"COURAGEOUS WOMEN AND REAL MEN"

“COURAGEOUS WOMEN AND REAL MEN”

            As we wait on the FBI report on Brett Kavanaugh’s suitability as a Supreme Court justice,  I’ve been wondering what Courageous Mary (also known in the church as the Virgin Mary) thought about the Senate confirmation hearing of September 27, where Dr. Christine Blasy Ford gave powerful testimony about being sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.  I was struck by the fact that so many commentators thought that she made a credible and compelling case – what did they expect her to do?  It sounds as if the underlying assumption was that she would not be credible, and she amazed people when she was.   So, we should pause right here to emphasize the context in which she testified – the assumption is that women will not make credible witnesses when they give such testimony.   That is a sad but true fact that the Trump era understands better than we progressives do:  women will not be believed.  I give thanks to Dr. Ford whose testimony was so powerful – even the white, male patriarchal Republicans were afraid of her!  That’s why Kavanaugh was so vociferous in his testimony – patriarchy had been exposed, and he (and we white males) are not accustomed to being held accountable by women and people of color.

            I mention Courageous Mary because in the birth stories surrounding Jesus, sexuality is at the center.  We often skip over that part, but in both Matthew and Luke, sexual behavior takes center stage.  This week we’ll look at Mary’s story and next week at Joseph’s story in this land of patriarchy and toxic masculinity.  The young Mary faces difficult choices.  She already belongs to Joseph as his property.  Then, a male angel named Gabriel appears to her and asks (demands?) that she allow herself to become impregnated with the Messiah, become impregnated by the male God named Yahweh.  Right away, we are in scary territory.   A new male being wants in her ear (the Word?) or in her vagina to create a baby.  If she says “no,” will God destroy her?  If she says “yes,” then she faces the death penalty.   The decisions over how to be sexual in a patriarchal society are always difficult for women, as we see in these Gospel stories about the conception and birth of Jesus.   Mary chooses to allow herself to become pregnant by Yahweh, and in one way, it is a slap at toxic masculinity.  As Sojourner Truth put it so well 160 years ago, “where did your Christ come from?  God and a woman – man had nothing to do with it.”  Yet, it is like “Sophie’s Choice” – no real way out for Mary.  She still belongs to patriarchy, and it is no wonder that Margaret Atwood chose Mary’s words in Luke 1:38 (“I am the handmaiden of the Lord”) as the title for her book “The Handmaid’s Tale,” about the total patriarchal world that Trump/Grasley/Graham/Cruz/Kavanaugh, et al,  would like to see re-established. 

            In Luke’s account, Joseph is a non-actor in this sexual story until the second chapter.  After Mary agrees to become pregnant via God, she doesn’t go to Joseph – rather she goes to the sisterhood, to the community, for support.  She goes to her cousin Elizabeth, miraculously pregnant with John the Baptizer.  I say “miraculously” because in a patriarchal society, her lack of children is blamed on her, not on her husband Zechariah.  Her value in the patriarchal world, as in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” has gone up because she is pregnant.  Yet for all the toxic masculinity flowing through this story, the real miracle is that Mary finds strength with her sister, finds strength to be at the margins.   

     She has been at the margins all her life as a woman in a male-dominated world, but now she begins to perceive the possibility of life there – she even praises life at the margins, in a way that should shock all of us in middle and upper middle class American life:  “ the Mighty One has done great things for me….God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;  God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:49-53).  Right away we see what kinds of things that Mary will be teaching her son – Black Jesus’ emphasis on God’s preference for the poor and marginalized came via his momma, who came to be called the Virgin Mary, but should be called the Courageous Mary.   But, at this point in the story, it is not clear if Mary will have an opportunity to teach anything to her baby – she still faces the death penalty for becoming pregnant by someone other than her fiancé.  Courageous Mary (and so is Dr. Ford and so many others) is necessary, but so is non-toxic masculinity, and next week, we’ll look at that.