The focus of the Fourth Sunday of Advent is on Mary. Our Gospel reading recalls the meeting of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and Mary. These were two unknown, unimportant women in their own society, but God uses them as the means to begin His work of salvation in Christ. The Gospel begins in the maternity ward.

The Psalm today is Mary’s song, praising God for what He has done for her and His people. It is a subversive, revolutionary hymn, for it tells of how God overturns all our ideas about who is important and who is not, Who takes the side of the poor, the lowly, the weak, the outcast, Who fulfills His promises to His people to be their help and salvation.

Recently, a conference of Roman Catholic and Evangelical Protestant teachers published a joint document on Mary, titled, “Do Whatever He Tells You.” In it they pointed out the division the two sides of Christianity have taken on Mary. Roman Catholics have been criticized for over-focusing on Mary, almost to the point of making her co-equal with Christ in our salvation. Protestants, on the other hand, have been guilty of ignoring Mary almost completely, despite her importance in Scripture and in Christian history.

And where have we Lutherans been in all this? Well, our record is spotty at best. Martin Luther had high regard for Mary. He said, “She is worthy of the highest honor” and “her example should be followed.” Luther believed, even, in the Immaculate Conception of Mary, that she was born and lived her whole life without sin. But Lutherans can be justly accused of neglecting proper devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Most Lutheran rejection of devotion to Mary has come from an anti-Roman Catholic prejudice. (I know of only one Lutheran church, a congregation in western Pennsylvania, that has the name, “St. Mary Lutheran Church.”)

What should be the place of Mary in Lutheran spirituality? Lutherans are right to say that we are justified by the grace of God in Christ through faith alone. That faith alone saves us, makes us right before God, is clear biblical teaching.

But: who teaches us how to believe? Who shows us how to have faith? Without an example, faith waters down to sentimentalism. “It does not matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere,” people say. That is not faith in Christ. It is one thing to confess that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ. But who can show us how to do this, how to believe, how to have faith?

It is the Blessed Virgin Mary who sets the example of faith for us. Mary shows us how how to believe the Gospel. How does she do this? In Christian history, Mary is honored for as an example of the Gospel, an example of obedient faith, the true worship of God, and hope in suffering. Let us consider each of these.

First, Mary shows us how to have faith because her life is a witness to the grace of God. No one has explained this better than Martin Luther, when he preached:

Now, the time in which Christ was born was one of extreme poverty for the Jews. Among the downtrodden people, Mary was the lowliest. She was not a maid of high station in the capital city, but a daughter of a plain man in a small town. Yet, this was the one whom God chose. He might have gone to Jerusalem and picked out Caiaphas’ daughter, who was fair, rich, clad in gold-embroidered clothing… But God preferred a lowly maid from a mean town.

Mary broke forth into singing: “My soul doth magnify the Lord… for He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden… They do wrong who say that Mary gloried not in her virginity but in her humility. She gloried in neither, but solely in God’s gracious regard. The stress should not be on her low estate, but on God’s regard.¹

Mary experienced God’s grace when He chose her to be the mother of Jesus. She is a reminder to us that God is not about popularity contests. God is not about who is number one. He does not care about the lifestyles of the rich and famous. God is not interested in being a celebrity. God’s choice of Mary reveals His grace to the poor, to the lowly, to those of no importance. In this way, Mary shows us how to believe: not in our abilities or achievements or status. Rather, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. Or as Mary sang: in God’s gracious regard.

Second: Mary is an example of obedient faith. When the angel announced to Mary that she was to be the Mother of God, her response was simple obedience: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She did not resist. She did not complain. She was open to what God wanted to do with her life, even though this announcement came with a caution that she would suffer terribly because her son would be the Son of God. She could have said, “I’d rather not, thank you. Get someone else. I don’t want to be bothered.” Mary could have wanted to do things her way, instead of God’s way. But no; she simply said, “Let God’s will be done through me.”

Mary was the exact opposite, you see, of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve’s attitude was like that expressed in an advertisement I saw once in Prague Airport: “It’s my life. It’s my choice.” Eve wanted to be like God. She wanted to “be all she could be.” Eve would not trust nor obey God, nor give thanks and praise God for what He had given her. Eve wanted more than God would give. That is the heart of sin. But Mary submitted to God’s will for her life. She is an example of obedient faith. She shows us that true living, true blessedness, our true happiness, is found in faithful, obedient trust to God and serving His purposes.

Last, Mary shows us how to worship and praise God. We see this in the song she sang that is our Psalm for this day. Look at it again. Mary praises God for His love which regards the poor and lowly and forgives sinners. Mary praises God for remembering His promises to His people. She does not say a thing about herself, her goodness, but only praises God for His love for her, His love for those of low place in the world, for God’s faithfulness to His promises to His people.

Now, cynics will read Mary’s song, the Magnificat, and say, “Bah, humbug. Mary’s song is nonsense. I look at the world around me; I watch the tv news, and I don’t see God scattering the proud in their conceit. I do not see God lifting up the lowly and putting down the mighty from their thrones. I don’t see God filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich empty away. Where in the world is this happening? In fact, just the opposite is taking place. The rich, the strong, the high and mighty, they always come out on top.”

Well, the answer is: you are looking in the wrong place. You want to know where Mary’s song is taking place? Want to know where it is coming true?

Welcome to the Table of the Lord.

Yes, come to the Lord’s Table. It is the most democratic place on earth. The Lord’s Table is a table of absolute and total equality. It is a place where rich and poor, old and young, people of any race and nation, good people and bad people, saints and sinners, gather together in total equality. It is indeed a place where God fills all who hunger with good things: the body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.²

But: if you come to the Table of the Lord satisfied with yourself, secure in what you have made of your life, you will go away empty. If you come to the Lord’s Table proud and conceited about your own goodness, your self-made worth, you will go away empty. God will not be able to help you. For God opposes the proud, but lifts up the humble. Nowhere does this more clearly take place than at the Table of the Lord.

So again, you need to become like Mary: focusing not on yourself, but open and receptive to God’s grace, God’s call, God’s will for your life. Once again, the Blessed Virgin Mary shows us how to believe, how to have faith.

Last, Mary is an example of faith and hope in suffering, in bearing the cross. She was told at the Annunciation that she would suffer because of the ministry of her son. She did indeed bear this suffering at the foot of the cross. Michelangelo’s magnificent statue, Pieta, in St. Peter’s in Rome captures her grief as she holds the body of Jesus after the crucifixion. Yet she bore this suffering in the confident hope that God was accomplishing His purposes in Christ in spite of His suffering and death. Mary endured the death of her son in the hope that Jesus was indeed what the shepherds had told Mary what the angels proclaimed the night of His birth: Savior, Christ, and Lord.

Mary shows us how to bear suffering in hope. Not the optimism that says everything will work out for the best. Hope is not possibility thinking or positive thinking. The hope Mary shows us is hope in the future God prepares for His people, hope that God is accomplishing His purposes in spite of the evils we see taking place in our lives and the world today.

This is why Mary should be honored by all Christians. This is why, as Luther said, her example should be followed. Mary shows us how to believe, how to have faith. She is an example of God’s grace at work. She sets the example of obedient faith. She shows us how to hope in the midst of suffering. And, Mary shows us how to truly praise God. Amen.

Dan Biles is the Pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania.

Notes

1. The Martin Luther Christmas Book (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1948), 21-23.

2. See The Eucharist as a Call For Justice by Fr. Ron Rolheiser.