“Remembering Forward”
4th Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-45
Download the sermon (mp3)
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, houses some of the world’s most famous art – works by Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt. Rooms and halls full of pieces by the Masters, much of it devoted to religious themes. Mary is a favorite subject. In room after room, there she is. Putting down her Bible while she receives the startling news from the angel Gabriel. Kneeling at the manger with her husband Joseph, gazing at her new baby. Presenting the baby in the temple. Many paintings simply depict her with her child, in a sort of portrait form. Some show her much later in life, weeping at the foot of the cross. In all of it, Mary is defined by those in the picture with her: the angel, Jesus the baby, Jesus the dying Savior. Her role seems to be to respond, to accept whatever life lays on her – an unsought pregnancy, the birth of a baby, the death of a child. (more…)