A sermon preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, Florida
4 Advent – Year B – December 17/18, 2011
2 Samuel 7:1 – 11,16;
Luke 1:26 – 38
Preacher: The
Reverend Canon William H. Stokes, Rector
The Cloak of Mary
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:28
Three
years ago, just days before Thanksgiving, the 13 year-old daughter of one of
Susan’s cousins died unexpectedly and tragically. In my 20 years of pastoral ministry, I have
come to understand that there is no greater grief than the grief of a parent
who experiences the death of a child; no matter what age that death occurs….It
is doubly grievous when the child is young.
It
is unclear whether Susan’s cousin’s child took her own life or whether a
dangerous behavior went wrong and ended disastrously. Sadly, in either
circumstance, this is not an uncommon occurrence in our society.
It
needs to be said to our young people, and especially those in their teen-years,
life is precious; you are precious. You must
be careful. Don’t do reckless
things. It may seem to you, you are
immortal, indestructible; as though nothing can hurt or harm you; but it can. There is no reset button in life.
As
adults we need to be reminded: Too
often, our young people are hurting and especially teenagers; we must pay
careful attention to them, be in caring conversations with them; we must look
carefully at what they are doing, how they interact with their friends and
classmates, what they are doing on-line.
Too often in today’s world they are isolated and alone, disconnected,
even when they are connected on-line. Parents, grandparents, other caring
adults, if you think something is wrong in the life of a young adult you know,
go with your instincts, follow-up on it.
Don’t ignore it. We must meddle in their lives.
I’m
not suggesting that there was any fault or negligence in the instance of
Susan’s cousin’s child….They were a dedicated, loving family and very
conscientious parents. It’s just that in
this past year, I’ve had to minister to the families and friends of two young
men who died from self-inflicted injuries.
I am deeply concerned about the state of our young people. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause
of death in the United
States for people age 15 – 24.
The
daughter of Susan’s cousin was a beautiful child and her parents adored
her. She was their miracle child. She was conceived after her parents had been
told they would be unable to have children.
Susan and I went up to New
York for the wake and the funeral to be with them, to
love them and suffer with them, to join in their grief. “Rejoice with those who
rejoice; weep with those who weep,” St.
Paul enjoins us.
We went to weep. The mother of
the 13 year old girl, Susan’s cousin, had been a bridesmaid at our wedding.
It
was, as you can imagine, a heartrending experience…We celebrated the life of
this child, this dancer, who loved pets and her friends, and above all, her
family.
We celebrated her life and we grieved her tragic death. This is a very devout and faithful Roman
Catholic family. The child had attended
Catholic school. The funeral mass was
held at the church connected to the school.
All her classmates attended.
During the mass, an essay she had written just weeks before was
read. It was about Christmas and family
and how vitally important being with family at Christmas was to her and how
much she loved them.
At
the luncheon following the service, another of Susan’s cousins sat with us; the
child’s aunt; the mother’s older sister.
We have been close over the years.
She shared with us some of the excruciating experiences of the previous
days. The child had been discovered in
critical condition and had been taken to the hospital and placed on
life-support in an ICU. It soon became
clear that she would not recover. After
a couple of days and countless prayers, when all hope for a miracle had been
exhausted, the decision had to be made to remove her from life support. It was an anguishing decision only her
parents could make. They were not alone,
however.
This
older sister telling us the story and her other sister were present in the ICU,
standing on by the side of their younger sister, the child’s mother, ….They
were holding onto her, holding her up as she looked at her daughter lying in
the bed with tubes all over the place and a machine breathing for her. “How am I going to do this? the grief
stricken mother sobbed aloud….Her sister hugged her tightly and said to her, “You’re
going to wrap yourself in the cloak of Mary.”
“You’re going to wrap yourself in the
cloak of Mary...”
It
was a sensitive, faithful, perfect evocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And,
being a very faithful person herself, her younger sister knew precisely what
she meant and did precisely that: She
wrapped herself in the cloak of Mary; and she and her husband made the awful,
painful, heart-breaking decisions they had to make and released their daughter
to the arms and loving mercy of God.
Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with
thee;
Blessed are thou among
women; and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, mother of
God; pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,
It
is Advent…It is Mary’s season; a season
marked by joyful anticipation of the coming of Christ; but joy that is
bittersweet….We know the destiny of this woman.
We know the destiny of her child.
“Mary,” from the Hebrew, Marai
or Miriam -- the name means
“bittersweet,” “grieved,” or “sorrowful.” It is a fitting name for this woman,
the mother of our Lord…
For
many, and especially for those who are not Roman Catholic, Mary is an enigmatic
figure…To be sure, most recognize her as the mother of Jesus and, at least,
give her credit for that. Many are moved
by portrayals of her in masterpieces down through the ages – Raphael, Correggio;
Michelangelo – but what place does she have in our faith? How does she figure in our piety?
For
most of its history, Protestantism has relegated Mary to a back seat and left
her there. Although the early reformers,
Martin Luther and John Calvin for example,
held very positive views Mary, revered her; later Protestantism felt too
much unbiblical superstition, even cultism, had attached to Mary. Consequently, Mary was pushed into the
background; brought out twice a year, of necessity; to give birth to our Lord;
and to grieve over him at his death.
Other than that, generally speaking, in the Protestant world it was
better not to speak of her (though the experience in Anglicanism has been
somewhat different since the 19th century and the high- church Oxford
Movement).
What
are we to make of Mary today? What is
our position as a church with respect to Mary?
How should she fit into our beliefs and personal religious practices and
piety?
In
2004, the second Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, known as
ARCIC II, the body charged with the
responsibility of leading our two churches in the dialogue toward unity, issued
a document often referred to as The Seattle Statement. The actual title is “Mary – Grace and Hope in Christ.”[1] This is an agreed statement about what the
two churches hold in common about Mary.
It also makes clear where there are still differences and disagreements.
It’s a fascinating, well-thought out and
very helpful 62 page document. I commend
it to you. You can access it on-line.
In
the Preface to the document, the Co-Chairmen of ARCIC II, Anglican Archbishop
Peter Carnely of Perth, Primate of Australia and Roman Catholic Archbishop
Alexander J. Brunett of Seattle write: “Our Agreed Statement concerning the Blessed
Virgin Mary as pattern of grace and hope is a powerful reflection of our
efforts to seek out what we hold in common and celebrates important aspects of
our common heritage. Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, stands before
us as an exemplar of faithful obedience, and her "Be it to me according to
your word" is the grace-filled response each of us is called to make to
God, both personally and communally, as the Church, the body of Christ.[2]
In
this opening statement, the two archbishops make a clear allusion to the story
of the Annunciation to Mary, our Gospel reading for today.[3] It is a powerful story which clearly brings
Mary to center stage….She is an essential actor in this drama with God….She is
integral to the Incarnation – to God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ. We cannot tell the story of the Incarnation,
nor even assert the doctrine, without her.
This opening chapter of Luke’s Gospel brings her forth, puts her in
center-stage, and we see at the outset that she is a remarkable; indeed a blessed,
woman…
"Greetings, favored one! The Lord is
with you." (Lk 1:28). The
word that is rendered “Greetings” in our text is actually the Greek word
“Rejoice!” Joy is not her first
reaction. The text tells us, she was
much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
The
angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with
God.” (Lk. 1:30) This is hardly
reassuring....It must be noted that in the Bible, those who find favor with God
often find themselves in overwhelming and threatening circumstances.[4] Mary’s story will turn out no differently….
“And now, you will conceive in your womb and
bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the
Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."(Lk. 1:31–33)
In
that moment, Mary could not possibly have imagined the kind of king her son
would be... This son of hers would be raised to greatness, but it was greatness
by way of the cross.... She would
earn her name, “Bitterness,”
“Sorrow,” “Grieved.”
There
is great risk and great cost at being favored of God.....There is great risk
and great cost to Mary in giving birth to Christ. To give birth to Jesus is to
risk love, sacrificial love - self-giving love for the sake of others, for the
sake of the world....Loving always entails risk....Divine loving entails even
greater risk still....
Whether
or not she was aware of the price she would have to pay when she said yes to
God, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your
word.” (Lk. 1:38) Mary took that risk and paid the price.....Mary
deserves, demands, our reverence, respect and more….
The
Seattle Statement produced by the Anglican – Roman Catholic International
Commission states, “Among all the saints, Mary takes her place as Theotókos
[God-bearer]:
alive in Christ, she abides [please note the present tense], with the one she
bore still 'highly favoured' in the communion of grace and hope, the exemplar of redeemed humanity, an icon of the Church. Consequently she
is believed to exercise a distinctive ministry of assisting others through her
active prayer”[5] ] Again,
please note the present tense].
The
statement continues, “Many [Christians]…experience
a sense of empathy and solidarity with Mary, especially at key points when the
account of her life echoes theirs, for example the acceptance of vocation, the
scandal of her pregnancy, the improvised surroundings of her labour, giving
birth, and fleeing as a refugee. Portrayals of Mary standing at the foot of the
cross, and the traditional portrayal of her receiving the crucified body of
Jesus (the Pietà), evoke the particular suffering of a
mother at the death of her child. Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike are drawn
to the mother of Christ, as a figure of tenderness and compassion.[6]
“You’re going to wrap yourself
in the cloak of Mary,” Susan’s cousin said to her young sister, grieving
mother…It was beautiful and prayerful and perfect; in full keeping with the
empathy and solidarity referred to in The Seattle Statement.
So much in our culture’s observance of
Christmas is superficial and artificial…Too often, the power and poignancy of
the Christmas story, the reality and truths of the Incarnation, become diluted,
cheapened and robbed of their power to speak to the very depths of our souls;
to reach into us and touch our hearts; to shed light into those deepest places
of darkness and despair that yearn for the saving Word of God…
On
this 4th Sunday of Advent, we reflect on the powerful images of
Annunciation….We are invited to wrap ourselves in the cloak of Mary; no matter what
our circumstance this day -- joy or sorrow; to allow the seed of God’s Word,
Jesus Christ, to be conceived in our hearts and in the wombs of our souls anew
and to join our voices with Mary, the ever-blessed one, in saying “Yes….Here am
I the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word” and with
Mary, to sing out this Christmas, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit
rejoices in God my Savior!”
[1] Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ also known as “The Seattle Statement” was
prepared by the Second Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC
II) and released on The Feast of the Presentation – February 2, 2004. The full version of the definitive text can
be found on-line at http://www.aco.org/ministry/ecumenical/dialogues/catholic/arcic/docs/pdf/mary_definitive_text.pdf
[2] Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ – The Seattle Statement p. 2
[3] Luke 1:26 ff.
[4] The examples of Moses, John the Baptist and
the Apostle Paul are a few examples.
[5] Mary:
Grace and Hope in Christ p. 53
[6] Mary:
Grace and Hope in Christ p. 53
