Yet, God Waits

Yet, God Waits

The observation of more than a few readers of Luke is that a male God overcomes a young woman, who calls herself a “slave,” acquiescing to oppression (p. 77) and rubber-stamping a divine demand (p. 81), and Mary becomes pregnant. That reading challenges Amy Peeler to read the text more carefully to see if Mary has genuine agency.

Her chapter is about agency. It matters. We are reading Amy Peeler’s Women and the Gender of God , which is a full-orbed discussion of women and the gender of God. That God chose incarnation through a woman becomes a foundation for a fresh shaping of theology proper. We have learned that God the Father is not a male, and in this chapter we learn that God is not oppressive of Mary, the woman. That a woman chose also is a foundation. The text about Mary in Luke’s Gospel reflects the “delicate dance of divine and human agency.” That, too, matters. “It is her yes that changed the fabric of the universe.”

Peeler examines the story about Mary in Luke 1:26-38 in four passes: approach (1:26-27), favor resisted (1:28-33), birth questioned (1:34 ), overshadowing accepted (1:35-37). She then examines Mary’s speech (1:38). One of Peeler’s skills is comparing the Zechariah story with the Mary story.

God does not summon Mary to a neutral location for a meeting; God sends an angel from the divine courts to her home. Zech approached God’s realm, the angel approaches Mary’s realm/home.

With Mary there is an expression of hesitancy, she is unsettled, disturbed, uneasy, distressed and she wonders if there are “concealed contractual details in the fine print” (brilliant statement by Peeler). A kind of “And you’re asking me to do what?” Gabriel, in other words, meets a woman with questions and not someone with “robotic compliance.” This is agency to interact with God’s envoy.

Mary, told of a child destined to be Messiah, expresses her agency all over again when she queries Gabriel about the mechanics of a birth when yet a virgin. She could have thought of normal consummation, then the child, but the text makes it clear she’s asking about something unusual happening. She comprehends this child will be a Davidic son on the throne but unlike all other patterns: he would be a king forever. No heirs would occupy the throne after him. Instead of waiting she is seen “leading the angelic witness” in the discussion. “Her question demands clarity, and Gabriel provides it.” That, too, is agency.

Perhaps the moment of agency above all others is when she consents to having the child destined to be the Messiah.

There are many moments of eloquence in Peeler’s prose, and here’s one: “Zechariah had been given the privilege of entering the holy of holies; but now the presence in the holy of holies is poised to enter Mary herself.” God does not tell Mary, though; God honors Mary and Mary consents.

Mary’s Speech in 1:38 is a moment on which “God waits.” She’s heard enough to “make an informed decisions. I don’t agree that “Look” means “look at me” but that term expresses her agency by requiring a divine response to her words.

She calls herself a slave-woman, and in this many today see too much acquiescence. Peeler probes. Slaves had status determined by the status of the master, and Mary becomes slave to the Most High God. So her slave-hood puts her in the courts of God, and gives her status unlike others. On top of that, it is profoundly biblical and affirming to be called a “slave” of God – name them: Simeon, Peter, John, James, Peter, Jude, Abraham, and David. The people of God – OT and NT. On top of that, Jesus was a slave (Phil 2:7), and his status shapes the status of his followers who join him in the divine work. Only Luke in the NT uses the feminine of slave – and when Peter uses it (in Luke’s second work) he sees women slaves alongside men slaves as those experiencing the new age, and Mary is “first in line.” The term in Luke’s hands honors Mary. Of course, Peeler discusses that the term has been used in “reprehensible ways” and needs to be checked at every venture.

Mary does not offer a “verbal rubber stamp” when she says “let it be” but sintead she knows God and God’s goodness and love; she speaks for herself when she says this and there is thus a “mature acceptance of the cost” of being pregnant outside the standards of her world.

I love this: “Mary’s yes has grit.”

“God has not oppressed Mary with the birth of the Messiah; instead, God has presented her with a great honor. Equally important, it is an honor she has accepted willingly. Therein lies the paradox; in her humility before God, Mary is active and even esteemed.”

Her subservience to God then is a “strong submission” and she thereby becomes a template for all disciples, male and female.