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ADVENT 4

The tabloids won’t bother to run articles at all unless a bishop happens to mention that he "doesn’t believe in the virgin birth", at which point they will make the most of it. Many vicars will struggle with their conscience as they strive to encourage their flocks while at the same time holding to their integrity.

A difficult time is Christmas, for the church.

The problem is, that we (the church) have invested a great deal in the virgin birth. Of all things theological, it is one of two things which make Jesus special, the other of course being his resurrection. They both assert clearly that Christ isn’t just a prophet, isn’t just a good man, isn’t just a 1st century miracle and wonder worker, but the Son of God.

 Prophecies such as in Isaiah will be seen to add weight to the argument. In theological circles, all this points to what is known as the ‘particularity’ of Christ. Jesus was ‘particular’ because his birth was different, and so was his death.

I remember seeing an article about a modern day guru. Unfortunately his name escapes me, but his gravestone read, "Never born, never died, just passing through". Such was his effect on his followers that this was how they saw him, as someone who was not part of everyday humanity, someone too special to suffer the normal joys and pains of life. He just passed through.

In effect, this is what the birth stories are really saying about Jesus. He was simply too special to be tainted by a normal birth; sex was too earthy and animal, and Jesus too pure and heavenly for the two to mix.

It was the special-ness of Jesus’ life and ministry that brought about the birth stories, not the other way around.

Yet, once we allow ourselves a special birth, we have no option but to make the bearer special too. Hence, Mary is not only the mother of Jesus but becomes, in her own right (in Catholic tradition), Queen of Heaven, one born of an immaculate conception, and one who is assumed into heaven. The theology mushrooms away. The present Pope, a keen Mariologist, would even like to make Mary "co-redemptionist", that is, equal with Christ as saviour of the world.

This ‘honest sermon’ really must cry out, "enough!"

One may probably safely assume that Mary and Joseph were central to the way Jesus developed in his early life, for either good or bad. Children will either take a parent’s good example and follow it, or take a bad example and resolve to do better. An ‘honest sermon’ would have to say that we are given little guidance in scripture as to which it was. What few references to Mary there are, tend, if anything, to suggest a rather tense relationship between Jesus and his mother (John 2:4, Mark 2:31). We can say very little of a factual nature concerning Mary.

But then, the Gospels were not necessarily written with a factual nature in mind, although that is how we interpret them. The nativity story concentrates on people being called and responding, and that is the message for Advent 4. Paul in his letter to the Romans repeats the message "...yourselves, called to belong to Jesus Christ". It is the still small voice, heard by Elijah, all over again.

Everything about Christmas is about being called forth. Mary was called forth to have the Christ child. Later in the story the shepherds and then the magi, are all called to follow, to find, and to worship. Everything is about leaving behind the familiar and safe, and, in faith, seeking out the unusual, the special, the divine. But it is not a seeking on our part, it is a calling. That strange paradox of struggling to do what we think God wants of us, coupled with what do we want to do for God. This grey area is the wrestling of everyone who has a vision of God and wishes to serve him.

In the Psalm (80) set for today, the psalmist calls out for a saviour. "Restore us", he pleads, "that we may be saved". Sometimes I think we need to restore some of our more fancy theology to where it belongs, that we may be saved by a few basics. The church needs to restore Mary – not, as may be presumed, as a figure of veneration – but as a character in a story.

In the story, Mary is asked the impossible, both physically (virgins don’t have babies), and socially (birth out of wedlock was ostracizing). She was invited to put herself out for the sake of her God. Greatly put herself out. To make a fool of herself, get tongues wagging, and risk everything, because God required it of her. She was fearful – who wouldn’t be? But the grey area is subsumed. God calls and Mary answers.

We need to listen to the story, over and over again, to listen and to learn from the part she plays.

For the message is both simple and profound: when God calls, how will you answer?

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