A LOVELY IDEA

A favorite passage from one of my favorite books is the quote below from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte, two young Englishmen, meet at Oxford in the period between the two world wars. Charles is not a believer, and Sebastian is from an aristocratic Roman Catholic family. After they've been friends for a while, Sebastian brings up the subject of his faith and Catholicism. What follows is the dialogue between the two:

Sebastian: "Oh dear, it’s very difficult being a Catholic!"

Charles: "Does it make much difference to you?"

Sebastian: "Of course. All the time."

Charles: "Well, I can’t say I’ve noticed it. Are you struggling against temptation? You don’t seem much more virtuous than me."

Sebastian: "I’m very, very much wickeder," said Sebastian indignantly."

Charles: "… I suppose they try to make you believe an awful lot of nonsense?”

Sebastian: “Is it nonsense? I wish it were. It sometimes sounds terribly sensible to me."

Charles: “But my dear Sebastian, you can’t seriously believe it all."

Sebastian: "Can’t I?"

Charles: "I mean about Christmas and the star and the three kings and the ox and the ass."

Sebastian: "Oh yes. I believe that. It’s a lovely idea."

Charles: "But you can’t believe things because they’re a lovely idea."

Sebastian: "But I do. That’s how I believe."

I love the passage, because Sebastian's way is how I believe, too.  The entire Christmas story, including the virgin birth, is a lovely idea that points to God's choice to take on human form to become one with us in the person of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate.  Whether the precise details of the story are literally true, that Jesus, Son of God, was born of a young, unwed virgin in a humble stable, laid in a manger, and later visited by angels and shepherds, I choose to believe it, all of it. 

A number of my fellow Christians tell me that though they believe Jesus is God Incarnate, they simply cannot believe in the virgin birth, because such a thing is impossible.  To me, Mary's virginity is simply one of the details of the larger story of God become man in Jesus.  If I believe what seems to me in human terms even more impossible, that God became incarnate and dwelt among humans 2000 years ago and is still alive and with us today, why would I have difficulty believing in the virgin birth?

The picture shows the nativity set my mother made in her ceramics class some years ago.  I didn't put the figures on display this year, because I didn't want Scarlett the Cat to go near them.  Maybe next year.

A GOOD ADVENT

Alpha and Omega stained glass window, circa 1883, near the front door of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. (Rev. 21:5-8)

During the last week or so, and even before, but especially in the last week, I have been steeped in Advent, my favorite season of the church year, the time of anticipation and becoming.  I can say honestly that I've had a good Advent.  I love the readings from the Lectionary, which are wonderful, though they are, by no means, all sweetness and light.

The Annunciation - Fra Angelico - Fresco

The Incarnation, in which God comes down to become human, like us, in Jesus, not in a perfect world, but in a messy world, as it was then, and, as it is now, he comes to make all things new, to give us the water of life.  When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, a virgin at the time, to tell her that she had found favor with God and would have a son, Jesus, Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she was "perplexed".  "How can this be?" Though Mary was perplexed by the angel's message, her response was, "Here I am, the servant of the Lord."

So.  Jesus' mother Mary was an unwed, pregnant, teenager, whose betrothed, Joseph, was inclined to dismiss her quietly, so as not to embarrass her.  Still Mary would have been left as one of the despised, pregnant with no husband, until an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him God's plan was that he take Mary, the pregnant teenager, for his wife, though he was not the father of her child.

Before Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph had to journey to Bethlehem for a census, where they found no place to stay.  When the time came for Jesus to be born, Mary gave birth in the only shelter available, a stable, with only the breath and nearness of animals to keep them warm. 

How lowly a birth for the Son of God!  Is there a message in the story of Jesus' humble birth?   A few months after the the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, she visited her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist at an advanced age.  After meeting Elizabeth, Mary prayed the following prayer, the Magnificat, which I love, and which gives us a vision of the Kingdom of God.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’ 

Yes, there is a message in the Christmas story.

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation,
that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a
mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Images from Wikimedia Commons.