The following sermon is a fourth in a series of six entitled The Characters of Christmas by the Reverend John W. Howe of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this sermon is Mary, and the scripture reference is Luke, chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. During Advent this year, we've been considering the various characters who appear in the Christmas story. We've thought about Zachariah and Elizabeth. We've thought about their son, John, who prepared the way for the coming of Jesus.

Last week we looked at Joseph. And I wonder if very many of you would disagree with me if I suggested that out of all the various characters in the Christmas story, there's none more intriguing, perhaps none so inspiring, In fact, none so downright awesome as Mary, who became the mother of our Lord. There are those who, I would say, have made overly much of Mary, exalted her to a position that would have horrified her.

There are others who have almost completely neglected the unique place that she's played in the story of God's saving history. I use the word awesome very carefully. And I'm aware that that's not a word that we would usually associate with a teenager, any teenager.

Much less a little slip of a girl, which is what she was when we first encounter her in this story. And yet as I think about it, I think that's exactly the right word. It fits precisely.

If I can sympathize with Joseph's difficulty in believing what was happening, I'm absolutely staggered when I shift my attention to Mary and consider what was happening to her. She's awesome in her example to me and to all Christians in all times everywhere. Martin Luther said, there are actually three miracles here, that God should become a man, that a virgin should conceive, and that Mary would accept it.

And he added, of the three, the third is by far the greatest. He said, I wouldn't have accepted it, would you? We saw last week that for a Jewish girl in ancient Palestine to bear a child out of wedlock was both a scandal and a crime.

At the very least, at the very least, Mary faced formal divorce proceedings, the stigma of immorality following her, that's her reputation for the rest of her life, and the hardship of raising a child without a husband. Except for God intervening and changing Joseph's opinion, which she didn't know at the time, that's what she accepted when she said yes to the angel's visitation. And yet, I hear no objection, no equivocation.

I hear no excuses, no refusal. She doesn't even say, could you just wait a little bit until after I'm married. You know, I mean, that would at least give it the appearance of legitimacy.

She doesn't say that. She says, be it unto me according to thy word. Right here, right now, I'll accept what God wants to do.

And if that means being laughed at, if that means being ridiculed, if that means being rejected by friends, by family, by society at large, if it means being cut off from the temple, from all of organized religion, if it means being branded a scarlet woman, if it means having no husband with whom to share her life and no father to raise her child, if it means having no one with her, no human companion, that's okay. Mary will accept that. if she's to have no other strength in need no other counselor in perplexity no other comfort in sorrow no other companion in joy in the words from our marriage service God will be that to Mary she's willing to have her life interrupted completely disoriented completely redirected me according to your word and Mary will be content. I wonder how many of us would be.

I mean, stop and think about it. Let's get really specific. How many of the young ladies in our parish would react this way were they to find themselves suddenly pregnant outside of marriage?

What would be their reaction? Or that of their boyfriends? Or that of their parents?

I mean, let's face it. We know what the answer to that is. We're not about to have our lives interrupted in that kind of a way.

And it's very easy to deal with that situation today, isn't it? We can just do away with the problem. Forget it.

Perhaps you think this is a completely ludicrous application of the story we're looking at. Do you realize that in the United States of America, we are now doing away with a human life every 30 seconds of every hour of every day? And you say, that's absurd to compare that to the story of Mary, as if the child in question was supernaturally conceived and destined to grow up to be the Son of God.

Are you sure? Was there ever a conception anywhere that was not a miracle? Are you sure that the child whose life we're snuffing out was not destined to become a son or a daughter of God?

We just read, just a moment ago, from John's Gospel, to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God. Jeremiah is told by God, before you were conceived in the womb, I called you. How many children were destined by God to become His children?

called of God before they were conceived in the womb and we've snuffed them out. How many potential Christians have we done away with since last week at this time? It's so easy to deal with the scandal, with the stigma, with the inconvenience, with the redirection of our lives today.

We don't even think about it. I don't see such a response in Mary she's willing to accept all of that as from the hand of God and if scandal if ridicule if laughter if ostracism that's okay I'm astonished I'm astonished but frankly that's not the thing that most intrigues me about Mary as overwhelming as that is. I think I'm even more impressed that Mary's response was not to go and check with Joseph first.

You know, I mean, she didn't say, now just wait a minute, Gabe. I'm going to go check with Joseph. You know, I mean, it's going to affect him too and I'm going to check out his opinion.

She doesn't do that. I don't know what Joseph's opinion is going to be. I suspect it's not the best, but be it unto me according to your word.

There have been an enormous number of books written in the last 10 or 15 years addressed to the role of the Christian woman. And in particular, the Christian wife. Mind you, that from the Jewish point of view, though the marriage has not yet been consummated, Mary is considered Joseph's wife at this point.

And the thrust of the great majority of these books, as I've read them, is that the Christian wife is to do nothing apart from checking it out with her husband. She's under submission to him. And whatsoever he says is law for her.

And she better obey it. Even if he's not a Christian, even if he says something precisely opposite to the Word of God. Have you read some of those books?

Do you know what I'm talking about? I encourage you to buy Christian books. Just be careful what you buy.

We've taken the great biblical word of submission and we've turned it into a brief for some kind of unthinking, robot-like obedience. We had a woman in this parish this week stopped coming to Bible study because it offended her husband. Well, of course it offended him.

He's not a Christian. You start reading this book, you're going to find out Jesus is Lord. And you see, He wants to be Lord.

And He's got a problem. And so He forbade her to go anymore. And because she understood herself to be in submission to her husband, she obeyed Him.

I want to say to you, that is not what the biblical word submission means. Biblical submission is this, that I understand I am under authority and the one in authority has the right to pass judgment upon me. It does not mean that I necessarily agree with that judgment.

And it does not mean that I will necessarily obey it. Saint Peter wrote more than any other author in Old or New Testament on the subject of submission. And yet when he was forbidden to preach the Gospel by the Jewish and the Roman authorities, his answer was, we ought rather to obey God than men.

Check it out for yourself. He said, whether it be right in the sight of God for us to preach this Gospel, you judge. But we cannot but speak of the things we've seen and heard.

Do you see what he's saying? You have the right to judge us. We accept that.

If you think we're wrong, then do what you must. If you've got to punish us, punish us. You are the authority and we submit to it in that sense.

You have the right to judge us. But we will obey God rather than man. And if there are consequences to be suffered, we'll suffer them.

Pharaoh instructed all the midwives to kill the male sons in Egypt. the male sons of the Israeli slaves were to be killed lest they grow up and become an army and the midwives refused to obey the order and lied about it afterward and scripture says God commended them for their disobedience Daniel is forbidden to pray to God and what does he do? he goes right upstairs kneels down in front of the window and throws back the shutters so everybody can see him and three times a day prays to God gets himself thrown into the lion's den.

Worst thing that ever happened to those lions. How'd you like to be locked up with Daniel, huh? You get the picture.

To be under authority means I recognize that the one in authority has the right to judge me. It does not mean that in some uncritical way I do whatever he or she tells me to. And I'm absolutely amazed at Mary to see that.

the angel comes and says God has chosen you to bear His Son and she doesn't go and check it out with mom and dad she doesn't go and ask Joseph how he feels about it she doesn't check with Herod or the high priest or the Sanhedrin or anybody else she says okay be it unto me according to your word and she recognizes that she is under authority and Joseph might not like this one little bit and he might put her away and that's okay if he does. Because Mary is going to obey God and let the chips fall where they may. Do you see the point?

God would speak to you Christian wives. You are to be in submission to your husbands. It also says, husbands submit yourselves to your wives.

They never read that half. We're to submit ourselves to each other out of reverence for Christ, yes. We're to submit to the authorities God has placed over us, yes.

We're to be good citizens, yes. We're to respect those in authority in the church, yes. We're to serve those in authority in love up to the point that doing so contradicts the will of God.

And then we say, do what you must. But we'll obey God rather than men. And that's what I see in Mary.

Just a little slip of a youngster. And somehow she's willing to accept all of that, not having any guarantee on how God's going to work it out. God said it.

Mary accepted it. Mary's story is interwoven with Jesus' own story from beginning right to the end. There's nobody in the Scripture who is more intimately connected to Him, more consistently connected to Him, and more openly identified in allegiance to Him than is Mary.

Obviously, she's there at the beginning. She's also there at the end. It's interesting.

Mary is the one who precipitates Jesus' first miracle. You remember the story? He's not quite ready to start His ministry for whatever reason.

And they go to a party, a wedding feast, and they run out of wine. And Mary says, that's okay. My son can take care of it.

He says, not now, Mom. She says, come on. They need you.

There's a catch. There always is. She says to the servants, do whatever He tells you.

Catch that. Do whatever He tells you. The servants are probably standing there scratching their head.

What possible good is it going to be to fill up a stone jar with water. We need wine. What good is water?

Do whatever He tells you, says Mary. Jesus Christ can take the most common every day of substances, ordinary bath water. That's what it was.

It wasn't even drinking water. It was water for the rites of purification. And change it into the wine of celebration.

When we do whatever He tells us to. You begin to see that's what Mary somehow has learned. That's Mary's witness to us.

That she's willing to do whatever God tells her to. And God takes her life and transforms it into the wine of celebration. Did you know that after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had other children?

Both Matthew and Mark specifically mention four brothers by name, Joses, Jude, Simon, and James, and mention daughters or sisters. We don't know how many, but at least two. Four brothers and at least two sisters.

And John tells us in chapter 7 verse 5, they didn't believe in Jesus. Let that settle upon your mind for just a moment. Here they are, six other children in the same household growing up together under the same roof, same parents, and they don't believe Jesus.

And what does that tell you about their attitude toward their mother? And her fantastic story of how it was He came to be born in the first place. Their opinion of her.

Fanatic. Crazy. Ridiculous story.

Maybe somehow she got Joseph to believe this. Not me. You think you've got problems with your family.

Your family thinks you're a little weird. Mary accepts all of that. All of that.

Her own children laughing behind her back for what she says about her relationship to Jesus. Mary knew from the very beginning what it was her son was coming to do. She had no illusions.

No idea that he was going to overthrow the Roman government, set up a kingdom here on earth at this particular point in history. A lot of other people thought that. Not Mary.

If there were any illusions, they were dispelled when she brought the baby to be dedicated in the temple. And Simeon prophesies about His coming ministry and suffering. And then he adds a little footnote to it.

He says to Mary, and a sword will pierce your own soul as well. Do you see the point? Mary, if you're going to be openly identified with this Jesus that you've brought into the world, the closer you get to Him, the more you're going to share in His travail.

You want to express your allegiance to Him, it's going to cut you to the quick. And it does. And so everybody else scatters as we near the end of the story.

Everybody else denies they even know Him. And there's Mary standing at the foot of the cross. Only one apostle.

John is standing with her. All the rest have gone. openly identified in her allegiance to her own son.

That's a pretty dangerous place to be. At the foot of the cross of somebody who's being executed for blasphemy and sedition. And there she is.

See, Mary's whole life is one of bending her will to exalt Jesus. She's willing to have her life interrupted, rearranged. She's willing to accept the pain, the ridicule, the abuse.

She's willing to step aside that He might have the glory. And from birth to death, her desire is to bring praise to His name. And I'm absolutely staggered when I really face up to Mary.

If Joseph was a model for Christian husbands, I'd suggest to you that Mary is a model not just for Christian wives, but for all Christians. I see in Mary the first Christian and maybe the best Christian. Could I suggest to you, I don't know if you ever thought of it this way, but to be a Christian is to be approached by the Spirit of God, to be rude by His love, to finally be one to Him, and then literally to be impregnated with new life from the Holy Spirit.

That's what we say, isn't it? Christ lives inside me. Paul says to the Colossians, the hope of glory is Christ in you.

To the Philippians, to me, to live is Christ. To the Galatians, he says, it's no longer I that live, but Christ who lives inside me. The life that I live here in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

It's a curious thing. Sometimes people object to biblical language because it calls all of us the sons of God. Men and women alike, you are sons of God.

That's true. Men and women alike, you are also the bride of Christ. Men and women alike, if you are a Christian, you are impregnated by the Spirit of God and the best model is Mary.

we sang just a few moments ago I hope it was your prayer I trust it was O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray cast out our sin and enter in be born in us today let's bow our heads together Father I see in this young girl Mary a willingness to do exactly as you said even though it had absolutely nothing to do with her own plans her own goals her hopes and aspirations the agenda that she had set for her own life. And even more than that, a willingness to have you use her very body for your purposes. Lord, in the words of the communion service, we would here present unto you ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a holy, living sacrifice unto You.

Father, with St. Paul, we would say that our desire is to exalt the Lord Jesus in our bodies, be it by life or death. And so we thank You for the remarkable, the astonishing example of Mary who did precisely that. Lord Jesus, be born in us today.

Amen. Amen.