A Progressive Advent - The Virgin Birth

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Mansplaining

I feel quite inadequate to address the concept of Mary and the Virgin Birth. Growing up Protestant, we were definitely taught to respect Mary and to believe that she was a virgin when Jesus was born. That was supremely important. Afterwards, we were taught to continue to believe that she and Joseph had other children, including James and Jude, who were believed to have written the Epistles of those same names.

The Catholic view of Mary was very foreign to me growing up:  Revered, exalted, portrayed as a perpetual virgin and the "Queen of Heaven." This fascination seemed for me tantamount to a worship of Mary. I have since come to realize that this is false misconception, spurred on by the hundreds of years of animosity between Catholics and Protestants.

Which brings us to this week's lectionary reading from Luke 1:26-38 (CEB):

When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to a virgin who was engaged to a man named, Joseph, a descendant of David's house. The virgin's name was Mary.

When the angel came to her, he said, "Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with you!" She was confused by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

The angel said, "Don't be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over Jacob's house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom."

Then Mary said to the angel, "How will this happen since I haven't had sexual relations with a man?"

The angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God's Son. Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled 'unable to conceive' is now six months pregnant. Nothing is impossible for God."

Then Mary said, "I am the Lord's servant. Let it be with me just as you have said." Then the angel left her.

EWTN

Growing up, I remember sometimes scrolling through the endless amount of channels to watch. I no longer have cable, but back then it seemed (for a teenager) that it was a necessity. Still I got bored. Occasionally I would wander onto the Catholic channel, EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). There I would see this kind old nun, Mother Angelica, host these great programs. Sometimes they would even do televised rosaries. That was my first introduction to the "Hail Mary."

The repetitious nature of the rosary was alien to my Protestant ears and torture for my younger sister. She hated listening to it, so I would keep it on the channel anyways to spite her. Siblings will be siblings. However, the "Hail Mary" has its roots in this scripture passage.

The Controversial Part . . . 

Do I believe Mary was actually a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus?

No.

Do I believe it was necessary for Jesus to be born from a virgin?

No.

(Let the online debates begin.)

Here is my reasoning behind it and my caveat. More than likely after several years, I will have different thoughts on this subject.

Neither the Gospels of Mark nor John make any reference that Mary was a virgin. Mark actually takes pains to point out that Jesus had other sisters and brothers (see the end of Mark 3). Mark was most likely written before the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Nowhere in the writings of Paul (or the pseudo-Paul epistles) do you find any mention of the virgin birth. Again, Paul wrote his letters before a single Gospel was actually written. If the Virgin Birth were so important, why isn't it mentioned anywhere else in the Bible?

Matthew seems to want to bring a parallel of the birth of Jesus to the "virgin" birth mentioned in Isaiah 7:14. This had nothing to do with a messianic prophecy and it is quite obvious that Matthew was quoting from the Septuagint and not the original Hebrew Scriptures, which makes no mention of a virgin at all.

Luke wants to emphasize the supernatural importance of Jesus' birth and his future ministry. At the same time, he continues to emphasize that Jesus was a descendant of David. Jesus really can't be a descendant of David if he were actually born of a virgin. Mary's lineage is not discussed in the Bible. I know most people might just let that one slide. I tend to let the virgin birth slide.

Why would a virgin birth be important?

Some have said that it was necessary for Jesus to be born of a virgin to avoid humanity's Original Sin. Well, Original Sin wasn't a concept for our Jewish friends and it wasn't a tenet of Christianity until Saint Augustine of Hippo came up with this idea. There are even other Christians who believe that Mary was immaculately conceived, that her mother was a virgin when she was born.

The ancient understanding of fertility is not what we think of today. The ancients believed that the male carried the seed of a human and women were only the ground on which the seed was planted. This gives rise to the talk in the Bible of women being "barren" like a field is barren that cannot produce crops despite seeds being planted there. Our understanding of human reproduction nullifies this idea.

The main concept, however, that the writers of the Gospels were trying to bring is that Jesus was extraordinary, especially from his birth on. There was something unique about him, which was similar to the births of Isaac, Samson, and Samuel. Even the Gospel of John indicates that Jesus as the Christ existed with God before his birth.

The idea of virgin births was also not new to the other religious societies surrounding Judea at the time of Jesus' birth.

Sometimes in our modern world we tend to take too literally stories from the Bible, when they were told symbolically. John Dominic Crossan, in his book, "Who is Jesus? Answers to Your Questions About the Historical Jesus," states:  "My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are dumb enough to take them literally."

And Mary?

In our modern sensibilities, many have taken issue with this pronouncement from the angel, Gabriel, that Mary had no choice in the matter. In essence, that the decision for her to give birth to the child was forced upon her, almost as if it were a divine rape.

If we are to continue to look at this scripture, though, we can see that Mary was not apprehensive at all about the situation. Curious as to how it was possible? Yes. Was she not willing for it to happen? That was just the opposite.

We see this incredible speech by Mary, what we call the "Magnificat." She praises God that God has "pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly." God has "filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed." (Luke 1:52, 53 CEB)

It seems to me that Mary actually revels in the idea of giving birth to the Messiah. She rejoices and knows this is a cause for celebration and that the Messiah would turn the world upside down, raising the lowly and the weak and crushing the powerful and the rich.

What about me?

I grew up in a denomination (The Salvation Army) that placed little value on sacraments and recitation of creeds. To this day I could not recite the Apostle's Creed from memory, let alone the Nicene Creed. The Salvation Army developed its own creeds and sacraments (although they would deny this to anyone) through their doctrines, flag-waving, and singing about themselves. (Seriously, they are the only denomination I know that sings about itself.)

But having that upbringing, I have no qualms about not saying any of the creeds. They were not formative for me. (The creeds bring up the statement that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.)

And Jesus? Because I don't believe in a virgin birth, what does that do to my concept of Jesus? In a word:  nothing. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God. Jesus is the Word of God for me. I follow his teachings, who did not claim to be God, but insisted on calling himself the "Human One" (Son of Man was the old term). Paul celebrates Jesus' humanity, stating that Jesus did not exploit any divine prerogative, but he "emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming a human being" (Philippines 2:7 CEB). Paul commends us to be like Jesus.

So I will do just like Jesus did. I will be human. I will be like Mary and pray that the rich will be overthrown and the weak and lowly will be exalted.