Standing Under the Scriptures
December 28, 2008

Dear Fellow Voyagers,

Our readings for this Sunday are:

Galatians 3.23-25, 4.4-7: God, by sending his Son, transformed our subjection to the law into sonship.

John 1.1-18: The Prologue of John’s Gospel sets forth the Incarnation in all its wonder.

We began last Sunday with the conclusion of Paul’s letter to the Romans (16.25-27). We saw how, although brief and somewhat formulaic, it encapsulated Paul’s essential message: the utter transformation of the world wrought by God in Christ, the effectiveness of this transformation for believers. In form these verses are a doxology, a giving of glory and praise to God. And in the original text the Greek word for glory, doxa, in fact appears (verse 27). But the glory of God cited here is his redeeming and strengthening of believers. And in this affirmation these verses function also as a benediction.

Our Gospel reading was Luke’s account of the Annunciation (1.26-38). This is an exceptionally rich as well as well-known passage and, I think, we tapped some of these riches. There was first Luke’s artistry, not only in his language---he wrote perhaps the most polished Greek in the New Testament---but also his adroit weaving together of themes: on the one hand the conception of Jesus and on the other the conception of John the Baptist. Immediately preceding our passage we read of John’s father, Zechariah, and his disbelief of the angel Gabriel when he declared that Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, would conceive in her old age. We noted that this foretelling resonated with Sarah’s conceiving of Isaac in her old age (Genesis 17ff.) and with Hannah’s conceiving, despite her previous barrenness, of Samuel (1 Samuel 1ff.). In fact such conceptions were taken in the Old Testament as a sign of God’s power. And Zechariah’s disbelief contrasts with the credence that Mary gave to Gabriel’s similar declaration concerning Jesus’ birth. Further, shortly after our passage comes the Magnificat, Mary’s fuller response to the Annunciation. And this has affinities with the Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2).

Questions were raised in the class as to whether Mary’s response to Gabriel was so different from Zechariah’s. For she began by saying, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” (KJV: since I know not a man). And this prompted us to inquire what was the basic pattern or type of the passage. We found our clue in that initially she was “greatly troubled at the saying and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.” The Greek conveys something rather stronger, a shaking of the foundations even (cf. Jeremiah 4.23ff.). This indeed is what happened to the prophets when they received their calls, their vocational visions. Isaiah, when he sees the Lord in the temple, exclaims, “Woe is me. For I am lost. For I am a man o unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (6.5). Jeremiah similarly protests, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth” (1.6). And Moses at the burning bush responds, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3.11). This pattern continues in the New Testament. Peter, when called by Jesus, protests, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5.8).

We noted that the prophets and Peter too were questioning not God’s calling of them but rather their capacity to fulfil it. And Mary, in citing her unmarried state, may be seen as also in this pattern. It is not that she had no cause to be shaken by Gabriel’s elaboration of his greeting.

“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call is name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”

For it was not just in her biological capacity that she was being called to serve the Lord. Being the mother of the Messiah was a supremely difficult vocation. Luke tells how already at the age of 12 Jesus’ involvement in discussion with the teachers in the temple caused him to be left behind (2.41ff.). Matthew tells of dissension between Jesus and his mother and brothers (12.46-50). And finally it fell to Mary to watch him in agony on the cross. To be sure, the Magnificat sounds a note of exaltation. But it goes on to speak of the overturning of the accustomed order of things.

“[The Lord] has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts;
he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.”

And such reversals do not take place without strenuous and even violent resistance on the part of the establishment.

Yet Mary accepts the calling that God has given her through Gabriel.

“Behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.”

Her obedience could fairly be ranked ahead of that of the prophets. To be sure, it was not given to her as it was to them to discern the inner condition of the people and to proclaim it with irresistible force. But she was obedient with what had been given, namely her motherhood. And this enabled the salvation of the world. It is with what we have that we in our turn are called to be obedient. And out of this also God is able to bring great things.

Faithfully, Fr. Ted