It’s that “time of year” yet again. I continue to struggle with this, Christian event, not just because it’s become consumerist in its meaning but for other, more, sobering reasons.
We go through the birth narrative each and every year and, for many, it has become a tired even worn-out story. Not so much because it is not true-although elements of it are open for debate- but because of the way the story is told. It’s become a little to patronising a little to syrup-ey. In this day and age its a story that has all the hallmarks of an Aesop fable it asks, the average person, to believe what is not only improbable- in our the world we live in- but also impossible. It’s a little to cute and other-worldly and if taken literally, as we demand that others should, could almost be embarrassing.
When I think about the birth narrative I think about a story within a story. I think about Mary.
What if we look at the story from another angle? What if Mary had said….NO!!
The story has become so over-spiritualized that it has become almost untouchable. How could we see it any other light, when we create a God who, our theology teaches us, never makes mistakes and never, ever takes any risks. If the outcomes are wrong, we are always the ones to blame, because our Western definition of God is a flawed definition indeed- God simply cannot make mistakes.
Mary could so easily have made this a ”worthiness contest” as so many catholic and protestant Christians do. She could have said No! I can’t, I’m not worthy enough or holy enough or pure enough, I don’t have the victory yet and I don’t FEEL spiritual enough“
The great miracle is in the beginning of the story. Mary said…YES!
What ever we mean when we say salvation it must, at some point, come down to this; me saying YES! to God’s YES.
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