THE BLIND FAITH OF MARY AND JOSEPH
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. -ISAIAH 7:14
Kingdom people are history makers. They break through the small kingdoms of this world to an alternative and much larger world, God’s full creation. People who are still living in the false self are history stoppers. They use God and religion to protect their own status and the status quo of the world that sustains them. They are often fearful people, the nice proper folks of every age who think like everybody else thinks and who have no power to break through, or as Jesus’ opening words put it, “to change” (Mark 1:15, Matthew 4:17).
How can we really think that Mary, if she thought like any good Jewish girl was trained to think, could possibly be ready for this message? She had to let God lead her outside of her box of expectations, her comfort zone, her dutiful religion of follow-the-leader. She was very young and largely uneducated. Perhaps theology itself is not the necessary path but simply integrity and courage. Nothing said at the synagogue would have prepared Mary or Joseph for this situation. They both had to rely on their angels! What proper bishop would trust such a situation? I wouldn’t myself. All we know of Joseph is that he was “a just man” (Matthew 1:19), also young and probably uneducated. This is all an affront to our criteria and way of evaluating authenticity.
So why do we love and admire people like Mary and Joseph, and then not imitate their faith journeys, their courage, their non-reassurance by the religious system? These were two laypeople who totally trusted their inner experience of God and who followed it to Bethlehem and beyond. There is no mention in the Gospels of the two checking out their inner experiences with the high priests, the synagogue or even their Jewish Scriptures. Mary and Joseph walked in courage and blind faith that their experience was true; with no one to reassure them they were right. Their only safety net was God’s love and mercy, a safety net they must have tried out many times, or else they would never have been able to fall into it so gracefully.
ALL IS IN READINESS
Go and tell my servant David…”Are you the one to build me a house to live in?”… I took you from the pasture…! Have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name… I will appoint a place for my people Israel,…the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house…. your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever. – 2 SAMUEL 7:5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16
The reading is a wonderful dialogue between the prophet Nathan and King David. This changing of sides is the great turnaround, which henceforth becomes the central Biblical theme of grace, election and Divine initiative. We set out, like David, thinking we have to do something to prove ourselves to God, “build God a house” is the metaphor. And as always, God turns it around and says, “No, David, let me build you a house!” (If you wish, read all of 2 Samuel 7, as it is quite lovely.)
It is time to let that story soak into our unconscious. It will prepare us fully for [Christmas] day ahead, much more than anything I could say.
~Adapted from Richard Rohr, Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent
