|
First
Reading
|
Canticle
15 |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Micah
5:2-5a |
The
Song of Mary |
Hebrews
10:5-10 |
Luke
1:39-45 |
By
the fourth Sunday of Advent, it is hard not to think of Joseph and
Mary beginning their journey to Bethlehem. Yet Advent reminds us
that neither of them is like the one-dimensional cutout figures
that are so common to the standard issue Christmas pageant. In the
Gospel reading today, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth who is also pregnant,
but several months further along. Elizabeth is older and was almost
past childbearing age when it was revealed to her that she would
bear a son. They greet each other, and then Luke has Mary break
into a song of thanksgiving for the gift of a son.
By
all expectations, however, Mary's song of thanksgiving should
have been sung by Elizabeth. Since the time of Abraham and Sarah,
there had been a Biblical tradition of older couples being granted
a special blessing of children. Elizabeth fits this pattern perfectly.
Even the words of the song are patterned on the ancient song of
Hannah who, like Elizabeth, was blessed with a son after many
years of not being able to conceive. Yet it is Mary the younger
girl who gets to sing the song. Luke is telling us that this birth
will be different. When Luke has Mary sing what we call the "Magnificat",
he is serving notice that old traditions are being re-worked in
new ways. Perhaps Mary was not as shy and demur as we suppose.
In
one sense, Mary seized the opportunity from Elizabeth. Moreover,
Mary then goes on to sing a about the upheavals and overturning
of the status quo of world empire. To sing of the poor becoming
filled and the rich and satiated being sent empty are not the
words of a passive young girl. Through Mary, Luke puts us on notice
that tradition will be honored, but not necessarily in the way
we would like to expect.
I fear that popular church tradition has
also dulled the sharpness of the image of Joseph. Joseph is commonly
depicted as a kindly, slow, exceedingly patient old man, who treats
Mary as he would his own daughter. People who are cast as Joseph
in pageants assume that they will shuffle in with stooped shoulders,
have a beard edged with gray, and will recite their lines in a
gentle low voice. I would like to suggest another image of Joseph.
Far from being an old man, perhaps Joseph was no more than a few
years older than Mary. As a youth, he was likely regarded as a
good lad who grew up to be an honest carpenter. He knew Mary ever
since they were children, and looked forward to starting a family
with her. He thought Mary was someone he could trust; then he
discovered that this woman to whom he was engaged, was in a condition
she clearly should not have been in. He reacts, not as a disappointed
father, but as a betrayed lover.
Then Joseph received a message from God.
It was totally unexpected and unprecedented. Joseph responded
with a remarkable toughness that matched Mary's. Instead of denying,
rejecting or covering up what seemed to be scandal, or running
away from the hurt and shock of a strange and unbelievable explanation,
Joseph decided to stick around. Joseph accepted the strangeness,
the unknown and to trust that somehow through all this, the Holy
Spirit of God might be working.
Years later, Jesus in effect would say
to some of John's disciples, blessed are those who take no offense
at me, who can examine in a new light, relationships and possibilities,
who are not put off by the newness of the Gospel. I wonder when
Jesus said these words, if he was not also thinking of Joseph
and what he had gone through in Nazareth a few short decades before.
“When you went out to John the Baptist
in the wilderness, seeking a prophet, whom did you expect to find?”
Jesus asked the people who came to him. On this last Sunday before
Christmas, as we prepare to honor the Word of God coming among
us, what do we seek, what do we expect/hope/desire to find? It’s
basically the same question. A gift of Advent is to remind us
that often our expectations of whom God is supposed to be and
where God is supposed to be, continually need a decisive and tough
revision.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
