Transcript
From this day all generations will call me blessed. Please be seated.
Before I begin, I want to say that my sermon is going to be about Mary and about being pregnant. And I know that that can be a hard topic for some of us. So if you would like, you officially have full permission to get up and walk out at any point during this sermon. And there will be no judgment for that decision. Only prayers and love.
Today is daet Sunday. That is Latin for rejoice. As in Philippians 4:4, rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. is about the joy of anticipating the approach of Christmas.
It reflects a lighter tone than the traditional Advent season. It’s like a demi Advent Sunday. A little more rejoicing, a little less repentance. Logistically, it means we lit the pink candle. And if we had pink vestments, no, I do not think we need pink vestments, but if we had them, the eagle and I would be in pink right now.
Lurggically, it also means that we focus on Mary. After all, every year on the third Sunday of Advent, we get the Magnificat. Today, it was offered musically so beautifully chanted by Natalie. Thank you.
It is Mary’s response spoken to Elizabeth after Gabriel came to Mary and told her about what would happen when he said,”Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” After Mary went to visit Elizabeth, who was also pregnant. And as scripture claims, when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
Then the Magnificat, Mary’s song, a song that sings of God’s mercy and scattering the proud and lifting the lowly according to him scholars because there are him scholars. The Magnificat is one of the eight oldest Christian hymns. And so from the very beginning there has been interest and intrigue for Mary.
A young woman, a virgin at least by the sixth century defined by the Catholic Church. Engaged, yes, but not married. Poor most definitely. and one might argue the most powerful human in the history of humans because it was Mary, a young woman, a girl who carried our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Messiah, in her womb, who fed God made man with her body.
I’ve never been pregnant and I can guarantee at least half of you have never been pregnant too, gentlemen, but I’m going to try to explain it a bit. And there will be beautiful parts and there will be not so beautiful parts. To begin with, a woman may realize she’s pregnant because she is so tired. I was reading blogs and one commentator said it felt like being hung over for three months but without the fun the night before. Someone else said during the first half it feels like the butterflies you get when you ride a roller coaster or play on a swing. Another mom said it feels like you just ate three Thanksgiving dinners and one of the turkeys decided to come back to life and have a party in your belly. Someone else added, “But you ate the meal at your favorite grandma’s house and you ate all the desserts too, reflecting the joy and very quickly you feel the need to protect.”
Someone said they put their hand on their belly sometimes to let people know they weren’t just fat. Also to protect the very precious cargo inside. All of you who are parents understand this. The unconditional and irrational need and desire to protect. And that doesn’t matter if the baby is still being formed in the womb or if the baby is now a 50year-old man with his own family to protect.
One friend who was very close to her due date told me she couldn’t wait to quote get back to normal. another friend with a giggle piped up, oh that won’t ever happen, being pregnant, becoming a parent. It changes the very makeup of who you are. And now imagine all of that with the added layer of significance that the baby, the little one growing inside of Mary, that is the son of God. There are a lot of different approaches to Mary and theology and liturgy and personal approaches and devotions. The Roman Catholic Church places a lot of emphasis on Mary.
After all, it was the Catholic Church that determined Mary was not only a virgin at conception, but would remain a virgin forever. Interestingly though, scripture says Jesus had a brother and as the bearer of God made man, Mary had to be without sin as well. And thus the Catholic conception, excuse me, the Catholic concept of immaculate conception is not about Jesus. It is about Mary.
The idea that from the very first moment of her existence, Mary was preserved by God from original sin, thanks to the fortune and merit of a son she will eventually give birth to. Talk about reverse legacy. Then we can talk about the theological battles that occurred around Mary’s pregnancy and what or say who she was pregnant with. The Eastern churches, also known as the Orthodox churches, refer to Mary as theotocos. That’s Greek for godbearer, as in Mary conceived was pregnant with and carried to turn God.
In comparison, there was a movement that perhaps demoted Mary by claiming she was only Christo as in Christbearer. the significance. Well, Christokos takes the divine out of Mary’s womb. Instead, it claims she was only carrying the human part of Jes Jesus, which creates a whole lot more issues, particularly around the nature of Jesus. And if it’s possible for Jesus the man and Jesus the God to be separated, but that’s a whole another sermon, and we’re not going there today because today we focus on Mary, a woman.
In fact, one of the very few women actually named in the New Testament, a mom. And while we might think she so freely said yes to Gabriel and to God, for some reason, I have a sneaky suspicion there might have been a bit more push back, a bit more questioning, a bit more tears and fears and maybe even anger. After all, if Jesus is both 100% God and 100% human, he had to have created those hormone swings that so many pregnant women just love to experience. And he definitely had to have kicked Mary’s bladder several hundred times.
And for any of us who maybe have been pregnant but thought that maybe they weren’t quite ready or maybe they weren’t sure they wanted to be or maybe this was not quite the right choice. You don’t have to imagine, but the rest of us can probably begin to imagine the sacrifices that a woman makes to be pregnant, to be a mom, to carry a human being in her womb, to create a human out of her own body. And we’re not even talking about baby Jesus after he was born and hungry. They did not have formula back then.
Mary’s pregnancy, Mary’s very existence and her legacy in the church exists because God chose Mary. God chose to arrive not in power and might and certainty but through a woman’s body. The incarnation is not some abstract miracle. It is profoundly embodied. God made man in Mary.
When we call her theatelos Godbearer, we’re not making Mary some special saint above all other people. Instead, we are affirming that God trusted humanity enough to dwell within it with all the vulnerability that comes with such a choice. God did not arrive shielded from pain or confusion or even gossip or fear. God arrived carried in a womb, growing slowly, dependent on a young woman who said yes without knowing how it would all turn out.
And Mary’s Magnificat, it’s not some gentle lullabi. Instead, it is a song of strength, defiance, and hope sung by a young woman whose body was already changing. It’s not just about her future. It’s about the future of all humanity.
If today, as Godette Sunday is about joy and rejoicing in God’s imminent arrival, Mary is a reminder that Jesus chose to come to us not in power and might, but through the fragility of a young woman’s womb. into a time when lives were not serene or settled to people who recognize their own imperfections. Rejoice, the church says, not because everything is serene, but because God has already chosen to enter this mess. God Sunday, that joy doesn’t deny darkness. Instead, it sings in it. It looks at a world still aching and says, “God is already on the way. God is already here growing quietly where we least expect it.”
Just look at Mary and the holy ground that she offered and where God chose to dwell. Rejoice for all generations will call Mary blessed.