Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38
The Reverend Paul DeLain Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, March 25, 2009

Today is what we call a “Marian Feast.” It is so called because it is one of the feasts throughout the year that highlights St. Mary’s role in the salvation story. Mary has gotten short shrift with Christians of the Reformation. It seems that for some Christians, devotion with and to the Blessed Mother is strictly the domain of Roman Catholics. This has never been true for Anglicans/Episcopalians. We have never wholly abandoned the import of Mary in our faith. We have always kept her Feast Days and it is quite common for Episcopal Churches to have side chapels named in her honor.

As is usually the case, we Episcopalians/Anglicans are much closer to our Roman and Orthodox sisters and brothers than to the Protestant world. It is not uncommon for us to pray the Rosary or to pray the Angelus. In the Holy Rosary we pray to God with Mary while meditating on the mysteries of the life of Christ. In the Angelus we pray to God with Mary remembering the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation.

None of us who have these traditions are “praying to Mary.” We are praying with her and asking her to pray for us. It is the same way in which we would ask another parishioner to pray for us. The Communion of Saints is made up of all Christians, the living and the dead. When we ask someone in heaven to pray for us, we are asking prayers of someone who is living in a special proximity to the Lord.

St. Mary has been raised up as the “Queen of Saints and Angels” not because she is divine in the way that Jesus is divine but because of her example. She is so greatly honored because she is the first disciple; really she is the first Christian. She is the human person that God chose to usher in His Holy Incarnation.

Mary is the first disciple. Through a heavenly messenger, St. Gabriel, she is called by God to follow his will. She is called to accept the impossible. In the traditional language, St. Gabriel greets her, “Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you.” Mary must have been a woman of prayer; a woman of outstanding faith. In her response she models for us our discipleship. At first she is very troubled and confused by what God would have to do with her. We often get trapped in that thinking. Any disciple at first thinks that they are not good enough; they don’t know enough, they aren’t perfect enough. Gabriel tells Mary, “Don’t be afraid; trust God’s plan.”

Mary models discipleship in that she has enough wisdom to listen, to hear Gabriel out. He reminds her of the promise of the One who is to come, the Messiah. He also tells her that her cousin Elizabeth who is elderly is also with child. Mary must have then remembered the promise made to Abraham and Sarah, an elderly couple like Elizabeth and Zechariah who would bring forth an important child. Abraham and Sarah had Isaac; Elizabeth and Zechariah would be the parents of John the Baptist. Gabriel reminds her that nothing is impossible with God.

Mary knowing the scriptures, knowing the wonderful things that the Lord had already done, accepts the call of God. “Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.” (The Message)

Mary is the first disciple showing us how to set aside our worries and doubts and let God work his will through us. As we read in Hebrews, it isn’t sacrifices and burnt offerings that God seeks from us. What God seeks from us is our willingness to follow.

Mary’s “yes” became our “yes.” As we prayed in the collect for today (which is also the prayer at the end of the Angelus), “God pour your grace into our hearts the way you did with Mary, and as we come to understand Christ’s Holy Incarnation let us also come to understand eternal life by understanding His Cross and Passion.”

The first disciple: Mary went through the whole story with Jesus. She was intricate in the ushering in of the salvation of Christ. She went from his birth, to the cross, to the resurrection with him. Tonight we honor her strength, her wisdom and her self-sacrifice. Tonight we remember to ask her to pray with us and for us that we might do the same.