Hauling heavy trays.  Crashing into coworkers.  Being poked and grabbed and yelled at. Having to smile and be nice to rude customers.  Receiving lousy tips.

Waitressing.  It’s a brutal way to make a buck. 

You could say that the world is divided into two kinds of people:  Those on the customer side of the tray, and those on the waitress side of the tray.  On the customer side are the proud and the powerful; on the waitress side are the humble and the harassed.  Far too many customers assume that waitresses are low-class women without skills, beneath conversation and consideration.  They are often snubbed, underpaid, and ignored. 

Welcome to life on the OTHER side of the tray.  (Suzy Hansen, “Sunnyside Down,” Salon Magazine, October 14, 2002, www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/10/14/waitress/index2.html)

The mother of Jesus had the status of a waitress when the angel Gabriel announced that she had found favor with God (Luke 1:30).  Along with other women of first century Galilee, Mary was a second-class citizen, deemed not worthy of conversation or consideration.  She had little or no authority, and was considered to be inferior to men – very much like women in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban.

When Mary races over to the house of her relative Elizabeth, she discovers that her encounter with the angel was no mere fantasy.  Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and cries to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (v. 42).  Elizabeth describes Mary as “the mother of my Lord” (v. 43), fully aware that she is pregnant with a holy child.

It turns out that Mary isn’t carrying a tray of food.  She’s carrying the Son of God.

You might say that Mary is the “waitress of the Lord” – a designation that fits our contemporary culture better than the traditional title “servant of the Lord” (v. 38).  Mary is a hardworking and dedicated servant, one who accepts the role that God has given her, and plays a central role in bringing Jesus Christ into the world.

“ My soul magnifies the Lord,” says Mary in tonight’s passage from Luke, “and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” (vv. 46-48).  Mary praises the Lord for all his good work, and especially for choosing her to be the mother of his holy child.  God could have selected a queen or a princess or an aristocratic heiress to be the mother of the Lord, but he does not.  Instead, he goes into the very heart of everyday human life and selects a simple girl, a second-class citizen, an average woman considered by many to be beneath conversation and consideration.

He chooses a nobody from Nazareth, a girl who could have ended up pulling the midnight-to-eight shift at the Galilee Grill.  God reaches out to a lowly young lady, and through her reaches out to each one of us.

Yes, that’s right.  God reaches out to you, and to me, through Mary.  God invites us to say “yes,” as Mary did; “yes” to his invitation to help bring Jesus into the world.

Mary goes on to sing that God’s mercy “is for those who fear him from generation to generation.”  God favors those who respect him, regardless of their status in the world. God “has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (vv. 50-53).

God has “filled the hungry with good things.”  That’s a fascinating line, isn’t it?  It reveals that God himself is a kind of a waiter, feeding those who are hungry and clearing the table of those who are already full.  If you are in need, God will help you … he’ll be with you in a minute … but if you are self-reliant and proud and powerful, then you aren’t going to receive any service from the Lord.

Jesus followed this same path when he matured and began to wait on the spiritually starving people of the world.  After he broke bread and shared wine with his disciples at the Last Supper, a dispute arose about which one of his followers was to be regarded as the greatest.  Now Jesus knew very well that a customer is usually regarded as being greater than a waiter, but he turned these expectations on their head when he said to his disciples, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

I’m a servant, insists Jesus, not a customer.  And if you want to join me in being great, you’ll have to be a waiter or a waitress as well.  Jesus challenges us to take our stand on the other side of the tray.  Can we do it?  Can we concentrate as Christians on being servants … instead of customers?

The good news of Christmas is that God does not look down on people who work long hours, haul heavy trays and serve obnoxious customers.  In fact, the Lord chose a waitress-level woman to be the mother of his holy child, and inspired his Son to grow into a man who would lead the people of the world through service.  Although Christ was in the form of God, Paul tells us, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave … or, as we might say today, a waiter … and then he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

He died so that we might live, hanging on the cross as the greatest possible example of sacrificial service to others. 

God calls to us through Mary and Jesus, and invites us to embrace a life of waiting on others.  It’s a tough life at times, but it does have its benefits.  God lifts us up when we’re lowly and fills us with wonderful things, and he never asks us for tips, but only for total commitment.

Let’s join our Lord Jesus, on the other side of the tray.  Amen.

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