The Christmas story is much more than a message about the birth of Jesus. Christmas is more than sleigh bells and mistletoe. It is a story whose center is Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Mary has always been a symbol of love, loyalty, and mother staying power. (After all, she was there in the stable with her newborn child; she was there in the temple with Jesus; she was there at the foot of the cross; and she was there at the empty tomb.)
Mary is more than a sweet Christmas message of love and loyalty.
Mary is more than a pregnant, young, unwed Jewish woman who had no place to go but to a stable and a manger for her child. Often Mary has been seen as simply passive, sweet and submissive – the model of a good girl.
Over the centuries, there have been many church pronouncements and devotional practices, as well as many views associated with her – from Mother God to sister to the feminine-maternal aspect of God to Mary, the survival of pre-Christian religion of the Mother Goddess, among others.
Mary is more and deeper than any, or all, of these views: Mary is a tough, bold, brave, gutsy, audacious woman. She speaks in a powerful, prophetic voice, sending a strong message to all humankind in all times.
Mary speaks clearly and disparagingly of those who rule over others, those who control others; she speaks kindly of those who deserve advantage and privilege in society.
In the Gospel of Luke, we hear Mary declare, “God has scattered the proud…and has put down the powerful from their thrones and exalted those of low degree. God has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich, God has sent away.”
With these words, Mary preaches a new vision of God’s reign in our world, a radical reversal of the whole social-political and moral order of her world. Mary proclaims the liberation of those who are marginalized and exploited. Mary sides with the poor.
She celebrates this new world order, which her son, Jesus, illuminates and exemplifies with his teaching, preaching and healing ministry.
Central to Jesus’ work is the Great Commandment to love God and to love one’s neighbor. That is what Mary’s words are all about. However, to simply believe in the words of the Great Commandment is not enough. One must act on that commandment; one must understand what love of one’s neighbor really involves.
What would it look like to shape our lives by that love?
We would help the bleeding man, woman or child in the ditch beside the road; we would love “the least of these” – the outsider, the unwanted, the Samaritan; we would share our food, fuel, shelter, our time and energy with the sick, the injured, the old, the cold, the hungry, the lonely, the forgotten, the other; the poor.
To love one’s neighbor means to practice the love of God by going back into the world where love is desperately needed. Both Mary and Jesus challenge us to know and remember that love and ethics are inseparable.
With that understanding, we can light our candles, and sing “Joy to the World.” Inspired and emboldened by Mary’s creative vision, we can live the true meaning of Christmas.
(Rev. Bobsy Dudley-Thompson is a psychotherapist and an ordained UCC minister. She lives in Edgecomb.)
