Fourth Sunday of Advent B.   December 18, 2005.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15 and 9:30.  2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8b-12,14a, 16. Romans 16:25-27.  Luke 1:26-38.

On December 1, 1955 a black woman named Rosa Parks got onto a public bus in Montgomery Alabama to ride home from work as she always did.  She was a very private, quiet woman.  She had always taken her place in the back of the bus where the law said that black people belonged.  That particular day she said that her feet were hurting from work and she didn’t know at first why she refused to give her seat to a white man who entered the bus after her.  Suddenly she took a stand on the fact that she had the same rights as other people and that she had endured discrimination for too long because of her race.  When the bus driver demanded that she stand and give her seat to a white man or face being arrested, Rosa Parks refused to move.  Rosa said that she didn’t know how the people of Montgomery would react.  She lost her job as a seamstress and was put in jail.  That was very bad news for a poor woman.  But then something unexpected happened.  As a result of the courage of Rosa Parks most black people and some of the white people of Montgomery boycotted the public buses for 381 days, often walking long distances rather than riding the city buses to work. At the beginning of the boycott Martin Luther King spoke to a crowd of several thousand people who supported Rosa Parks.  He said, “There comes a time that people get tired.  We are here this evening to say to those who have mistreated us for so long, that we are tired, tired of being segregated and humiliated, tired of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression.”

The courage of one very poor and quiet black woman brought the bus system to its knees.  To survive the bus company needed black people to ride the bus, but they refused.  A spark was ignited in Montgomery that led to demonstrations in behalf of racial justice throughout our country and to civil rights laws and court decisions that made segregation illegal and guaranteed the same civil rights to all American citizens without regard to race, religion or national origin.  Who would have believed that the courageous actions of one poor woman would completely transform the struggle for racial justice in our land?   We still have a long way to go, but one woman got us going in the right direction. .  Rosa Parks died a few weeks ago.  Her statue will be placed in the great domed rotunda of our National Capital Building – the first African American woman to be so honored.  She was a humble nobody who will always be remembered as the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin …named Mary.  The angel said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”  Mary was deeply troubled by the angel’s greeting.  The angel said, “Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God.  You will conceive and bear a son ... He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end."  Mary said, “How can this be since I have no relations with a man?”      The angel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you …Therefore the child to be born will be called the Son of God.”

The bus of oppression that the human race had been riding on goes all the way back to the trickery of the devil and the sin of Adam and Eve.   For countless centuries the devil had kicked us around and oppressed us, and taught us to mistreat and oppress one another.  The web of sin and oppression so deeply enslaved the human race that many had given up hope.  The devil was running the bus and there didn’t seem to be very much that we could do about it.  Then a quiet, gentle woman heard another voice, the voice of an angel.  The whole universe listened in awe filled silence as she said “no” to the demonic oppressor of the human race and “yes” to the messenger from God.  Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”

With her words a new movement had begun, a moment of grace and courage and love.  Because of Mary’s courage, many others would say “no” to the devil and boycott his plots and evil activities in the world.  Who would have thought that one poor woman could say a “no” to evil and a “yes” to God that would completely change the destiny of the human race.   By saying yes to the angel Mary became the Mother of our Savior Jesus Christ and the mother of the new human race founded on his grace. 

Sometimes we expect God to change our destiny and the destiny of the human race all by himself.  We focus so exclusively on Jesus that we forget about the indispensable power of our own “yes” to God.   Yes, Jesus is Divine and the only savior of the human race.   Yet, the way that he has chosen to save and transform the world is through the yes that each one of us says to the grace of God in our lives.  Great things happen when little people say no to the devil and yes to God. The power of evil, discouragement, sin and violence is great, in our world.   Greater still is the power of Mary, the poor woman of Nazareth, who said “yes” to the grace and goodness of God in her life.  Great things happen when little people and great people say “no” to the devil and “yes” to God.  Mary said the most powerful words that a human person has ever spoken, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”   She said the words that brought the devil to his knees.  May her words of holy defiance and divine power continue to echo in our lives.  For the courage of Mary and for our God-given courage too, we give God thanks and praise.