December 10: A Supernatural Birth
♫ Music:
Day 9 - Monday, December 10
A Supernatural Birth
Scripture: Luke 1:34-37
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Poetry:
Annunciation (from the grass beneath them)
by Mary Szybist
how many moments did it hover before we felt
it was like nothing else, it was not bird
light as a mosquito, the aroma of walnut husks
while the girl’s knees pressed into us
every spear of us rising, sunlit & coarse
the wild bees murmuring through
what did you feel when it was almost upon us when
even the shadows her chin made
never touched but reached just past
the crushed mint, the clover clustered between us
how cool would you say it was
still cool from the clouds
how itchy the air
the girl tilted and lurched and then
we rose up to it, we held ourselves tight
when it skimmed just the tips of our blades
didn't you feel softened
no, not even its flickering trembled
A GRACIOUS MESSENGER
It’s strange that, having just informed Mary that she would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit, Gabriel would point to Elizabeth’s much more natural pregnancy as proof that nothing is impossible with God. Zechariah had met with Gabriel’s stunning rebuke for daring to ask for proof that Elizabeth would become pregnant. Yet her pregnancy itself is offered as proof to Mary of God’s gift, although Mary hadn’t asked for proof at all. Because she believes the angel without a sign, she is given her answer, and then even more good news. She won’t be alone in her miraculous pregnancy. She will share this joy and mystery with Elizabeth, as they both await their divine gifts.
There are so many remarkable aspects of Mary’s response to Gabriel’s message. Often, we focus on what this news must have meant to her, a young girl facing the possibility that her fiancée might reject her and her family disown her because of her willingness to accept the gift of God. Perhaps, in imagining her plight, one thing we forget is the effect that the messenger himself had on Mary. The art today reminds us of the way that Mary was blessed by Gabriel’s presence and his message.
The joy and sacredness of this meeting is captured by Mary Szybist as she imagines what it must have been like to be in that space as Gabriel met with Mary. When Zechariah met with the angel, it was in the Holy of Holies, but for Mary the archangel deigns to come to a humble, earthly dwelling. Szybist imagines the dignifying effect of the angel’s presence on everything around him. The very blades of grass stand tall, wondering at the feeling of this being, unlike anything they had encountered on the earth. Gabriel’s presence in this poem realigns all of creation by revealing the presence and work of God on earth, taking what is mundane and filling it with glory.
Butler explores this same movement – the way that Gabriel’s visit elevates and dignifies a humble young girl. We see her small dwelling, beautifully decorated with flowers but cramped and ordinary. The larger frame reveals the truth about this seemingly unremarkable place. The upper panel is in the shape of a cathedral window. Gabriel’s wings break the frame between the immanent and the transcendent, and a ladder provides a means of ascent to a holy realm. A star, perhaps the beam of a cross, and a tree ripe with fruit all tell the story of what Gabriel is here to initiate. Mary’s humble willingness to bear the Messiah will begin to rewrite the history of humanity’s fall, providing through the cross a means for humanity to be restored in our communion with God.
The work of God is consistently accomplished through people who seem unable to accomplish it – sometimes because they have sinned so greatly, or rejected God so fully, and sometimes because they seem so very weak and vulnerable. But God’s grace is revealed in the way that his presence and his call are always accompanied by strength and care. God provided a companion for Mary in Elizabeth, someone to share her joy and confirm her belief in her calling. And what’s more, he provided her with the messenger himself, an archangel who proved to Mary in his very presence the profound importance of her choice to believe.
Prayer:
Lord God of Hosts, your strength is revealed in our weakness. Thank you for the way that you always equip your servants with the strength to do what you have called us to. Teach us to be strengthened in your presence.
Amen.
Janelle Aijian
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University
About the Artwork:
Annunciation, 2006
Tanja Butler
Oil and acrylic on panel with gold leaf
10 in x 5 in x 2 in
This intimate diptych depicts “an intersection of time and eternity in the moment of decision offered to Mary by the archangel Gabriel.” In the bottom panel Mary kneels on one side of the door of salvation that has opened before her, framing a vase of spring crocuses symbolizing the new life now possible with the Incarnation of Christ. The paper Noguchi lamp and contemporary setting of the Annunciation asserts its perennial relevance. A ladder rises up from the portal to connect heaven and earth. At the tip of the arched scene of the upper panel the withered Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil stands next to the portal that had remained closed since the Expulsion of Adam and Even from the Garden of Eden, while a sprig of apple blossoms and pomegranates bursting with seeds signal a new age abundant with life. The pointed arch design, shards of exuberant prismatic color, framed in gold foil at the top recalls the sacredness of this moment that reunited heaven and earth.
About the Artist:
Tanja Butler (b. 1955) was born in Germany and moved to the United States as a young girl. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Albany. Her artistic practice has focused on liturgical art, illustration, and community service projects. She is inspired by Byzantine icons, American and European folk art, Persian manuscripts and textile patterns, African art, Early Christian art, Russian Suprematist paintings, Cubism, and Fauvist color. Informed by studies in art history and time working in Italy, she was particularly influenced by the frescoes of Fra Angelico in the Monastery of San Marco in Florence. Her collection of 600 graphic images, Icon: Visual Images for Every Sunday, was published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers. Her work is included in the collections of the Vatican Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, the Billy Graham Center Museum at Wheaton, the Boston Public Library, the DeCordova Museum, and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art, UCLA. In 2014 she retired from her position as an associate professor of art at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, where she taught painting, drawing, liturgical art and illustration and frequently integrated service opportunities in her courses.
About the Music:
“Throw Down Your Heart” from the album Throw Down Your Heart: Tales from The Acoustic Planet, Vol.3 - Africa Sessions
About the Composer and Performer:
Banjo virtuoso and composer Béla Fleck (b. 1958) fell in love with music at an early age. Originally from New York City, his passion for learning and creating music has taken him around the world. He has founded and participated in several bands, most notably jazz-fusion group Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck frequently collaborates with acclaimed musicians such as Edgar Meyer, Sam Bush, and Mark O’Connor, and has produced and played on recordings with his wife, vocalist and banjo-player Abigail Washburn. In 2005, Fleck produced the documentary Throw Down Your Heart. The film and subsequent album follow Fleck’s journey as he traces the origins of the banjo to the heart of Africa, collaborating with dozens of musicians along the way and delighting in the unifying quality of music. The title track “Throw Down Your Heart” was written during an airport layover on the way to Africa, and eventually recorded with a trio led by n’goni player Harouna Samake.
About the Poet:
Mary Szybist (b. 1970) is the author of Granted and Incarnadine, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2013. She has received numerous honors and awards, including a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Pushcart Prize. She is an associate professor of English at Lewis & Clark in Portland, Oregon, and is a member of the faculty at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.
About the Devotional Writer:
Janelle Aijian
Assistant Professor
Torrey Honors Institute
Biola University
Janelle Aijian is a joyful teacher of the Great Books tradition in the Torrey Honors Institute and a perpetual student of Blaise Pascal and the Seven Deadly Sins tradition, specifically the sin of acedia. In focusing on these works, she is seeking to understand the Christian experience of doubt, anxiety, and avoidance in the face of God’s call. She holds a B.A. in philosophy from Biola University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Baylor University. Janelle lives in Fullerton with her husband, Phillip, two adorable kids, and a cat named Cleopatra.