Celtic Advent - Day XIV - November 28

 

Celtic Advent - Day XIV - November 28

"People want blank-and-white answers, 

but Scripture is a rainbow arch across a 

stormy sky. 

Our sacred book is not an indexed 

answer book or life manual; 

it is also a grand story, mystery, invitation, 

truth and wisdom, 

and passionate love letter."

~ Sarah Bessey, Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women

I want to hit pause for just a moment in our consideration of the Annunciation and Incarnation and they ways they are manifested in our lives today to consider, just for a moment, something of the humanity of Mary after these Big Events in her young life.

What happened after the angel Gabriel left Mary? I mean, after she reportedly burst into a poem or a song - what we now call the Canticle of Mary or the Magnificat? 

I'm not sure that happened while Gabriel was there or right after he left. I have a feeling Mary "pondered these things in her heart" for some time before getting right up and running up country to spend some time with her cousin Elizabeth. 

Somewhere along the way, she might have realized that what was happening to her had some striking similarities to what happened to an ancestor of hers.

If you read the Song of Hannah, in I Samuel 2:1-11, you'll see a remarkable semblance, right from the very first words, with the Song of Mary. Or, rather, that the Song of Mary bears a strong resemblance to the Song of Hannah.

Here's the beginning of Hannah's song:

My heart exults in the Lord;

     my strength is exalted in my God

My mouth derides my enemies,

     because I rejoice in my victory.'

Now, Hannah reportedly sang this song as a prayer to God to give thanks for the birth of her son, Samuel. It is very similar to Psalm 113, a prayer of praise and thanksgiving which is traditionally said on the first day of the Hebrew month and on Jewish holidays. 

I imagine that women of antiquity hummed the psalms as they did their tasks, so the format of singing praise to God was not entirely unknown to them, even though it was the men who chanted them in the Temple. 

Or, it could be that the women didn't sing at all, but that the men who told the story of these women wrote the words to these songs years, perhaps decades, after the actual event. 

As a woman who knows what it is both to discover that one is pregnant when that pregnancy was not planned as well as what it is like to have just delivered of a child, I can tell you that bursting into song is not the first order of business - especially with words that are precisely order and perfectly metered.  

All that having been said, the point for me has never been accuracy. The point is the humanity of the characters on the biblical stage. And, the humanity of these two women - Hannah and Mary -  is remarkable in more ways than the songs they are reported to have sung.

Hannah was the "primary and best loved" wife of Elkanah, but she seemed unable to conceive a male child which, in that culture and in addition to her relationship with a man, was a measure of her worth.  Indeed, she was even ridiculed by her rival wife, Peninnah. 

Instead of dissolving in tears, Hannah took matters into her own hands. Now, in that culture, women were not supposed to pray on their own. They had to have permission from their husbands and their priests to petition God. (Imagine!). 

But, Hannah took up the matter directly with God, praying her silent prayer to God so fervently that her husband thought she was drunk. God answered her prayer - an amazing thing in and of itself - but Hannah also named her child, a task and an honor reserved for the man of the house or the priest of the Temple. 

Hannah's fierce religious agency must have inspired generations of women who marveled at her determination and independence. I suspect that Mary must have had thoughts of her ancestor Hannah in her mind before she said 'Yes' to Gabriel. 

So it is no surprise, really, that her song begins much like Hannah's

My soul magnifies the Lord,

     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. 

The thing of it is that women and men have been inspired by the lives of Hannah and Mary. At certain times in history, that is not without enormous significance. 

I think we are in one of those times. No, it's not just about the achievements or advancements of women, important as those are. 

It's about the authenticity of their humanity, the trueness of their sacrifice, the triumph of their spirit despite the enormity of their cultural oppression. 

So, who are the women who have inspired you? The women who have triumphed over enormous challenges and against the odds? The women who were scorned or taunted for not living up to cultural standards and expectations? The women who have been beaten down and yet kept getting up and making sure the children are fed? The women who were told they couldn't and did, anyway? 

Here are a few resources for your meditation.  

Womanist version of the Lord's Prayer, from Beyonce Mass.

written by Rev. Yolanda Norton 

Our Mother,

who is in heaven and within us,

We call upon your names.

Your wisdom come.

Your will be done,

In all the spaces in which You dwell.

Give us each day

Sustenance and perseverance.

Remind us of our limits as

we give grace to the limits of others.

Separate us from the temptation of empire,

But deliver us into community.

For you are the dwelling place within us

for the empowerment around us

and the celebration among us now and forever. Amen.

"Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender." Alice Walker.

"Patriarchy is not God's dream for humanity". Sarah Bessey

"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." ~ Audre Lorde

"There is no agony greater than bearing an untold story inside you." Maya Angelou

"Religion without humanity is a poor human stuff." Sojourner Truth