Difference between revisions of "Sermon for November 27th, 2016"

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Luke 1:46-55

46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
    Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
    from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
    and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
    and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
    in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Mary's Song of Praise: Call Me Blessed

On December 12, in the year 1531, an image of the virgin Mary was said to have appeared in the fabric of the coat of a devout Mexican peasant, Juan Diego. The image was verified by several witnesses. Soon a shrine and then a basilica were constructed to house the sacred cloth with Mary's image. Today, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City has become the most visited religious destination in Roman Catholic tradition, and the third most visited religious site in the world.

Fast forward almost 500 years, to November 26, 2011 (that's exactly five years ago, yesterday) to Princeton Theological Seminary--arguably the heart of Presbyterianism in the United States--where a young, devout, Presbyterian seminary student (that would be me) is brushing his teeth one day, when he sees the image of the great reformer, John Calvin, appear in the swirling, pink marble tile of his bathroom sink in his seminary apartment. This really happened. Amy was my first witness, but there were several others. I even put the image of sink-Calvin on twitter and facebook, side by side with an actual portrait of the historical Calvin just in case there was any doubt. I'd be happy to show it to you sometime.

What happens next? A shrine dedicated to Calvin's image? Mass pilgrimages of Presbyterians flocking to see the location? Hardly. My image of Calvin was received with a collective shrug by most who saw it, and just a few months later, the seminary demolished the apartments, relegating sink-Calvin to the rubble heap of history (something Calvin himself would have been just fine with!).

Clearly, we as Presbyterians have a different kind of relationship with our faith heroes. And I think that makes it hard for us to understand why Mary is such a big deal in other traditions, like Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Protestants are often afraid that if we like someone too much, if we elevate someone too high in our prayers, our creeds, our art and our music, that we might be in danger of breaking the first commandment--you shall have no other Gods before me, says the Lord. And so we cringe at some of the grandiose titles given to Mary throughout history: Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven.

In our sincere efforts to avoid idolatry, however, I think something is lost. Christianity is a religion otherwise dominated by patriarchs, masculine deities, and male leading roles. It would be nice to find a middle ground, somewhere between a larger-than-life, God-like Mary of Catholic and Orthodox tradition and the almost invisible, insignificant Mary of Protestant tradition. In order to do that, it might be helpful to look at Mary through the lens of her own words, her own song of praise, which she sings in the gospel of Luke after her cousin Elizabeth greets her and acknowledges Mary's miraculous pregnancy.

Magnificat in three parts:

Focus on Individual (46-48) Focus on God (49-51) Focus on others (52-55)