Mary, Mary, Where You Going To?

Image by castor photo via Flickr

For those of you my age and a little older maybe you remember the song Mary, Mary by the Monkees.  It was later redone by Run-DMC as Mary, Mary, Why You Buggin‘?

“Mary, Mary, where you going to?

Mary, Mary, can I go too?”

That is the question that is raised in me as I sit with the Gospel lesson for this week.

Luke 1:39-55 (The Message)

^39-45Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,

You’re so blessed among women,
and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!

^46-55And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up now.

Mary, Mary, can I go too?  Look at this beautiful line attributed to Elizabeth in vs. 45; “Blessed woman, who believed what God said, believed every word would come true!” That line is what amazes me about Mary.  She believed what God said, she believed every word would come true!

Can I go there?  Can you?  How often are any of us capable of believing, to our very core, that everything God said will come true?  What would happen if we did?  What blocks us from saying yes to God, like Mary did?

So, Mary has a dream and in that dream she hears a message from God that she will become pregnant.  Unmarried, poor, female and pregnant.  None of this is good news.  In fact, this is such bad news that potentially it could result in Mary being punished with death.  Her Response; YES!  Yes, God I will do what you ask, I will carry this child and I will accept all of the trouble and pain and suffering this could cause.  I will do it God because I believe that your promises will come true and that I am part of that plan! Not only that, but she declares herself “the most fortunate woman on earth”.

The desire to say yes to God no matter the cost…

Yes to Love, even if it means surrender of personal goals.

Yes to Truth, even if it means loss of personal power.

Yes to Service, even if it means personal sacrifice.

Yes to Justice, even if it means loss of personal privilege.

Yes to Kindness, even if it means having to forgive personal grievances.

God, deliver us that level of faithfulness to Your promise.  Allow us the strength and willingness to say yes!  Mary, Mary, I want to go too.