Propers for Saint Mary the Virgin (BAS) [i]
15 August 2025
Church of the Holy Trinity
White Rock BC
Introduction
In the autumn of 1966 I met for the first time a person who became one of the more influential people in my life. Her name was Mrs. Galbraith – I would never dare call her by any less formal name, even now as well as then – and she was my Grade 8 and Grade 9 English teacher. She had high standards, expected thoughtful work and was not one of those teachers my classmates and I considered ‘popular’.
Her mission, coming as she did from an upper-class New England background, was ensure that we kids from the Rocky Mountain West became civilized, well-read and articulate participants in our society. She corrected our western ‘twang’ so that no one would judge us on our pronunciation or our dialect. Being her student for two years shaped me in ways that my later high school and university years would not. I am probably not even fully aware of her influence still quietly working the background of my mind.
One year she asked us to choose an author and to prepare an extensive book report. The project was intended to take one term, so the expectations were high. I chose The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Mrs. Galbraith encouraged me to dig under the surface of this story with magical beings, warriors and kings. She wanted me to understand what ‘the’ story was beneath the story found on the pages of Tolkien’s books. Under her guidance and tutelage I learned two things:
1) Even though history tends to remember the stories of the great, the powerful, the rich and the famous, history is more often the story of how the not so great, not so powerful, no so rich and not so famous are the true architects of the world in which live.
2) Saying ‘no’ to the powers and saying ‘yes’ to justice, mercy and humility is what gives a person integrity and authority – no matter what the cost, no matter if one’s name shows up only in the footnotes – if even there – of the official record of events.
It was Mrs. Galbraith’s gentle but firm prodding that helped me learn these truths almost sixty years ago. These truths ought to be ‘self-evident’ in our times as well, but one need only look around to see how they are ignored and even subverted.
Saying ‘No’ to the Powers
One of the unfortunate consequences of the Christian faith’s cultural dominance in western society is that we have been tamed. The liturgical year, a cycle that is intended to be counter-cultural and a form of resistance to the world as it is, has been co-opted by greeting cards, school pageants and statutory holidays. We want happy endings and non-confrontational lives, but this is not what the calendar brings to us in many of our holy days. Today is one such powerful reminder of the cost of discipleship.
When Mary said ‘yes’ to God, she was saying ‘no’ to the social and cultural powers that shaped the community in which she lived. She was living in a dangerous time and place, not just because she was living in a country occupied by a foreign imperial army, but because she was making a choice her religious and cultural community could not embrace.
When Mary said ‘yes’ to God, she was saying ‘no’ to the expectations her community had of a young woman. She was agreeing to bear a child not sired by her betrothed. Her choice left her open to the whole array of first-century coercions: divorce, social ostracism, poverty, even death. By embracing God’s vision of the world as it can be, the world as God intends it to be, Mary has sometimes been described as ‘humble and meek’, but she’s much more than this. Mary is courageous and dares to set her foot on a path that the prophet Simeon will later tell her, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.” [ii]
And because of my devotion to Joseph, I cannot let this moment pass without recognizing his own risk. By choosing to remain with Mary and raising her son, Joseph becomes a laughing-stock to his community. By becoming a footnote to the story of Mary and her son, Joseph is a model for what is true of the lives of many Christians over the millennia. We play are part and then fade from the stage.
Saying ‘Yes’ to God
My friends, I believe that we are living in a time when we must remember that in our baptism we renounced “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God”. [iii] To say that there are no evil powers at work in the world is both naïve and dangerous. We know all too well that there are political, social and religious leaders who are reluctant to “strive for just and peace among all people” and who do not “respect the dignity of every human being”. [iv] We know all too well that there are special interests that are not committed “to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth”. [v]
We need also to be honest about ourselves. In the face of the power exercised by our families, our friends, our neighbours, our partisan allegiances, our fears and uncertainties about the future and our own security, we have not always loved God with our whole heart, mind and strength, nor our neighbours as ourselves. [vi] I say this not to chastise or shame anyone but simply as a recognition of how difficult it is to confront the powers obstruct our becoming who we truly are as creatures made in the image of God and called to live in the likeness of God.
Conclusion
Each time we say ‘amen’ to the prayers of the Church, we are saying ‘yes’ to God. Each times we say ‘thanks be to God’ to the Scriptures proclaimed in our midst, we are saying ‘yes’ to God. Each time we lift before God the needs and concerns of our communities, we are saying ‘yes’ to God. Each time we dare to come to the altar to see who we are and to become what we see by eating the bread of heaven and drinking from the cup of salvation, we are saying ‘yes’ to God.
But the decisive moment comes at the very end when we are sent forth in the power of the Holy Spirit to love and serve the Lord. We leave this house of prayer, Word and Sacrament to return to homes and neighbourhoods that need our leadership in saying ‘no’ to the powers of a host of ‘ism’s’ that plague us.
How gracious of God to give us the witness of Mary whose song reminds us of God’s power working in us, doing infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.
Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
till the spear and rod can be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears,
for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn. [vii]
[i] Isaiah 7.10-15; Psalm 132.6-10, 13-14; Galatians 4.4-7; Luke 1.46-55.
[ii] Luke 2.35 (NRSVue).
[iii] The Book of Alternative Services (1985), 154.
[iv] BAS 1985, 159.
[v] BAS 1985, 159.
[vi] BAS 1985, 284.
[vii] “Canticle of the Turning” in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), #723, vv. 2, 4, refrain.
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