The early Christian church—and later especially the Eastern Orthodox tradition—venerated Mary as what they called the “Theotokos.” Gave her the name: “God-Bearer.” It really is an incredible story---that God chooses an unknown unmarried girl in the distant precinct of Galilee to give birth to God made flesh, the God who will restore and redeem us and the world. Talk about being asked to do something you weren’t prepared for and that would turn not only your own life but the world upside down…..literally.
There is only one God bearer—Mary the Theotokos. But we too are called to echo Mary’s “yes”—saying yes by becoming what I call “Philiatokoi.” “Love Bearers.” Phila is one of the Greek words for love: it is historically called “brotherly love”or “friendship love.” It is the love of solidarity and mutual care. I see so much love being born into the world in our churches, in our communities. The past couple of weeks we have been partnering with Emmanuel Lutheran—the other Lutheran church in NoHo—that has the Laurel Hall School. For two weekends in a row thay have been holding collections for us—clothing collections and gift collections—to give out in our drop-in program for the unhoused. Historically, on the Wednesday closest to Christmas we give out Christmas gift bags to our guests with cookies and socks and special cholocates and a McDonald’s gift card to see them through while so much is closed over the holiday—especially during the pandemic. Emmanuel committed to providing cookies and gift cards for 30 of the 70 bags we hand out. When I went yesterday to their church to pick up the cookies and gift cards and snacks and more clothing they had gathered, instead of an envelope with 30 gift cards, they handed me a shoebox that was so stuffed the lid didn’t rest secure. They collected not 30 gift cards, but 170. The people of Emmanuel have been overflowing , generous “lovebearers.” We are so grateful to them. But they are also so grateful to us---for calling them into lovebearing together with us.
Mary teaches us also something important about whom God calls into lovebearing: God will use whomever God wants and needs to be “lovebearers”—and will often use unsuspecting persons and people in marginal spaces and places to do that “lovebearing.” Indeed, loviebearing is the profoundest form of “calling in” to action. No one is excluded from the chance to bear love. Not the disgraced virgin, not the seemingly cuckolded fiancée, not anyone who feels unworthy. Indeed, God teaches us today that we are all—each and every one of us---we are all, all people are worthy of doing the work of lovebearing. Some of the most poignant moments at our drop-in program are when one of our unhoused guests hands mean a fist full of coins or some crumpled dollar bills and says here---please take this and use it to help the other homeless people who come.”
This truth—that all including the most unexpected are called to be “lovebearers” confirms what Mary sings in the Magnificat, the beautiful song in which she proclaims how God acts. By calling all—even those seen as the weakest and the poorest and the least powerful---to be lovebearers, God turns the values and power structures of the world upside down. Indeed, if anyone after today’s reading believes that God’s vision is to uphold a status quo of inequity, you are mistaken. Nowhere more than in the person of Mary and in the Magnificat do we see what God envisions for humanity—a world that raises up the poor and the vulnerable and the strange and exposes the self-interest and hypocrisy and status-mongering of many in power.
This Sunday, this 4th Sunday in Advent as we prepare to welcome Jesus into our world and lives, we are being taught about the power of love, and the call to use that power of love to fulfill God’s vision for humanity. Because God cares about the suffering. Whether that is the sick, whether that is the incarcerated, the poor.
It is the power of love, not the power of violence or the power of hidden oppression or intentional exclusion, it is the power of love that ultimately has the power to win. The power to make the kingdom of God not just nearby by visible and present.
As we prepare for Christmas, let us rejoice in the power of love we have been given in Jesus Christ, the child born, the son given, on whose shoulders a government of love shall rest, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Amen….until Christmas.
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