"LOOKING FOR VISIONS"

 “LOOKING FOR VISIONS”

We are in an extraordinary time, with the nation groaning under a King Lear like President who refuses to acknowledge that he was defeated in the November election.  I’m feeling good that he will be out, but I’ll be glad to get past the Electoral College vote on December 14.  I am surprised but gratified that the relevant Republican leaders in Georgia are thus far standing up to King Lear, and I hope that it will hold.  For those who remember their Shakespeare, the raging of King Lear and others leads to great suffering for all.  I fear this the most about the raging of Trump.  In his last 44 days, he will seek to make all of us pay for not re-electing him, and it gives me pause as I think about what such a price may entail.

And, that brings me to the Advent/Christmas season.  My mind immediately goes to the raging King Herod, who sends the troops to execute the baby boys of Bethlehem in order to eliminate the threat of a rival.  That is the end of the Christmas story in Matthew’s Gospel, but we are at the beginning, so I want to pivot to the beginning to seek to find some hope in these crazy days.  It begins in Luke’s gospel with a young peasant woman, engaged to be married, having a vision of God calling her to serve.  This vision will put her in a very dangerous place – as a woman pregnant before marriage, pregnant by someone other than her fiancé.  As a woman, she is already marginalized as property of her father until she marries, and then she is property of her husband.  

The angel Gabriel asks Mary to allow herself to become pregnant with God’s Chosen One, pregnant not by having intercourse with her fiancé Joseph but rather by the Holy Spirit.  To say ‘yes” will put Mary in danger of the death penalty, so it is no small ask from Gabriel.  Mary is both afraid and skeptical – she knows if she says “yes,” it likely will mean an end to the engagement to Joseph, and it could mean a severe punishment.  Yet, she is a courageous visionary, and she says “Yes.”  Her first move after that is to go to visit her cousin Elizabeth, whom she has heard is also miraculously pregnant.  It is in this community of women that Mary finds the strength to continue in the vision and indeed to sing the stunning song that we heard in last week’s blog.  We give thanks for her vision and for her willingness to say “Yes.”

Joseph faces the same kind of decision.  There may be extra-biblical books that have the conversation when Mary tells Joseph that she will become pregnant by someone else – that “someone else’ will be God.  We can imagine Joseph’s reaction – “Wow, I’ve heard a lot of stories, but getting pregnant by God is a new one.”  We can also imagine Joseph’s anger and hurt when he hears this news.  He is a liberal, though, so Matthew’s gospel tells us that he is thinking of a way to end the engagement without causing Mary too much pain.  He too is a visionary, though, and he receives his own vision from God, telling him to get with the plan and to support Mary in this crazy venture.  Again, we can imagine the consternation that his vision causes him – he will have to move to the margins of life with Mary.  Indeed, he will have to support her at the margins. 

     Joseph decides to say “Yes” to the vision – he joins his scandalous fiancé in seeing a new way, in being willing to move to the margins in order to carry out God’s vision.  And, at the margins he will be – he is forced to the streets of Bethlehem, with his child born on those same streets.  He will become a political refugee, an immigrant fleeing Herod’s rage and murdering soldiers.  And, as a male at the center of things, he moves to the margins – we never hear him speak in the Bible.  Mary, the one who should be silenced in patriarchy, becomes the one who speaks for the family.  

In these crazy times, let us recall these stories and the visions and courage of Mary and Joseph.  There are visionaries all around us in our time, and one of our callings is to seek to hear and see God’s voice in those visions.  And, wow, think of it -we too can have visions from God!  The murderous rages are all around us, but we give thanks that God is on the move in our time too – let us keep our hearts open for the visions of God.