On Mary, the mother of the Messiah

one of my two readers (readership now growing at an exponential rate) has left a comment that deserves a weightier response than I can give, but here's a try.

yes, the last entry was a sermon. I made a rule for myself that I would only post a sermon as a blog entry if someone asked for a copy of it and it was already out there in written form somewhere. And in the sermon, as a deliberately shocking rhetorical device, I described Mary as a little girl. Why? Because my congregation is largely upper middle class anglo Episcopalians, who picture Mary in their minds' eyes the same way she was in their parents' or grandparents' ceramic nativity sets--blue flowing robe, white headcloth, blond hair, blue eyes, about 20-25 years old. Which, of course, is just about as likely as Oprah being a natural blonde. The fact that Jesus probably looked far more like Osama Bin Laden than, say, Kevin Costner, is something we get, intellectually, if we stop and think about it.

For all that The Blessed Virgin Mary is such a significant figure in Christianity (particularly Roman Catholicism), the gospels don't give her much press time, and precious few lines.

In fact, some scholars (I shouldn't reference scholarly ideas without attribution, but it's late and I'm tired...Bultmann, for one) deny the historical veracity of the gospels' claim to Jesus being virgin born. There are many other stories from other faiths and/or mythologies that claim virgin mothers for their heroes, for one thing, and Christianity may have utilized a common story in such a way as to reach Greek-speaking audiences. Stronger challenge comes from the fact that two of the four canonical gospels don't mention it at all, and that Paul's letters contain no mention of it either.

The gospels often give us summaries of events, and almost never get to the kind of narrative detail that modern writing strives for. The annunciation story begins with the angel's announcement, and ends with Mary's acceptance--a mighty act of faith and devotion. But for her answer to such a world-changing pronouncement to be instantaneous, without fear or doubt or even anxiety, strains credulity (at least for me). I think it more likely that she acted in fear, which makes her response to God's call all the more faithful.

She then was, for the vast majority of his life, the mother (and maybe single parent) of the messiah. The creeds of faith say that Jesus was both human and divine, and Mary would have had enormous impact on making Jesus who he was. It's not too much of a stretch to say that the child Jesus learned obediance to God's will from Mary.

Was the anunciation an event forced on Mary? No.

The next question to be asked is, does it matter if Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived?