Extraordinary Women: Mary, Virgin

What can anyone say about Mary, Virgin? We don’t really know that much about her from the Bible. Most of the stories come from legends and traditions handed down over the centuries. She was a woman of great courage and faith.

A short summary of her life notes, “Mary the mother of Jesus has been an object of veneration in the church since the apostolic age. She has been a favorite subject in art, music, and literature. Her humility and obedience to the message of God at the time of the Incarnation have made her an example for all ages of Christians…Early in church history she was honored and esteemed. Irenaeus called her the New Eve, Athanasius taught her perpetual virginity, and the Council of Ephesus in 431 declared her Theotokos, Mother of God, because of the hypostatic union of divinity and humanity in the one person Jesus Christ…Mary the Virgin is commemorated in the Episcopal calendar of the church year on Aug. 15.”  

The hymn of praise, the Magnificat, which she sang when she met her cousin Elizabeth has been used for centuries to inspire musically. It can also be used as a prayer and reminder that God is greater than earthly appearances.

And Mary said, ‘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. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’ (Luke 1:46-55)

Today I’d like to share a little story used recently at a women’s event. The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth as seen by one of Elizabeth’s servants can be a reminder that we are always being watched, whether we know it or not. 
(For the first time on this blog, I've produced a video!) 

What does Mary symbolize to you in your faith journey?
Do you ever think about how your actions are seen by casual observers?

Advent II: Mary and Elizabeth: Journeying with Family and Friends

During Advent this year, we are following along with the Episcopal Church Way of Love Advent Calendar and curriculum*. Last week we looked at how saying ‘yes’ to God is countercultural. Really saying ‘yes’ and living a Way of Love can change us and our world.

This week, we continue by considering the story of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56). We all need companions on the journey, no matter where we are going. The Way of Love curriculum* notes that “Mary set out in haste [to visit Elizabeth]…The life - the Word - that began to grow within her could not be contained. She just had to share her good news with her cousin Elizabeth and set out to the hill country of Judea, a long journey. By going, Mary found out that Elizabeth, too, was on a journey of love.”

She had to share her news and find out if, indeed, Elizabeth also had news to share. When we are faced with something new, we want to share it with someone. We text our friends or call them up. We post on Facebook or Instagram when we discover a new restaurant or recipe. Do we do the same thing when we read an inspiring devotion or learn a new prayer?

Elizabeth exalts, "blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." We all know the lovely prayer that Mary offers in response. It is called the Magnificat and many choral settings have been done using her words of celebration and prophecy. "My soul magnifies the Lord," she praises. Her response to the new journey she is on is to join in prayer and praise with Elizabeth. "The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name," she continues.

This image from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Seattle is symbolic of the link between Mary and Elizabeth; and between any friends who share their lives. This can be sharing joys, but also sharing sorrows. We should share both with our friends so they can walk with us.

Is my first response to good news a prayer? Not always, I must admit. Even though I might share the news with someone, I may not remember to thank God as the originator of all good things. I may not even really pause to recognize the blessings.   

The curriculum asks “What good news do you have to share with one another?... How have you experienced your faith or trust in God as a blessing?” 

How often do you share good things with friends to encourage them? Telling one another when blessings happen deepens the joy for both parties. Let's tell our stories. One of the activities in the curriculum* and planner page is to pray for 10 minutes with someone. Another is to offer to pray for someone. Both are ways to share joys and sorrows.

This week, if something good happens consider pausing to say a prayer before moving on. Remember, prayer isn’t fancy words, it is simply a heartfelt meeting with God. Think about what you have to say ‘thank you’ for this week. Share that with a friend and with God. When we pray together, we offer Blessing to each other. When we pray for someone, we are giving them the gift of our heart. In all prayer, we are meeting God and joining in creating a Way of Love.

 Again, we close with the prayer from the curriculum* suggested for use this week: “O God of Elizabeth and Mary, you visited your servants with news of the world’s redemption in the coming of the Savior: Make our hearts leap with joy, and fill our mouths with songs of praise, that we may announce glad tidings of peace and welcome the Christ in our midst. Amen.”

*Way of Love Advent Curriculum; By Jenifer Gamber and Becky Zartman; Copyright © 2018 by The Episcopal Church;

The Episcopal Church/ 815 2nd Ave/New York, NY 10017

When God is Too Close

This Advent season we are looking at some of the main characters in the Christmas drama through the lens of Creation Spirituality as defined by Matthew Fox. (see last week).

According to Fox there our lives are a four-fold journey that involves the Via Positivia, Via Negativa, Via Creativa, and the Via Transformativa. Throughout our lives we ‘weave through these paths like a spiral danced.’

Mary of Nazareth is a key player in the Christmas story because she agrees to be the one to ‘bear a son and…call his name Emmanuel’ in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy to Israel given to King Ahaz centuries earlier. (Isaiah 7:14).

The Via Positiva is defined by Matthew Fox as the part of our life path where we experience awe, delight, amazement in the work of God in the world and in our lives. Mary, a teenage girl in the small town of Nazareth, was not expecting God to interact in her life in any amazing way. She was engaged to the carpenter of Nazareth, a man named Joseph, who she probably didn’t know very well. As was the custom of the time, her parents and his would have made the arrangements for the betrothal. This was much more than a promise to get married. In fact, except for the actual consummation, the Hebrew 1^st Century betrothal was equivalent to the wedding. If the man died, the woman inherited just as if she had been his wife.

Mary, as a betrothed girl, would have been busy with preparations for her wedding. She would have been getting blankets and baskets and bowls ready to move to Joseph’s home. He would have been busy renovating or building a home for his bride. Into this everyday world, God comes. Again, it is the angel Gabriel who arrives with an unexpected message. Six months earlier Gabriel visited Zechariah in the Temple. Now, “the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” It must have been an astonishing thing. “He came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.” Mary appears to be more concerned about why Gabriel calls her favored than by the fact that an angel is talking to her! Perhaps it is easier when confronted with the astonishingly Holy, to cling to the mundane.

Then he continues, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’

After this astonishing announcement, Mary is understandably confused. “Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.’ And as proof of his veracity, Gabriel adds, ‘And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Convinced and faithful, “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 1:26-38)

Stop and Think: Consider the difference in response between Mary and Zechariah. Are you more like Mary or Zechariah when you perceive God speaking? Has God ever ‘stepped’ into your everyday world and changed things?

You might wonder what part the Via Negative could play in Mary’s part in the drama. This is the part of our path where things can get rocky. Fox says the Via Negativa is characterized by uncertainty, darkness, suffering, and even letting go. Certainly, Mary had to relinquish her plans for her immediate future. She had to tell her parents and her betrothed husband the news. She had to accept that they were not happy about the situation and maybe even doubted her story.

When she said, “‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word”, Mary opened herself to the scorn and ridicule of family and friends. Only God could put things right. By trusting God, Mary showed a wisdom above her years. She did not try to convince Joseph or explain things to anyone. She simply waited on God and let go of her own plans. The simple married life she envisioned would never be. God had changed all that when God stepped into her life. Saying ‘yes’ to God’s call isn’t always easy and often means we have to let go of our carefully laid out plans.

Stop and Think: Put yourself in Mary’s sandals. What feelings might you have when you must you’re your parents and Joseph that you are pregnant, by God? What feelings would you have experienced when those who love you, doubt your story?

The Via Creativa is a time for returning to relationship with God which has been broken by the sin, doubt, or suffering of the Via Negativa. With the Via Creativa comes compassion for others. With nowhere else to turn, we can guess that Mary turned to God. There is nothing in scripture that gives any hint. We do know that she acted in a surprising way, for a teenage girl of her time.

She “set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.” (Luke 1:39-40) Perhaps reminded of the angel’s comment about Elizabeth being 6 months pregnant, the girl joined a caravan and went to visit her cousin. This was probably a week-long trek over dirt roads that could be beset by bandits. Mary was very brave both in her ‘yes’ to God, and her journey to see Elizabeth.

Upon reaching their home, she said hello to Elizabeth, who prophesied. ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ (Luke 1:41-45)

Elizabeth’s words were a balm to Mary’s confused and troubled heart. Seeing that the angel had spoke truthfully about Elizabeth’s pregnancy must have given Mary assurance that she had not imagined the whole incident with Gabriel. She could embrace the promise of God with joy.

 Stop and Think: How often do we try to fix things ourselves instead of turning to God when times get rough? What happened when you let go and let God take care of some difficult situation?

Mary responds to Elizabeth with the famous Magnificat, announcing a change in world order, the arrival of the Via Transformativa, where our lives join with God’s social justice and re-creation. When we come full circle back to union with God’s creativity, we are made more whole than before.

Mary sings, ‘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. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’ (Luke 1:46-55)

In Original Blessing Matthew Fox states, “Justice moves us first because injustice moves us. An erotic justice means first of all getting in touch with our feelings about injustice.” Mary’s Magnificat also calls us to consider the response of God to injustice and our call to work for justice.

Stop and Think: Matthew Fox asks “Do we have such feelings [about injustice]? Do we allow them to be? Do we have feelings toward unemployed…prisoners…small business swallowed by a multicorporate monster?” Do you need to join God in ‘erotic justice’?

The Gospel account in Luke tells us “Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.” The young woman leaves and returns to Nazareth where she will really have to face difficult questions because soon it will be glaringly obvious that she is ‘with child’. She and Joseph will need to face down the gossip. We’ll consider Joseph’s response to Mary and her announcement next week.

For thoughts from another blogger about Mary, her response and ours to God's call to action is on Life for Leaders on December 4.

Advent III-My soul magnifies the Lord

Today we look at Mary's visit to Elizabeth. Mary's song of joy, the Magnificat is probably one of the better known Bible passages.

Elizabeth was Mary’s relative, traditionally a cousin. Her husband Zechariah was a priest in the Temple and Elizabeth was “of the daughters of Aaron”. In other words, the family was members of the priesthood since the time of Moses. However, Elizabeth was barren, so the line would end with her generation. This was no doubt a source of great sadness to both Zechariah and Elizabeth. For Elizabeth it was probably worse because barrenness was an indication that you had sinned and God was angry.

Imagine their joy when the angel told Zechariah that Elizabeth would finally be pregnant and have a son. No wonder he was skeptical. He and his wife were “advanced in years”. Elizabeth “hid herself for 5 months, saying, ‘thus the Lord has done to me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach…’” The joy of being pregnant and the hope that it was true kept her from sharing the news until she was certain.


Mary learns of Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy when the angel informs her that “your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.” She decides to visit her cousin. Both women had received unexpected and astonishing gifts from God.

We continue with our interviewer Luke as he talks to Mary about her trip to see Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56). Images of the meeting are popular in art and range from medieval representations that include a priest at one end to more modern line drawings of the two women greeting each other.

LUKE: I understand you almost immediately went on a trip. Wasn’t that unusual?

MARY: The angel told me that Elizabeth, my cousin, was six months pregnant. I wanted to see her and rejoice with her. I was sure she would understand my own joy and my confusion about why I was chosen to be mother of Messiah.

LUKE: Were Joseph and your parents concerned?

MARY: (nods) They were. Mother tried to talk me out of it. ‘You should not travel in your condition,’ she cautioned. ‘This is God’s child,’ I reminded her, ‘nothing can happen.’ Joseph seemed to understand, although I know he was sad to see me leave so soon after our marriage.

LUKE: How did you get from Nazareth to Elizabeth?

MARY: There was a caravan from Sepphoris. Joseph knew one of the traders and entrusted me to his care. I walked most of the way. Sometimes I rode on a donkey the trader owned. It took nearly two weeks to make the trip. The traders stopped at several cities along the way. I was amazed by the different clothing and hair styles in some of the places, like Sebaste. I knew I shouldn’t, but I stared at the women of Samaria. They didn’t look debauched like people claimed because they don’t worship God like the Jews. They were friendly and kind to me.

LUKE: Was Elizabeth surprised to see you?

MARY: There was no way to let her know I was coming. When we arrived at Zechariah’s house, a servant ran to find his mistress. She came hurrying out of the house and I saw immediately that the angel had not lied. My cousin was heavy with child. I was a little ashamed of how relieved I was. Even though my own body was changing, I sometimes wondered if I dreamed the conversation with the angel.

LUKE: Then what happened?

MARY: (smiles at the memory) Elizabeth came toward me with her hands outstretched to welcome me. ‘Mary, how sweet of you…’ Then she stopped, stared at me, and crossed her hands over her belly. I thought something was wrong and ran toward her. A smile burst across her face and she caught my hands,

‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why has the mother of my Lord come to me?’ It was my turn to stare at her. She continued to exalt, ‘As soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

LUKE: You must have been relieved that she knew your news.

MARY: It was more than that. I felt almost as if God was drawing me close again. My own song broke out. The words just came flowing from my heart.

‘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.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

LUKE: That is beautiful.

MARY: Elizabeth and I had so much to talk about. She told me how an angel came to Zechariah when he was burning incense before the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. ‘He isn’t able to talk because he couldn’t believe I would have a child,’ she explained. ‘The angel told him, ‘you will be silent and unable to speak until the day these things come to pass because you did not believe my words.’ I am glad you are here because I haven’t had anyone to discuss the miracle with.’

LUKE: How long did you stay with Elizabeth?

MARY: I remained about 3 months. When it was almost time for her to be delivered, she sent me home. ‘You should not be present at the birth,’ she told me. ‘You must return to your husband and family and prepare for your own baby.’ Zechariah arranged for me to travel with some fellow priests who were returning to Galilee after their service at the Temple was done. We returned by a different route because they would not go through Samaria and the Roman escort preferred to stop at the Roman outposts. I was surprised that the priests were willing to travel with the conquerors, but then I realized they wanted to be safe.

LUKE: I can understand that traveling with Roman troops would have been safer than traveling alone.

MARY: The soldiers were kind to me. I was never afraid of them. Most of them were just young men. Joseph was glad to see me. He had finished our home while I was gone. Of course he built it adjacent to his father’s house. It was nice to return to my family.

Elizabeth and Mary are both women of great faith. Like Sarah in the Old Testament, Elizabeth was blessed with a child when she was ‘too old’. Jesus tells his disciples, “…all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27) When faced with something that seems impossible or improbable, it might be good to stop and remember the many times throughout history that God has accomplished the “impossible”. Often it is the women who are beneficiaries of this grace. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Hannah are just a few of the women who, like Elizabeth, conceived when it seemed impossible. Hebrews 11 lists a summary of the acts of grace that patriarchs and matriarchs received by faith. Their example can teach us to live our faith vibrantly.

Does the song of Mary resonate with you as a glorious revelation of the ways God acts to ‘lift up the lowly’?
Are there ways you can be part of God’s plan to show love by ‘filling the hungry’ or otherwise making a difference in your corner of the world?

The second verse of “Great is Thy Faithfulness” summarizes some of the ways we know, through nature, that God is with us. The miraculous birth of Elizabeth’s son, John (the Baptist), was the confirmation Mary needed to reassure her heart that God was indeed with her.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

As promised, the book special this week (Dec. 13-19) is free shipping on any of my books. You can only get this special by emailing me and noting Blog Special in the memo line.

See you next week for the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.