There's Something About Mary

This question comes from some of the fine folks who participated in our pre-Christmas Bible Study:

Dave,

During our Bible Study last time, we read about Mary's encounter with the angel and the news that she would be giving birth to the Messiah. We were all touched by her response! We have a question, though: She says in her song [Luke 1: 46-55] that:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name...."

So the question is this: have we, as a church, forgotten about Mary? When the Protestants broke away from the Catholic Church, did we leave her behind? Is there a way to honor her more without being guilty of worshiping her?

Great question!  We'll try for a decent answer.

Mary has long been revered as the mother of Jesus.  As you've identified, the Roman Catholic church holds her in high esteem.  Truth be told, we Lutherans do too.  The hows and whys of that are determined by one question:  Are the reasons to call Mary "blessed" distinct, peculiar to her over and apart from the rest of us, or are those reasons for blessing more communal?

The "distinct" angle is pretty easy.  Mary was the Mother of Our Lord.  Ain't nobody else ever done that!  That distinction makes her special.  As such, we should revere her above ordinary folks.  The distinction of Mary's calling is certainly behind the Catholic reverence of her.  It immediately calls to mind the questions, "Why her?  What about her was so different or special?  There must be a reason, right?"  That reason has to be internal.  After all, if the selection was just random there would be no reason to reverence her.  So you get a whole canon of descriptions surrounding Mary:  pure, noble, meek, mild.  (Hmmm...now that I read those my feminist leanings are causing me to itch.  Isn't it suspicious that the Ideal Woman keeps her mouth shut and doesn't offend you any more than Ivory Soap does?)  In 1854 Pope Pius IX formalized a long-held belief that since Jesus was untouched by sin, his mother, too must have been without it.  Otherwise he would have been contaminated by her.  Therefore you have the Immaculate Conception, which says that after Mary's mom and dad created her in the womb, all of her sin was wiped away.  What's more, Mary's Mother (Anne or Hanna depending on who you talk to) was made a saint, mostly because she gave birth to Mary.

That's some reverence!

It's fair to point out that we Lutherans don't go this far.  It's also fair to point out that this is how far you have to go if you regard the reason for Mary's blessing as being distinct and inherent in her.  If this is the answer then we should have statues, parades...more than just the occasional feast day we hold in her honor.

But what if there's another answer?

Look at the entire text of Mary's song:

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

About whom does Mary sing?  This song isn't about her, it's about God and all the mighty things he has done.  And for whom has God done these things?  6 of the 8 passages describing his work talk about things he's done for his people.  Only the first 2 talk about what he's doing for Mary herself.  Those acts for her as an individual are quickly put in context with the entire salvation story.  In other words, even though this particular thing (bearing God's Son) is happening only to Mary, it's not a wholly new thing.  Instead it's the continuation--culmination, really--of the work God has always done for his people...the work he's been about since the moment of creation and which he will continue to do until the very last day.

This song isn't about how great Mary is.  By her own admission, she's just a servant.  She's a servant that people will call blessed because of her particular task, NOT because of her particular internal, inherent qualities.  The task, God's mission, God's work, God's miracles for his people...Mary is praising those things, not herself.

This is also what we reverence.  We do hold Mary apart somewhat because of her unique job.  We tell her story at Christmas.  We sing about her.  She does have her own feast day as the church year progresses.  We understand and celebrate that she got to do this special thing, which is why we talk about the Virgin Mary and not, you know, just "Jesus' mom".  But all that is only about 10% of the story.

The real heart of the story--the cause for celebration--is that God worked this wondrous thing and Mary had a chance to serve him through it.  That story isn't peculiar to Mary.  It's true for all of us.  Mary gave birth to Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross and rose again to claim us, redeem our lives, make us his brothers and sisters.  We are now God's folk.  We are vessels for his Spirit.  We are servants.  We, too, bear God.  We hear his voice in the voice of our neighbors.  The REAL miracle in Mary's journey was her giving birth to the Messiah, the Savior who opened God's family to us all.  The miracle is not one of exclusive distinction for her, but the radical inclusion of all of us.  Take away that radical inclusion and you've lost the purpose of the story itself, and therefore all reason to praise Mary.

Every time we claim we bear God's Holy Spirit with us, we are honoring Mary.  Every time we fulfill our tasks as God's servant we honor her too.  Every time we, too, claim that God is merciful, powerful, transforms the world, feeds the hungry, and continues his story of salvation to this day, we show true reverence to Mary as well.  It's not in pointing her out and putting her on a pedestal that we truly honor her, any more than doing so would honor your own mom.  It wouldn't, at least in any permanent way.  How do you honor your mother?  You live out the things she showed and taught you.  You become like her, treating the world with the same love and care that she showed you.

We don't just honor and praise a removed Mary up on a wall.  Every time God's Spirit pours out of us to fill the world, we have become Mary...not the physical mother of Jesus, but the spiritual mother that gives the world the goodness of God's presence.

And that...is reverence.

We have to be careful in these matters.  Sometimes the kind of reverence that looks the strongest and most obvious actually pushes the figure we're revering away from us, breaking the whole reason for reverence in the first place.  No statue of your mom can ever take the place of living out her mission.  Even attempting the statue route is, in a way, a confession that you either don't want to do the "living out" thing or you just don't trust that this is "real" reverence.  But it is.  Ask any mom which she'd prefer?  She'll tell you to save money on the statue and do the daily things that reflect her life instead.  And this is what we do.  It's less obviously reverential but it's not any less reverential.  In fact it's more, because both embrace and remembrance are tighter.

So, now, go and do as Mary did.  Bear God to the world.  Help him lift up the poor and humble.  Fill the hungry, embrace the lonely, raise God's children.  In this you honor her.  Because of this people will call her, and all God's children, blessed.

Keep those questions coming!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)