Mary in Ivory

Sermon for Dec. 19, 2021

Luke 1:39-45; Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)

So, just to warn you:  Last Sunday, I gave you a heads-up that the sermon would be shorter than usual.  Sorry, but it happened again.  You can thank me on the way out.

Our Gospel reading today tells the story of Mary visiting her relative Elizabeth.  It’s a lovely reading, but it makes a lot more sense if we know what’s come before it.  Elizabeth is “barren” and “getting on in years” (1:7), Luke tells us; but the angel Gabriel comes to her husband, Zechariah, to give him literally unbelievable news – that Elizabeth would have a baby who will be “great in the sight of the Lord” and “turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God” (1:16).  In fact, this baby turns out to be the one we know as John the Baptist, who came to prepare the way for the Messiah.  

Luke’s story then moves on to Mary, whom this time of year everybody knows was “engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David” (1:26-27).  Gabriel drops in to see Mary, too, bringing her news that’s even more unbelievable than Elizabeth getting pregnant in her old age – that Mary will conceive a son directly from God.  He will be “the Son of the Most High” who will reign over Israel forever (1:32).  Now, we need to keep in mind that what the angel is promising is a double impossibility – both that a virgin will have a child, and that the king Israel has been waiting for will be born to a peasant girl, a nobody.  But Mary, as we know, says “yes” anyway, even though it seems impossible.

And then, we come to today’s reading.  Brimming with the angel’s astonishing news, Mary heads over the river and through the woods to see her relative Elizabeth.  When Mary arrives, the baby John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother’s womb, and Elizabeth miraculously knows that Mary is carrying God’s king.  Then Mary, overcome with astonishment and joy herself, sings the song we offered as the canticle today, the Magnificat – the one beginning, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” (Luke 1:46-47).

 “My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary says.  Think about that a minute.  On its face, that’s about as ridiculous thing to say as we could imagine.  The creator and sovereign of the universe, full of infinite power and majesty, is magnified?  How could God be made any bigger, any grander, any more magnificent than God already is?  It’s an amazing thing for Mary to say, that her lowly spirit might enlarge or amplify the Lord of the universe.  But yet, she does it, bringing God into our human experience and allowing us to see divinity in the flesh.

That’s Mary’s story from 2,000 years ago.  But I’ll tell you – I think Mary’s story keeps playing out, across the ages and into our own day.  In fact, I’d say I met Mary on Thursday, at the Valvoline Instant Oil Change shop.  Why?  Because I met a woman who magnified the Lord.

Her name is Ivory, and I’m pretty sure she was in charge at the oil-change place.  Ivory is a black woman probably in her 50s, and she came up to my car with a big smile.  Then, she stopped short when she saw my clerical collar.  She greeted me as “Father,” which says something about her spiritual background; and she went into the shop for a minute to tell the workers not to swear for a while. 

We went through the necessary conversation about my oil change, but I knew she wanted to say something else.  And then, it came:  She said, “You know, I was diagnosed with breast cancer about four months ago….”  I’m afraid I interrupted her, wanting to let her know she wasn’t alone; and I said, “Oh, I’m so sorry.”  She looked up at me and said, “Now, don’t you say that.  There is nothing to be sorry about.  The way I look at it, I’ve had cancer for God knows how long, at least four months, and I’m still here, going strong.”  She pointed up and said, “I know the Lord is where my healing will come from.”

So, she waved me in, and they changed my oil.  As I left, I told Ivory I’d pray for her.  But really, I think I should have asked Ivory to pray for me, a sinner, now and at the hour of my death.  Because Ivory’s soul proclaimed the greatness of the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior, for she knew that God looked with favor on the lowliness of this servant.  And, in her family, I imagine generations to come will call her blessed.

What’s the point of all this?  That short time at the oil-change place with Ivory helped me to see something I’ve been badly needing to know, not just through intellectual awareness but up close and personal:  that God, the creator and sovereign of the universe, uses such as you and me to magnify and amplify God’s presence on earth.  In the most mundane moments of our lives, in times when we’d swear nothing of any consequence was happening, saints are walking among us – even in our own shoes – and perhaps the Queen of Heaven herself might just drop in for a visit. 

This Friday night and Saturday, we’ll celebrate Christianity’s crazy doctrine of the Incarnation, as we give thanks that God chose to become one of us, and “move into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, The Message), and experience everything that builds us up and beats us up, day by day.  But incarnation doesn’t stop with Jesus.  If we have the eyes to see, God will show us divinity in even the unlikeliest people – folks at the grocery store or the instant oil-change shop.  So, keep your eyes open, and you, too, may be blessed, when you find yourself in your times of trouble, to have Mother Mary come to you.