"The Nativity": Tatiana Maslany and Andrew Buchan as Mary and Joseph in the BBC drama of Christ's birth.
From the Telegraph:
There have been countless retellings of the story of the nativity over the past 2,000 years and they divide roughly into two categories – those that stick faithfully to the traditional gospel account of a virgin birth, and those that reject it in favour of something more biological.
Given that this year's big BBC One Christmas offering, "The Nativity", comes from the pen of Tony Jordan, the award-winning scriptwriter best known for the gritty, down-to-earth world of "EastEnders", it should, logically, fall into the second category. But think again, for the making of "The Nativity" has been something of a personal Road to Damascus for Jordan.
Although Tony Jordan was not a believer when he began to do research for writing the script, he was caught up in what he calls "the most beautiful story in the history of the world".
The nativity is a lovely, lovely story, isn't it?
Jordan continues:
I know that people from my sort of background have always discounted the story of the nativity and I certainly didn't believe it when I started on it three years ago. But now I do."
Jordan spoke powerful words that made me nod in agreement and say to myself, "Oh, yes!"
The only thing I know for sure is that the words I read as coming from Jesus Christ are the most truthful thing I have ever heard. As a blueprint for mankind, it is so smart that it couldn't even have come from a clever philosopher. Who would have been smart enough to say 'He who is without sin cast the first stone'? Wow! That's pretty cool."
I have no doubt that the way that Jesus teaches and lives in the Gospel is the one true way to live one's life, truly "a blueprint for mankind(sic)". And, although I've heard and read the story countless times, each time I encounter the Gospel tale of the woman caught in adultery, my anticipation quickens as I await Jesus' question that confounds the crowd who was ready to stone her.
Was he ever tempted, writing the script in the wooden shed at the end of his garden, to dispense with the virgin birth?
"If you accept that Jesus is Son of God, why could you not believe that Mary was a virgin, and that God must have had some hand in the impregnation...."
Exactly! If you can believe one, why not the other? I find it hard to understand why people can believe that God came down and became incarnate as one of us but yet have difficulty believing in the virgin birth. I think of when Jesus asked which is easier, healing the body or forgiving sin. Which is easier to believe? The Incarnation or the virgin birth?
Jordan's story of coming to faith is, in itself, quite lovely.
Is Jordan now a church-goer? Well, no. Read Peter Stanford's entire account of the interview to find out what Jordan says about churches.
I hope "The Nativity" makes it way over to the US. If not, the series surely will be available on DVD.
H/T to Torey Lightcap at The Lead.
UPDATE: Bishop Alan posted the YouTube video of the interview with Tony Jordan.
Well, as w/ most stories of the supernatural, I don't disbelieve.
ReplyDeleteI just don't care (I mean, whether there was a supernatural element or not).
I believe in the Gospel because it's TRUE. Not because it's Fact (or isn't).
***
I'm grieving the loss of singer Teena Marie tonight. Just 54 years old. She was such a great soundtrack to my college years in the early 1980s (I'm hoping MP will do one of his kick-@ss musical obits for her...)
JCF, I care very much about the Incarnation - the how of it not so much. But if I believe one part of the story, then I have no difficulty believing the other. And it is a lovely story.
ReplyDeleteJCF, my sympathy about Teena Marie. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.
ReplyDeleteI managed to miss the whole thing on TV - in fact I never even saw any ads for it or saw it in coming up in the schedules. So that has made me very cross. But it is still available on iPlayer for the next three days, so I will make a point of watching it.
ReplyDeleteIt's fabulous to read what Tony Jordan has to say about it. I like his honesty. Well, I just like the fact that he was converted by reading the Gospels, really.
I gather BBC ran it in four parts. In Canada, it ran as one two-hour special.
ReplyDeleteI am proud to note that the Mother of God was played by Regina's own Tatiana Maslany.
Cathy, let us know what you think of the series.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm, you should be proud - although I'd speak with more authority, if I'd seen the show.
I've never understood sticking on the details of the Immaculate Conception, whether believing or disbelieving. It simply isn't important to me. What's important is what Jesus became. For me, it's not at all unbelievable that the Creator of the Universe could split a few cells. The why is important only as minutiae.
ReplyDeleteI think those adhering to and those denying - both so adamantly and dogmatically - the Virgin Birth are doing so because of an increasingly-antiquated concern with sex, trying to make it either a dirty or a blessed thing absolutely. Like all human functions, it's just a thing, and can be used or carried out in either harmful or healthful ways.
Mark the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary's conception. She was conceived without original sin, according to the teachings of the RCC, but hers was not a virgin birth.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you that the Incarnation is what's important.
Sorry, I keep forgetting the terminology. I simply find the idea of Mary being conceived in any "extry-speshul" way to be laughable. I'm willing to let others go with it, but it is simply not on my radar.
ReplyDeleteThe reason some Christians wish not to accept a virgin birth is because they want to emphasise Jesus's humanity.
ReplyDeleteI don't accept a virgin birth because women need male sperm to have babies, simple as that. As for the incarnation, it is a myth. Either history is the chaotic thing it is, that forms a narrative by looking backwards, and science is about evolution, including actual humans, or we ought to start awarding different Nobel prizes. For me, God did nothing; matters of transcendence are nothing to do with some entity redirecting the traffic. Human culture, of which Christianity is a part, is relative to time and place.
The reason some Christians wish not to accept a virgin birth is because they want to emphasise Jesus's humanity.
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, Mary, his mother, made Jesus human.
And I know that you don't believe a word of the Nativity story, Adrian, except as a myth. But you and I mean quite different things when we say myth.