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What was Mary Thinking?

            You have to wonder what Mary was thinking on Christmas morning.  The focus of Christmas Day is properly the Father’s love and Jesus’ birth and, of course, we’re Lutherans, and we’re sensitive about overdoing the Mary thing. But do you ever wonder what Mary was thinking that morning?  This was a teenager.  Martin Luther suggests she was 15.  Now I know we can’t really compare 15 year old girls today with a 15 year old girl who lived 2,000 years ago.  Back then children grew up faster than they do today and they got married sooner.  It wasn’t so unusual back then for a 15 year old girl to have a baby.  But still.  On that first Christmas morning Mary was looking back at an incredible chain of events: engagement to a young carpenter named Joseph, very likely moving into his house to become a homemaker--that was the custom.  Those are life-changing events all by themselves.  But that wasn’t the half of it.  You know the story.  At one moment Mary was a normal, average, typical teenage girl, and in the next moment she was on center stage in the most incredible event in the history of the world.  What was Mary thinking on Christmas morning?  We can’t help but wonder. 

            So Mary is at home in Nazareth one day, maybe cleaning or cooking or doing any of the things she normally did and all at once there’s a good looking young man standing in her kitchen with some pretty fancy talk, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”  What was Mary thinking?  The Bible says “she was greatly troubled and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”  Was she frightened, confused?  Certainly both.  What is this all about?  She didn’t wait long to find out.  You’re going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.  The young man kept talking, but Mary’s mind seemed to stop at “pregnant.”  She may have been living in Joseph’s house, but she wasn’t sleeping in Joseph’s bed.  This couldn’t be possible.  But then what the young man was saying began to sink in.  Was she hearing this right? This son would be great and called the Son of the Most High?  The Lord God would give him the throne of his father David, and he would reign over the house of Jacob forever?  His kingdom would never end?  And there was more, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”  What was Mary thinking?  A 21^st century woman would certainly say something about her rights, but Mary lived in a different world.  And she wasn’t going to get into a debate with an angel. 

            We don’t know how much time passed before she felt the first wave of nausea.  She had to talk to somebody.  Normally, girls talk to their mothers about these sorts of things, but there’s no mention of a mother.  Luther assumes Mary was an orphan.  Would she tell Joseph?  That didn’t seem too wise.  The neighbor next door?  The rabbi?  But who would ever believe this?  She would go and see her cousin Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was older, wiser, and the news was that she was pregnant, too.  Joseph would understand; he wouldn’t consider it strange that she would go and help a relative.  Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s house and the first things she heard was this, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”  Elizabeth knew!   They say that a woman always knows when another woman is pregnant.  Maybe, but Elizabeth knew because the Holy Spirit told her, and apparently told her everything.  And Elizabeth told Mary everything.  What was Mary thinking?   From what we read in the Bible, she was overwhelmed, ecstatic, and thankful all at the same time.  That God would choose a nobody like her to bring his Son into the world.  She was so happy she sang about it, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”

            Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three happy months; they talked and worked and worked and talked. But the time came for Mary to go back to Nazareth.  She knew she had to face Joseph.  She was showing. She wasn’t going to be able to hide this under a loose-fitting sweater.  He would know immediately and he would suspect the worst.  Jewish men had rights.  He could divorce her openly and publicly.  She could be stoned.  What was Mary thinking?  Did she feel threatened? Alone?  Deserted?   

            But God was handling Joseph.  God sent an angel to Joseph, too, and let him in on what was happening.  This was no scandal; this was a miracle.  Name the child Jesus, the angel said, “because he will save his people from their sins.” Joseph surely told Mary.  Can’t you just see these two young believers sitting up long into the night talking about this?  What was Mary thinking?  Were the pieces starting to come together?  Was she getting eager to know how this would play out?  Is that why she went along with Joseph to Bethlehem?  There was the census, and Joseph had to register in the city where he was born.  She could have stayed home. She was seven or eight months pregnant. What was Mary thinking when she decided to travel 80 miles over four days on a donkey or maybe on foot?  Did she understand that God leading her to David’s town so that David’s greatest Son could be born there?

            What was Mary thinking on the night we call Christmas Eve?  We learn too much about Mary from pictures on Christmas cards or the crèche that lies under the Christmas tree.  We sometimes sense that Mary must have been in labor by the time she arrived in Bethlehem, but Joseph was no fool; he would have arrived early.  We sense the couple was alone, but why wouldn’t they have been staying with relatives?  Was there no room in the inn or simply no privacy in the upper floor guest room of a relative’s home?  The original Bible word can have either meaning.  Luke never mentions a stable, only a manger, but mangers were often found in the side rooms of homes where animals were part of everyday life.  The point is that Mary was probably not thinking what we might suppose she was thinking.  Her son wasn’t born in a neo-natal unit, but this was a different world.  This was a normal birth, a birth like millions of other births in the first century.  What was Mary thinking?  Not about the circumstances around her, not about poverty or scarcity or irony.  What does a mother think about when she holds her first child?  Love, longing, hopes, and dreams, of course.  But there was so much more on Mary’s mind that Christmas night. This was her son, but this was God’s Son, too.

            What was Mary thinking when the shepherds arrived, falling all over each other and bubbling over with excitement, stammering and shouting what they had seen and heard on the fields nearby?  News about a Savior who is Christ the Lord, news about an angel choir singing Glory to God, peace on earth, good will to men.  And then just kept talking and telling anyone who would listen.  Was it comical at first, this sight of these silly, stammering shepherds?  Did Mary laugh? Did she smile?  Or did she look into the face of her Son and wonder what he would have to become and what he would have to do to be the Savior who is Christ the Lord?  What was Mary thinking?

            We’ll never know, of course, what Mary was thinking.  Then why ask the question?  Fair enough.  But I’m asking the question for a reason.  What are you thinking this Christmas morning?  You say, well, it’s not very important what I’m thinking.  But it is important because it’s important to you.  And it’s important to God.  What have your last nine or ten months been like?  You say, well, not as dramatic as Mary’s!  Really?  Were there times when you were frightened or confused?  I know some of you lost your jobs and some of you saw your salary and benefits cut.  I know some of you received medical reports that weren’t encouraging.  I know some of you are standing at the hospital beds of people you love.  I don’t know about relationships that crashed or dreams that didn’t work out, but I’m sure some of you endured them.  What were you thinking?  Did you have questions, maybe even questions you asked God?   Were there times when reality seemed impossible, times when what God was sending into your life seemed unfeasible and unworkable?   Were there times when God simply asked you to trust him and it was so hard?  What were you thinking?  Your lives aren’t filled with one problem after another.  You wake up in the morning and go to bed at night, and life is normal and good.  You interact with your spouses and children and friends and you talk and work and work and talk, and you’re happy and thankful for the blessings you have and you conclude that God is good and gracious and loves you dearly.  And then one night you wake up from a deep sleep and you remember a sin long ago or a sin just yesterday, an ugly sin you meant to commit and kind of enjoyed.  And there in the dark you remember what you have known since you were young, that God hates sin and will punish sin.  And you remember the Lutheran talk about forgiveness, but this sin is too nasty, you conclude, or too frequent and you think you would not forgive this sin it you were God--and all at once you feel very guilty and very alone and very deserted.  What are you thinking then?      

            And here we are in church on Christmas morning.  We thought about not coming.  It’s raining and the roads are slippery.  There are many things on our minds: our children who are traveling in bad weather or who are not traveling, at least not to our house this year.  The gathering at grandma’s and the tension that always comes with it.  The trip to the hospital we’ll make later today or the treatment that starts next week.  You have your distractions and I have mine.  What are we thinking on this Christmas morning?    

            What was Mary thinking on Christmas morning?  I don’t know everything, but I know this, Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  On this Christmas morning the Holy Spirit is taking you on a journey to Bethlehem.  He is inviting us to see what Mary saw; a human child who is the Son of God, a baby in a manger who is the creator of all things, a boy named Jesus who is Christ the Lord.  We see him wrapped in swaddling clothes, but we will see him again stripped of clothes and hanging on a cross.  Today his little lungs breathe quietly, but breath will leave him when he gives up his life and dies.  He seems helpless now, but from his empty tomb he will conquer Satan, sin, death, and hell.  He is gentle and sweet today, but he is your Savior forever. 

            Christmas comes every year.  And every year there are times to sing like the angels and tell like the shepherds, and bring gifts like the Magi.  But sometimes we need to be like Mary.  We need to see the sights and hear the sounds that Mary saw and heard and then to think what Mary was thinking on Christmas morning: we need to treasure up all these things and ponder them in our hearts.  Brothers and sisters; treasure and ponder—today.  Amen.        

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on December 25, 2009

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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