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The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2003
Micah 5:2-4, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:39-56
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church West Valley City, UT

The Rev. W. Lee Shaw

Today is informally referred to as “Mary Sunday”. In all three years of the lectionary, the Fourth Sunday of Advent is reserved for a Gospel reading about Mary. I fear that too often Mary gets lost in our collective imaginations of the “Virgin Mary” with all that that title implies. Ornate statues. Legends. Alleged mysterious appearances. Beautiful paintings of the “Virgin” among cherubs and angels, and depending on the artist dressed as if she were a rich lady of Florence or Brussels or even the suburbs. We rarely are presented with Mary as she was: a teenage girl in a poor village in Israel. There is not much romance there. Think on some of the news coverage you see of young women in Israel, Palestine, Iraq, anywhere in the Middle East. That is what Mary was probably like.

Today we have one of the more gentle and telling stories of this remarkable young woman. She has just learned she is pregnant. She is not married. She is a teenager. She lives in a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business. And I think she probably is rather anxious and even frightened about what has led to this unplanned, unexpected, and highly unusual pregnancy. And then she learns that her elderly cousin Elizabeth is also pregnant and she decides to go visit. I think it is rather revealing that she went out with haste to pay her a visit. I am sure she just wanted to get away.

Their greetings in the Gospel today provide the framework for two of the most well known of Christian devotions: The Magnificat or Song of Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...” And Elizabeth's greeting to the young Mary is part of what we pray in the Rosary: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

Mary holds a primary place in our tradition and in devotions, especially this time of year. She is the one chosen of God to bring Jesus, the Christ, into the world. I have a feeling, however, that Mary would feel rather sheepish about the status we have weighed upon her, a simple, devout, faithful young woman of Israel. Mary knew that this was never about her. It is about God's love for us and God's faithfulness in her to carry Jesus and raise him into manhood.

Did the woman say,
When she held him for the first time in the
dark and dank of a stable,
After the pain and the bleeding and the crying,
“This is my body, this is my blood?”

Did the woman say,
When she held him for the last time in the
Dark rain on a hilltop,
After the pain and the bleeding and the dying,
“This is my body, this is my blood?”

This poem echoes for me Mary's realization that she carries the Son of God and hence she shares in his body and blood. We break the bread and share the cup week by week of the Body and Blood of Christ, the body given to us by Mary and then glorified for us by God.

In the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, we do share in the Body and Blood of Christ as he told us we would when he said goodbye to his disciples during a meal in that upper room. There are some conjectures that on that evening it was not just Jesus and his twelve male friends gathered, but the broader community as well of women and possibly even children. In which case, it is very likely Mary also would have heard his words as he presented the bread and the cup: this is my body, this is my blood.

In a little while we will celebrate the Holy Eucharist. When I preside and present the gifts of bread and wine to you I say: “Holy gifts for a holy people. Be what you see, receive what you are.” You may have wondered where this comes from.

This is an adaptation of a quote from St. Augustine of Hippo that “you are the bread on the altar.” You, each of you, is offered up as an offering to God and to the world through the actions that we do here week by week.

If you recall that when Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the “Last Supper” or what some call the “first supper,” he did the following actions: He took bread. Blessed it. Broke it. And gave it to the disciples. Following his example and teaching, Luis will take the bread, bless it, break it and give it to you.

On a personal, spiritual level, we also experience this four-fold process. During our time together God takes you by bringing you together from your homes throughout the valley. God blesses you through scripture, prayer, music, fellowship and the Holy Eucharist. You are broken as we leave this place, what had been one body of people now becomes individuals going their separate ways. And God gives you to the world to carry on the work of ministry at home, work, school, everywhere you go during the week. As we will pray: “Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you...” (BCP #365)

As Mary knew that she carried the Christ child within her. So we know that we share in his body and blood as the Body of Christ in the world. We are all intimately woven together in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist as a witness of God's love to the world. A love made incarnate in Jesus: Son of Mary. Son of God.