| |||||||||||||||
 |
     | ||||||||||||||
Whether fourteen years old, twenty-four, or forty-four, as was my mother when I was conceived, every mother's yearning is for a child who will make a new world, who will make a difference in the world as it is. As the clock ticked over past midnight to February 12, 1979, in my wife Marcia's first night of labor, her birth coach, yours truly, asked, “What President was it that was born on February 12th?” Responded the hard working child bearer, ”Who..oosh, who..osh, President Frohman! Who...oosh, who..oosh!!” Thus far our first born has not been elected but her first born was recently kissed by the Vice President-elect. Raymond Brown, a renowned New Testament scholar who taught at Union Seminary in New York City, suggests, “The conception of Jesus must have constituted for Mary the beginning of her confrontation with the mysterious plan of God embodied in the person of her son.” (R.E. Brown, The Birth of The Messiah,) She was to be a “handmaid” literally translated, female slave, (p 361) selected to birth, raise and lose a son, first to a dream, and then to execution. It was a task that would consume her physical strength, confound her thinking, and constantly aggravate her emotional well-being. Mothering is a difficult task under the best of circumstances, and Mary’s circumstances were far from best. Luke tells story with a seeming dry wit.
We have said it hundreds of times in the Apostles’ Creed, “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary...“. As we have recited these words many of us may have said under their breath, “Preposterous! These kinds of things do not happen, God mating with humans.” And we shrug it off by saying, “Every religion has these myths about its origin.” True, they do. But in our quieter moments we too may have asked Mary's question, “How can this be?” “What is this birth all about?” How is the baby conceived? Anyone who is honest must at least be perplexed. But we confidently sing about this conception in many a Christmas carol: “Veiled in flesh the godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity… “ “Of the father's love begotten, ere the worlds began to be…” “Twas Mary, daughter pure, of holy Anne, that brought into this world the God made man, Venite adoremus, Dominum.” “What child is this who laid to rest in Mary's lap is sleeping?” But none of the Christmas carols I know, ask, “How can this be?” Notice that Luke's story answers Mary's question with, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” How is the baby conceived? What is Luke's story all about? This is not a sexual or even quasi sexual story. There is no comfort in fundamentalist biological theory here. This is not a story about God mating with a human, a common method in Greco-Roman mythology. Neither is there any room in the story for liberal cynicism about a passing Roman soldier. There is no biology in the story; there is no history in the story. And Luke never intended it to be such. Then, what kind of a story is it? It is God talk, theology. Theology literally means, “god talk.” And Luke is doing the talking. Also keep in mind that the conception story does not appear in any other gospel. Luke has an exclusive copyright on this story. But, significantly, he is not an eyewitness. He is gathering his material from first generation Christians. Luke, a third generation Christian, is composing his gospel 90 or more years after the birth of Jesus. He is a classically educated, Greek-speaking, Gentile, (New Interpreters Bible Vol. IX p. 9) probably from Syria, and therefore, if he lived in the 21st century, he could be Syrian Orthodox and even Arab. In his gospel account Luke is looking back over the life and times of the remarkable founder of the Christian faith and is attempting to explain to Christians in Syria how God was fully present in the human Jesus. In order to do so he has to talk theologically about Jesus’ origins. To the discerning first Century Christian Luke’s metaphors of “coming over” and “overshadowing” are a clear echo of the Creation story as we find it in the first words of the Bible. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep while the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters and God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1) There is deliberate artistry in Luke's story, there is Christian intuition (RE Brown) shown here. Luke in effect is saying, “As in creation when God said ‘Let there be light’, so in conception, God says, (with an angel voice) ‘You will conceive’.” God's word conceived the son by the presence of his overshadowing Sprit. That is how the baby was conceived, says Luke, by God’s word. And that is also how the world was made. When the mystery of the creation is unlocked so is the mystery of conception. Unlock one you unlock both. And, of course, we can do neither. What then is the divine conception of Jesus all about? It is a theological explanation about the original identity of Jesus as told in poetry and song by the early church (Ibid. p. 355). This affirmation is not that Jesus was the illegitimate child of a Roman soldier who evolved to be a savior. This Jesus is not adopted by God as the Christ after a good and sacrificial life. The conception story is about one who was born the savior of the world. Jesus was conceived just like God conceived the universe, by his Word. Let there be light, let there be a Son. But still, the divine conception of Jesus in a body of a fourteen-year-old Jewish peasant girl doesn't compute in the modern mind. Divine conceptions are incomplete, they leave us asking dozens of questions, dismissing it out of hand, or just joking about it. But after analyzing and listening to the story year after year after year we are still confronted with the question, “What child IS this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping?” Mary's response is precisely the point. Her question, “How can this be?” is our question too. We are not asked to throw out our minds, our intellectual curiosity. Mary was greatly perplexed. So are we. But her response is crucial. “How can it be? Behold I am the hand maid of the Lord. Let it be according to your word.” In other words, I am ready, I am available. Use me O Lord for your purposes. Luke's artistry and intuition is shown again. The very words of commitment of Mary are an echo of another faithful woman of the Bible, Hannah, the mother of Samuel. He became a prophet and judge, who anointed Saul to be the first king of ancient Israel. “Handmaiden” was Hannah’s word when she understood that the child she carried in her uterus was a special child, designed to cause a rising and falling in Israel. Indeed the opening words of Mary's song in The Magnificat, “My soul does magnify my savior, because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid,” are a direct quote from the first chapter of I Samuel in the Old Testament. As Hannah gave Samuel to God and spent her life supporting his work, so Mary's response to God's word of conception was the service of her life. God’s word in the mouth of the angel selects Mary to birth, raise and lose a son, first to a dream, and then to execution. It was a task that would consume her physical strength, confound her thinking, and constantly aggravate her emotional well-being. To be honest, we don’t like things that way do we? Most of us like to have our life without a great deal of aggravation. It seems only too natural to hope for gain without compassion, fulfillment without labor, liberty without sacrifice. In fact we rather enjoy the fancy of believing that we can encounter life without the need to be beholden, dependent or a servant to anyone at all. But the witness of Mary is that her service, her servant hood, her handmaiden-hood is the source of her joy. Joy at being chosen, joy in her response to the word of God. Her encounter with God became the source of her commitment and contentment. “How can this be? Let it be according to your word.” So what is our response when we look in the cradle again this Christmas season and sing, “What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary's lap is sleeping?” The answer for us is not intellectual assent to a dubious proposition. The question and answer for us is the same as the question and answer for Mary. What do I do with my life? In answering that question Matthew tells us that the wise men brought gifts to the cradle. What did Mary bring to the cradle? Her entire life! Any gift less than that falls short, even if it is gold, frankincense or myrrh.
|
|
||||||||||||||
