Mary was his mother, his sister, and his mate.

In the Anglican tradition, we set aside one Sunday of Advent to honor Mary the Mother Jesus. On this Sunday, we read a text from Luke 1:45-55, which is known as Mary’s Song, or The Magnificat. Often, the text is sung during the service.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor
on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely from now on all
generations will call me blessed.

These words are woven deep into our spiritual consciousness. Those of you who say the Rosary will find these words very familiar. The words of the Rosary come directly from Luke 1:39-55.

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed in the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and the hour of our death.

Indeed, Mary holds a special place in our heart, in our tradition, and in our theology. Some refer to Mary as the Virgin; meaning the Spirit of God touched her life in a unique way as the Mother of Jesus the Christ. Others call her the Blessed Virgin Mary; meaning her life itself was unique above others, sinless throughout her life. And still others refer to her as the Ever Blessed Virgin Mary, meaning she lived a truly mystical life beyond all others, escaping death and being assumed into heaven.

The thing about being an Anglican is that there isn’t a specific theological teaching on Mary. Like all other perspectives in Anglican theology, “It could be this, or it could be that, but then again, it’s probably somewhere in the middle.”

During Advent, I’ve been teaching a class on the Mystery of the Three Marys in Jesus’ Life. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary. The three women are mentioned in John 19:25 and the Gospel of Philip, a non-canonical text. In the Gospel of Philip, it says, “There were three named Mariam, who continuously walked with the Master; his mother, his sister, and Magdalene, who was called his companion. Thus, Mariam is his mother, his sister, and his mate.”

The secret of the metaphor is held in the last line; Mary is his mother, his sister, and his mate. These words were not meant to be taken as a literal, historical fact. The line is meant teach us that just as Jesus spoke of God in masculine terms, Jesus also spoke of God in feminine terms. In other words, God is not male, nor is God female, God is the integration of male and female, sun and moon, dark and light—God is the integration of all the pairs of opposites that we could possibly imagine and beyond. God is all and in all.

Mary’s story, the story of Christmas, is intended to teach us that God placed Godself in the midst of all of creation, in the muck, the mud, the blood, the birth and the death of the human condition—God placed Godself in the very heart of all men, all women, all humans. God made the ultimate sacrifice by giving up the most treasured thing we can imagine—God gave up being in control, just to become one with us.

The story of the three Marys, the story of Christmas, the story of Jesus, is intended to teach us to follow God’s example; in other words, to sacrifice our control, our will, in order to become one with God. We become one with God through making sacrifices in our inner life and in our external life. These sacrifices are what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the cost of discipleship, the cost of being a follower of Jesus, the cost of being one with God.

The cost, or sacrifice, of becoming spiritually mature is a lifetime process. Our sacrifice brings together wisdom and power. Out of their union comes true love. But without their union, wisdom is spiritually weak and power becomes evil. Our work brings us love, which we experience as wholeness, transformation, or what the church calls redemption.

In our inner life, we become at one with God through our prayer and meditation. In these sacrifices of our time, we focus our complete attention on God, on the many attributes of God, on the many faces of God, on the many names of God. By focusing our attention on God through prayer and meditation, our inner being will become transformed. We will see the many faces of God and we will hear the many voices of God, both masculine and feminine.

In our external life, we focus our attention on other people in order to become one with God. We serve others through personal sacrifice of our time, talent, and treasure. In serving others, we follow Jesus’ teaching us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give the thirsty a drink of water, visit the sick and those in prison, and to embrace the stranger.

Our inner sacrifices will cost us the time to pray and meditate. And our external sacrifices will cost us our talents and resources for the sake of others. To sacrifice means to let go of our control. When we let go of control we will find ourselves at one with God and that will truly transform how we live, move, and have our being in the world.

Our willingness to let go of our will, our perceived control, is the first step toward becoming open and vulnerable before God, like Mary. To paraphrase Meister Eckhart, “What good was it that Mary birthed God into the world 2,000 years ago, if I’m not willing to birth God into my world, today?”