Mary of Nazareth

 Isaiah 11: 1-6

 Hebrews 10: 5-10

Luke 1:26-38 

Mary of Nazareth

Mary, the mother of Jesus.  We Protestants tend to ignore Mary. It is interesting that we do because the Bible claims that Mary is the most blessed of all women.

I thumbed through our hymnbook the other day, and I could not find a single hymn that reflected a respect for this woman, the most blessed woman on all human history. Not one hymn in our hymnbook. The closest hymn I could find was a Christmas carol, “What Child Is This,” but that was the only hymn I could find.

Like so many personalities in the Bible, we can know a good deal about Mary’s life. We know enough from historical tradition, the Bible, and the culture of the time to gain a fairly broad perspective on her. We know from writings and tradition  in the second century that her parents may have been named Joachim and Anna. In the Gospel of Luke 1:32, the Bible implies that she is of the house of David, just as is Joseph.

In the Bible, we first meet Mary when she was a young girl of between thirteen and fifteen. Think of someone perhaps eighth or ninth grade in school. In other words, Mary was just starting to become a young woman. In her day, however, girls her age were betrothed. Women would have been asking come to Mary and say, “When are you going to get engaged, Mary?” Or  “When is your father, Joachim, going to make arrangements for you?” Mary’s father arranged for his daughter to be engaged to a young carpenter by the name of Joseph.

It can be said of Mary that God chose a humble person to use as his instrument to accomplish God’s work in the world. God chose a humble instrument.  One translation of the Bible says that she was a “handmaiden,” and the word, “handmaiden,” really masquerades that she was a servant.  The Greek word is “doulos,” and this is a common well-used word in the Bible for servant or slave. Mary was a servant girl, a slave girl; she was someone else’s property. The Bible says that Jesus was born of a woman under the law, a woman of low estate.

I like the following quotation:  “Just as Jesus was born in a humble stable, so Christ today is only born in humble hearts.”  That quotation is potent. Just as Jesus was born in a humble stable, so Christ is born only in humble hearts. Proud people think they have no need of Christ; but those who humbly cry out to God need God’s presence to heal, guide and forgive. We don’t need to have beauty, bread and brains to be used by God.

A second point about Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mary had the audacity to believe that God had chosen her.  She said, “Do with my life as you want to.”  She had the audacity to believe that God had chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah. Mary didn’t say like Moses, “Well, I am not good enough; God, get someone who can talk better.” Nor was Mary like Zechariah, “Lord, give me a sign. Prove it to me and then I will believe.”  Mary simply believed that God chose her.  Because she believed, she was able to put into effect what God had chosen her to do.

I believe that as God chose Mary, God has also chosen you and me. I believe that you are seated here in this congregation today because God has chosen you. God has chosen to use your life in God’s mission for the world. Further, I firmly believe that God has not only chosen you individually, but that God has chosen congregations and this particular congregation, Grace Lutheran Church, to accomplish some good works of love on Christ’s behalf. I do not believe it is an accident that we are now together as a pastor and people. God has brought us together to do a mission, to do a ministry together.

 I believe that God has several great tasks for this congregation to do. If you would dare to believe that, just as Mary dared to believe that in her own life.  If you dare to believe that God has some significant missions for your individual life and our congregational life together, fantastic things will start to happen in the life of this congregation and in our individual lives. If you dare to believe that you are chosen, if we as a congregation are chosen