Sermon
21st December 2025
During Advent, we have been lighting the candles on our Advent wreath. We thought about all those folk who were looking forward to the birth of the Jesus, whether from the Old Testament or, the case of John the Baptist, the beginning of the New. Today we light our fourth candle and remember the woman, without whom it could not have happened.
Mary and Joseph have to make a long journey during the last few days of her pregnancy. Nazareth to Bethlehem is about 100 miles. I’m not sure about the donkey: it’s more likely that they had to walk the whole way. And with an unfriendly occupying force in charge, they would no doubt have been faced with checkpoints and searches. Nothing changes much: then it was the Roman army; for Palestinians today, it is the I.D.F.!
There are not many artistic representations of the pregnant Mary. I’ve found two which I have put on our WhatsApp group, and which Ruth has put on the sermon page of our website. The first dates back to the middle of the 15th century and is by the great Piero della Francesca; whilst the other is from a recent cartoon.
There are various reasons why this iconography is rare: mainly I expect to do with the fear of sexuality, and a sense that pregnant women should be confined to their rooms. It’s a pity because the obviously pregnant Mary is a powerful statement of the whole meaning of Christmas. For when Jesus is born of the Virgin Mary, God comes into the world born of a completely human Mary. Mary is the proof that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. And that is important: for if Jesus is not fully human like us, then his death and resurrection can mean nothing, and do nothing, for us.
I am aware that, for many Christians, Mary is a controversial figure. They fear that the respect and love that others have for her is some form of idolatry. They accuse us of making her a goddess. But it is they who are wrong: for in denying the role of Mary in bringing Jesus into the world, they are at risk of denying the central truth of the Incarnation that Mary guarantees: that Jesus is both God and man.
So, today we light our fourth candle and remember Mary as that onerous journey comes to an end at the Bethlehem stable. Although, as we shall see next week, the Holy Family will soon embark on another, even longer, journey.
God our Father, the angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that she was to be the Mother of your Son. Though Mary was afraid, she responded to your call with joy.
Help us, whom we call to serve you, to share like her in your great work of bringing to our world your love and healing.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, The Light who is coming into the world.
Amen
Light the Advent candle four,
think of Mary, young and poor.
Gabriel his message told
to the Mother of our Lord.Amen