There is in this sermon a gentleness that belies what it asks us to see, "That life does not change, but the way I experience it does."

Moving, as it does, through a revision of the popular picture of Mary, now seen in clearer light than that of positive or negative speculation, but rather in the light of faith and praise of God; through that of an unlikely contemporary, "Who also experienced hunger so that he knew only God could help him," the sermon reminds those who believe, and invites those who do not yet believe, that a life of praise grows not out of circumstances so much as it does out of a vision. It is the vision that is persuasive.

The new Mary, product not of speculation but of a biblical reflection, may gain no converts. She will, however, not be easily ignored.

In Lutheranis…