text.

My soul glorifies the Lord
  and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
   of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
  for the Mighty One has done great things for me--
   holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
   from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
   but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
   but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
   remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
  even as he said to our fathers.

There is little doubt that Mary was but a teenage peasant girl when she became pregnant, and yet God's call upon her life was to become what theologians would later call the Theotokos, literally, the “bearer of God.” One might reasonably argue that no woman has had a greater influence on all of western culture. Much as the timid disciples who gave to Jesus their meager provisions of two fish and five loaves of bread to feed 5,000 people, Mary offered her humble, lowly self to the Lord. She made herself available. Her words, “be it done to me as you have said,” remind me of the words of Jesus, “not my will but thine be done.”

It is easy to believe that we have little or nothing to offer to the Lord, for the truth is that this is very often the case; it is not a matter of false modesty. We really do not have anything of value to offer him; we have only our sinful, fallen, lowly selves. What could an infinite God possibly need from us? Further, it is hard to believe, like Mary did, that God can take our own faltering availability and use it for his glory. But that is precisely what He did with Mary, and it is what He wants to do with us. At advent God calls us to this Marian availability, to pray like she did, “Lord, be it done to me according to your will.”

Mary was clearly a woman of exemplary faith, for Luke also tells us that she “believed that what the Lord had said to her would be accomplished.” After hearing the unbelievable words from the angel, that she would become pregnant when the Holy Spirit “overshadowed” her even though she was a virgin and had never had sexual relations with Joseph, Mary believed the angel when he said, “nothing shall be impossible with God.” Such is the calculus in God's kingdom, that when we make ourselves available to Him, no matter how lowly our station in life or how modest our abilities, and when like Mary we believe His promises, nothing shall be impossible.

If you wonder why Catholics refer to Mary as the “Blessed Virgin,” look no further than Luke 1:48: “From now on all generations shall call me blessed.” Why? Because she was saved from the stain of original sin, never died a normal death, or was a perpetual virgin? No, I don't think so. Rather, Mary is rightly blessed because she made herself available to the living God, and believed that whatever God had for her it would be good, even though it sounded impossible. Similarly, when we make ourselves available to Him today, He will bless us like He blessed Mary.

1. The Immaculate Conception states that from the first moment of her conception Mary was kept free from the taint of original sin and thus was sinless. The Bodily Assumption teaches that Mary did not die but that she was taken directly to heaven when her earthly life was finished. Perpetual virginity teaches that Mary remained a virgin her entire life, a doctrine accepted by most all the early Protestant Reformers.
2. See Jaroslav Pelikan, Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture (New Haven: Yale, 1996). A comprehensive website on Mary is at www.udayton.edu/mary/.

The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself Copyright ©2002 by Dan Clendenin. All Rights Reserved.