Isaiah 7:10-17; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25
In my final semester of seminary I took a course called, “Experiencing the Gospel Narrative Through Art.” This was the first course I had ever taken that used imagery to study scripture. We looked at paintings and drawings, sculptures in wood and stone, mosaics in tile, the whole visual spectrum. Being so close to Washington DC, we made several class trips to the National Museum of Art, where we saw first-hand these amazing original works that were five, six, and seven hundred years old. The condition of the paintings was remarkable, as was the artwork and even the frames that held them.
One of the topics of our first class was the Annunciation. We saw amazing classical representations of Mary the Mother of God being visited by the angel of God. The colors and the detail in the images were just breathtaking. Most of them represented a Mary who was fully in control of what was going on, faithfully submitting to the wishes of the Angel of God who asked so much of her. It was a very spiritual experience taking these images in.
Then we looked at some contemporary interpretations of the Annunciation, and one of those images will be with me forever. The image is of a bedroom, it could be the bedroom of any teenage girl today. The bunk beds in the background are not made, with blankets tossed around on both beds. The dresser drawers are ajar, with clothes hanging out from a couple of them. The nightstand and the other furniture are covered with pictures, clothes, and other “things” tossed about on them. The telephone lies carelessly on the floor, the lamp shade is off from the lamp and is also down on the crumpled rug.
In the center of the floor, kneeling in sleeveless t-shirt and underwear, is a girl who appears to be about thirteen or fourteen years old. In front of the girl in the center of the floor is her table lamp without its shade, and the girl is staring, not quite squinting at the unshaded lamp with her head a little to the side and her hands folded in front of her. She is looking at the lamp with this unsure, almost wondering expression on her face.
I have to admit that I looked at the image for a while and wondered what this vulnerable looking teenage girl could possibly have to do with the Annunciation of the Most Blessed Mary the soon-to-be mother of God. This girl was nothing special, nothing that would draw your attention to her in a crowded room. Seeing her in her underwear, her dark hair pulled back from her face, she was the picture of vulnerability, so much so that it made me feel a little uncomfortable looking at the picture, at least that’s what I thought was making me feel uncomfortable.
I still wasn’t getting it, but there was something about the shadows the light from the lamp was casting behind her. And then I noticed the shadow that her folded hands were making on her stomach, and I got it. The shadow on her stomach was that of a bird, probably a dove. And suddenly I got it all. The bright unshaded lamp as the Angel of God, the shadow of a dove on the girl’s stomach as the Holy Spirit, the young, too-young girl drawn to the bright light, not running away but not moving forward, holding her ground, her entire body an expression of cautious curiosity. I actually remember hearing myself say, “Huh”. Maybe if I’d read the name of the painting, “Over-SHADOWed” I would’ve gotten it sooner.
Then I began to feel really anxious. Here was this young, vulnerable girl, not yet a woman, alone in the privacy and security of her room; no parents around to protect her, no teachers around to help her understand what was going on, no friends around to give her council. How could she possibly be old enough and mature enough to make a decision about what that light was asking of her?
And then I went the next step and imagined that this girl was my own teenage granddaughter. Talk about a panic attack! What was God thinking coming to my granddaughter behind my back, without giving me a heads-up about the crazy thing he was going to ask of her? How could God actually ask of my own granddaughter the things he asked of Mary the mother of Jesus? The sacrifice asked of Mary is almost incomprehensible; become pregnant with God’s child, not the child of your fiancé; expecting your fiancé to believe that story; giving birth to the most wonderful and loving child and having his life end so violently and horribly, and standing a few helpless feet away as he is tortured and murdered before your very eyes. I don’t know if Mary knew how it would end, but still.
And as a parent, what would I have said if God had come to me first to tell me of his plans for my young granddaughter? It’s a good thing he didn’t come to me first because I would have told him he was crazy! You want my fourteen-year-old granddaughter to do what? Are you nuts? How can you possibly ask that of anyone, much less a teenage girl, much less my granddaughter?
I wonder what Mary’s father said. We never get to hear about Mary’s parents or their reaction to her situation. In those days daughters simply did what their fathers asked of them, including getting married to complete strangers at their father’s choosing. But Mary did have a fiancé, and in those days Joseph as Mary’s fiancé would have had the legal status of Mary’s father. I wonder what Joseph had to say to Mary when she told him her news? Or in the case of Matthew’s Gospel story today, where Mary’s pregnancy is revealed to Joseph in a dream. Conceived by the Holy Spirit or not, assuming that Joseph even believed Mary’s (or the angel of the Lord’s) story about how she became pregnant, a man whose woman became pregnant by someone other than him was expected to dismiss her. A woman in Mary’s position could be justifiably stoned – to death – in Joseph’s day. And I think we all know the stigma our society still places on unmarried, pregnant teenagers today, even those engaged to be married.
But Joseph must have truly loved Mary, even if he didn’t believe her story, because he decided not to make a spectacle of her and not to “dismiss” her quietly. Two amazing things happen in today’s Gospel reading. First the Angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him that phrase you know you’re in for a wild ride when you hear, “be not afraid.” Be afraid; be very afraid. The Angel explains everything to Joseph concerning Mary, and also lays out the part Joseph is to play in the Jesus story. God wants Joseph to be Mary’s husband, her protector, and the protector of Jesus, Immanuel, “God with us.”
The second amazing thing is that, just as Mary says “yes” to God’s plan for her, Joseph too says “yes” to God’s plan for his family. Joseph does not “dismiss” his pregnant fiancé, he marries her and takes her and the child she is pregnant with into his household – his child too now. And even though we hear nothing about Joseph later during Jesus’ adult ministry, Matthew’s Gospel does tell us the great lengths Joseph went to to protect his wife and their child Jesus from the dangers of the world while Jesus grew to adulthood. Though not his father by birth, Joseph makes it clear that he is Jesus’ father through adoption.
We don’t get to hear Joseph’s actual response today in Matthew’s Gospel. I wonder what Joseph had to say. Did he tell God he was crazy for asking such a thing? Did he take God to task for not talking to him first before approaching Mary directly? Did he plead with God not to ask the impossible of him and his young fiancé?
God doesn’t speak to most of us through his Angels, either directly or in a dream. God usually speaks with a small, still voice, and most of the time I’m too busy to hear that voice. But sooner or later God does come knocking, loudly, and sometimes the things God asks of us are huge and seem impossible to bear at the time. At that time what will our answer be? Will it be a “yes” that we sing out like Mary? Will it be a “yes” that we reluctantly agree to like Joseph?
Advent is over today, and as we look to the miracle of Christmas and the sacrificial “yes’s” that made the first Christmas possible, I ask myself, “what is God asking me to do today and in the coming year, and do I have the courage and the faith to say “yes” to God, even when that “yes” is costly and sacrificial?” My prayer for us as we gather around our “mangers” this coming Christmas morn is that we all find the stillness to hear God’s voice, the courage to say “yes” to God’s plan for us, and the strength to follow Jesus on this road we call life. Amen.