Homily for the Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin
(Transferred) 14 August 2016
The Rev’d John R. Clarke, Rector
The Rev’d John R. Clarke, Rector
Luke 1:46-55 (Mary
of Nazareth doesn’t mince words)
“I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An
elephant's faithful one-hundred percent!”
Yes, it’s a shout-out to
Dr. Seuss: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful
one-hundred percent!” The mantra of Horton, the faithful egg-hatching elephant
in (what else?) Horton Hatches the Egg.
Pointing to the Question
of the Day: Do words count?
Or, just when ─ under what conditions ─ can be we casual about the words we say? Specifically,
the really important words. Words with weight, substance, and consequences. The
words to which we attach belief and, more than that, conviction. Words we stand
by and stand for.
According to Horton ─ who is conned by the irresponsible Mayzie to sit on her egg while she
takes a short “break” (meaning forever!) in Palm Beach ─ the
answer is “never.” We can never treat lightly the weightier words we say.
That’s
because, as Horton knows, not only do words matter, but
the convictions, values, and beliefs behind the words matter. The person standing
by the words matters. Because, in a world where our word is our bond, we are
what we say.
That’s why, on this Feast
of Saint Mary the Virgin, we center our celebration on her words ─ the very weighty words spoken by her when she
rushes to tell her cousin Elizabeth that Israel’s centuries-long long wait for a Savior is
over: Mary ─
miraculously ─ will give birth to the Messiah.
Long before the Apostles’
Creed … longer by far than the Nicene Creed … the words Mary speaks ─ what we call the Magnificat, but what is, in fact, Mary’s
Creed ─ the words spell out for us what she believes God
will accomplish ─
decisively ─ through the person her son will become. Specifically:
The monopoly of the arrogant
with attitude? Busted.
Corrupt Wall Street-types
earning a fast buck off the backs of the poor better prepare to get a taste of their own
medicine. God will make trickle-down economics history.
The wheelers-and-dealers’
neighbors ─ the very people the moneyed manipulators have
looked-over, left-behind, and locked out ─ will finally experience justice:
what they are owed as persons made in the image of God. Gold-plated grifters, kiss
those off-shore tax shelters good-bye!
Bottomline: Mary is
saying, “I believe God has a bias for our neighbors who have been dealt a lousy
hand. Not only do I believe it. I ─ Mary of Nazareth ─ believe it. And I endorse this message.”
Like affixing a wax seal
to her Creed, Mary makes sure her words matter. Mary matters. Her words are
Mary.
And tough words they are …
because Mary is a tough woman. She stands by her words. How do we know? She
doesn’t come back the next day to backtrack: “I was just joking!”
She’s not joking, because Mary is on a journey: a faith-filled journey that leads her to stand by Jesus at
his cross … a journey that takes her even beyond the outpouring of God’s Spirit
at Pentecost to witness her Creed’s words bearing fruit: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:44-45)
Pushing each of us to
ask, “How reliable ─ how faithful ─ are we as communicators of each of those planks in
Mary’s platform … those radioactive, revolutionary initiatives that she believes to
her very core?” Do we commit to Mary’s Creed of Good News daily, repeatedly, consistently by advocating, protesting,
challenging … voting! … and sometimes refusing to budge?
… like Rosa Parks. Could
we possibly be like her? I know, big shoes. But look how she describes that
December day in 1955 on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, when she refused to obey the bus driver’s order
to give up her seat to a white passenger and stand for the remainder of the journey:
“People always say that I didn't give up my seat
because I was tired,” Parks recorded many years later. “But that isn't true…. No,
the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
“When [the bus driver] saw me
still sitting, he asked if I was going to stand up. And I said, ‘No, I’m not.’
And he said, ‘Well, if you don’t stand up, I’m going to have to call the police
and have you arrested.’ I said, ‘You may do that.’”
I suppose Parks could
have given up her seat even if she believed it was hers by right. But she ─ the real
person with real convictions in that
all-too-real situation ─ believed to her very core it was hers by right. She spoke up. And she refused to budge.
Of her subsequent arrest, Parks said, “I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was
the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind.”
Talk about bringing “down the powerful
from their thrones!” All for the sake of a considerably downscale seat, a bus
seat. And all through the power of words ─ Good News words ─ spoken from Rosa Parks’ very soul. And made visible for
all time by standing her ground.
Proving what the Virgin Mary showed:
Each of us ─ our words matter. Our words are us. And each of us matters … prompting us to pledge without reservation:
“I meant what I said, and
I said what I meant. Faithful? One-hundred percent!”
Amen.
