Saying Yes to Embodied Love

The theme for this fourth Sunday of Advent is love. More precisely God’s love. God’s love is what Paul talks about in his letter to the Corinthians. Hard and crunchy, and utterly faithful. The Hebrew word for “covenant love” is hesed, that peculiar, immersive, active, transformative love that God shows for Israel and requires of us as well (see Micah 6:8). It is a love that eternally pursues all creation, creating a just world where all thrive. Christmas is all about this love.

Also on this Sunday, we also traditionally focus on Mary. We Anglicans are not sure what to make of Mary. Over the centuries she has been Mary mother of God; Mary the fourth member of the Trinity (that one didn’t fly so well); Mary the eternal and blessed virgin; Mary the Theotokos (God bearer); Mary the humble, meek and obedient servant of God; or just Mary who happened to be Jesus’ mother but otherwise is not so important.

Unlike the other New Testament writers who are more low key in their presentation of May, the writer of Luke’s gospel thought Mary was pretty important. Luke exalts Mary not as a mother, nor as the ideal women, but as the ideal disciple; the one we should emulate if we too wish to follow her son. On this fourth Sunday we hear the story of the conversation between her and the Angel Gabriel. The impact of this conversation was a bit like Gabrielle last year, devastating. Like her son, Mary responds to God’s outrageous request/command (does she really have a choice in this) with a combination of humble trust and obedient service – just like her son in Gethsemane. This young girl from a poor family in a poor village in the outback of Galilee said yes to becoming the vehicle for God’s embodiment of hesed love. But only after she learns that her cousin Elizabeth is also miraculously pregnant, and that she is not doing this alone. 

This trust changes Mary. Last week we read and sang the Magnificat - Mary's radical protest song. In a world where it was understood that the poor were poor and the rich and powerful were rich and powerful because that is how God made things, we have this potent and prophetic song that speaks of the importance and priority of the poor in the eyes of God. God counters all the myths that hold the poor in their place of poverty, including those put forward in this country, and restores them as the people of God.How does this song help us live into what it means to be pursued by God's love?

The story of the Annunciation invites us to reflect on who has helped us on our moments of “yes”, and who we accompany? It also invites us to reflect on how we are pursued by God’s love, and how we allow this love to be embodied in our lives?

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