The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is an Episcopal parish in the Diocese of Pennsylvania that is centered on the worship of God, the ministry of all baptized persons, and the call to be agents of Christ’s love in the world.

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Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
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The Rev. W. Jarrett Kerbel

Theotokos, sermon December 18, 2011

By The Rev. Harriet Kollin
4 Advent
Samuel 2:17:1-11,16; Magnificat; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1: 26-38

Some years ago, during my second year of seminary, I met with Virginia Swain for spiritual direction. Virginia is one of the people I admire. She is a lay person who takes her gifts seriously. She is founder and director of The Institute for Global Leadership and collaborates with the UN. During one of our first meetings Virginia asked me “What is your relationship to Mary?” That question has stuck with me. At the time, as I told Virginia, I had no real relationship with Mary. Although as a child we prayed the Angelus three times every day. Angelus is a Christian devotion that commemorates the Annunciation and is practiced by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. It is also practiced by some Anglicans and Episcopalians who adhere to the Ango-Catholic tradition, and Lutherans.

The prayer is a set of versicles and responses and the Hail Mary. It goes as follows:

V. The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
R. And she conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen

V.  Behold the handmaid of the Lord
R.  Be it done unto me according to your word.

Hail Mary…

V.  And the word was made flesh
R.  And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary…

It is a beautiful tradition that I sadly lost touch with. One thing that I am nostalgic about is that it is usually accompanied by the ringing of the bells at 6am, 12 noon, and at 6 pm. I remember grudgingly taking turns with my siblings in ringing the bells. The bells are a call to prayer. Last night I thought this would be nice Advent devotion—to pause and wait for our soul to catch up with us during the hustle and bustle of our day and pray the Angelus three times a day every day until Christmas.

I want us to set this aside for now and begin by reflecting on today’s lessons, particularly the reading from Samuel and from Luke’s Gospel. It might seem a little funny to see these lessons together. In Samuel we hear of an exchange between King David and Nathan, who is the court prophet. The court prophet is probably analogous to President Obama’s most trusted senior adviser. David is feeling guilty because he lives in a fine palace while God has no home and travels around in a tent and is housed in a tabernacle. So David wants to build God a home. Initially Nathan says it is a good idea and one that God likes, but later God speaks to Nathan and tells him to report to David that God rejects the idea. God does not need a house.

I think it might be helpful for us to think of a house here as a dwelling. So God tells David that God does not need a dwelling place. Things are fine as they are. (Of course, later a dwelling place will be built for God, first by Solomon whose Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and then later the Second Temple which was finally completed by Herod and destroyed by the Romans around 70 AD. But we won’t concern ourselves with these details now.)

Now it is interesting to think about God’s rejection of David’s plan to build God a dwelling in connection with the Gospel lesson. In the Gospel we hear about the Annunciation. The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she has found favor with God and that she will give birth to God’s child. Of course, for purposes of the liturgical calendar we would do well to think of this as one of those “flashbacks” that we see in movies because this is not an event that occurred one week before the birth of Christ but nine months before the birth.

But we should ask ourselves, what does this have to do with the lesson from Samuel, and when we do, I think it becomes clear that those who put together the lectionary have in mind that God has rejected a dwelling made of cedar and stone in favor of a dwelling made of flesh and blood. God rejected David’s plan to build God a dwelling place because God does not choose to dwell among us in that way. Rather God chooses to “become flesh and dwell among us.” And the first “flesh and blood” dwelling place of God is Mary’s body—the virgin’s womb.

And now we see this beautiful symbolism—it gives me goose bumps to think about it—that Mary’s womb is the Temple that God desires to dwell in. God does not desire a Temple made of human hands but God desires a Temple that God has constructed with God’s own hands; one formed in God’s image and likeness by God.

In the Eastern Orthodox churches Mary is referred to as “Theotokos.” This is a Greek word that means “God-bearer.” And she is also referred to as “the Mother of God” by both Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics. I particularly like the term “Theotokos” because the idea of “bearing” God or giving birth to God is such a powerful image when you think about it. And this image has great symbolic importance for us as well because we should see Mary in this context not only as a historical person who gave birth to the child Jesus. We should see her also as an archetype, that is, an exemplar of who we are called to be. Mary literally gave birth to Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. But we are also called upon to give birth to God in our lives. So we are all called to be Thoetokos; we are all called to be God-bearers. In fact, that is the real meaning of our life.

I want to conclude with a prayer that my husband taught me. It is more popular in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, he says, than the Angelus. He himself was an Eastern Orthodox Christian. Each time of prayer, including the celebration of the Eucharist, this prayer is said:

It is right to honor you, Theotokos; you are ever-blessed and most pure and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim; in virginity you gave birth to God the Word. True Theotokos we magnify you.

I hope you notice that when this prayer is said it is not a prayer of worship. Mary is “honored” and “magnified” but not worshipped. Worship is reserved to God alone. May we also worship God by giving birth to God in our lives. May each of us also become Theotokos with the attitude that Mary had, with wonder and humble acceptance, and say “Yes, be it done to me according to your word.” Imagine…Imagine what Christmas would be like when we become Theotokos, when we bear and give birth to God who dwells in us and among us. Amen.