THE 'OTHER' ANNUNCIATION STORY

There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:
1. He called everyone "brother."
2. He liked Gospel.
3. He couldn't get a fair trial.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with his hands.
2. He had wine with His meals.
3. He used olive oil.

3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:
1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was no food.
2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just
didn't get it.
3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was work to do.

Absolute proof that Jesus was Jewish: he lived at home until he was 30, he went into the family business; he thought his mother was a virgin and she thought he was God...

Today we’re invited to consider as the final preparations for receiving the Christ child, the way in which Mary was involved.

Today’s gospel is in one sense the other annunciation story... not Mary and Gabriel, but Joseph and another angel... Let’s compare the two: Joseph is trying to do the right thing and he is told not to; Mary is asked to do the extraordinary thing. Both say yes. Both are good people - Joseph is called a “righteous man”; Mary is the one we think of as being “full of grace” - and in Luke’s annunciation her status as a righteous person is declared by her saying yes to God.... and Christians have always thought of that yes to God being the result of a grounded and exceptional depth of spirituality - her self forgetfulness in answering God’s call - the results of which were not just the joy of motherhood, but a - perhaps unknown - depth of suffering for her...
The name to be given to the child is a description of what he is (Emmanuel: God With Us) and what he will do (Jesus: Yahweh saves!), is far more significant than the lineage Matthew has quoted us, or the somewhat unusual circumstances surrounding his conception and birth...

And so Joseph becomes stepfather to Hope - and in one sense stands with much to say to those whose families are reformed without both biological parents being involved... Jesus was nurtured in such a family... but that’s a sermon for another day!

Some Christians get a bit twitchy when we talk about Mary. They worry that she distracts from worship of Jesus, or that she’s somehow superfluous and unnecessary, or superstitious. I think a little pondering on Mary’s role in the Christmas story and beyond will go some way towards showing why Mary is such an important figure in the Christian faith and why we at St John’s take her seriously.

As you may have heard Theology (lovingly called the Queen of the Sciences) is a terribly well structured and ordered subject when you come to explore it at an academic level. The branch of theology that deals with Mary - called Marian Theology, or in some circles Maryology - is a subsection of Christology, which, as the name might suggest is all about Christ. In other words, anything that we say about Mary is in effect saying something about Jesus. Without Jesus there would be no Mary; but without a Mary there would have been no Jesus.

So when we say of Mary that she is “Mother of God”, in one sense that is a bit odd... how can God have a mother? But when we say that we are actually saying something about the child she gave birth too - God of God, Light of Light, very God or very God... If Jesus is divine, then the woman who gave birth to him is indeed the “Mother of God”. Orthodox Christians refer to Mary as “Theotokos” - the God-bearer. To say something about Mary is to say something about Jesus.

Was Mary predestined to this role? The quotation Matthew uses suggests so. Matthew is a good Jewish boy - v keen to show through out his gospel how Jesus fulfils the OT, about how the scriptures were written about him in this case 700 years before his birth. But God’s pattern is always to work with us. If that wasn’t the case, why would Mary be asked if she would bear God’s son? God could have just told her. But God seems to work in partnership with the human beings he has made.

Mary could have said no. Joseph too could have refused to have anything to do with Mary - he could have ignored his dream, divorced her and lived as the broken hearted carpenter of Nazareth. Jesus could have chosen not to do things God’s way - the temptations in the wilderness, the cry of anguish in the Garden of Gethsemene are all points which highlight the choice which God offers us.

Mary also stands supreme as the example of discipleship. With the benefit of hindsight and familiarity with the story we can get a bit blasé about what Mary did, but a Jewish teenager who is engaged to be married to a carpenter in a rural backwater has an angel appear to her and ask her to give birth to God’s son, and she says yes. Not: “Let me think about it”, not “are you mad?”, not “No way!”. Mary had a choice.

Mary risked much: the top penalty for adultery (which is what Joseph could have cited) was death by stoning. It’s possible she could have been as young as 12 and a half... Hannah’s age... Stoning she may have avoided, but she would always have the whispers to put up with, the pointed fingers, the awkward social encounters... And I wonder whether she realised at the annunciation just how her heart would be broken; that giving birth to God could only lead to fallible human beings trying to get rid of him - words which were articulated by Simeon in the temple: “A sword shall pierce your own soul...” [Lk 2.35]; and as the flight into Egypt showed. What an exceptional young woman Mary was.

You may notice the illustration on the Notice Sheet this week. It’s by an American artist called Morgan Weistling [Why-st-ling] and I stumbled across it by accident. (I don’t like all of his stuff, having said that there is another one called Walking With God which shows Joseph teaching the infant Christ to walk...) [www.morganweistling.com/ , then “Store” then “Order prints” for both paintings]

He’s called this painting “Kissing the Face of God”, and says he tried to get a very human presentation of divinity - and that paradox that as Mary nurtured her baby she was cuddling and kissing God in the flesh...

Some of us meditate in front of icons, or we sit in the presence of the blessed sacrament, or we light a candle and turn over a prayer or a scripture in our minds... and that devotion affects and influences us... we gain an insight into the ways of God, we marvel at God’s love for us, we try to line our lives up with God’s; we seek guidance or help or whatever...

Mary kissed the very face of God... What kind of a devotion was that of Mary? How did that affect her as she brought up Jesus? What influence did the constant, tangible presence of God have on this remarkable young woman...? As we begin to ponder these things we begin to see the importance of Mary, and her remarkable role in the story of our salvation. It may have started with a simple “Yes”, it may have led her to the heart breaking foot of the cross, it may have led her to a quietly unsurprised resurrection. After all, 30 odd years of kissing the face of God may have born in her the quiet confidence that nothing snuffs out the Light, that strength is in weakness, that the poor and abused and downtrodden are just the ones God seems to delight in raising up....

If his name was Emmanuel - God With Us - how did 30 years of that affect his mother? God With Me.

As we begin to climb a little deeper into the scriptures, and into the Christmas story we begin to get some very different insights and discover some hidden treasurers, as well as some hidden thorns.

In our Christmas preparations these last few days of Advent as we ponder Mary, as we praise God for her example, let’s remember her unique relationship with Jesus, her insights and her devotion; that’s why she has always been such an important figure in the lives of Christian people down the ages. And that’s why today we still venerate her and ask her to pray for us as we say: Hail Mary full of grace, blessed art though amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus, holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinner, now, and at the hour of our death.

Fr. Andrew Perry

Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea