Virgin Womb of Theotokoi

There's something about Mary . . .

How are Christians to understand the mother of the Messiah? On the one hand, there is the Roman Catholic view complete with a doctrine of immaculate conception and pushing the boundaries of 2000 years of the church's articulation of how God's salvation works. On the other hand, there is a Protestant backlash that wants to ignore her completely except to cast a young lady for her character in the annual Christmas pageant.

Are modern minds expected to buy into concepts like an immaculate conception or even a virgin birth? I admit that through my training in various hermeneutics of criticism that I could give or take the doctrine of the virgin birth. I see no reason Jesus couldn't be the Messiah if Joseph and Mary got it on prior to their marriage. Yet I also see no reason to reject 2000 years of tradition out right just to satisfy the limited minds of modernity.

So what are we to do about Mary? Continuing along the lines of the previous article about birthing church leaders, I'd like to suggest that we understand Mary as a model for the church. (This isn't my idea; it is an ancient patristic theme.) If the church is the womb from which leaders for discipleship are born, then make no mistake about it, that womb is of a virgin.

There's a lot of people and a lot of literature out there that want the church to get in bed with the powers of the world in order to train leaders. They say that if the church could just be more like Starbucks, Google, the U.S. Miliatry, Disney and so on, then we'd see a re-energized church with a growing membership and influence in our society. That may be true. But it may also forfeit our identity as church in the process. Now, I'm not saying we can't learn from various leadership models in our society. I am saying that we can do so without prostituting the church's identity granted her in the marriage covenant with God. We can learn from our culture without inviting it into our bed.

We need to pay less attention to how Donald Trump determines the winner of the next "Apprentice", and pay more attention to the story of God's work of salvation through Jesus. The good news of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension forms our identity. To paraphrase St. Ireneaus, Jesus sanctifies our birth and abolishes our death. Through baptism God invites us to participate in this story, to be characters in its plot.

We were conceived as Jesus' disciples in our baptism. And like his, ours was a virginal conception consumated by God's presence in the womb. Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and empowers people into discipleship. The church shares the same role in birthing disciples as Mary did in birthing our Messiah. We are theotokoi -- God-bearers.

The irony concerning Jesus' virgin birth is that modern minds interpret the doctrine as a lame attempt to assert Jesus' divinity, yet Ireneaus insisted on this doctrine as a way to prove Jesus's humanity, his creatureliness and worldliness, against gnostic heresy. In the thesis "On Apostolic Preaching" Ireneaus writes, "if one does not accept His birth from a Virgin, how can he accept His resurrection from the dead? . . . if He was not born, neither did He die; and if He did not die, neither was He raised from the dead; and if He was not raised from the dead, death is not conquered nor its kingdom destroyed; and if death is not conquered, how are we to ascend to life, having fallen under death from the beginning?" (John Behr's translation. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1997. pp 64-65.)

This same ironic twist concerning Jesus' virgin birth has also defiled our understanding of baptism and our expectations for receiving new adult disciples into a congregation. We assert God's role to the point that we forget divine grace works through human creatureliness participating in Jesus' story for the sake of the world. Certainly, disciples are born of a virgin's womb, but the church's role in birthing leaders is not passive. We are active theotokoi. If we neglect our call to form communities of radical discipleship, then the church will be marginalized in the world the same way Protestantism has relegated Mary to her once-yearly token pageant appearance.

Therefore, we must ask ourselves what our congregations would look like if we took Jesus' story with the utmost seriousness for our lives. Leadership of theotokoi looks a lot different than any model of leadership known to the world. We know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among us. Theotokoi leadership is humane yet not of humanity. It is a creaturely leadership yet not of creation. It is worldly yet not of the world. It is for us, but not of our standards, credentials, or expectations. Rather when Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and empowers us in the virgin womb of the church, we join with Mary in witnessing God's saving activity in our world:

Our soul magnifies the Lord, and our spirit rejoices in God our Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servants.

Surely, from now on all generations will call us blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for us,

and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

He has scattered the proud in the thought of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever.