God-Bearer

There were two lectionary choices for today (the lectionary being a three y ear cycle of scripture readings from the OT, P, G, and E to be used in worship.) The first, the regular reading for ordinary time, and the other for, “ The Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven.” I thought to myself, why go with ordinary when one can go with the Queen of Heaven? And so, our text today is the Magnificat, Mary’s response to her aunt Elizabeth when Elizabeth declares her blessed among women, and blessed be the fruit of her womb.

Luke 1:46-53
And Mary said,
'My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of God's servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is God's name.
God's mercy is for those who fear God
from generation to generation.
God has shown strength with God's arm;
and has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
God has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
God has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.'"

God-Bearer
Rev. Karla Miller August 18, 2010 Eliot Church of Newton

Recently, I have had a surge of protestant clergy friends tell me how much they secretly adore Mary, the Mother of God, which has piqued my interest, as well. As a child, I was always a little jealous that my Catholic friends could pray to her, but Pastor Melheim told us confirmation kids we couldn’t have ANY thing to do with saints let alone praying to tham. “Lutherans use the DIRECT hotline to God”, he would rant.

Back in the days when Christianity was still being—orthodox-ied, there were some arguments about how to deal with Mary, stemming from how they were understanding Jesus. In 431, The Coucil of Ephesus decreed that since Jesus was both fully God and fully human, Mary must be understood as “Theotokos” , meaningly literally God-birther, affirming the fullness of the incarnation of God. Some just wanted to call her Christotokos, bearer of Christ, but the Council refuted that.
Theotokos—God bearer.

Isn’t that beautiful? Giving birth to God?

But what kind of birth was it? Throughout the ages of western Christendom, Mary, the mother of God has been a model of piety, of humble submissiveness to Divine Plan, an “obedient, desexualized, merciful mother and beautiful virgin that is projected into heaven as the eternal feminine.’ The perfect woman. What we sister believers should strive for.

I don’t like this model of Mary, and I don’t think it is true to her story

Look at the story of the annunciation in Luke 1. Mary is “much perplexed” (read: troubled, seriously concerned) about the angel Gabriel’s news that she will bear a child that reign in a kingdom with no end, she asks one fairly direct question —“ how can this be, since I am a virgin”….implying, that she and her betrothed, Joseph, are not, well…you know, sexually active. (IF you buy the fact that the Greek word used here actually meant “virgin” as we know it, rather than “Young woman” which was the word in Isaiah 7:14, which this whole prophecy of Gabriel’s is from). Gabriel adroitly assures her that the power of the most HIGH (that’s God) will overshadow her and the Holy Spirit will come upon her and protect her…..which is empowering, but doesn’t answer the most question at hand. However, Mary doesn’t press the point. The assurance of God is enough. She responds “Here am I the servant of the Lord—let it be to me according to your word.”

A “model believer”, indeed. But there is more to this story, I feel certain.

But notice one thing. Does Gabriel promise divine seed to implant in her womb? No! His promises of the Holy overshadowing and protecting Mary is a “figurative way of speaking about the child’s special relation to God, and NOT implying the absence of human paternity” Might I add here that the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke were oral traditions—possibly women’s stories that circulated long before the writers redacted them into their gospels. Some scholars posit that both Luke and Matthew inherited illegitimacy traditions about Jesus’ paternity within those narratives, which have been muted and silenced in the texts we have today?

And I have the sense that Mary’s story is mystery and miracle….

And I have to say, the idea of a virgin birth, immaculate conception sanitizes her story, because the miracle has no real purpose but for the ancient church fathers to subordinate women, to deny the creative process, and to prove that Jesus was divine.
The story is dehumanized.

Which totally defeats the main point of Christianity---
The divine becoming one with us, beoming human?

I want you to notice something with me. Look at the text in Luke one. Do you notice the literal space in between the story of the annunciation, and the story of the magnificat?

This space actually occurs in the earliest manuscripts of Luke.

Before the space, the annunciation. After the space, the magnificat.

What has happened? We don’t know the story of conception. We are not privy to what happens to Mary, in `between the visit from Gabriel, and the visit to Aunt Elizabeth. What has happened?
She is 12 or 13 or 14 years old.
She has become pregnant.
Who has done this to her?
Magic?
Did she have a lover, Joseph?
Did someone do wrong to her?
We don’t know.
All we know is that she is running to her aunt, and maybe remembering, vaguely….this visit…this promise.. of overshadowing…of empowerment…of the divine….
Being pregnant out of wedlock typically would mean stoning, or death,
But clinging to that shred of divine visitation…
She is greeted with blessing from her cousin…
And…
Oh.
Maybe…
However this child was conceived…there is a sense that the birth will be blessed…
And that the mother of this child will be blessed…because…she remembers the promise of protection and Mary is empowered…
Mary decided to go for it. She decided to risk it.
This is the model believer.
Defying cultural expectations and norms.
Daring the law to punish her.
She puts it all out there.
Because the fact is….
The story is stronger---and more miraculous—
Without a virgin birth…
It’s a story against the odds,
It’s the song she sings defiantly that ….
The lowly will be raised up,
That the so called dominant powers will be brought down off their thrones,
That the hungry will be fed…that the proud and mighty will be scattered…
Mary’s song…
From the very breath in her lungs
Is one of hope against hope…
Against all the odds….
And when we hear her agonizing screams in the travailing of birth,
her panting breath and the clutching at the arms of Joseph and the crying out in undescribable pain….and sweat…
We know….
This Mary is no quiet, submissive one.
She is gritty and hopeful…
She is…as Elisabeth Shussler Fiorenza writes…
“The young pregnant woman, living in occupied territory and struggling against victimization and for survival and dignity”

It is she who offers the possibilities for a different understanding of Jesus and the divine…

And this is in part,
What Mary of Nazareth offers to us today….
In the most shadowy of times, she offers hope against hope….
And in spite of fear of death and domination and discrimination and disempowerment,
angels whisper in our ears to tell us,
Each of us…
That we participate in the bringing forth of God in a broken world, from our broken lives…

“What you bear will be special and blessed,
What you bring forth will be touched by the divine, and will be a light to the world…what is conceived within will be blessed in its birth…”

The mystic Meister Eckhart wrote, “We are all mothers of God, for God is needing to be born in the world every day”
We, like Mary, must participate with God in the redemption of the world….
We must give birth to the life we are living now,
in these days….
And …if we get that what we bring forth is the very presence of the divine…

If you felt that what ever you gave birth to was God…if you knew that you were the mother of God today….
How holy would our days be…
Then how holy would our work be…
How holy would your family be…
Oh, how holy might our worlds be…
If we truly believed
That we could bear God in this world.

What about you?
Are you a God-bearer?
How?
Amen.