Getting Pregnant

"Getting Pregnant"
Luke 1:26-38

I don't get the idea that too many people knew Mary.  When you think of the total world population at the time, there was probably only a small handful who knew Mary personally, and a few more who were acquainted with her.

Since that first Christmas night, all that changed.   Amongst Christians, next to the name of Jesus, Mary's is probably the most recognized--especially for Catholics, who make up the largest share of Christianity today.

According to various news stories, Mary keeps popping up here and there around the globe, making herself visible and known to both children and adults.  Some of these self-revelations are accompanied by miracles and healing.

Beyond this modern day popping in and out by the mother of Jesus, there is no getting around the fact that she was, and still is, an important figure in telling the story of our faith.  But in the same breath, it must not be forgotten that it was not always so.

Part of the Catholic theology concerning Mary is that not only was she a virgin when she conceived Jesus, but that Mary herself was the child of a virgin.  Mary, as the "mother of God" could be nothing less than born of a virgin, as that line of thinking goes.

The Bible will support none of that.  The Bible story puts its emphasis where it should be:  on God and God's activity, not on Mary or anything having to do with her history.  The planets of this amazing birth story orbit around God, not Mary.  Paying attention to the particulars of this story will lead us in God's direction, not Mary's.


So, let's look at the story.  The message of God is given to the Messenger of God, Gabriel, to be delivered to Mary.  Gabriel's greeting to Mary is important.  Listen closely:  "The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!" (vs. 28).  "God has been gracious to you" (vs. 30).  The point of the greeting is that Mary was not some overly saintly person, better than all the rest of the world's women at that time, or at any other time.

The emphasis is on God and God's gracious choosing of Mary.  Because we believe that God is working according to some plan, we know that God's choosing of Mary was not some arbitrary procedure.  But it was also not a choice made by God based on some beauty pageant scheme.  Mary was not one of the 10 semi-finalists who finally wowed the judges with her interview answers about how much she loved people and wanted world peace.  Mary did not win the "Mother of the Savior" reality show in order to gain the honor of birthing the baby Jesus.  And it doesn't appear that she was chosen for that role as a reward for her exemplary behavior.

It wasn't like the church bulletin blooper that read:  "The Pastor is starting a Young Mother's Group.  All those women who would like to become a young mother, see the Pastor in his office after church."

Part of God's plan, discovered not only by careful reading of the details of this story, but many other such stories throughout the Bible, carries a couple of characteristics.  First, it's God who chooses, and those whom God chooses are, in the larger scheme of things, unknown.

In George Bernard Shaw's play, "St. Joan," the heroine, Joan of Arc, speaks of hearing God's messages.  At one point in the play she talked to King Charles.  She was a constant annoyance to the King.  He clearly doesn't appreciate this crazy lady in armor who insists on leading armies.  He said to Joan, "Oh, your voices, your voices, always your voices.  Why don't the voices come to me?  I am the King, not you."

Mary was certainly not a royal figure--not someone you would assume the angel of God would be sent to with such a message, and such a role.  She had no apparent heroic reputation either in terms of her community life, or in her life of faith.

A second characteristic of the way God does things is that when God makes His choice, it is a blessing for that person and an act of grace.  It is not a blessing in terms of reward, as I've already said.  It is a blessing in terms of a totally undeserved, unprecedented, and even uncalled for action.  The stark and simple truth is that Mary was chosen by God.  Period.  For Luke the storyteller, and we the story-listeners, that has to be satisfyingly enough.

We can understand this a little better when we pay attention to Mary's initial response to the angel (vs. 29).  She is "deeply troubled" and disturbed.  One translation (Phillips) adds a whole different connotation by saying Mary was "deeply perturbed."  Evidently there are a lot of ways you can go in translating this word describing Mary's emotions which include shades of annoyance, confusion, and perplexity.

"She wondered what his words meant," Luke tells us about Mary.  It wasn't as if Mary was a person of high spiritual attunement.  She wasn't a person, evidently, piously prayerful, waiting on God to notice her religious fervor and purity, and so reward her with something grand.  Mary may not have even been a model church goer.  The point is God chose her for this pivotal role, and that's all that is important.

Because Mary is chosen by God, she is treated and spoken to with respect by the Messenger Gabriel.  Maybe this is another part of Mary's troubled response and wondering about what Gabriel's words meant.  It is not only what he said, but how he said it.  She has maybe never been talked to with such respect.  She doesn't know exactly how to hear such a quality of voice.

Why wouldn't God have respect for what He has created and the ones He has chosen?  If God does treat people in such tender and joyful ways, why do we treat each other so badly, so hurtfully, so coarsely?  Demeaning, belittling, biting words.  Or even cold silences can hurt worse than anything spoken.  In opposition to the barrage of negative communication launched at us, comes the word of God spoken with respect and honor.

The content of that word, that message from God, is the opportunity for Mary to bear the Savior of the world.  This would be the work of the Spirit of God, who from the opening chapters of the Bible is the one who hovers over differing kinds of emptiness and creates life where there was none.  If Mary agrees, the creative Spirit of God would be set in motion again.  Where at one time there was no life in her womb, there would be life.

Notice, I said, "If Mary agrees..."  Before the impregnating can occur, there has to be a spirit of willingness, of receptiveness, to be a part of God's plan.  Not everyone would want to receive such a message, or be a part of such a plan.  Maybe that was the one quality that God saw in Mary that made Him decide on choosing her.  It wasn't that she was some perfect person.  She was just receptive.  She was "impregnable" rather than "impregnable."

There are two meanings to the same word--another highlight of our confusing English language.  To be impregnable means that you are able to withstand attack.  But the word's second meaning is to be receptive to fertilization in order to give birth.  Impregnable or impregnable?

This is the point at which this no longer becomes just Mary's story anymore.  It becomes terribly personal for you and me.  Which are we, impregnable or impregnable?  Receptive or defensive?  Open and attuned to God's messages, or put a block on anything incoming from God?  How will we ever know if we could be part of God's plans if we're constantly trying to withstand Him?

The Apostle, Paul, wrote about this in his letter of Colossians:
God's plan is to make know His secret to His people, this rich and glorious secret which He has for all peoples.  And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. (1:27)

Listen to that last sentence again:  "And the secret is that Christ is in you..."  The wonder of this Advent Season is that we--men and women--can all become impregnated by God and be carriers of Christ.  We all can be receivers of His gracious Word, we can all be hovered over by the Holy Spirit, and receive the life that God has to offer.

There was a period in which artists depicted the impregnating of Mary by God with the image of God speaking in Mary's ear.  The organ of her impregnation was her ear.  To be impregnated by God means listening--really listening--for the voice of God and then being receptive to that voice.  But it's hard to be listening or be receptive if we are, by our busy-ness and unwillingness, trying to be impregnable rather than impregnable.

In Europe, when work was done for the winter, the men would take the wagon wheels off their wagons and hang both wagons and wheels in the barn.  One of the wheels would be brought in the house and used for the Advent Wreath.  There are times when we need to take the wheels off our various wagons of busy-ness so that we can stop, take time, and listen to the Word of God.  Only then will we be impregnated with God's secret:  Christ in you.

I had a conversation with Eugene Peterson when he was Pastor of Christ our King Presbyterian Church, in Bel Air, Maryland, just outside Baltimore.  We were talking about this very story of Gabriel's message to Mary.  Eugene said one time when he was preaching on this passage he mentioned, half-seriously and half-jesting, that it would be really fun if a number of people in the congregation got t-shirts imprinted with the message, "I Got Pregnant At Christ Our King Presbyterian Church."

His intention, of course, was that people would proclaim their coming to faith, their hearing and receiving the life giving Word of God.  Unbeknownst to Eugene, someone in the church had a bumper sticker made with that very message, and hung it in the back window of his van.  Eugene got in his van and drove around town making visits and doing his errands not knowing it was there.  He did that for a week, before he discovered the bumper sticker.

"I Got Pregnant At Pratt Presbyterian Church."  Is that the shirt that some of you could wear?  Or wish to wear?  "I Got Pregnant During Advent, 2013."  That's a possibility.  For anyone.  To hear the amazing Voice of God through His angels speaking the wondrous words, the Christmas miracle, the secret of God can be yours, impregnated with it:  "Christ is in you...share in the glory of God."

"I am the Lord's servant," said Mary;  "may it happen to me as you have said."