The 4th Sunday of Advent is the only Sunday on the entire Christian Church calendar when the Church puts its focus on Jesus’s parents, Mary and Joseph.
And I think that’s why most Christians only think of Mary and Joseph at Christmas time. Then, after Christmas, when we pack up our Nativity Sets, we tend to forget about them for the rest of the year.
And, I think that that is such a shame, because Mary and Joseph played such a crucial role in Jesus’s spiritual formation, and we (as followers of Jesus) can also look to Mary and Joseph to help guide our own spiritual formation, as well – not only at Christmastime, but throughout the year.
In the gospel reading from today’s lectionary, Joseph is upset to find out that his fiancé, Mary, is pregnant (and that he is not the father), but rather than causing a scandal or exposing her to public shame, he decides he will simply go away quietly.
And, then in a dream, an angel of God appears to Joseph and tells him not to leave Mary, but to take her as his wife and to raise her baby, Jesus, as his own.
And, when he awakes, Joseph consents to God’s will.
The same was true for Mary. You may remember, she was deeply disturbed when the Angel Gabriel told her she was going to be pregnant, but she consented to God saying, “Let it be done to me according to your will.”
Both Joseph and Mary demonstrate for us that the spiritual life is about consenting to God’s will, not in a subservient way, but in a courageous way.
I know we tend to think of Mary as being “meek and mild,” but she was really just the opposite.
In reality, Mary was tough, bold, courageous and even radical.
Most Christians today don’t know the real Mary, as she is only mentioned in the Bible four times, but – you know – she is mentioned more than 70 times in the Koran, the Holy book of Islam, which calls her the greatest woman that ever lived.
In the time and place where Mary lived, she was at the lowest place in society. She was poor, and a woman, and a Jew, and an unwed pregnant teenager.
Religiously, socially and politically, she was oppressed, outcast, marginalized.
Yet, God chose her of all people to become the mother of the Light of the World.
God could have chosen anyone (a Queen, a woman of wealth and privilege and power), but, instead, he chose a lowly outcast.
And, you may remember that when the Angel Gabriel left her, Mary composed a song to God, as song that’s become known as the Magnificat.
But, the Magnificat is not some pretty, little, innocuous, love-song to God.
NO! The Magnificat is a radical song of liberation and revolution.
In it, Mary is proclaiming a new world order is on its way.
She says: “God has looked with favor upon me, a lowly servant, and from now on, all generations will call people like me blessed. God will lift up the lowly and pull down the powerful from their thrones. God will fill the poor with good things, and the rich he will send away empty.”
With the Magnificat, Mary is saying that (thru her, thru her baby Jesus) God is establishing a new world order – a new Kingdom – where the last are going to be first and where the “least of these” are going to be the most important.
That’s what Mary is proclaiming in the Magnificat, and those words over the centuries have been so unsettling to people in positions of power that the Magnificat has actually been banned in many places.
The British government during its occupation of India, deemed it unlawful for Christians to sing the Magnificat in church.
And in Argentina, during the oppressive regime of Juan Peron, the Magnificat was forbidden to be read aloud.
And, during the 1980’s, the Guatemalan government also banned the Magnificat, because it stirred up the impoverished masses to revolution.
Mary’s message to world proclaims that change is coming.
So what does all this mean for us today, 2,000 years later?
Well, we, my friends: We, like Mary, are part of God’s plan to give birth to a New Kingdom, a New Earth: a new way of living and loving and being.
But in order for us to be the change God is calling us to, we, like Mary, must have the courage to say, “YES.”
If we are willing, God is calling us to birth the Christ Light into world.
The 13th Century Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, said: “We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.”
God is always needing to be born! That’s what the Season of Advent is all about: A time of preparation for us, in which we consent to God’s will to become pregnant with the Light, so that we can give birth to it during this time of great darkness in our world.
Therefore, my friends, I hope you will find time in the remaining days between now and Christmas to do as Mary did: to rejoice in the “Good News” that God has chosen YOU to bring Light to the world.
And, I invite you, to call upon Mary and Joseph often – not just at Christmastime, but throughout the year.
May all of us – like Mary and Joseph – have the courage to magnify God’s Light, and to shine it for all the world to see.
For the Light is on its way. Let every heart prepare him room.
May it be so. Amen.
Here are three follow-up reflection questions:
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Where in my life right now might God be inviting me to consent more fully to God’s will—and what fears, risks, or sacrifices make that “yes” feel difficult, as it did for Mary and Joseph?
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Mary’s Magnificat proclaims a radical reversal—lifting up the lowly and challenging unjust power. How might God be calling me to help give birth to this “new Kingdom” through my choices, relationships, or advocacy today?
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Advent invites us to prepare room for Christ to be born again in the world. What concrete practices this season can help me nurture and bring forth God’s light in a place of darkness—within myself or in my community?