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Mary's Yes to God; God's Yes to Her

The Rev. Alison Turner, Associate for Children and Families Ministry and School Chaplain
Sunday, August 18, 2019 @ 10:00 am
The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost

Scripture citation(s): Luke 1:39-49(50-56)

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The Rev. Alison J. Turner, Associate for Children & Family Ministry and School Chaplain

My oldest daughter regularly repeats this mantra when she has some important news to share. Sometimes she has rehearsed a preamble, in the way a friend, doctor or family member aims to prepare us for the rollercoaster of emotion that will proceed from the sharing of life-changing news. In short, this pattern or ritual of exchange means she needs us to pay attention and it is time to really listen.

By contrast, my youngest daughter is far more direct. Lives can be turned around with no warning, and I was not prepared for her to cheerily telephone me and announce, “Mum, I am going to have a baby!” The wonder of this news immediately consumed my mind with questions: What next? When? I was in shock and yet this milestone moment was to lead to an incredible journey of unfolding of joy nine months later, when my first grandchild, Edward, entered my world.

Perhaps you have had a life-changing message, one for which you have been prepared or simply heard out of the blue; one of joy, confusion, shock, and sorrow all rolled into one. Perhaps these were some of the same natural human emotions that prompted Mary to leave Nazareth with haste and find comfort in the company of her cousin. As we have just heard in our Gospel reading, she was more than eager to share the transformative and good news of Jesus Christ; to share about the miracle baby in whom her life would be turned upside down as she journeyed with him through the ordinary, challenging phases in the life of any child-parent relationship, and the extraordinary path that God had in store for them both. From this point she bore him, within her body and soul, sought for him when he was lost, rejoiced in his calling, was the word in his ear prompting his miracles, accompanied him through rejection, watched him ridiculed, and comforted him in the pain from his first to last breath on earth.

Her life was to become, as Archbishop Justin Welby reflects ‘God’s place-maker’ when the world did not have room for him, she cooperated with God to allow a space for him. Preaching at the National pilgrimage at Walsingham this year, he said this: “Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin, is God’s place-maker. She makes a place in her body for the incarnation. She makes place in her life for the moment of conception, of birth, of persecution, of protecting the God who needs feeding and changing, nurturing and teaching. She makes place for Him at Nazareth and in the Temple. She makes a place in mind and heart to consider what all this means. And then she makes place for His ministry. Always present, from conception to crucifixion, she is yet never seeking her own self-interest.” 1

Mary’s mission had begun and it is a mission in which we can share too.

My University was dedicated to Our Lady, St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill, and we had a motto, Monstra te esse matrem: Show yourself to be a mother. She showed herself, from the very beginning, that by saying Yes to God, she was humbly accepting his Yes to her; she was acknowledging her calling or vocation. We, too, are called to be bearers of Christ to the world just as in our Gospel reading, the reciprocal sharing of good news between Mary and Elizabeth bursts forth into a song echoing the songs that had shaped both their lives and earlier women of scripture who too had been faithful to their call and embraced God’s given joy even amidst the struggle of conceiving and in experiencing the miracle of birth.

A couple of summers ago I was preparing for a midday mass at St. Mary’s Times Square. I received a pressing message from the sacristy, a couple of tourists had asked to see a priest. The message wasn’t clear at first for both the daughter and the mother who I met were not fluent in English any more than I was in Spanish. Essentially the daughter was due to get married in an Episcopal church and her mother wanted to know: What does the Episcopal Church think about Mary?

I didn’t have the words, I didn’t have the language to reply but as that beautiful church is, after all, dedicated to Mary we began a mini-pilgrimage around the church, where I could show her images in stone, glass and wood that reflected her prominent role in our theology and faith history echoed throughout the world.

I have spent the last few weeks in Europe and I have seen countless depictions of Mary as prophet, intercessor, disciple and Theotokos.

I am sure that you too may be moved by such imagery, ranging from the elaborate crown and dragon filled scenes from The Book of Revelation in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington; or the elegance of Fra Angelico’s annunciation scene in the Convent of San Marco in Florence; or the heart-rendering tenderness of Michelangelo’s Pieta in the Vatican; to the simplicity of our own image of Mary, showing Jesus to those entering our Church from Fifth Avenue. Each of these encapsulates a facet of Mary’s personality, life, and vocation.

In his book on Marian iconography, Archbishop Rowan Williams echoes Mary’s example and call and encourages us too to “Ponder these Things”. He notes three types or aspects of Mary which echo our own vocation: One where she formally holds the child Jesus and points to the Father; one where she totally focuses on and embraces the child in tenderness at his birth and when taken down from the cross; and the third as an intercessor, looking out in prayer with open eyes to the world. Each of these reveals something about her and something more importantly about her son, Jesus. These artistic styles combine devotions that focus on her strength and conviction of faith, her fragility and beauty as well a capacity to intercede with the Saints in prayer.

As we see exemplified in places where she has appeared in vision and that have become intense places of pilgrimage, many find glimpses of wholeness and are surprised by God’s call to joy and renewal in faith in their own Yes to Christ Jesus.

And we see this here, closer to home at our beloved Saint Thomas, in the daily devotions offered at her shrine on Fifth Avenue which brings people who didn’t even know each other to pray, to light candles, and to cease being strangers and discover that they have become pilgrims.

On this day we recall how Mary’s life was shaped by the time in which she lived, the people and, even the Angels that she met along the way. Her initial Yes became her ongoing fiat; in her Yes to God, she was acknowledging his indwelling within her and indeed his Yes to her. In showing herself to be a mother, she also lived that Yes throughout the whole of her life and beyond the grave. It became her compelling message.

Perhaps we haven’t knowingly had angels visit us or even been entertained by them, but perhaps we do have little messages or nudges along the way, as well as choices to make as God calls us to “Pay attention: “I’ve got something to tell you”.

The question is… Are we really listening?

1) Sermon preached at the National Pilgrimage to the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham, May 27