Special Births in the Bible Plus the One in You

 4 Advent C December 22, 2024
Micah 5:2-4 Song of Mary
Heb.10:5-10 Luke 1:39-56

Lectionary Link

In today's Gospel account, we have read about the encounter between Elizabeth and Mary who are both expectant mothers with marvelous and miraculous conceptions.

The Bible is spiritual literature written with a purpose for communities who are continually writing to update how they believe God resided within their lives.

A theme in biblical writings centers upon marvelous and miraculous births.  Such birth stories are ways to affirm providence, that is, God's telling anointing of events and people in how God has become known.  The prophet Jeremiah understood the providential nature of his calling when he heard God say, "Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you."

Providence is the outcome and once it has happened, one seeks the origin of Providence, by proclaiming, "surely, this person was great from the beginning."

There are special birth and survival stories in the Hebrew Scriptures which provide the models for the birth stories of Elizabeth and Mary.

One might say that the first miraculous birth stories are in fact the creation stories of Adam and Eve.  These are two Holy Spirit crafted people who express the mysterious combination of unseen spirit and visible material to comprise the human person.

The next marvelous birth story is that which happen to the aged parents Abram and Sarai, which was an impossible conception and birth of Isaac, a transitional Patriarch in the lineage from which the people of Israel would come.

Isaac's wife Rebekah, childless, also conceived as a heretofore barren woman and gave birth to twins, the younger being Jacob, or the originating patriarch of Israel.

The birth of Moses was marvelous in the fact that he survived Pharaoh's edict for the death of all male children of the Israelites in Egypt.  He was hidden in a basket to float on the Nile and rescued and raised by an Egyptian princess, thus the providential lawgiver of the people of Israel also had a providential salvation event after his birth.

Next, the birth of Samson to Manoah and his wife was marvelous.  An angel visited Manoah's wife who was barren and told her she would bear a son, whom she would give to the Lord as one under the vow of the Nazirite who would not drink wine or cut his hair.  Samson helped to defeat the Philistines as a Judge of Israel until he was tricked by his Philistine wife Delilah to cut his hair and lose his power.

Then there is the birth of the foremost Judge of Israel Samuel to Hannah.  Hannah was distraught because of her barren condition, and she promised to give her child to God's service if she could but conceive.  Samuel was born and he became the Judge who invested Saul and David as first kings of Israel.

The other marvelous birth came to the Shunammite woman who provided hospitality to prophet Elisha.  Her son also came to an early death before he was resuscitated by Elisha with perhaps a biblical account of mouth to mouth resuscitation.

The birth events of Elizabeth and Mary stand in the train of these famous birth stories.  John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth became significant community founders.  The community of John the Baptist provided many of the members for the Jesus Movement, and the two founders were linked closely by the Gospel writers.  They were providential figures and like providential figures, their origins had to be told in special ways.

But of course, the miraculous conception and birth which happened to Mary stands at the end of the train of special births.  The conception and birth which happened to Mary is the paradigmatic birth of the New Testament.

The Jesus Movement was founded upon the recurrence within people of a new birth, the birth of the Risen Christ within the lives of people.  How did this new birth happen?  People were overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and within their community confessed the birth of Christ within themselves, or in the Pauline expression about the mystery revealed to the Gentiles,  "Christ in you, the hope of glory!"

The miraculous conception and birth story of Mary encodes the mystery of the New Testament about the New Birth Event.

And therefore the purpose of the Gospels and the New Testament is to announce this mystery which can be ours, "Christ is born in you!  Christ is born in me!"  Please do not miss this Christmas Story.  Amen.