Sermons

Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Sunday 15 August 2010 at 8am and 10am

David Paton-Williams

Readings: Galations 4 v4-7; Luke 1 v46-55

I must admit that for a long time I had a problem with Mary - or rather what parts of the church has done with Mary.

There have been so many traditions and legends about Mary during the church's history that at times she has been removed from ordinary human life.

Take the belief that at her birth she was miraculously preserved from original sin - in what is called the "immaculate conception".

The reason given for this is that she had to be preserved from original sin or she would have passed this on to Jesus and so he couldn't have lived the perfect life.

Then there was the claim that in her delivery of Jesus she suffered no pain at all, that her hymen remained (miraculously) unbroken, and that she remained a perpetual virgin (despite the fact that the gospel record that Jesus had a whole string of brothers and sisters.)

And then - because she was sinless and death is the consequence of sin - she cannot really have died but merely "fell asleep" and she was assumed directly into heaven.

And so over the centuries Mary became an almost divine figure sometimes rivalling her son for the devotion of the faithful but in ways that also seemed to reinforce the subservient place of women in the church and society. However when we look not at later traditions and legends but at the picture of Mary that emerges from the gospels we see someone who led a remarkable life amidst great difficulty.

We see someone who is very relevant to the lives of ordinary people just as much as the great saints of history. or even more than them.

Her "yes" to God in Luke's gospel - becoming the mother of Jesus - meant having to face possible rejection and the public scandal of illegitimacy .

While according to Matthew it led on to her and Joseph becoming refugees in Egypt - fleeing there with their young son to avoid him being killed by Herod.

It's thought that she had to face bereavement as Joseph seems to drop out of the story during Jesus' teens or twenties.

And that left her as a single parent with 7 or more children to care for because the gospels mention, as well as Jesus, his younger brothers James, Joses, Judas and Simon and two or more sisters.

So the gospels suggest that Mary, far from being preserved from the harsh realities of life may have faced some of the issues that face many women today. So it is fitting that the Magnificat - the song of Mary - proclaims and celebrates that God casts down the powerful and lifts up the lowly feeds the hungry and sends the rich away empty.

This song of freedom has become an inspiration to many liberation movements around the world - challenging not just the oppression of women but all forms of injustice.

As the years went by Mary had to deal with what all parents have to cope with as their child grows up and begins to make their way in the world. And the gospels hint that Mary's developing relationship with Jesus was fraught with the tensions.

So Luke tells of the visit to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 and how he stays behind in the temple and when his parents find him three days later sick with worry and anger Mary says "Son why have you treated us like this?" and Jesus replies - "Why were you searching for me - didn't you know that I would here in my Father's house."

So at 12 we see Mary having to deal with a son who has a very particular sense of purpose and calling in life, in his relationship to God.

John tells of a wedding at can when the wine runs out and Mary asks Jesus to do something about it and Jesus reply seems quite a strong one: "Woman, what have you to do with me?"

In other words - leave me alone - don't interfere.

We see Jesus breaking free of his mother's authority and of his dependence upon her - he is now an adult and she has to let him go.

Mark tells in the third chapter of his gospel how Jesus has set up home at Capernaum and local people were beginning to say "He has gone out of his mind"

And so his mother and brothers travel the 20 miles to Capernaum to bring him back home to Nazareth.

They don't seem to understand what he is doing anymore than the crowds do, but their trip is in vain because when Jesus - who is in a house full of people hears that his family is outside he asks "Who are my mother and my brothers?" "Whoever does the will of God is my mother and brothers and sisters."

We see Jesus defining a new community around himself a community whose bonds are spiritual ones not the accidents of birth.

And we see Mary and the family still learning to cope with the fact that Jesus is not there to do what they expect or demand of him - but doing what God wants him to do.

It is fascinating that Mark, Luke and John each give us a story that hints that the relationship between Jesus and his mother was strained
strained by his remarkable sense of vocation that went beyond all the natural ties of family life
and strained by Mary's very understandable difficulty in coming to terms with this.
And yet Mary stays with her son to the very end and beyond - standing at the foot of cross and bearing the pain felt by so many parents who have to see their children suffer and die.

And in the book Acts Mary is there after the ascension when the disciples are gathered together in Jerusalem waiting for the gift of the Spirit.

This simple peasant girl had been on quite a journey
- a journey of faith and doubt
- of nurturing her son and letting him go
- of pain and joy.

She was able - together with Joseph to nurture Jesus in such a way that her was able to hear and respond to God's unique call to him.

And she was able to shape his personality and character without damaging or distorting it
These are the achievements that all parents long for.

Thinking about Mary in this way we can see that she must have been quite a remarkable person.

We don't need the legends and traditions of the later church to give Mary her proper place in the communion of saints.

She was special not because she was miraculously different from the rest of us.

She was special because she was a simple peasant girl whose faith led her on the most extraordinary and difficult journey, but one which has so much to say as we struggle with faith, family life, and justice in the world.

She certainly deserves her place as the greatest of all the Christian saints.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay