Luke 1:26 In
the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to
Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to
a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of
David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 The
angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The
Lord is with you." 29 Mary
was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might
be. 30 But the angel
said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with
God. 31 You will
conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be
called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of
his father David, 33 and
he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never
end." 34 "How
will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a
virgin?" 35 The
angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of
the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be
called the Son of God. 36 Even
Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she
who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever
fail." 38 "I
am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me according to
your word." Then the angel left her.
In this fourth Sunday of Advent, the drama is noticeably
heightened as the clock ticks closer to Christmas Eve and the birth of the
Savior. Yet, as the drama intensifies, it's also true that the readings become
more familiar. Even people who spend very little time in church are familiar
with the annunciation story. And familiarity always lends itself to missing key phrases.
Take, for instance, the phrase in vs 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be
afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. The word translated
"favor" is charis in the
Greek. It's also, often, translated as "grace." Thankfully, with the
exception of the Douay-Rheims version (an archaic Roman Catholic translation)
all popular translations of the Bible translate charis as "favor" in this verse (even the modern Roman
Catholic New American Bible translation). The point being, "grace" is
a term that has taken on theological weight. Grace is what the repentant sinner
finds when s/he turns from their sin and embraces the love and forgiveness of
God. The old Anglican Prayer of Humble
Access says it best "We do not presume to come
to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in
thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the
crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always
to have mercy..." This 'property' of always having mercy is
called God's grace. But the problem with translating charis as grace in
Luke 1:30 is that in the story Mary is not being presented as a repentant
sinner. Mary is just being Mary. In a lot of ways the verse reminds me of
Genesis 6:8. In that story, God has become so fed up with humanity that he
decides to destroy all that he has made, but then: Noah
found favor in the eyes of the Lord (6:8). Not because Noah was a repentant
sinner looking for forgiveness, but because Noah was being Noah.
Back to Mary, it's interesting to
note what impresses God. And while a lot could be said about the "Church
Lore" that has grown up around Mary over two millennia, enough stuff is
included in this Sunday's reading to keep us busy. There is, for instance, her
humble origin. There is no shortage of high-born Jewish maidens, but God is
drawn to this humble maiden from a backwater village that no one has ever heard
of. And then of course there are Mary's famous words of willingness to
be used for God's plan: "I am the Lord's servant," Mary
answered. "May it be to me according to your word." (v38). As Luke unfolds his story, one of the main
points seems to be that verse 38 is Mary being Mary. That willingness to center
her life around the will of God; that willingness to literally welcome the Lord into her life; and that willingness to
re-vector her life in a way that would have been unimaginable just one day
prior to the angel's visit is what made Mary Mary. And this is what God found
so favorable.
As I've stated many times in the past, the Protestant
wing of the church has Mary-phobia. We're not comfortable with some of the things
the Roman Catholic Church has said about here, and we're mostly ignorant of
what the older, more traditional Orthodox Church has said. And so in that fear
and ignorance, we tend not to speak about her at all. THANKFULLY, we have the
fourth week of Advent which forces us to spend a little time with this great
hero of the faith, this great saint of the Church, this blessed virgin who was
willing to be a part of God's greatest gift to all creation.
Cheers,
T.M.
No comments:
Post a Comment