Mother Mary
Mother Mary, Theotokos
Saint Mary’s memory is honored in many Christian churches today. Mary was flesh and blood and Jesus was her son, flesh, blood, and connected with her people.
All of us, called to be saints, have special days. For most of us, it is our birthday. For Mary, the mother of Jesus, it is a day designated by the church hundreds of years ago. We can celebrate it because we are always free to celebrate those lives through which God has expressed himself in the world.
We think very highly of Mary through the window of sacred history, but others saw the designation of Jesus as her son to be a justification for derision. It was not her reputation for having conceived Him out of wedlock at this point that framed their curses. That would come up at some point, but this was subtler. They accused Him of being common and familiar. They knew Him and His brothers and their familiarity bred contempt.
He was common and He was uncommon. As the son of Mary, He had history and culture, family and traditions. He was given the gifts of language, nuance, familial customs, memories, and relationships, but He was always, also the Son of God and that reality was easily obscured to those who knew Him best as a carpenter.
We must be careful not to allow familiarity to obscure holiness to our view. The ordinary may not be so ordinary at all. Our familiarity with the things of God can be a liability if we forget to seek the sacred amidst the profane.
From day one on this planet, Jesus was among us as vulnerable.
From the beginning, he was among the poor, the refuge, the oppressed, the hunted, the one unwelcome by powers, but longed for by the lowly.
This was day one.
It was day two as well, and later, expelled from his land, fleeing with His parents, in mortal danger, He was among us as one who could remind us that God sees us in our lowest estate and comes to us with good news.
How long did Mary and Joseph remain in the stable before they found a room or a shanty?
We do not know. They still had to stand in lines to register for their taxes. They had to remain in a place far from home. There are so many gaps, but all we need to know is here in the text. From the text, we know this: There was no room for Him.
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” — Luke 2:7
Everyone knew what a manger was and it was no place for a king. Everyone knew what swaddling clothes were and that they were unfit garb for the Lord of glory.
Nor should he have been relegated to a barn.
They just didn’t understand and we are still having a hard time “getting it.”
“Away in a manger, no crib for a bed.”
This is His poverty, His willing emptying of Himself, His lowliness and love to identify with the least and the lost among us.
No crib — no bed — no amenities — no sanitized conditions — just a trough where the livestock were fed, just rough clothes to cover Him and keep Him somewhat warm. He became as the lowliest among us.
“The little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head.”
He was there, helpless and sweet, all God and all man, emptied of all the riches and prerogatives that were rightfully His, poor and needy like us. Who couldn’t love such a baby? Who wouldn’t?
“The stars in the sky looked down where He lay.”
No one standing by would have known how all of creation that night was subject to that little bundle of new life. Humanity has no capacity to notice when millions of angels bow and worship. And yet, it was happening all around them.
Humanity continues to turn a blind eye toward the presence of Jesus manifest in the least of His poor brethren. We do not see Him in the hungry, longing eyes of the children. We do not see Him in the faces of the displaced and disinherited. He is among us in the company of the poor and we look for Him elsewhere.
“The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.”
God grant that we not miss Him lying there or among us. May we not overlook Him, take Him for granted, or minimize His importance. He is so easily discarded and disregarded, but He cannot be ultimately ignored.
May your heart today become His manger, your flesh, His swaddling clothes, and your heart like the stars in the sky that bow before Him.
Mary has been called the “Theotokos.” It means “God-bearer.”
Rachmaninov composed one of his great works as a tribute to Mary, who bore the Son of God and in whom God was incarnate, appealing to her prayers on our behalf.
You may also be a God-bearer in whom the Son of God incarnates Himself in the world and through whom He shows His love and compassion for humanity?
There are Christians who ask Mary to pray for them. It is suggested in the book of Revelation, that God’s saints are always praying for us and, in the book of Hebrews, that they are cheering for us.
If we want to related to those prayers, no problem. But, let us join them and pray for one another. (James 5:16)
Let us pray for each other to be ever vigilant in prayer. (Colossians 4:2–4)
Let us pray for each other to be grave conquerors. (Romans 8:37)
There are people who are hoping in our intercessions as we hope in the intercessions of others.
Bear God, this morning, to a hurting world. Bear God as light in darkness. Share His love. Do His bidding. Lift the fallen. Bring hope where there is no hope. Feed the hungry. Heal the sick.
Raise the dead.
Freely, you have received; freely give.
“The tremendous revelation of Christianity is not the Fatherhood of God, but the Babyhood of God — God became the weakest thing in His own creation, and in flesh and blood He levered it back to where it was intended to be. No one helped Him; it was done absolutely by God manifest in human flesh. God has undertaken not only to repair the damage, but in Jesus Christ the human race is put in a better condition than when it was originally designed.” — Oswald Chambers, in The Shadow of an Agony from the Quotable Oswald Chambers.
A major goal of my life would be to be like Chambers and others I admire and still be active in encouraging deep thought and extraordinary living long after I am gone. I think when I have that possibility in place and operating, then I will be ready for my call home.
Now, I still have quite a bit of work to do as Jesus’ life is incarnated in mine and I seek to reflect Him in all I say, do, and write. It is a journey and I have only yet begun. Yet, I am encouraged in the knowledge that He started small and He is with
A wonderful reminder of what it means to align with the child in the manger on Christmas morning. To follow this man, Jesus, means to adopt His program, to enter His kingdom as a child by turning from everything else (repentance). When we make that turn, grace and mercy cover every failed attempt we have ever made to make life meaningful or bearable. Every sin is obliterated because He carried this entire program to the final degree of obedience unto death.
Following His is freedom to bring this same good news of release, sight, liberty, and Jubilee to all for, as the Spirit was upon Him, He is with us and within us to accomplish these purposes. Our hearts and our lives are in lockstep with His heart and life for the poor, the captive, the blind, and the bruised.
We can change things. We can make a difference. It is not all on any of us, but it is upon us all as one people with Him. We will have multiple failures, disappointments, and quite a few successes …. but the walk behind Him is a walk of grace and joy and peace.
Welcome, Jesus! We shall follow you!
Hear, this morning, every morning, overflowing with a pleasing theme, a sense of centering, and longing for that which is ultimate, eternal, and true, for God. This is the beginning. It is not emotional, but it emotes. It is volitional rejoicing. “This is the day that the LORD hath made. I WILL rejoice and be glad in it.” It comes from the heart.
It moves toward intentional, intellectual, spiritual, creative worship. What defines it as worship is direction. Direction defines devotion. If I address my verses to the king (and, in this case, and earthly king, but in ours, a Heavenly King), then I am praising that one to whom I direct my thoughts and words.
Then, we move to content and with tongue and pen and tongue as pen words form that we scribble and inscribe. We observe and then, we repeat. We hear and we say. We listen and we share.
“My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
I address my verses to the king;
my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.” — Psalm 45:1
We return to Mary, who is depicted now as a one woman choir and a timeless worship leader.
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord …” — Luke 1:46
The Magnificat remains one of the most glorious expressions of praise in all of musical literature.
Perhaps, someday, in Heaven, God will allow us to hear a replay of the day Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth or the day the angel visited Mary and announced God’s intentions to her. We would hear that conversation that altered history and sweet sound of her acceptance of God’s great gift of His Son to and through her.
The music of absolute surrender would call us to worship and we would join her in exclaiming,
“My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior!”
No less significant was the day your heart responded to God’s grace and declared, “be it unto me according to thy word.”
That God would regard the low estate of His handmaiden and plant the seed of redemption within her womb is a magnificent thing indeed. That God would regard our low estates that Christ might be conceived and born in our hearts by faith is astounding!
We cannot help but sing His praise. We cannot resist the call the worship. We cannot feign to exalt His Name and rejoice in the miracle of His coming. As Mary conceived without human agency, so, that which is born in us of God is without human effort.
Welcome Him to your life anew today and join in chorus:
Prophets foretold Him,
Infant of wonder;
Angels behold Him
On the throne;
Worthy our Savior
Of all our praises;
Happy forever are His own.
(Mary Macdonald, 1888)
Rejoice!
Mary refers to God’s lifting of people.
I was lifting weights.
I suppose I lifted a bit too much — or for too long — — or on top of an injury — — or something.
No pain, no gain. I know and embrace that. I also know that I can overdo it. There is a balance to it all and sometimes I don’t know where the edge is until I’ve gone over it.
All is well. We break down tissue and the healing brings development, strength, and a host of benefits.
None of those dead weights achieved any benefit from being lifted by me. I received them all. It is different with lifting people. Then, the person lifting and the person being lifted are both blessed.
So, I thought I’d see what we could do for an acronym on “lift.”
L — Love
No to be trite, but if what we do to lift another is not moved by love and infused with love, nothing positive has happened. It is always about the other person and never about ourselves. When I lift weights, it is about God and me. When I lift people, it is about God and them and I get benefits in a peripheral way.
I — Intuition
How do you know when to encourage, edify, or lend a hand to help? You learn to feel your way through it. You do that by developing the vulnerable art of sensitivity. For some, it comes easy. For others, it is counter-intuitive to be intuitive. However, by slowing down and using all of our senses, we will know when we are needed.
F — Fight
When we lift a weight, we are fighting resistance. The resistance is the weight, but the greater resistance is within us. We press against what seems to be an unmovable force with strength we do not know we possess. And that force retreats. We are lending our shoulders to a soul who does not know he or she can move upward. We are not fighting their battles for them, but with them. We become a team and rejoice with them when they overcome their resistance. In the process, we realize that we have overcome much as well.
T — Today
The question is, and always is, “Who can I lift today?” We make ourselves available and stay available. If we are willing, the one who needs a lift will cross our paths. If will happen because the world is full of people who are struggling. Some are discouraged. Others just need a hand. God will bring you into contact with people who need a lift and with others who will lift you. After all, it is also His work:
“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the
ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of
honor. “For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; upon them he
has set the world.” I Samuel 2:8 (NIV)
In the biblical tradition, three women stand out as blessed with miraculous conceptions, culminating with the most miraculous of all.
When Mary uttered her song of praise, magnifying the Lord, she was not the first. Notably, Hannah’s praise, exulting in the Lord, rings down through the ages. One wonders if, when Mary began to comprehend what was happening in her life, she thought of Hannah and Sarah. These were women who were older and believed they were too old. Mary thought she was too young.
But God …
And with God …
And when God steps in, souls magnify the Lord.
1 Samuel 2:1–10, New Revised Standard Version
Hannah prayed and said,
“My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in my victory.“There is no Holy One like the Lord,
no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
and on them he has set the world.“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
for not by might does one prevail.
The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered;
the Most High will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king,
and exalt the power of his anointed.”
Praise to God for God’s marvelous work is our order of the day.
Praise in the big things.
Praise in the little things.
Praise in the ordinary.
Praise in the extraordinary.
Praise at the beginning of life.
Praise throughout life.
Praise when it is going well.
Praise when all is tedious and painful.
Praise when an ominous future awaits.
Praise at the end of life.
Praise at the dawning of new life.
Praise.
The journey of Mary, and references to her life, show her pondering, wondering, expressing faith, traveling, submitting to the customs of her faith, standing by her son at the cross, and going to the tomb and finding it empty.
She was also present for his first miracle.
“This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.” — John 21:14
My favorite event in the early years of my schooling was neither recess nor lunch; it was “Show and Tell. “ Students would bring objects from home and tell stories about them.
I loved to show and tell my own interests and observe the presentations of others. Something about that activity captured my imagination and played to my basic curiosity about life and all things related to life.
John, the Apostle, valued what the followers of Jesus had seen, heard, seen, looked upon, and handled, according to his first epistle. Early in his gospel, he remembered Jesus inviting the first disciples to “come and see,” and then one of them using the same words to invite another.
“Show and Tell” was an effective tool of Jesus for teaching throughout His life. That is why He called people to follow Him as a full time vocation. He walks, ate, and rested with His disciples. They were always with Him observing His life and hearing His words.
Then they watched Him die. He showed them the full measure of His love in His sacrifice.
They saw it with their own eyes and were forever marked with the memory of the cross.
As they sat by the water, after His resurrection, He showed Himself to them yet again. In His post-resurrection appearances, He bolstered their faith visible and brought verbal perspective to what they had experienced. It was “Show and Tell.”
Jesus wants to impress upon us that His life is more than a curiosity. He has called us into a grand demonstration of God’s love and power, to receive His witness and to demonstrate it to others as well.
How has He shown Himself to you? What will you show forth in your life?
Peace be with you,
I think Mary, who is not always silent, but often shown listening and watching, was probably a source for the gospel writers. There are things only she knew and elements that are seen from her perspective.
She also spent considerable time waiting for God to reveal his Son and his plan.
Waiting for the “Good Stuff” is a lesson that comes from the “water to wine” incident.
Wait on the wine until the “good stuff” comes at the culmination of all things. Another might be that when Jesus shows up, the party begins. Another might just be that he can do this and do it at will. Or, it could be that he saw an opportunity to do good and help his mom and her friends and he did it.
Whether we “spiritualize,” analyze, or “pragmatize” it, John calls it “a sign” and it was. It was a sign that something much newer than new wine had arrived on the scene of the human party.
Let the party begin!
“ and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” -John 2:10 ESV)
Lessons from a Feast
Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. — John 2:11
What happened there at that feast where Jesus was a guest, but his mother seemed to be in charge of some of the details?
What? — Revelation. Jesus revealed his glory.
Where?- Location. It was in a particular place and time, space-time.
When? — Celebration. It was at a time of festive joy.
How? — Invitation. It was an invitation for those who followed him to believe.
Why? — Multiplication. The circle of belief was about to grow.
And Mary was a part of it.
Two Women Named, “Mary”
“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? … Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.”(Excerpted from John 20:15- 16)
Once, there were two women named, “Mary”, one from Nazareth and one from Magdala, a Christmas Mary and an Easter Mary. Their lives and their journeys overlapped. Each found Jesus in the midst of crisis. Each submitted to the Master in humble consecration. Each loved Him with pure and sincere love.
Mary, the mother of Jesus received an angelic announcement of Jesus’ coming. Mary Magdalene received such an announcement of His resurrection — and then, she saw him! Mary of Nazareth submitted her life as the handmaid of the Lord; Mary of Magdala as a disciple.
Both women named, “Mary” were shocked and dismayed by their circumstances. Both came to the place of rejoicing and praise through encounter with the Lord. It is always Easter at Christmas for the Christian and always Christmas at Easter. In our dismay and bewilderment with the circumstances of our lives, we receive the Jesus message as a whole package and we submit our lives to him.
Mary of Nazareth began her journey with Jesus before He was born and followed Him to the cross and beyond to the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene joined Him later in the journey, but had the same quality of encounter with him. It is the encounter that we must have.
Come to Mary’s house today and let Jesus be conceived in your heart. Come to the manger and rejoice at His birth. Come to the cross and let His blood wash away your sins. Come to the empty tomb and receive His life eternal Come to Jesus today, and worship him.
Mary, the “Theotokos” leads us full circle from the genealogies leading up to the birth of Jesus, through his conception, his birth, his dedication, his flight to Egypt, his pilgrimage to the temple, his emergence and a teacher, his first miracle, his ministry, his death, and his resurrection. She is a part of the early church, no doubt, loved and honored. She is a witness to his message and his redemptive work. She is a reminder of our call to be God-Bearers.
We are called and commissioned and baptized in the Spirit to incarnate the presence of God in the world. We are called to be salt and light. We are called to be the presence of love in a loveless world, father-love and mother-love, brother and sister love. We are called and equipped to embody truth, mercy, and grace.
We are called to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
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