And he or she gave delivery to her firstborn son … Luke 2:7
Mary performs a singular and outstanding function within the Judeo-Christian story of a sacred journey. It’s Mary who brings God’s son into the world. In her womb she carried the One Christians name Great Counselor, Almighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Mary’s significance throughout the Christmas story has been seen in numerous methods by the church by way of the years.
The Roman Catholic custom gave Mary a outstanding place, elevating her above all ladies and giving her the privilege of sainthood. As custom advanced, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception developed affirming that Mary was additionally miraculously conceived and sinless from delivery. This was theologically vital for the church fathers as a result of it assured that Jesus was sinless! How might a sinful human give delivery to an ideal son? Over time, the virgin Mary misplaced all resemblance of humanity.
If the Roman Catholic Church erred in elevating Mary to a spot above humanity, making her extra of a demigod than a humble maiden, the Reformation within the sixteenth-century erred within the different route. John Calvin, the daddy of Presbyterianism, felt so strongly about discontinuing the apply of sainthood, he insisted on being buried in an unmarked grave. Within the reformed effort to not set anybody aside, besides Christ, Mary’s function was diminished drastically giving her nearly no place within the Protestant custom.
In each eventualities we lose sight of the theological significance of Mary’s function within the Christmas story. Protestants have neglected her nearly utterly whereas Roman Catholics have taken away her humanity, which is exactly why her presence is such trigger for sudden pleasure and hope. As Christians, we imagine that Jesus was totally divine and totally human. That is what makes it potential for Christ to be our Savior and to bridge the hole between God and humanity.
The miracle of Christmas is the sudden and sacred journey of God into our humanity. Christians have defined his journey within the Apostle’s Creed. We imagine in “Jesus Christ … who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.” If the Holy Spirit makes Christ’s divinity potential, it’s Mary who makes Christ’s humanity potential. It’s Mary’s blood and Mary’s flesh that make Christ human.
Nonetheless, Mary’s theological significance is even larger than this. God has chosen an extraordinary and powerless younger lady to present delivery to extraordinary and highly effective love. John Phillip Newell, Church of Scotland minister and creator of Celtic Spirituality, displays on the that means of the Christ-child: “The Christ-child is born of heaven and earth, of God and humanity, of time and eternity. Christ will not be merely one or the opposite. Christ is each. And Christ exhibits us that we’re each, that the non secular and the fabric are one, that heaven and earth intersect in us.”
Two millennia after the delivery of Christ, extraordinary individuals are nonetheless making extraordinary variations in our world. The message of Christmas is that God continues to name extraordinary human beings, women and men, to extraordinary duties on our journeys, by placing us in the correct place on the proper time and asking us to do the correct factor. The sudden pleasure of Christmas will not be solely that God visited us on a sacred journey, but additionally that we have now come head to head with a rare love that lightly and persistently calls us to do the correct factor.
The Rev. Dr. Blythe Denham Kieffer is pastor and head of workers at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Springfield.
