The scandal of Jesus' birth

IV Sunday of Advent “A”

Matthew 1, 18-24

I have a niece who recently graduated from nursing school and is now working in labor and delivery at Northwestern Hospital in downtown Chicago. Madeline isn't married and has no children but she is around a lot of women who are giving birth.

The other day, sort of out of the blue she sent me reflection on Mary and she prefaced it by saying that she wasn’t sure if I would appreciate it. The reflection was about how we need to recognize the importance of woman in the Church. It begins…

“Sometimes I wonder if Mary breastfed Jesus, if she cried out when he bit her or if she sobbed when he would not latch. Sometimes I think that this is too vulgar to ask in a church full of men without milk stains on their shirts or coconut oil on their breasts.” It goes on talking about the humanity of Mary and ends with the line: “Because the real scandal of the birth of Jesus lies in the cracked nipples of a 14 year old not in the sermons of unmarried priests.”

I might have surprised her but I texted back to her, “no offense at all. That is what the miracle of Jesus is all about.”

The first few weeks of Advent where we are all caught up in the prophets. Amos proclaiming that the Lord’s house would be set on the highest mountain, Isaiah telling us that a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse and of course John the Baptist challenging us to prepare the way of the Lord. And now in these last few days of Advent the Church draws our attention to Mary and Joseph. The 14-year-old virgin with cracked nipples and the scared father who wanted to end his engagement because he knew that he wasn’t the father of the child.

In the miracle of the incarnation we proclaim that God became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We announce the two natures of God: fully human and fully divine. We must always remember the two natures of God but as we get close to the celebration of Christmas lets us not be too quick to move from the manger to the Cathedral.

Jesus was born in a barn not because the manger scene looks so darn cute on the mantle of our fireplace but because there was no place else for him. Mary and Joseph were poor and traveling, it says that there was no room in the inn but quite possibly they didn’t have enough money for the Inn. Jesus was born in a smelly barn amongst the animals; if you have ever been to a farm you know that they aren’t nice places. The nativity scene at the Methodist Church in Claremont is probably a pretty good updating of the manger scene.

Mary was barely 14 years old and she was pregnant. She was illiterate and poor, probably sharing a one-room shack with an extended family. Joseph was probably not much older and just as poor. I can just imagine his anger and fear on learning that Mary was pregnant. He could have had her put to death, but instead he decides to move on to divorce her quietly.  But he didn’t the illiterate 14 year old virgin and the scared teenage boy both said yes, and because of their yes Jesus was born. The angel told Joseph not to be afraid, but the angel didn’t say that it would be easy. And we know it wasn’t easy but still Joseph said yes, Mary said Yes, and Jesus Emmanuel God with us was born.

The miracle of Christmas came about because of the participation of this poor couple from Nazareth. Joseph with callouses on his hands and Mary with milk stains on her dress. It is important for us to remember this, to remember the humanity of Jesus but to remember our own humanity as well. To know that just as they had a place in the history of salvation we do as well. Mary and Joseph said yes, and Jesus was born in a stable. We say yes, and Jesus is born again in Whittier, CA, in the United States, in our world 2020 years later. We might be afraid; and we might be poor. Like Mary and Joseph we might even be homeless but we can make sure that Jesus is born again. Our celebration of Christmas doesn’t just have to be about a place far away and thousands of years ago. And every time we say yes the miracle happens again.

My niece wonders if the scandal of Christmas is celibate priests preaching in their marble pulpits; but maybe if he listens to his 25-year-old niece who works in a maternity ward in downtown Chicago and is reminded of the reality of birth the scandal is lessened. Maybe if husbands would listen more to their wives and moms would listen to their children, maybe if we listened to the poor on our streets and the immigrants on our borders the scandal would be removed. There would be no scandal any more and Jesus Emmanuel would be made flesh once again here amongst us.