REFLECTIONS FOR SUNDAY, 22nd December,
2002
(The Fourth Sunday in Advent)
(The Fourth Sunday in Advent)
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“[she is] a symbol of integrity in the face of abuse, obedience that undertakes radical risk, compassion that endures the spectacle of suffering, and faithfulness that goes far beyond institutional religion… “[she discerns] an ownership of mission that goes far beyond that of even Peter or Paul or the other apostles. They staked their lives. She staked her lifestyle. She staked her womb, her family, her son and her blood. She is the paradigm of faithfulness …” (P.20) |
Is this how we normally think of Mary?
Or is our usual image more like that of sentimental manger scenes or Roman Catholic devotional paintings? Is Mary a figure to whom we feel a natural kinship, or do we feel uncomfortable talking about her?
You may recall some years ago that a vandal attacked Michelangelo’s Pieta with a hammer, seriously damaging the face and arm of the figure of Mary. A magazine article at the time suggested that the act was a parable of the violence done to Mary by the church: Roman Catholics have idolized her beyond her place in scripture, and Protestants have thrown the mother (rather than the baby) out with the Reformation bathwater and ignored her.
Interestingly, Martin Luther saw three miracles in Christ’s nativity: God became human, a virgin conceived and Mary believed. In Luther’s mind, the greatest was the last! (from Here I Stand, Roland Bainton.)
In more recent memory a former colleague of mine, now lecturer
in Pastoral Theology at UTC, Doug Purnell, wrote to Insights
magazine about the way in which the cross has come to be used as
a militaristic symbol, commending the image of the Pieta as
a powerful symbol for our time of grief and compassion for victims of
violence. We could probably extend that image to people who
experience other forms of hardship, too.
I encourage our congregations to take a fresh look at Mary, and to find in her a remarkable young woman who stands as a powerful model for mission in our post-Christian society – for men as well as for women! One aspect of this is that God chooses to work through humble, ordinary – even unlikely – people who are willing to be open vessels for God’s Spirit. One of those thoughts that came into my mental files without noting the source sometime over the last 20 years is that Mary lived a ‘sacramental life’ – a sacrament being an outward sign of an inner grace, something that is made available for others. That can be seen quite graphically in her carrying the Christ Child, and also in her subsequent life of faithfulness. Aren’t all Christians called to live sacramental lives? |
The second reading, the Magnificat, highlights Mary’s subversiveness (not submissiveness, as we normally think of her). This song is like a revolutionary anthem. I seem to recall that during the 1980s a South American dictatorship forbade the church to read the Magnificat because of its revolutionary tone! Mary sings of a kingdom at work that will challenge all the power structures that keep people oppressed and living as victims.
There is a subversive, underground nature to mission. Christians are called to be a living alternative to the standards and values of our society. Mary’s willingness to accept vulnerability is an example of that, as is her integrity in being faithful to her son through the most difficult and traumatic experiences. Instead of self-preservation (the way of the male disciples, and our own contemporary standards), Mary risked exposure and chose obedience.
The angel said Mary was “blessed”. The life she lived was a funny kind of blessing if you ask me: facing the stigma of an illegitimate child and the ostracism of her community, seeing that child become a wandering preacher open to all kinds of hardship, hearing words such as “who is my mother…”, and standing by a cross as her first born was executed. Now there’s a subversion of the way we traditionally think of ‘blessing’!
A forgotten (by me) member of an on-line discussion group wrote this about Mary:
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“Favour with God is not unbroken happiness. The world thinks favour with God is winning the lottery, ease, pleasure, and prosperity. The truth lies much deeper. “I have a friend who suffered awful abuse as a child, (I mean awful in the worst possible sense of the word) Every year she is invited to her local high school, the high school from which she graduated, to speak to the health science classes about her experiences. Every year students speak to her afterward who are being abused in some awful way and have been afraid to tell anyone. She listens and helps them reach out to find the help they need. “She says going to that school and speaking to those students is the hardest thing she has ever had to do. But she goes back every year because for her it is part of what it means to have found favour with God. She is God's instrument of salvation for many suffering souls, probably more than she will ever know.” |
For a disturbing story of childbirth in present day Bethlehem, “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb…”, go to this page <http://www.annadwa.org/> at the International Centre of Bethlehem – a cultural organization committed to strengthening the Palestinian identity, cultivating artistic talent, and facilitating intercultural encounter, headed by Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, of the Christmas Lutheran Church.
It is the story of a young Palestinian woman’s frustrated attempt to reach the hospital in Bethlehem to give birth. The story ends:
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“In Bethlehem, a statue of the Virgin Mary stands above the entrance of the maternity hospital called the Holy Family, she is riddled with Israeli bullets. When Nahed finally arrived at the hospital it was clear that the long delay had been critical. Her baby boy was dead… “Nahed tells me her story quietly, she is full of grace, ‘I offer up my suffering to God’, she says.” |
Nahed reminds me of that other young Palestinian woman who, 2,000 years ago, offered up her troubled heart to God.
Shalom/Salam,
Chris.
P.S. Here is a great hymn for Advent 4 by New Zealander, Marnie Barrell – with permission to use. As you can see from the page, it goes to John Nicholson Ireland’s tune, LOVE UNKNOWN (AHB.257i; TIS.341).