{"id":1172,"date":"2011-12-10T22:38:58","date_gmt":"2011-12-11T03:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/carlgregg\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2014-12-29T21:44:39","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T02:44:39","slug":"%e2%80%9clet-it-be%e2%80%9d-a-progressive-christian-lectionary-commentary-for-the-4th-sunday-of-advent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/carlgregg\/2011\/12\/%e2%80%9clet-it-be%e2%80%9d-a-progressive-christian-lectionary-commentary-for-the-4th-sunday-of-advent\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLet It Be\u201d (A Progressive Christian Lectionary Commentary for the 4th Sunday of Advent)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The following is the second of two lectionary commentaries on the Gospel lesson for the 4th Sunday of<\/em> Advent.The first is titled \u201cHail Mary, Full of Grace<\/a>\u201d and focuses on the first part of this week\u2019s this week\u2019s reading from Luke 1.<\/em><\/p>\n

Focal Question 1<\/span>: <\/strong>What would Christianity look like if the focus were\u00a0birth<\/em>, not death; human\u00a0flourishing<\/em>, not suffering; and this world<\/em>, not the next?<\/p>\n

Focal Question 2<\/span>: <\/strong>How is God inviting you in the coming days and weeks to echo some form of Mary\u2019s words of humble openness and acceptance: \u201cYes, I see. I\u2019m ready. Let it be with me just as you say.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In my\u00a0previous lectionary commentary<\/a>, we heard the angel\u2019s words to Mary that inspired the beginning of the\u00a0Ave Maria<\/em>: \u201cHail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.\u201d Her first response to the Gabriel\u2019s appearance understandably was stunned silence. In the words of scripture, \u201cshe was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.\u201d Accordingly, the invitation of Advent is to wait patiently for what is already in the process of being birthed resonates with Mary\u2019s shock that\u00a0God<\/em> was taking the initiative. Mary didn\u2019t ask for a messenger from God to appear; the angel simply showed up unexpectedly. The parallel for us today may be that\u00a0God is always birthing new life in our midst in ways that we are not consciously aware of beforehand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the parallel lessons we are invited to learn in this season of the liturgical year is that God is always at work in surprising ways. And God is engaged in this surprising work in all<\/em> ages, not merely in the first century. The 14th-century German mystic Meister Eckhart phrased this idea provocatively when he wrote:\u00a0\u201cWhat is the good if Mary gave birth to the Son of God 2000 years ago, if I do not give birth to God today? We are all Mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most stunning part of the \u201cHail Mary\u201d prayer is the title attributed to Mary, \u201cMother of God.\u201d The conception of Mary as \u201cMother of God\u201d has provided a much-needed feminine balance in the heavily male-dominated Roman Catholic tradition. The Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition also has a strong emphasis on Mary as the Mother of God, which can be seen in the frequent use of the term\u00a0Theotokos<\/em> in Orthodox Christian writings. The Greek word\u00a0theo-tokos<\/em> literally means \u201cGod-bearer.\u201d It speaks most specifically to Mary as the one who gave birth to God, but more generally to the way all Christians are called to emulate Mary\u2019s willing vulnerability to use her life, her body, her very self to bear witness \u2014 to birth \u2014 God into the world.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 life shows us what it looks like when God is birthed into the world. Jesus also pointed us toward what birthing God into the world looks like whenever he talked about the \u201cKingdom of God.\u201d Martin Luther King, Jr. was likewise calling us to birth God into the world when he called us to become the Beloved Community.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life, birth, and growth: Mary\u2019s unexpected pregnancy, Jesus\u2019 life, and the lives of all those like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Dorothy Day show us what it looks like to birth God into the world. Tragically, male-dominated Christian theology too often has pointed us in the opposite direction: toward death, suffering, and loss. But in recent decades feminist theologians such as Grace Jantzen have proposed that we should shift our focus from theologies that are \u201cpreoccupied with violence, sacrifice, and death, and built upon mortality\u201d \u2014 and instead \u201cbegin with birth, and with the hope and possibility and wonder implicit in it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

She similarly asks,\u00a0\u201cWhat would Christianity look like if the focus were\u00a0birth<\/em>, not death; human\u00a0flourishing<\/em>, not suffering; and\u00a0this world<\/em>, not the next?\u201d<\/strong> Advent is a time for pondering these possibilities.<\/p>\n

As we turn from Mary\u2019s silent pondering to her reply, we hear her ask first, \u201cHow can this be, since I am a virgin?\u201d My inclination is to proceed cautiously because I believe the most important point being made here is not about biology, but about\u00a0theology and politics<\/em>. <\/strong>Jesus was neither the first nor the last person whose origins were attributed to a \u201cvirgin birth.\u201d Perhaps most significantly in this case, Julius Caesar was said to have been born of a virgin. Decades before Jesus\u2018 birth (in 19 B.C.E. to be precise) Virgil published the Greco-Roman classic\u00a0The Aeneid<\/em>, which claimed a divine origin for the line of Caesar: \u201cFrom this noble line shall be born the Trojan Caesar, who shall extend his empire to the ocean, his glory to the stars, a Julius name descended from the great Julus!\u201d So, first and foremost, the story of Jesus\u2019 virgin birth is similar to the declaration that \u201cJesus is Lord\u201d; both are different ways of declaring one\u2019s allegiance to Jesus<\/em> instead of to Caesar.<\/p>\n

That being said, there are many different aspects of the virgin birth story to consider. When I toured Israel as an undergraduate, one of the places we visited in Nazareth was the Basilica of the Annunciation, a church built on the spot where tradition holds that the angel announced Jesus\u2019 conception to Mary. While there I remember some of us discussing \u2014 half-jokingly and half-seriously \u2014 how exactly Mary broke the news to her parents. Since the angel appeared to her and not to her parents, what was she supposed to say? Something like, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, Dad, it\u2019s God\u2019s baby?\u201d Settling aside any potential blasphemy for a moment, I believe that we are so familiar with this story that we sometimes fail to consider the many difficult implications of Mary\u2019s situation as an unwed teenager. At the same time Advent invites us to focus, not only on Mary\u2019s socially-suspect pregnancy, but also on the hope, possibility, and wonder associated with all births<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And Mary\u2019s second response, following her incredulous initial question, is\u00a0humility<\/em>. Mary said, \u201cHere am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.\u201d Just as Gabriel\u2019s greeting, \u201cHail Mary,\u201d inspired the\u00a0Ave Maria<\/em> prayer that has been prayer countless times and rendered into unforgettable music, so too, Mary\u2019s response, \u201cLet it be\u201d has also inspired artists \u2014 perhaps most famously as the title track of the Beatles\u2019 12th and final studio album:\u00a0Let It Be.<\/em><\/p>\n

From the perspective of Advent, I invite you to hear the Beatles\u2019 \u201cLet it Be\u201d as if for the first time. Listen with the words of Mary echoing in your ear. Listen with an openness to how God may be calling you to slow down, open your eyes in wonder, and expectantly wait for is already in the process of being born. How is God inviting you in the coming days and weeks to echo some form of Mary\u2019s words of humble openness and acceptance: \u201cYes, I see. I\u2019m ready. Let it be with me just as you say.\u201dGive yourself permission to be still and listen:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RdopMqrftXs<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in his Advent book\u00a0Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin<\/a>, writes that: \u201cThere is a poem by Rilke, \u2018The Angel,\u2019 in which the poet warns us against inviting angels into the house, because they will turn the whole place upside down and seek out all the hidden corners and mould us into new shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we open ourselves to God, when we echo Mary\u2019s prayer, \u201cLet it be,\u201d we may find ourselves turned upside down and our prioritizes rearranged, as Mary experienced when Gabriel appeared in her house. \u00a0A few verses from our focal scriptural, we see a model of reshaped priorities in Mary\u2019s Song, called \u201cThe Magnificat.\u201d (For more, see my lectionary commentary on \u201cMagnificat! Learning to Sing Mary\u2019s Song<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\n

For now, I invite you to pause in a few moments of contemplative silence. During this time, I invite you to continue to ponder:<\/p>\n

How God is surprising me this Advent season?<\/p>\n

How am I being called to slow down or let go?<\/p>\n

How does it feel to begin to pray an echo of Mary\u2019s open-hearted response, \u201cMay it be so. Just as you say. Let it be. Let it be. Let it be.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Take some time to prayerfully journal how God is speaking to you in response to these questions.<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/sup> Grace Jantzen,\u00a0Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy<\/a>, <\/em>2.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup> The paraphrase of Mary\u2019s words is adapted from Eugene Peterson\u2019s translation,\u00a0The Message<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3<\/sup> I was unable to located the exact Rilke poem titled \u201cThe Angel\u201d to which Williams refers. Perhaps he is quoting from memory and couldn\u2019t find the exact poem either since he doesn\u2019t footnote a reference! If you know where I can locate a copy of the poem, please let me know in the comments section. (Note<\/em>: One reader suggests this link may be the poem in question:\u00a0http:\/\/rainer-maria-rilke.de\/080032derengel.html<\/a>. If I ever meet Williams in person, I hope to ask him.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Resources for Reclaiming a More Meaningful Advent and Christmas Season\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n