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Cathedral Eucharist Sermon preached by The Reverend Sarah Stevens, Deacon
Advent 4, Sunday 20th December, 2009
Readings: Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 10:5- 10; Luke 1:39-45


Self help books are a multi million dollar industry in our world today. Whatever you want to change in your life, there is a self help book for you. From how to be more confident, more happy or more successful; to how to have better relationships, be more popular or make more money. Whatever your need, if you scan the bookshop shelves for long enough you will find the right thing. The book will pick apart the problem, help you see what you have been doing wrong all these years and offer a set of step by step instructions to improve your life and solve your problem. If you make the changes the author instructs, these books tend to suggest, then you will be more confident, more happy or more successful. You make more money or achieve whatever else the book promised from the outset. But none of these things come free. Like the lottery, with personal development, you have to be in it to win it. You have to be willing to do whatever it is the author suggests in order to get the results.

So you can imagine my delight then I came across a book one day entitled “Do nothing to change you life!” Written by the Bishop of Reading Stephen Cottell, this book offers a set of step by step instructions and ideas on how to slow yourself down and open yourself to the beauty of God within, by doing less, not more. But choosing stillness, rather than even more frantic activity.

In today’s gospel passage we read of two women who receive great favour from God. But, as with for the reader of Bishop Cottell’s book, they do not earn this favour for for anything that they have done. But, for doing nothing. Their lives are changed and they are richly blessed, for doing nothing.

The first of these women is Mary – a young woman of extraordinary courage and grace. The Gospel of Luke introduces Mary a few verses before the passage we heard read today. In her mid-teens, betrothed to Joseph, Mary receives a visit from the angel Gabriel with a special message. Gabriel declares Mary’s favour in the God’s of eyes and tells her that she will conceive a child and name him Jesus. This child, Gabriel explains, will be a great and mighty ruler of Israel. Mary is perplexed by this plan. She is, after all, a virgin. Or is she?

We have all heard or been part of much discussion about the virgin birth this week as a result of the billboard which was put up by the Parish of St Matthew’s-In-The-City. The billboard has caused deep offence to many Christians, including, I am sure, many of us gathered hear this morning. We have been told in the media that the billboard was not intended to offend but rather to get the people of Auckland talking about the literal interpretation of the virgin birth and the idea that Mary was actually impregnated by a male God.

Perhaps you, like me, have had conversations with friends or family this week which you would not normally have had about the true meaning of Christmas. Perhaps you have discussed whether or not it really matters that the virgin birth took place.

This debate, like the billboard itself, I think, misses the point.

However we feel about the virgin birth and however we interpret this Gospel story we must, I believe, ask ourselves what, in essence, the story is all about. We have here in our Holy Scriptures the story of woman, visited by an angel and given a confusing message. Mary, like so many of us, doesn’t know how to make sense of it all.
“How can this be since I am a virgin?” she asks Gabriel.

Rather than leading to a conversations about the intricacies of the operation and how exactly this pregnancy is going to come about, this question gives Gabriel the opportunity to speak about the character of the child Mary is to carry – about the child’s special relationship to God.

Gabriel offers reassurance to Mary, urging her to trust.

“The child will be Holy. He will be called the Son of God.” Gabriel goes on to say, almost as if suggesting Mary go and seek some proof about all this: that despite her age, her cousin Elizabeth is also pregnant. When you see that, Gabriel suggests “you will believe that nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary’s response is not a detailed theological or biological debate. Her response is one of deep trust. “Here I am, a servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Very little is said in Luke’s gospel about why Mary merits such favour from God. Of course tradition has painted Mary as an obedient, subservient, meek and mild woman who earned the favour of God because of her purity and goodness. But while we are told that Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah were righteous and living blamelessly according to God commandments we are told nothing of the sort about Mary. She is described by Luke simply as a virgin, engaged to a man. According to the text she does nothing to receive the favour of God nor the blessings which ensue. The emphasis of the text instead lies on her faithful response to that blessing. “Let it be with me according to your word.”

And so in today’s gospel we meet Mary as she goes in haste to visit Elizabeth. We are not told the reason for the journey. Perhaps Mary wanted to be in the company of someone else whose pregnancy would set the neighbours tongues wagging. Perhaps she wanted the comfort and advice of a trusted older relative. Or perhaps she wanted to confirm that all that the angel Gabriel had told her was true.

This confirmation is certainly offered for the reader in the text. Elizabeth is indeed pregnant. The angel can therefore be believed on that score. Like Sarah, Rachel and Hannah before her, beyond all human understanding in old age Elizabeth has become pregnant.

And though it seems very unlikely that Mary’s pregnancy would be showing yet, Elizabeth knows by virtue of the Holy Spirit “that Mary is blessed as it the fruit of her womb”.

When Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice the child within her womb leaps. I just love this image. It reminds me of the delight a small child express when she sees a friend from kindy or a grandparent she knows well but have not seen for some time. Hands held high, smile from ear to ear. With her whole body she says: “I know you and I know that you love me.” Through the child she is carrying and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Elizabeth recognises the presence of God in the Christ Child. She says “I know you. And I know that you love me.” Unable to hide her delight. She proclaims a blessing on Mary and upon the child.

The child in Elizabeth’s womb is, of course, John the Baptist, who was sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the way for the Messiah. In their meeting, Elizabeth draws attention to the maternity of Mary and again confirms that the angels message is trustworthy. The implication is of course that the angel’s story about each pregnancy holds up, beyond Mary or Elizabeth’s human understanding. It is therefore likely that the angel’s explanation about the child’s special relationship with God is likely also to be true.

While she is able to discern much of what is going on accurately, Elizabeth doesn’t totally understand the situation. She asks aloud – why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

The scripture does not answer this question. And we are left to draw our own conclusion. What did she do to deserve Mary’s visit – nothing! What did she do that she should be filled with the Holy Spirit? Nothing! But she is blessed by God. Again the focus of the scripture is not on why the blessing is deserved but on the faithful response these events inspire in each of the two women.

Elizabeth goes on to proclaim, the glory of God and the blessings God has shown to Mary.

This episode is followed by the powerful proclamation of Mary’s trust in God which we have come to know as the Magnificat. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour…” This prayer, which Garth George recently described in the Herald as “wondrous, charged with worship, faith, courage and obedience,” is I think, one of the most beautiful pieces of poetry in our scriptures. The Magnificat has been repeated by Christians for generations, proclaiming God’s love and power and giving thanks for God’s care of and provision to, not the strong and mighty, those society might think worthy for something they have done, but the poor and meek and lowly. Those who according to societies standards have done nothing.

Like Mary and Elizabeth we don’t always understand what God is doing in our lives. We may find ourselves asking how can this be? Or why has this happened to me? Perhaps we like Mary have found it hard to see the blessings in a challenging situation. As we contemplate the incarnation this Christmas we may find ourselves asking, what is it that makes humanity so special that God should send God’s son, to dwell on earth with us?

And like Mary and Elizabeth we may find no direct answer. I would suggest that we as individuals and as the human race, have done nothing. That God’s blessings, love and mercy are poured out on us as a gracious gift. An unconditional gift, which we could never do enough to truly deserve.

In response to this gift however we may find ourselves inspired, as Mary and Elizabeth were, to respond in faith and love to the God who first loved us.

The advent season is about anticipation, expectation of what is to come. And this week I invite you as you prepare for Christmas, to do nothing. In the busy-ness of the week to come you might like to take 5 or 10 minutes once in the week or once each day – simply as you feel inspired – to sit in awe and gratitude of a God who blesses each and every one of us – who does so much more than we can ask or imagine.

And you might just find that having done nothing, having sat still, you see afresh the presence of God’s love in a situation or circumstance that previously seemed to be an insurmountable problem. You may feel anew the power and reality of God’s love for you. And you may be inspired as Mary and Elizabeth were to proclaim the love of God made manifest to us in the Christ child to someone in your life who is yet to fully understand to true power of the gift which God offers us this Christmas.