Year B      Advent IV: 

Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Romans 16:25-2; Luke 1:26-38

“Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.” –Luke 1:38

I begin this evening’s message with a brief quotation from the Gospel according to John … and Paul

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be[1]

Let it be. In these three English words all the yearning, hoping, and preparation that fills every page of the Old Testament finds its fulfilment. Through these three words, our restless hearts will find rest and all the sorrow of this world will be turned to rejoicing. Through those words, humankind’s meandering path is made straight, the “rough places are made plain” and the long promised Messiah, the son of both God and Man, breaks into this world. And with these three words, the joy of Christmas is born out of the hope Advent.

In many ways the Virgin Mary is the last figure of the Old Testament for with her words all that the people of Israel had hoped for comes to fulfillment.

Mary, of course, stands in a line of Old Testament women like Hannah and Sarah, whose faithfulness helped bring to fruition the hope and promise that God made to the people of Israel.

And Mary, like her spouse Joseph, is a descendent of King David, who despite his obvious flaws, is Israel’s archetypical king and the model of faithfulness and honest struggle. God promises David that his house will rule over Israel and usher in a new and everlasting kingdom. This evening’s lesson from 2^nd Samuel speaks powerfully of this same hope and promise.

Many of the early Church Fathers, including Justin Martyr, even saw Mary as a type of “second Eve” whose obedience and faithfulness reversed the disobedience and sin of the first Eve. Around the year 165 AD, Justin Martyr writes in his Dialogue to Trypho, “For Eve, who was virgin and undefiled, gave birth to disobedience and death after listening to the serpent’s words. But the Virgin Mary conceived faith and joy; for when the angel Gabriel brought her the glad tidings (…) she answered, ‘Let it be done to me according to thy word’ (Lk. 1:38).”[2] Through Mary’s son Jesus, who St. Paul describes as the new Adam, God brings righteousness out of sin, light out of darkness, and life out of death.

Mary’s “Yes” to God is a fulfillment of the salvation that God continues to promise throughout the grand sweep of the Old Testament. If Sarah’s faithfulness gave birth to Isaac who is the father of Israel, Mary’s faithfulness gives birth to Jesus, the progenitor of the new Israel which is the Body of Christ – the Church. If David’s faithfulness helped establish God’s reign over the people of Israel through his son Solomon’s Temple, so Mary’s faithfulness helps establish the Kingdom of God on earth through her son Jesus. And if the creation and fall of humankind begins the story of the Old Testament, Mary’s willingness to be part of God’s new creation ends the story of the Old Testament and opens the world wide to the possibility and hope of the New Testament of Jesus Christ.

 In the midst of a world of waiting and expectation, Mary stands as a figure of hope and fulfillment. We celebrate this Fourth Sunday of Advent only a few days after the longest night of the year. We celebrate this day when the darkness truly seems to be overcoming the light and when the cold and damp of winter is beginning to settle into our bones. But we also celebrate this day, trusting that the days are lengthening, and that the light is beginning to overwhelm the darkness. We are in a season of hope and of new beginning where we are pivoting from the old to the new, from darkness to light, and from hope to fulfillment. Mary’s response likewise is a pivot point, where God’s light breaks through the darkness and where our redemption has its beginning, even in the cold of the winter.

“Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum  - Let it be done according to your word,” Mary says to God’s messenger Gabriel. Through those words, Mary becomes of the Mother of Jesus and, indeed, truly the Mother of God. Through those words, redemption breaks into a weary and broken world, casting down the powerful and lifting up the lowly. Through those words, the heavens dropped down and the earth brought forth a savior. And through those words, God’s people found their comfort and the world’s rightful King entered the world.

2017 has been a difficult year. As a nation, we find ourselves more deeply divided than many of us can ever remember. The mass shootings in Texas, Nevada, and across this country have made us mourn and perhaps have caused us to reflect upon who we have become as a people. The countless allegations of sexual violence and misconduct by powerful men has caused us to remember that the age old struggle for gender equality, has far from reached its conclusion. And the controversies surrounding Confederate monuments has brought to the forefront questions of racial justice and the remaining legacy of chattel slavery and segregation in America.

As a nation and as a community, 2017 has been year of pain, reflection, and spiritual struggle. We still find ourselves in the midst of this long night and in the deep cold of winter. But to quote again those two eminent boys from Liverpool,

And when the brokenhearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer
Let it be
For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer
Let it be[3]

We turn to Mary and her words this day, trusting that God has accomplished through her faithfulness more than we can ever imagine. We turn to her and to her son Jesus, with thankfulness for what God has wrought through and by them. But we also turn to Mary as our model for faithfulness, even in what might seem to be the darkest of nights. We too are called to respond to God’s call and say, “Let it be, Let it be done according to thy word.”

For when we work for justice in places where we see injustice, we are saying, “Let it be.” For when we embrace and love those whom society has rejected or dismissed, we are saying, “Let it be.” And when we look within ourselves, and listen to God, we responding to him, “Let it be.” And though this year has been challenging to say the least, we like Mary, are people of hope. We know that God always supplies the grace necessary to accomplish what he asks for. All we have to do listen and follow. And through our faithfulness, God will open wide to us the possibility of transformation.  

For when we answer “Yes” to God, we like Mary will bear God’s Light into the world and the light will not overcome it. That is the hope that we proclaim at Advent and the joy we receive into our hearts at Christmas.

+Amen

---

[1] Songwriters: JOHN LENNON, PAUL MCCARTNEY

Let It Be lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

[2] Dialogue with Trypho 100, quoted in Mary and the Fathers of the Church , by Luigi Gambero, Ignatius Press, 1999 [hereafter, MFC], pg. 47.

[3] Songwriters: JOHN LENNON, PAUL MCCARTNEY

Let It Be lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC