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Sermon
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| RECLAIMING JESUS' MOTHER I
Why did she fall out of favour with Protestants? Basically because she was being elevated in Catholic teaching to a status thought to be bordering divinity. From the Protestant viewpoint, it began to look like she was the fourth person of the holy trinity! There is a line between giving someone the highest admiration, and spilling over into worshipful adoration. Mary came to be seen as one to whom prayers could be addressed, and who interceded in heaven on behalf of the faithful. Protestants weren’t comfortable with that. But there was more. Catholic teaching made a lot out of ideas that were non-scriptural or at least somewhat questionable. For instance, it was said that her parents were Anna and Joachim. Neither is mentioned in scripture – but they are cited as Mary’s parents in the so-called ‘gospel of James’, a document that didn’t make it into the bible. So, perhaps some truth in that. Also, there were two teachings in Catholic tradition that Protestants rejected. One was the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. That means Mary was completely sinless from the moment of her own conception. In terms of the doctrine of original sin, she was born free of stain. Moreover, she remained sinless to the end of her life. Couldn’t do anything wrong if she wanted to. In fact, couldn’t even want to! The other teaching concerns her ‘bodily assumption’. By this is meant that after Mary died, her body was taken up to heaven. That belief goes back to the 4th or 5th century. It was proclaimed by the Pope as a doctrine of the church in 1950. The contentious one relates to Mary’s sexuality. The doctrine of the virgin birth says Mary became pregnant with Jesus without any help from Joseph, to whom she was engaged. Catholic tradition says that she remained a lifelong virgin, despite the fact Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. Many Protestants regard the idea of the virgin birth as non-essential, and some go so far as to say it is nonsensical. At the very least, it is highly questionable. The tradition about virgin birth is actually based on the mistranslation of a Hebrew word in the Old Testament. Two of the four gospel writers don’t mention it, and Paul wasn’t interested in it. It would seem that Paul regarded Jesus as entering the world the same way as the rest of us; that is, through the union of a man and a woman. But in Catholic teaching and eastern Orthodox teaching, the virgin birth is still very important. II
Second, what can we say we know about Mary? The short answer is not a lot. There are bits and pieces of ancient writings that didn’t make it into scripture, but which may provide some clues. There are several points recurring in these fragments; for instance,
Matthew and Luke say that during the engagement, God made her pregnant. The oldest and earliest gospel, Mark, makes no mention of this. John, written much later and when Christian thought was ‘solidifying’ somewhat, isn’t interested in it either. Many scholars see the virgin birth as a kind of ‘device’ to highlight the fact that Jesus was different from us. In fact, virgin births were common in ancient cults – the pagan gods Perseus and Heracles among them. Two gospels name Jesus’ four brothers and refer to his ‘sisters’ – so there must have been at least two sisters. I find it probable that there were at least seven offspring, probably born over about ten years. This meant that Mary was a very busy woman. As the eldest, Jesus would have helped to care for the others. Had father Joseph left Mary a widow fairly early (one tradition), that would have increased the load on her and on Jesus, and forced Mary to become even more resourceful. We know both she and Joseph were pious Jews; Luke has her saying, “I belong to the Lord, body and soul.” We are told that they took Jesus at twelve to the great Temple preparatory to his Bar Mitzvah. Prior to this, they had probably enrolled him for schooling at the synagogue in Nazareth.
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Third, why should we honour Mary? Let me give you three reasons. First, for the shaping of Jesus’ personality. I doubt that we realise the signifi-cance of women in his mission. The travel party – preaching, teaching and healing – included women. In the 1st century this would have been quite extraordinary. Women were widely regarded as second class citizens, their status not much different from that of slaves. The very fact that they are mentioned as enthusiastic followers is very unusual – both in their being allowed to travel in this mixed party, and in that the gospel writers should mention it at all. There are sundry incidents where Jesus talks in public with women, in some cases foreign women. How would Jesus have become what we might call an ‘enlightened’ male? An obvious explanation is that his mother taught him about gender equality, especially if she were widowed while he was still a youth. There is another ingredient in the shaping of his personality that I take to be her gift to him; this is the developing of Jesus’ feminine side. In our day, so-called ‘sensitive new age guys’ (SNAGS) have been encouraged to get in touch with their feminine side: to let characteristics like tenderness, sensitivity, empathy and compassion develop and show. These are characteristics more commonly associated with the feminine side of personality than with the masculine side. The distinguished Melbourne psychiatrist Dr Ainslie Meares once said to me that women were programmed for empathy in a way men were not. That wasn’t to say men couldn’t begin to learn it, but it just wasn’t natural to them as it was in females. Why was it native to females? “Quite simply,” he said, “because since the dawn of our history a woman had to know how her baby was feeling before it was old enough to be able to tell her.” Second reason to honour Mary: for the shaping of Jesus’ piety; his faith and how he thought about God. Some of my own research has thrown light on this. A big sample of churchgoers was asked “Who would you say has influenced you MOST in terms of your ‘religious development’?” For those who nominated father (12 percent), four times as many (47 percent) nominated mother. This difference between the influence of mothers and fathers lends weight to that observation by Sir James Barrie, who wrote "Peter Pan": “the God to whom little boys say their prayers has a face very like their mother’s.” Those of you who have read my book ‘Gordon Powell Reflects', may recall that Gordon told me the greatest influence of all on him was his mother Louisa – not just by reading Bible stories to him and his little brother, but by her whole life and faith. She also exercised the mother’s prerogative of chiding him where she thought it warranted. Gordon said, “One day I suggested changing something I had promised to do, and she said ‘You must always keep faith with your public!’ On another occasion I had posted up a list of rather good exam results on the family notice board outside our kitchen. She gently chided me and said, ‘Isn’t that blowing your own trumpet a bit?’” Third reason to honour Mary: for the shaping of Jesus’ priorities. You will remember that Luke the gospel writer has him getting up in the Nazareth synagogue and reading a passage from Isaiah that is all about the overcoming of poverty, captivity, disability and oppression – the great obstacles to human freedom and fulfilment. And then he says in effect, “These will be the priorities in my ministry.” But whence came this emphasis? For the clue go back a little in Luke’s gospel. It is found in the song of Mary, which we call the Magnificat. My heart is overflowing with praise of my Lord. My soul is full of joy in God my Saviour, for he has specially noted me, his humble servant, and after this all the people who shall ever be will call me the happiest of women! The One who can do all things has done great things for me – Oh, holy is his name!Scot McKnight, in a book called The Jesus Creed, says the Magnificat contains virtually every theme in Jesus’ teaching and ministry. He says, “I think she sang him to sleep with these kinds of songs.” Be that as it may, I am suggesting it is time we honoured Mary for the way she shaped Jesus’ personality, his piety and his priorities. Come to think of it, those are good reasons for honouring all mothers on Mothers’ Day. Thanks be to God for Jesus’ mother and all mothers! ___________________________________________________
An address presented by the Rev Dr John Bodycomb at St Aidan's
Uniting Church North Balwyn, on 13th May, 2007 (Mothers' Day) IT MAY BE REPRODUCED WITH ACKNOWLEDGMENT. |
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Page updated 15/05/07