Open the door.

There is that liminal space between sleeping and waking

            where mystical things can happen.

Early Saturday morning when I was beginning to stir

            I saw the dreamlike figure of an angel, 

                        much like the angel of the annunciation by Fra Angelico,

from its crouching position in a genuflection with arms crossed over the chest

                        in a swirl of flowing robes.

            It said, “Open the door.”

And then I awoke.

 

“Open the door.”

 

These words are simple, but also pregnant with so much meaning.

 

So today, since the focus of the Gospel is on Mary,

                          who opens the door to the Angel Gabriel,

            I will say a few things about the Mother of our Lord.

 

Throughout a couple thousand years of church history

            the ecclesiastical institution has made assertions about her

                        that have been devotional in nature, or theological, or political

            in order to emphasize one agenda or another

                        in a struggle for control, influence or power.

 

People respond or react to Mary.

It’s hard to maintain neutrality about her.

 

Protestants may be reactive to anything they see 

as ascribing too much devotion to Mary 

as “theotokos,” the God-bearer, Mother of God.

Or there may be reactions between one ethnic group and another,

            such as suspicion about the attachment of Mexicans 

to their strong devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

 

For much of the time the male hierarchy of the Church 

has instructed the faithful about Mary in such a way 

that she has been used to perpetuate 

submission and subservience among women.

 

Although more recently in history 

with a renewed engagement in biblical studies, 

Mary has become an example and champion of liberation theology.

For instance,

            in some Latin American countries her song, the Magnificat,

            is considered to be subversive, revolutionary literature.

 

You see, everyone has to come down one way or another 

in reflection about Mary, 

all dependent on individual situations, cultures, and life experiences.

Mary is a lightning rod.

 

So saying all that, let’s look at this key text about Mary 

and notice our own reactivity 

and what that may say to us about our Lord and our relationship to him.

 

First, 

        the angel messenger was not sent to just any woman of child-bearing years.

There was an openness in Mary to God, 

to receive what God was saying to her.

She was fertile ground 

where the seed of God’s Word could sprout and flourish 

and produce 30-, 60-, 100-fold,

                        or just one, but the One who would give life to all.

 

Open the door to God –  

where there is openness to God, 

then transformation and healing comes.

This is a spiritual principle I see at work all the time. 

 

But what is it that brings the openness to God?

because as logical and as practical as that may seem, 

I encounter great reluctance for opening the door to God.

 

For good reason, I think.

If you open the door to God, then watch out.

Things are going to change!

If things are going okay in our lives

            I may not want that disruptive change

But it’s when things aren’t so fine 

then one is more likely to open the door for divine intervention.

We actually have a spiritual opportunity here.

 

Now, you need to realize 

that Mary was not just some sweet, innocent, pious girl

                        disconnected from the realities of the world around her.

She lived during a time of despair for her people,

            stuggling under foreign rule, 

                        oppressed and without the freedom of self governance.

 

For these people the biblical stories of the past seemed distant,

     the biblical promises of the prophets hopeless to be accomplished.

And in this context Mary, a woman in a patriarchal culture, 

                        which itself was subject to domination by a stronger power,

            was lacking in any significant political or social influence.

 

So where could Mary go for any sense of hope?

Perhaps the only appeal she could make was to God.

After all the message of the prophets emphasized 

God’s preferential favor for the disadvantaged, 

the widow, the orphan, the poor, the alien living among us.

And so her heart was open.

 

When there is pain and suffering, 

            when there is violence on any of various levels, 

            when there is pandemic and natural disasters and famine

            when there is death and loss and grief, 

            then, in the midst of acute suffering 

the heart is more likely to open to God.

 

So when the angel came to Mary,

            the greeting it gave changed everything in her life

            - and not just everything in her life,

                        but everything was changed for the whole world.

Mary, and what she would do, was key to all that would follow.

 

She would give her body, her whole being to be at God’s disposal, 

and within her the very Word of God, 

the One who was in the beginning with God and who was God, 

through whom all things were created, 

including Mary herself, 

this very Word of God would become himself subject to creation.

 

And so the Spirit of God, who brooded over the waters of the deep at creation

now came to Mary and enveloped her in the same creative brooding. 

And the waters of Mary’s womb welcomed their own Creator.

 

If we were to give special rank or place 

 to any of the saints whom we hold up as Christ-like examples for us,

            Mary would deserve the place of highest honor,

and it would be not just for being the mother of our Savior,

                        as significant and important as that is,

            and certainly not because she is some sort of benign role model

                        for holy, submissive, gentle girls.

 

But it is for Mary’s obedience,

            her willingness to take great risk as an expression of faith.

Mary looked at what the angel was offering her,

            and we do not know how long she pondered the situation

                        before she said, "Here am I, the servant, the slave of the Lord;

                                    let it be with me according to your word."

 

She looked at the risks and the danger, the potential and promise, 

            and she said yes - with an obedience to match Abraham

                                                poised with his knife raised at Mount Moriah;

 

Mary's agreement to being a partner with God

            is our perfect example of obedience,

and, of course, this kind of obedience 

                                                            is what God is asking of each of us.

This is not a matter of heroics.

 

For Mary from that moment of conception 

the Holy Spirit was hovering over her, and her life was graced.

And so it is with us.

 

Open the door.

 

Mary opened the door and her body became a mansion,

            and what emerged from that open door in Mary 

                        was the Light of the world.

 

Open the door.

 

The Holy Spirit, the Resurrection Presence of Jesus, the Holy Divine

            whispers to us, “Open the door.”

And we too become a dwelling place for the Divine

            and our humble bodies too can grow into mansions.

 

And from our open doors Light pours in 

            and Light can stream forth.

 

Leonard Cohen sang of this:

            Ring the bells that still can ring
            Forget your perfect offering
            There is a crack, a crack in everything
            That's how the light gets in

 

This whole world is cracked.

It’s been a rough year.

But here is the hope.

That crack in your life and in mine is the door.

Let it open, even with the pain and grief and sorrow.

And the light that gets in is a healing light

            that turns a hovel of a stable into a mansion

                        and gives birth to new life to fill the world again with Light.

 

 

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, 

that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, 

may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.  Amen.