Let it Be to Me.
Chapter 7 from Mary: honor and value.
I am a movie fanatic. Film is my secret indulgence. And I go in phases where I will watch every film of a genre, or by the same director in chronological order of their production. I love to see how the creative process develops and grows from one project to another. Since my childhood, I have loved black and white kitschy Science Fiction movies from the 1950’s. You know the kind, with space ships, 50 foot tall lizards, and giant Ants in the desert of southern California. The thought of being eaten by a giant Ant in Bakersfield is great comedy. One of my favorite movies from this period is The Village of the Damned. It’s about a village in England where all the women are struck unconscious and wake up pregnant with platinum blonde alien spawn children. As weird as this sounds the film is actually a very intelligent parable about the world we live in. And these women were just pods. There is another movie about pods, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Not a favorite. In another book I wrote, I said, “Mary is not just the pod that bore the Son of God.” This moment with Mary and Gabriel is about the culture of heaven infiltrating and taking over the broken cultures of planet earth. Just like the platinum blonde aliens in the village. Unlike The Village of the Damned, Mary wasn’t forcibly made to bear the baby. Nobody forced or coerced her. She was given a choice. Just like Eve, who also was visited by an angel, a very bad angel. And the best disguise that angel could muster was Serpent. After being presented with an impossible opportunity, God gave Mary a choice. God believed that Mary’s voice needed to be heard. God honored Mary. Lots of people miss this, and it gets expressed in their Christian lives. They think the end justifies the means, because they don’t understand their own worth in God’s eyes, and they don’t see the value in other people. They only see the value in what people can do for them. And often they see God this way too. Not seeing the value in others is dishonor. And so, before the Holy Spirit came and brought about the Incarnation— Which, by the way, is the greatest miracle in the New Testament, the Bible, and Human history. All the other things that followed would have been impossible without it. Before the Holy Spirit— a Person of Honor— could engage with Mary, she had to give permission. Yes, God needed permission. It’s always about honor and relationship. And Mary said, “Let it be to me according to your word.” I give you permission to fulfill this promise. I give you permission to make me the scandal of the neighbourhood. I give you permission to possibly destroy my engagement to Joseph. I give you permission to be the woman my neighbors murmur about forever. I give you permission to let me have morning sickness. I give you permission to let me travel several days when I am nine months pregnant on the back of a donkey. I give you permission to make me sleep in a barn and give birth in a manger. I give you permission to let me hear the cries of my neighbors’ sons. I give you permission to make me a refugee and live among the Egyptians. I give you permission to let me catch the blood of my innocent son sent to die the most horrible death known to man. I give you permission. Let it be to me according to your word. God doesn’t use people. We use this language all the time because we think that God is task oriented. The Church is task oriented, and often performance based. God is relationship oriented. Anything he does is about relationship. All of this, the Incarnation and all that followed was about restoring our broken relationship with God. And so God had to do it with honor right here, and he honored Mary, and gave her a glorious title, and waited for her answer. Your Father is not a task master looking for obedient servants who carry out his perfect will. Your Father is looking for sons and daughters who will lovingly agree to carry on the family business. There is a wonderful hymn from the fourth century that says Mary “[You] made answer for the creation to the redeeming will of God. Light, Fire, and Life, Divine and Immortal; joined to our nature, you have brought forth, that to the Glory of God the Father, heaven and earth might be restored.” Thank you.
This is a chapter from my book Mary: Honor and Value. If my work encourages you, consider becoming a paid subscriber or buy me a coffee. Thanks.