Hail Mary, Chosen Servant

December 19, 2005

As a child growing up in the Bible belt, Protestants were taught to beware of Catholicism. I assume they were taught a similar caution regarding us. I shall never forget the day Charles Goldsmith, a Catholic classmate who lived one street over from me, and I decided to ride our bikes to each other’s churches. That was my first venture inside St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Yazoo City. And just as Rev. Goodbody had warned in numerous sermons, there were all the statues (idols, I was sure) surrounding the ornate sanctuary. What worried me most was the sanctuary at the Assured Brethren Church was plain in comparison. Maybe I was a bit envious.

As we left St. Mary’s, Charles stopped at a small font in the vestibule. Charles dipped his fingers into the water and sprinkled some water on him. “What’s that?” I asked in pure innocence and ignorance. “Holy water,” Charles said. “We baptize infants with this.” That’s when I knew I had something to show him. “If you think that is a baptistery, wait until you see ours!” And off we went on our bicycle tour of Yazoo City’s churches.

If I have matured in any area of my life, I hope it is a spiritual maturity that does not demand others must believe and behave as I do. Such insistence on conformity is based upon fear, not faith.

That is why I offer a hearty Protestant “Hail Mary” this Christmas. Mary has much to teach all of us. It’s OK, my Protestant friends, to say it, despite our learned reservations. It’s right there in the King James Bible. “And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, (Mary), thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” Luke 1:28

First, Mary was an ordinary person. God has a way of selecting the most uncommon folk to do His best work. The angel told Mary, “Thou art highly favored”. You and I are highly favored to have a Father of grace.

Secondly, Mary teaches us that being God’s chosen does not mean our path will be easy. Mary taught us what the angel meant when he said, “the Lord is with thee”. And the Lord is with us, through the good and bad that will befall us. Mary was chosen to conceive a child of the Holy Spirit. Both then and now, many could and cannot grasp the magnitude of that fact. How many of us would want our integrity called into question, not just for a lifetime, but for all eternity? Riding from Nazareth to Bethlehem in her ninth month, having her baby born in a stable, probably becoming widowed at a young age are not what most folks envision when they hear “You are God’s chosen”. Then the greatest trial of all was Mary watching her beloved son Jesus go through the mockery of a trial, witness his scourging, and endure every parent’s nightmare, watching her child die. Nowhere do we hear her complain, or ask, “Why me?”

Finally, having taught us how to faithfully complete our course as “God’s chosen”, I imagine Mary would be the last to seek our praise. But that does not mean she doesn’t deserve credit for being the vessel who brought our Savior to us. The angel spoke a truth: “Blessed at thou among women.”

A final thought. Maybe one of the outcomes of 9-11-01 is that Protestants and Catholics, Baptists and Methodists, high church and low church do not see each other as the enemy any longer. Maybe, just maybe, we have something to learn from each other, if we have the courage to overcome our fears.