Richard Davenport

Hebrews 10:4-10, Luke 1:26-38

            Poor Mary.  She really does kind of get a bad rap in the Lutheran Church.  It’s not even like she did anything wrong.  She didn’t ruin her own reputation or anything like that.  We don’t like Mary because we don’t like how the Catholic Church treats her, and for good reason.  I mean, Catholics pray to Mary!  That’s not so good. 

            In their minds, it makes sense though.  Mary is Jesus’ mom.  She’s always going to be mom.  Jesus is God, but he’s also man.  That means Mary still gets to be Jesus’ mom, even after his resurrection, even in heaven as we all await the Last Day.  Maybe she doesn’t just flat out tell Jesus what to do, but she can at least strongly encourage Jesus to do things.  So, why wouldn’t you pray to Mary?  She can tell Jesus to get the job done and take your mind of the problem. She’ll just keep prodding Jesus until he finally stops lounging around on the couch and gets to work.

            I don’t really understand the mindset here.  I know they explain it and all and in their minds it makes sense, but it really doesn’t.  Jesus is God and man together specifically so he can be the mediator, the go between.  He wants you to come to him.  Going to Mary instead implies that he’s either too busy, too lazy, or something else like that, that he just can’t be bothered listening to your prayer and dealing with it. 

            That’s not the only problem however.  Mary is also seen as the queen of heaven.  She is blessed above all women, really above all other people.  If you go to big Catholic churches, you’ll see Mary depicted here and there.  She’ll almost always be in the blue of royalty with a crown on her head, sometimes even shown with Jesus placing it on her head. She is royalty, blessed by Jesus himself.  No one else gets similar treatment.  You might think Joseph would warrant at least comparable honors, seeing as he he’s Jesus’ earthly dad, but no such luck.  No, none of the prophets or apostles, none of the early church fathers and other notable saints, none gets treated like royalty like Mary does.

            So why is Mary so special?  Well, she’s the mother of our Lord, which is a pretty big deal. But, more importantly, Mary is seen as the representative of the church, the whole of God’s people.  At the end, all the faithful will receive the crown of glory and reign with him, at least in a sense, forever in his new creation. As Mary is given glory and honor, every Catholic sees themselves in her, eventually to receive those same honors because she stands for every Christian.  I mean, she’ll probably still be more regal, more noble, more blessed than the rest of us, remember, she’s Jesus’ mom, but at least she carries the rest of us along with her.

            Now, it’s not strictly wrong to think of God’s people as the ones who will be glorified on the last day.  We share in Christ’s life, his resurrection, his righteousness, his glory.  St. Paul even talks about receiving a crown of glory just like that, though I don’t think he means it in a literal sense.  Still, we do benefit from what Christ has done.  We will be lifted up, where all of God’s enemies will be cast down. 

            While that is certainly a comfort and is something we very much look forward to, it isn’t the reality yet.  So emphasizing all of this glory and honor is a bit problematic when it just isn’t what we see in the world.  Unfortunately, the Catholic church is much more interested in highlighting themselves than they are in showing the works of Christ.  They’re all about showing what good little followers of Jesus they are.  Look how righteous we are!  See what good works we’ve done!  Check out how great a church this is and how great we are!  The church is so great! We are so great!  No wonder God showers Mary, the representative of the church, with all of this honor and glory!  It’s only natural and fitting.

            But the work of the church isn’t about us.  It’s God’s church.  We are God’s people.  The glory isn’t ours, not yet.  If we get ahead of ourselves, we’re liable to think we’re already done.  If I already have the crown, if I already have the glory, if I already have all of the riches of righteousness, then I can basically check out and let the rest of the world burn.  I have what I need, the rest of you can fend for yourselves.  Maybe you’ll make it, maybe you won’t, either way, I got what I came for.

            Now, the Catholic church hasn’t officially cancelled evangelism, but many of them act that way regardless.  The monks in their monasteries have been essentially doing that all along.  They sit in their little isolated compound, accruing all of the riches they think they’re earning through their worship and works and the rest of the world is left to rot. Even everyday Catholics will act as if they just keep racking up the honors with everything they do, lighting more candles, donating more money, visiting more relics, on and on it goes, more and more honors, more and more glory.

            We Lutherans aren’t immune to the problem either. We can get pretty confident and lazy in our work too.  We lounge around and think about how great we are and just mentally and spiritually check out of the world.  We’re saved. We’re righteous.  What else is there really to do?  Just like the Catholics, I already have everything I need.

            We are saved.  We are righteous.  And yet we are still in this world, with all of the problems it has, with all of the flaws it carries, flaws we ourselves still carry.  We don’t get to act like kings and queens with all of the rude, cruel, and downright mean things we do.  We haven’t earned the right to be treated like royalty.  We haven’t earned much of anything except to be kicked out entirely.  We certainly don’t have the right to just lounge around as if we’re too good to be involved in the world around us, too good to get our hands dirty and help people. 

            Rather than looking at Mary and the church as who we one day will be, the Annunciation reminds us to never forget who we are right now, nor how we end up with the glory God promises awaits us.  The Gospel of Luke doesn’t show us Mary in glory, nor the church.  Instead it shows the glory of God.  The angel Gabriel comes down to Mary.  A visit from an angel some chance or haphazard meeting.  Something important is happening and God sends an angel to ensure the recipient is aware of the gravity of the situation. 

            God is going to display his glory through Mary. The Son of God is coming to earth. He will reign on the throne of his earthly ancestor, David, forever.  She is going to have a special place in what God is doing here.  But, we know what Jesus’ earthly life will be like.  He isn’t going to wear fine robes and a golden crown as a tiny baby.  In fact, he’s going to have the, more or less, normal life of a poor carpenter’s son. There will be a few, here and there, who will have a greater understanding of who he is and what he is here to do, but, by and large, he won’t see any kind of glory.  He won’t see any of the honor the King of Kings should be due. Instead he will look and act like a servant, not just the servant of mighty and noble kings, but the servant of all, including the most lowly and disreputable.  It is only because this greatest of kings becomes the most lowly of servants that we are able to be afforded any honor, any glory.  Though he deserved his glory, he gave it up for a time in order to serve and save us.  We are given glory, not because we have earned it or deserve it, but because he shares his glory with us.  He serves us with his own life and his own death.

            When we turn our attention to Mary, we see an image of the church, not as it will be, but as it is now.  Mary receives no golden crown, no royal robes.  Instead, she receives a message and a promise, mercy and grace will come to the world through her.  Her response is not to receive some kind of honor or compensation. She simply says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

            Mary does receive glory here, but it isn’t the kind we’d normally think of.  She receives Christ, and through him, glory and honor, mercy and grace.  This Mary represents the church today, a church and a people not concerned with glory, but with service, with doing the will of God, that his kingdom may be extended, that sinners may receive mercy, that the dead may find life.  This is why we continue to reflect on the life of Mary and take to heart the role we are to play, not to seek honor for ourselves, but to give to the one who truly deserves all glory and honor, the king who became a servant and who now reigns in glory forever and ever.  The king who does this to save his fallen creation, giving up his glory and even his life, for a time, in order to restore us and bring us into his eternal kingdom.