"Holy Mary, Mother of God"
by Rev. Kimi Riegel
December 12, 2004

Reading : The Queens Came Late
The Queens came late, but the Queens were there
With gifts in their hands and crowns in their hair.
They'd come, these three, like the Kings, from far,
Following, yes, that guiding star.
They'd left their ladles, linens, looms,
Their children playing in nursery rooms,
And told their sitters:
"Take charge! For this
Is a marvelous sight we must not miss!"
The Queens came late, but not too late
To see the animals small and great,
Feathered and furred, domestic and wild,
Gathered to gaze at a mother and child.
And rather than frankincense and myrrh
And gold for the babe, they brought for her
Who held him, a homespun gown of blue,
And chicken soup--with noodles, too-
And a lingering, lasting, cradle-song.
The Queens came late and stayed not long,
For their thoughts already were straining far-
Past manger and mother and guiding star
And a child aglow as a morning sun-
Toward home and children and chores undone.
   - Norma Farber (from "When It Snowed That Night," 1993)

Sermon: “Holy Mary, Mother of God”

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

Hail Mary full of grace. That's all I really knew about Mary until I started this sermon. Thanks to Karen I now know the whole prayer. Many times my children have paraded around the house with a tee-shirt over their heads with the arm holes beside her ears. I will never forget the time though when my daughter said "Look Mom, I am Jesus’ mother." Hence the cover of our order of service today. At some point our children begin to ask questions at this time of year. Who was/is Jesus? What does it mean to be born of a virgin? As Unitarian Universalists we spend a great deal of time dealing with Jesus and very little time with his family including his mother. As one of my colleagues in seminary once said, "Wasn’t Mary the first one to turn bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ?" It seems fitting to spend some time with Mary at this time of year as I have always thought birthdays should be for parents anyway. After all we are the ones who really remember the day. 

While, as you will see, parts of this sermon are a bit tongue in cheek, I do believe that it is valuable to look at many of the traditions of the world. It’s interesting and sometimes even inspiring to look at the stories from a fresh perspective. As many of us are “come outers” -- people who came here from another childhood faith -- we are often put off by what we now call the “old traditions.” And yet, it is within those traditions that we often find the heart of what it means to be human, and so I think it is with the story of Mary. 

We all know the basic facts of this story. Mary is visited by an angel who says she will soon be with child. She questions how this could be when she hasn't had a husband, although we do know that she is betrothed to Joseph. The angel then assures her that the Holy Spirit will visit her and she will conceive. Now Mary becomes pregnant before being married to Joseph. The angel then visits Joseph and convinces him that the child is special so he shouldn't leave her. So, being the nice guy he is, he wakes from this dream and marries her even though she is pregnant. Now they have to go back to the town where Joseph was born because of a nasty King and on the road Mary has Jesus in a stable and Jesus is laid in the Manger. The kings visit and perhaps the queens according to our reading this morning, and generally the whole world, shepherds and drummers included, are ecstatic about the event. Mary isn't really a big deal in the story as it is often told in protestant circles.   

However, the story, like most, has been written and re-written many times for many different purposes. We have changed where he was born, what happened on the day, and many other pieces to suit our theological, political and social needs.

As I began to read I found that like Jesus, Mary is a piece of the story that has gone through changes, too. Some writers like Paul, who is believed to be the earliest New Testament writer, left her out completely. But he did that for most women.

In some later versions Mary is an active participant in Jesus’ ministry even after he is gone. Many of the Catholic versions of the story have her as a virgin who was immaculately conceived herself. Some of you who still remember your Catechism know that the feast of Immaculate Conception, celebrated on December 8, is actually a celebration of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, not Jesus’. Mary could not be totally free from sin, thus give birth to a God, if she had been conceived in sin herself. Apparently it ran in the family, even her cousin Elizabeth conceived through divine intervention and gave birth to John the Baptist. At least in that version Mary didn't have any pain during the birth process because there was no sin in the creation. No pleasure, no pain. 

Each of the versions has a slightly different tilt. In ancient times there were many reasons to change the story. If one was writing for a more Jewish audience it was important to emphasize the pieces that fit with Hebrew Scriptures. For instance Matthew, believed to be chronologically third in the line of writers of Jesus’ life, writing sometime about 70 years after the crucifixion, really had his work cut out for him. Everyone had heard some of the less desirable rumors. Jesus had no father and was poor -- basically a nobody who died on the cross with criminals -- not exactly Messiah material. 

So in keeping with the Jewish tradition Matthew goes back to scriptures and looks for a way to connect Mary to the past and the great king David. Matthew writes a genealogy for Jesus that includes four women. Unheard of! These four women all had a questionable background in the area of sexuality. Yet all four women stood at a critical moment in the life of the religious community and by taking the action each took, they furthered the promise of God. According to Midrash (a type of sacred Jewish writing) each of these four women not only kept alive the royal line of David but did so by submission to the Holy Spirit. So Matthew admits that Jesus began with a bit of a scandal, but it can be understood if given the right light. 

Was this factual? Highly unlikely. Mary may have been connected to these people and to the great king David, but more likely it was Matthew's attempt to interpret what he considered an amazing event in a way that others could hear it. Perhaps Matthew was the first of the spin doctors?

When in the early centuries Christianity bumped up against the pagan religion there were more additions and changes to the story. As the early apostates went into Europe , the local deities were transformed into saints. But the major Goddesses could not be transferred into a mere saint, so the "Virgin Mary" concept was created. Since she had taken the place of the Goddess, she was treated as one. Many of the Catholic Feast days of Mary were originally celebrations to the Goddess (as was Christmas, originally for a Roman sun god). Basically, because it would seem pagan for there to be a true "goddess" deity in a monotheistic religion, the title "Blessed Virgin Mary" was adopted. Although the Cult of Mary, as it was called, may not be as evident today as it was in previous centuries, Vatican II certainly maintained Mary's very special place in the worship life of the church. 

The virginity was important because they needed to find a way of making Jesus really special. After all, there were lots of virgin births happening at that time in history, almost every great man throughout early history was a virgin birth. My favorite connection is between Mary and Isis. Isis gave birth to Horuz, a god of Egypt , and he was also visited by three kings. 

In among all the historians new and old, and the feminists new and old, and all the rewrites, I found I had changed my view of the Virgin Mary. When I finally went back to the text, probably because of all the variations I had read, it felt new. I reread the part where the angel talks to Mary and it reminded me of my own parenthood and our modern desire for control in this world.

Mary is basically told that the child she will bare will be very special. I had that same hope. Mary doesn't understand how it could be possible that she is pregnant. I remember those feelings. She complains that she is just a humble person and is not up to the task. Boy there are many days when I still don't feel up to the task. The angel reassures her that we don't always have control over our lives; sometimes God takes over. Yeah, I understand that, too. Mary finally accepts that she is going to have a beautiful baby and things will turn out as they should, God willing. Mary is not the only one who has felt those feelings. Parents throughout history have felt the same way. With a few twists to fit it into my world view the scripture had spoken to me. 

We, of course, are pretty certain that Mary wasn't a virgin. That is simply impossible. But maybe that’s another message for us; there are some things that are impossible and they happen anyway. Maybe what we are supposed to take away from that story today is that sometimes great and wonderful happenings are unexplainable. 

Despite the fact that the virginity of Mary has been used against women for centuries, I choose to reclaim that image as a positive one for everyone -- male and female -- in a world that demands we be in control. There are times for all of us when our lives are as out of control as Mary's. One biblical scholar, Walter Wink suggests looking at the story like a dream. He suggests the stories reveal who we are at our depths; sort of a Jungian approach to the whole thing. 

What is the virgin? She is someone who was living her life as she was supposed to. She was following the rules and still she got swept off her feet. Still she was filled with the spirit. She then hands herself over to this spirit and says she will take whatever comes and make the best of it. She is a powerful image at this or any time of year, a person who grapples with her path -- not an easy one or one she would have chosen -- a person who surrenders to the will of the Goddess and faces full-on the challenge of raising a very special child. A person who, with the help of Joseph, gives birth under tenuous circumstances to a child that was already several legs down the social ladder, being poor and born out of wedlock and then instills in that child such a strong positive sense of himself that he becomes a great teacher and leader. Maybe for our time when everyone is trying to control the world and be their own determiner of history this is a good balancing message. Sometimes the spirit just comes along and there is nothing in the laws or in our reason that can help us make sense of it. Like Mary we just go along and make the best of it. Maybe we need to be a bit more like Mary. Take it all in. Remember it for later days, and be grateful to be a carrier for the spirit.  

Hail Mary full of grace. Hail to you Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who has been worshiped, changed and misunderstood. Hail to you the one who is full of the grace to accept the life that was handed to you. You did a great job. May we keep your strong, caring, patient image in our minds on this holiday!