In El Salvador refugees flee the government troops, hiding in the jungle only a couple of thousand yards away from the troops. The group stops long enough for a woman to give birth. The silence and pain are devastating. The woman around hold her, willing her to make no sound. The child, once born, is passed from hand to hand, prayed over. Will this be the child that will free the people and bring peace to the land. Then they move on, with new life to be celebrated at the first place it is safe to sing, rejoice and eat.
(- adapted from Mary, Shadow of Grace by Megan McKenna, 59)
We are approaching Advent. We begin to think of Mary pregnant with the Christ-child, bearing him in an area where war and conflict still make no child safe.
She bears the child, full of hope. Christians have long called her the God-bearer.
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 favoured! The Lord is with you.'
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words... 30 But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour 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...; 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.
To her child, so weak and totally helpless, she brings the gifts of a mother.
Caring, compassion, gentleness, tenderness, patience, listening, pain, suffering, tireless love, sacrifice.
Wonderful virtues, on which we all depend.
In a male governed world, qualities that are easily forgotten, seen as weak.
Women know they are not weak
And Mary bears the Christ Child
God.
Straight away as we read the Bible (though in reality months if not years may have intervened) power, violence announce themselves.
Herod wants to kill this child.
Mary flees Bethlehem to Egypt,
As Herod's troops sweep in, to kill the God-child she has born. He massacres the children of Bethlehem
Three weak people flee, God cares for them
Joseph too cares
For he has something of God's ways
And trusts.
The weakness of motherhood triumphs
And of course, I speak as a fool
For as my very story tells
It is not weakness but strength
But male power
Thinks the opposite
In swoops Herod. He massacres the innocent. He thinks power wins.
But years later, another Herod will swoop in with Pilate
And catch up with that child
Hang him on a cross
And power will pat itself on the back
Think it has triumphed.
And Mary will be at the cross, crying in anguish. Watching over her son
As only a mother knows how.
From the moment of his birth to tragically
that of his death
And a mother's love triumphs again.
For there is another power
A power so powerful that those of this world do not recognise it
This world thinks it is foolishness
In the Narnia stories, the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
The White Witch has killed the Christ figure, the Lion Aslan
She has overcome his powers by her Powerful magic.
But Aslan rises from the grave
Aslan says, "though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know: Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitors stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards..."
And so it will always be for those who love power
Who ignore the ways of God
Who do not know the ways of God.
Mary, the God-bearer.
Sharing in the suffering of motherhood
Through the bearing of children, women, and all of us, are saved.
For Mary bore Christ.
A woman, the God-bearer
The first one to proclaim Christ's coming
Another Mary the first one to announce the resurrection.
Women still suffering as we still do not yet listen to St Paul's who tells us that in Christ there is no male, no female. Still treated unequally in church leadership.
But God's ways will triumph.
Women, who are so vital for the health and well-being of our families
Still so often made to take second place in marriages
Men thinking of themselves as having authority over a woman, their head. But in the ancient world the heart and soul were in the heart not in the head; head rarely means authority.
It probably here means source. Woman came from Adam. Paul is speaking of interdependence, not authority.
Men, love and honour your wives. raise them up to the same authority you have. Do not rule over them. Submit to one another in the Lord.
Women, who bear the brunt of family life, bearing and bringing up children
With men still not listening to the injunction of Paul in Ephesians 5.21 that men should submit to women; indeed, that they make the greater sacrifice.
Ephesians 5.22 - women should submit; but this is balanced by male submission; indeed, a harder submission is spoken of for the man in v 25, that of agape love, men should submit and lay down their lives.
There I guess - and I am guessing - will be men here who use computers for inappropriate images.
This does not encourage submission to one another.
You know what you have to do in Christ
There will be men here tempted to leave their wives
But learn from Joseph, who was faithful
Mary, the God-bearer
We are all God-bearers
We are together a Temple of God's Holy Spirit
"let yourselves be used in building the spiritual temple" 1 Peter 2:5
As you walk from hear bearing God, bearing the Spirit of Christ, in your life
What will you bring to birth today, this week?
What will you do to safeguard the Christ within your life.
For you too are Mary - God-bearer
You too are Joseph - called to be faithful
Go and be God's people in the world. Be a Transforming Presence. Be temples of God's Spirit.
