Sermon for St Edward’s, Sun 21 December, Advent 4
Readings: Matt 1:18-end & Romans 1:1-7
Over the years I have preached many times on Mary, as you might imagine. This week I was feeling particularly stuck when writing my sermon, thinking what can I say that I’ve not said many times before? What new nugget of insight can I highlight from Mary’s story to draw us closer to God? We well know she is amazingly faithful and obedient to God’s call. She is the mother of Jesus, God’s Son. And for some of us we might find too much focus on Mary difficult, but she is an example to us, she risked so much to do what God called her to.
And then I came across a take I’ve not heard before. Rev Dr Sam Wells, from St Martin in the Fields, London, writes that we can look at Mary and references to her, in parallel with Biblical Israel, with the people of God. And so my interest was piqued!
Now, before I get into that, let me be clear I am not talking about modern day Israel. In my view we cannot equate the people of Israel in the Bible with modern day Israel, they are two entirely different things.
The people of Israel in the Bible are God’s chosen ones in that time and place. They are a picture of the faithful, and we know that later on this doesn’t just mean the Jews, it includes gentiles, as a picture of God’s love being for all people.
If you read the OT and I am sure you all do ;), you will see the cycle of the Israelites being in relationship with God, then going off on their own, or worshipping idols, or generally just messing up, eventually things get so bad they repent and turn back to God, until the next time…
So then how might Mary and Israel be linked? Mary didn’t mess up, she was abundantly faithful. But that is the point. As Sam Wells says:
Mary [is] the embodiment of Israel at its best: faithful, obedient, willing, devoted. She is, in her way, the one who perfectly keeps the covenant with God that Israel is portrayed in the Old Testament as having painfully broken.
Rev Dr Sam Wells
Mary is Israel in the faithful times, an example of faith, of trusting in God. And what’s more God uses her to bring about the fulfilment of the covenant.
To remind us, the covenant starts with Abraham. Before that we have humanity in relationship with God in the Garden of Eden of course, and God’s promise after the flood. but the foundational covenant of the Jewish faith came through Abraham.
God says, as we read in Genesis, God will bless Abraham with numerous descendants, more numerous than the stars in the sky, a multitude of nations, an everlasting covenant to be God to the people, and says, I will be their God. (Gen 12:1-2; Gen 15:5-6; Gen 17:1-8).
All people will find a blessing from God, through these descendants, through this nation that becomes known as Israel. But as we read in the OT the people regularly go away from God, they break the covenant. So how do we connect them to Mary?
Sam Wells suggests then that Mary is the flip side to this, the alternative of how the covenant could be, she is the embodiment of Israel when the people are being totally faithful. She is obedient, willing, devoted.
She perfectly keeps the covenant with God that Israel has broken time and again. Because we know God has not given up on the covenant made with Abraham and Israel, but now once and for all it will be manifested through Jesus. He is the fulfilment of God’s covenant, the embodiment of it, bringing relationship between God and the people, and one that cannot be broken, not even by death.
Mary, carrying Christ, literally embodies the covenant between humanity and God. She is a faithful Jew, human, and she carries God within her, the perfect example of the relationship between God and humanity.
If we go back to the covenant, in Genesis 12, Abraham is told through him and his offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed (v3)
I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Genesis 12:3
Now, here in Matthew’s gospel, as we heard, Mary following God’s call will bring about a blessing for the world in Jesus, who will bring salvation to all people. As the angel tells Joseph in his dream, She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Mary carrying christ, on behalf of Israel, is is a picture of redemption. And that promise of salvation and redemption remains in place for all time, God is with us, now, Immanuel. v23
Now, we might ask why? Why did God come to us through a human? and through a vulnerable baby? Pregnancy was not straight forward in those days, there were high mortality rates for women and babies. Mary was young, she had to give birth away from family and supporters. We don’t know if her and Joseph managed to find a local midwife to help, as was the usual way. There was so much that could go wrong.
And yet that is what God chose. A human, a woman, a path that required great trust and faith, for God to come and be with the people. Immanuel.
And more than that, Mary models for us the carrying of the Holy Spirit.
in v 18 we read that it was through the power of the HS that she was with child. God united with humanity in one body, in the power of the Spirit.
Part of that legacy or covenant is that we too get to be carriers of God. in 1 Cor 6 we read that as followers of Christ we continue in the covenant and that we are temples of the HS. We too carry the presence of Christ in us. If only we gave ourselves and each other the reverence that is due…
Further, in the Bible pregnancy and birth is often used as a metaphor for God’s work unfolding, or a work of God being done in people. Birth pangs describe the coming of eternity, in Revelation 12. Paul in Romans talks of the labour pains of creation and humanity too groaning whilst we await redemption. Mary, pregnant with the Christ is the epitome of that. Her body is growing the hope of salvation for the world.
But as we remember that we too are carriers of God in the fulfilment of that covenant promise. In many ways our whole lives are a journey of growing in faith aren’t they? of stepping into what God has for us. But we are like Israel too aren’t we? we mess up sometimes, we have to repent and turn back to God, that’s why we say our confession prayer every week in our communion services.
Thankfully just as the Israelites turned back to God many times, we can do the same. It doesn’t matter how many times we need to repent, God is always there ready to forgive us, Immanuel.
So, yes Mary is faithful and obedient and an example to us but she is much more than that. A reminder of the covenant with God and the people. A carrier of redemption and the means to our salvation. She is a reminder of our journey of faith and of God growing and at work within us. She is a reminder that God came to be with us as Immanuel and now we too, carry God’s presence.
But I’d like to finish with a final challenge,
We might ask ourselves also, what is God growing in us in this season? Just as God uses Mary, a human to do the will of God, God needs us too, to do the work of the kingdom.
So what is God growing in us, in you right now? As I asked on Tuesday, what might God be asking you to do that you are ignoring or have said yes and then sat back down and forgotten about? What is God asking of you right now? Have we got the courage to say yes just as Mary did?
I want to encourage you during the next song to just sit and reflect for a few minutes. What is God growing in you right now? what is God asking of you in this season?
We led into prayer here…
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