Punk-Rock Mary

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
December 22, 2024
4 Advent, C
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-55

We just heard in our Gospel reading Mary’s words of praise to God, not only for placing Jesus to grow in her womb, but also praise to God for the upheaval God has planned for humanity. We call Mary’s words, “The Song of Mary” or “The Magnificat”, and I heard a comment last week that someone wished there was a punk-rock version of the Magnificat, and that seems to fit pretty darn well the whole idea of Mary’s song. The status quo ain’t quo, and God is not ok with how things are: the rich get richer while the poor struggle ever harder. 

That won’t stand in God’s eyes; there will be an upheaval, Mary proclaims. The lowly will be raised up, and the rich will be sent empty away. If that ain’t punk rock, or rap, or metal, or any kind of protest music, I don’t know what is. 

We’ve got these quiet, mindful, demure images of Mary, hands folded, piously looking heavenward: a dutiful little housewife with no real will of her own, other than to say, “You bet!” to the Holy Spirit impregnating her with Jesus. Hmm, let’s look at Mary for a minute.

She was likely about 14, the general age for marriage back then, and she was risking everything by saying “Yes” to God’s offer to have her be the mother of Jesus, the mother of God as a human being. She was risking her marriage as Joseph may or may not have believed and understood that she was bearing God’s son. She was therefore risking her life because if Joseph didn’t believe that she was bearing God’s son, she could have been killed for adultery, bearing another man’s child. If not killed, she was still risking being ostracized and outcast for dishonoring her family and bringing some unknown man’s child into the world with no real hope of land or security.

So, Mary was taking a big risk by saying “Yes” to God. “Let it be with me, your servant, according to your will,” she said to God, and she seems to have been pretty darn excited about it. Quiet, mindful, and demure? No, Mary was excited, faithful, and outspoken, and she spoke out about what God was doing in the world by becoming human and living among us. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” she said, because she was so excited about what she knew what was coming.

She knew what the angel Gabriel had told her, that Jesus would be the son of God and that he would rule forever. Mary also seems to have known the scriptures because what Mary was describing in her punk-rock, rap, metal protest song was the kind of status quo smashing action that God had taken continually throughout the scriptures. 

Oppression of the poor laborers by the rich ruling class, yeah, that kind of stuff has never sat well with God, and we see throughout the scriptures God telling the people of Israel and other nations that a reconning is coming because of their oppression of the poor. ‘Oh, you’re very religious, and that’s great,’ God would say, ‘but when you have a society in which those at the top keep getting more and those at the bottom don’t have enough to live on, then by your actions you show that I’m not the one you’re worshipping.’ 

That was God’s complaint, over and over. There was outright idolatry too, but time and again, God’s big complaint against the people was that when their society became one in which the rich had more than they could ever need and the poor worked hard for not enough, then the people’s god had become something other than actual God. 

“But we worship you all the time,” the people say, and God says, “Yea, I don’t know you, for I was naked and hungry, without shelter, and you did nothing but stare with indifference and contempt.” That’s how Jesus said judgement will be, the same kind of reconning that God has brought throughout human history. 

So, when Mary sang, “God 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,” she was being a punk-rock prophet. She was remembering what had happened over and over when God intervened in our world.

Now, we could look at Mary’s protest anthem as a song about class warfare, rich vs. poor, the rich losing the battle and the poor overtaking them in conflict. As a rock song, that would certainly sell a few albums, and the movie would be great to watch, but I’m not sure God would be all that delighted in such devastating a conflict. 

See, what we read about God and what we hear Mary proclaim is that God does not desire for one group to rise up and destroy the other. It happens a lot. An oppressive and powerful minority is eventually ousted as the oppressed rise up in violence against them. We recently saw this happen in Syria as the oppressive government was overthrown after over a decade of civil war.

Violent uprising is the way things tend to go after the oppressed have finally had enough, but I don’t think that’s what Mary was singing about. Punk-rock Mary was a revolutionary, but not a violent revolutionary. John the Baptist was in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth when Jesus was in the womb of Mary, and even in the womb, when John heard Mary speak, he leapt for joy.

The revolution that Mary was singing about was the kind of revolution that John started when he went into the wilderness baptizing people. Mary was singing about a revolution of repentance. That’s the kind of revolution we see God desiring throughout scripture, constantly warning the people that violent revolution is coming if you don’t repent of oppression. Violent revolution is coming, God warns, if your society doesn’t stop claiming to worship me while actually worshipping wealth and power. 

God’s desire is to break the cycle of violent uprising. God’s desire is revolution of repentance where the rich and all of society will turn away from their love of wealth and power and instead learn to love one another. That is what John proclaimed in the wilderness. That is what Jesus taught over and over again. That’s what Jesus gives us the power to do.

In our world today, we can’t go on as we are. A society increasingly ruled by wealthy oligarchs who push for rules to benefit themselves while almost fifty percent of people struggle to make ends meet. Society can’t go on that way.

So, we look to Jesus, to the revolution of repentance and love which he brought. We sing the song of punk-rock Mary, calling for and living for a revolution of repentance and love, rather than a violent revolution. That’s why Mary’s soul proclaimed the greatness of the Lord. God lifts up the poor and the oppressed. God turns our hearts to repentance and love to end oppression by breaking the cycles of violence and leading us to God’s kingdom of peace. 

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it!” - Mary, Teenager, Mother of God

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
December 20, 2020
4 Advent, B
Canticle 15 (Luke 1:46-55)
Luke 1:26-38

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it!” - Mary, Teenager, Mother of God

Christmas Card Design by Parker Fitzgerald

https://www.cleansingfire.org/.../a-contemporary.../

“Do not be afraid,” Gabriel said to Mary.  He said this in response to Mary’s rather non-plussed reaction to his initial salutation, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you,” to which Mary seems to have responded about how you might expect a young teenager to respond.  “Huh.  That’s a rather odd way of greeting me, but ok, let’s see what this guy has to say.”

“Do not be afraid,” Gabriel said to Mary, but Mary doesn’t seem to have been all that afraid.  Maybe she was a particularly brave and trusting young woman.  Maybe she particularly devout in her faith, and she does seem to have been pretty devout.  Maybe it was also a good thing that she was a teenager and still invincible like all teenagers are.  Had she been in her mid 20s, it might have been more of a cautious response.  “Ok, so what’s this gonna mean for me, and how’s this all gonna go?

“Well kiddo,” Gabriel would’ve responded, “not long from now, your ankles will swell, you’re gonna have a hard time sleeping and getting comfortable in general, you’re going to be in a lot of pain during the birth, and you’ll pee just a little bit every time you cough for the rest of your life.  Oh, and most of your family will at least initially thing you’ve cheated on Joseph and brought shame upon them, but hey this child is gonna be hugely important, so your parenting of him has to be…not perfect, but at least better than sub par.  So, hey, hey, it’s ok, don’t be afraid.”  

See, Mary didn’t seem to be afraid.  All the reasons why following God’s plan would be rather troublesome for Mary, those things didn’t get in her way.  The plan was pretty much for Joseph and her to get married and have some kids anyway, so Mary seemed rather thrilled at the whole idea.  Once Gabriel left, she sang a song about how great it was not only for her, but for all people, that the Holy Spirit was going to conceive a son in her womb.  Her response to Gabriel was not a timid, “Let it be with me according to your word,” but an enthusiastic, “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word.  This is fantastic.”  

See, teenager:  idealistic, trusting, ready to take on the world and know that is messed up, beautiful, and worth saving.  Mary understood that she was part of God’s kingdom on Earth.  She was part of God’s story of redemption, part of God’s story of restoration.  She was like Princess Leah in Star Wars, ready to take on the whole Empire, stand up to Darth Vader, and lie to his face because she believed in something greater than herself and saw herself as part of a larger story of justice, of ending oppression, of lifting up the lowly, and casting down the mighty.  

[God] has shown the strength of his arm, (Mary sang). He has scattered the proud in their conceit.  He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.  He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.  He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.

All of these things, God has done, Mary sang, in joy and excitement.  She knew, and trusted, and loved the God whom she served, and she couldn’t wait to be a part of God’s story and to see what God had in store for Israel and the world through her and her son.  She didn’t know exactly what was coming, but she knew redemption was coming.  She knew restoration was coming.  She knew wrongs were going to be righted.  She knew that God’s kingdom was coming.

She knew that God’s kingdom is a kingdom of love, a kingdom where God’s power is used to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  God’s kingdom is a kingdom of love in which our power and our wealth are used not to gain even more power and wealth for ourselves.  In God’s kingdom, our power and our wealth, whatever power and wealth we have, are used to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  

At Emmanuel, we are using what we have to lift up the lowly, to feed the hungry, and to show mercy.  We are helping to provide food for mothers and their children who are getting on their feet at Gracewood.  We got to help a couple of families this Advent through Angel Tree.  We are helping to provide food and shelter for people experiencing homelessness through Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church.  We’re helping children through our support of MAM’s back to school program.  We’re providing prayers and prayer quilts through the Daughters of the King and our sewing ministry.  We’re helping people recover and rebuild after disasters have destroyed people’s homes.  These are some of the many ways we get to be a part of God’s kingdom through our life at Emmanuel.  

At Emmanuel, in the year of COVID and social distancing, God is also proclaiming the good news of Jesus in twice daily online prayer, in weekly online worship, and in a live Nativity to a neighborhood who just had a new church move in.  In the crazy of the COVID, Emmanuel has chosen not to be afraid, but instead to be like the teenage Mary saying, “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word.”  

Do not be afraid, God tells us, for fear leads to turning away from God’s kingdom.  Fear keeps us small.  Fear keeps us focused on ourselves.  Fear tells us that we aren’t enough, that we don’t have enough, that we can’t do the right thing, that we won’t be ok. Now, we all have fears, and we all are afraid in various ways.  The key is not to let those fears rule our lives.  

Mary may well have had some fears of losing her family, of losing her husband, but her teenage brain saw the beauty of God’s kingdom, saw the light of God’s presence burning throughout creation and said to her fears, “Nah, it’ll be ok.”  So how do we get past our fears and keep that teenage brain gloriously excited about living God’s kingdom and saying, “Nah, it’ll be ok,” to our fears?

One way is to follow the advice of Jedi Master Yoda, to “Train [ourselves] to let go of everything [we] fear to lose.” Imagine living without those things that we fear to lose, and feel God’s presence with us even in that loss.  Jesus had the same advice for a young man who, like Mary, wanted to live God’s kingdom, but who also many possessions and was afraid to give them up.  “Go and sell all that you have, and then come, and follow me,” Jesus said, and the man walked away sad because he didn’t want to give up what he had.  His stuff, and fear of living without his stuff, kept him from living God’s kingdom.  He could not let go of that which he feared to lose, so he no longer had the teenage brain to see the beauty of God’s kingdom and say to his fears, “Nah, it’ll be ok.”

In this time of Advent, of preparation for Jesus always coming into the world, we are reminded to train ourselves to let go of everything we fear to lose.  We are reminded of Jesus’ teaching to let go of whatever is keeping us small and focused on ourselves.  We get to hear again the Angel Gabriel’s words, “Do not be afraid.”  

Do not be afraid of losing what you have in the service of others.  Do not be afraid of losing what you have in the service of God’s kingdom, for God lifts up the lowly.  Train yourself to let go of everything that keeps you from living God’s kingdom.  Spend time each day in prayer, seeking God’s will and way.  Pray over what you have and what you fear to lose, and pray that all of it may be used for God’s kingdom, whether by you or by someone else.  Talk and pray with others, your family and friends, seeking together how to follow God’s will and way, how to live God’s love, redemption, restoration, justice, and mercy.   

That is the way of God’s kingdom and the way of Mary who knew, and trusted, and loved the God whom she served and couldn’t wait to be a part of God’s story.  She saw the light of God’s fire throughout creation, loved God’s plan and was excited to be a part of it.  

“I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it.”  In addition to being a quote from Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, that is the response God is looking for when we catch a glimpse of God’s kingdom and our part to play in it.  Fear schmear.  “How is God calling me to be a part of God’s story of love, redemption, restoration, justice, and mercy?”  What makes my non-fearful Mary-like teenage brain say, “I love this plan; I’m excited to be a part of it,” and “Oh heck yeah, let it be with me according to your word?”