12-22-2024 In the Sixth Month

Thomas J Parlette
“In the Sixth Month”
Luke 1: 39-55
12/22/24
          Nadia Bolz-Webber once shared an anonymous poem written by pastor from New York:
          “It seems everyone wants at 3-5 years’ experience.
          Except God, that is.
          God looks for the one willing to try something new.” (1)
          How true. Of all the people God could have chosen, God chose a teenage girl named Mary.
          Despite all the songs, all the stories and all the art work – we really don’t know that much about Mary. She was a common person, living a quiet life in a tiny village, just one of many millions of human beings over the centuries who have lived and died without a birth certificate, Social Security number or digital footprint of any kind.
          If it weren’t for the fact that she gave birth to Jesus, we would never know who she was. But her place in history is secured by what happened to her on one particular day, when out of nowhere, Mary had a visit from an angel.
          The scriptural account from Luke – taken from the verses just prior to today’s reading – is pretty bare bones.
          “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”
          Pretty sparse – but still, packed with details. Did you notice how Luke begins this part of the story – “in the sixth month?” Luke is very intentional to specify the stage of the pregnancy of Mary’s cousin – Elizabeth, as he sets the stage for the annunciation. From this we learn that John the Baptist – Elizabeth’s son – was 3 months older than Jesus.
          Luke never reveals what Mary was doing when the angel appeared to her. Maybe she was doing household chores, or wandering the countryside, or lying peacefully in bed, just before nodding off to sleep. Nor does he tell us precisely how Mary experienced the angel. Was it a ghostly apparition glowing around the edges, or was it an angel like we see in the renaissance paintings with a flowing robe and big white wings, or was it an ordinary person with a heavenly gleam in the eye” We don’t know.
          But we do know what the angel says. “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
          What does Gabriel mean when he says this? What does he mean by “favored one”? Is he saying Mary has been chosen because, of all the young women on earth, she’s real standout, especially faithful and virtuous? Is he saying that she won some heaven lottery to see who was going to give birth to Jesus?
          There’s no reason to doubt that Mary was faithful and virtuous, a very nice young woman – but that’s probably not why Gabriel calls he “favored.” He calls her favored because of the remarkable role God has chosen for her to play. The initiative here is entirely God’s. It’s God who chooses – for some divine reasons – who is going to bear the holy child. For that reason alone – Mary is the favored one.
          But is she? It would hardly seem so to most people who lived in that very traditional society. They had strong and rigid beliefs about the ethics of pregnancy and childbirth. Women were typically married off as young as 12 or 13 – so it wasn’t Mary’s age that was the issue. Plenty of other young women were getting married and having babies at roughly the same age.
          God’s idea of “favor” and our own are radically different. When we hear the word “favor” today, our mind probably goes to party favors, or perhaps which sibling your parents liked more, or which pair of boots you’re more likely to wear in the cold. But “favor” here refers to God’s choice, not Mary’s benefit. The Greek word here is a variation of the word for “grace”, which of course is something bestowed upon us, not something we initiate.
           We don’t get much of an insight into Mary’s emotional state in the angelic encounter. She is probably afraid at some level. You could also expect that she was anxious, confused, and worried – probably a combination of all those emotions flooded over her. Luke does tell us she was perplexed by the angel’s words, pondering what sort of greeting this might be. So, Mary is clearly baffled by this extraordinary new – and no wonder!
          After the angel tells her what sort of child this is to be – the Son of the Most High, who will reign forever on the throne of David – Mary finally musters the courage to ask a question. But it’s not the question you might expect. “How can this be, since I am still a virgin?”
          A very reasonable question indeed. In light of the amazing announcement the angel has just made, it’s not surprising that she would ask “How?”
          What is surprising is the question that Mary doesn’t ask. She doesn’t ask “Why me?” It could be tempting when an angel brings you a message about this life-changing mission God wants you to undertake, to drop your feet a little. Many of the Old Testaments prophets did – Moses resisted God at first – he asked “Why Me? Can’t you send somebody more qualified?” Jonah did the same thing – he too asked “Why me? I don’t like those people in Ninevah, I don’t want to help them, just go ahead and punish the whole city for all I care.” But not Mary. She shows no self-pity at all. She doesn’t try to argue or change God’s mind, or tell the angel – “I don’t think so, tell God to find someone else.”
          No, her response seems to be, “Why not me?” She seems to be all in right from the beginning. She moves directly to the “How?” question. There never seems a chance Mary wouldn’t say yes. I think it may have taken longer for her to get to yes than we sometimes think – but even if she thought about it, she was always leaning to yes, I’ll do it. She is now curious to know HOW God is going to do this remarkable thing.
         That’s not the question most of us would ask if angel showed up and said God has chosen us to accomplish a very important but dangerous task – one likely to lead to being shunned and ridiculed by our community. It might even cost us our lives. No – most of us would probably move towards “Why me? Isn’t there someone else who is more qualified?”
          But Mary isn’t built that way. It’s not long before she graduates from “How can this be?” to “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
          Which is where we pick up the story this morning. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was also informed by Gabriel that she was carrying a special child. So, in the manner of expectant mothers everywhere, Mary goes off to visit her cousin. Given the amount of time between their due dates, Mary was probably going to help her older cousin with the housework and daily chores. And Elizabeth has an opportunity to share her wisdom and knowledge about what to expect in the months ahead – sort of a face to face version of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”
          The greeting between them is touching – especially the way the infant John leaps in his mother’s womb when the unborn Jesus comes near. But Elizabeth’s words are significant, too – “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
          It’s here that we finally encounter the “Why me?” question. Only it’s not Mary who asks it. It’s Elizabeth – “Why me – I’m no one special- why am I so fortunate to have this woman, the God-bearer, the soon-to-be mother of our Savior, come visit me?”
          Elizabeth sums it up with the statement – “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
          And there you have it – that’s why Mary is favored, that’s why she is blessed. She is blessed because she believes. She believes all along that God’s promise will be fulfilled in her. She takes God at God’s word and never questions the truth of the promise – at least not that we read about in Luke. Her only question is “How?”
          That’s the reason Mary is so blessed, and why she sings the song she does. She never asks Why me? She never sings Woe is me to have to bear this burden. Her question is instead – “Why not me?”
          That’s a useful and important question to keep beside as we move through life – especially in the more challenging times. When something bad happens, we may be tempted at first to to ask – “Why me?” We’re only human, after all. But there’s a distinct downside to asking “Why me?” Wondering why me freezes us in place. We get stuck in self-pity and dwell on questions like – “Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?” Questions like that guarantee, that as long as we keep asking them, we’ll never make any progress in learning to live with whatever situation we’re facing.
         That’s the remarkable thing about Mary – she moves so directly past the “Why me?” – right to the “Why not me? How will this happen – what’s the plan here God.” Mary, even at her young age, seems to know intuitively that life itself – any life – is a gift from God, and that God is good to us even amid the struggles we face.
          One of my favorite Beatles song has always been “Let it Be.” Paul McCartney has said that the song was inspired by a dream he had about his late mother, Mary Patricia McCartney, who died of cancer in 1956.
          Things with the Beatles were not going very smoothly, and Paul had been weighing his options, thinking about his future and whether he should leave the band. In a dr4eam one night, McCartney’s mother came to him and said – “It’s gonna be OK. Just let it be.” McCartney said he felt a sense of peace and felt reminded that things would eventually work out.
          So he wrote “Let it Be” and sang it as the last Beatles single before he left the group. Just let it be.
          People often wondered if he was making a biblical reference in the song with the line – “Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” And it does fit – but McCartney said he wrote it about his own mother, Mary. It still works.
          “Here am I, the servant of the Lord – let it be with me according to your word.” And that’s what she did. That’s what she always did. May we all be so blessed – through whatever ups and downs and struggles we face, through whatever trials and heartaches life might bring – may we follow Mary’s example, and respond – “Let it be…”
          May God be praised. Amen.
1. Anonymous prayer shared by Nadia Bolz-Weber, “Some questions for Mary – An Advent sermon,” Patheos.com, Dec. 24, 2014