Up Close and Personal '06

Texts: Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45

The other day I was flitting from channel to channel trying to avoid the ads telling me what the real spirit of Christmas is and I came across two guys having a confrontation. Each of them was supported by a group of toughs, and they seemed to be challenging each other by means of break-dancing. Then they approached each other with all the machismo swagger they could muster until their noses were about two inches apart.

Just when an all-in fight looked inevitable, an attractive woman came out and told one of the guys he was wanted inside immediately. He obeyed, leaving the other guy to repeat this very aggressive act with the woman. She didn’t blink and the young tough slunk off. I have no idea what it was all about, but the gesture of being so close to someone reminded me of that classic moment in recent All Black history when some clod decided to eyeball Norm Hewitt when he was leading the haka. Although no blow was struck it was recognised as one of the most aggressive actions imaginable and Norm was furious.

Less obviously, it reminded me of Neil Rackham’s cockroaches. Neil was a Ph. D student at Sheffield University when I was there. He was studying psychology and, in particular, was studying the effect of stress on cockroaches. (I have no idea why – it’s the sort of thing psychology students do when they want to get a Ph. D, I suppose). Anyway, for some months he had been observing a population of cockroaches he kept in a glass tank, like a fish tank without the water.

But one day the study came to an abrupt end when Neil discovered that one cockroach had wiped out all his fellow cockroaches. Apparently, what triggers mass murder among cockroaches is population pressure in a confined space. All would have been well if some of the cockroaches could have left home and gone and sought their fortunes elsewhere; but because they were confined within a fixed space the pressure became too great and triggered mass murder.

That is one of the more graphic illustrations of what today we call “personal space”. The dancing tough guys and Norm Hewitt and his opponent were illustrating the same thing. When I was trying to be a moody teenager I used to tell my mother to “get off my back”. Today it’s “get out of my face” – far more graphic and zippy, isn’t it? We don’t like people getting too close to us – we have a need for personal space about us – more if we are introverts than extraverts – but we all feel uncomfortable when it is invaded. One of the things I don’t enjoy about going to the dentist, or the optometrist or even the barber is having them “in my face”, as it were.

So we’re talking about intimacy. The more special someone is to us the more likely it is that we will relax our barriers. We talk of our special people as our nearest and dearest – our closest friend, perhaps. We mean something more than physical closeness, of course, but the two are related. The more we love someone, the closer we can let them get to us without triggering our defence mechanisms. If someone else gets too close we will at least take a step backward, even if we don’t respond in the way Neil’s cockroaches did!

Christmas raises these issues of intimacy, of personal space, because the God who used to – most of the time! – keep a reasonable distance between us – suddenly chose to draw very near, too near for comfort. And that nearness is underlined for us today, on this Fourth Sunday in Advent, as we focus on Mary. The message of Advent that we have had so far, especially from John the Baptist, has been one of God drawing near to the world, to the whole of humanity. That could have been scary enough, but at least we could take same comfort from the fact that we’re all in this together. It has not yet become too personal – we are not singled out for special treatment. There is safety in numbers.

But the message that the angel brings to Mary is one of the greatest possible intimacy with her as an individual. In the Old Testament one or two great heroes of the faith were said to be intimates of God – friends of God – to have walked and talked with God face to face. Moses and Enoch were in that class. But even that degree of intimacy is now to be exceeded, because the Spirit of God is to enter into Mary and the Christ Child is to be born within her. And so instead of friendship being the great metaphor for the relationship God seeks with humanity, it is now to be pregnancy.

And today our readings invite us to stay with pregnancy, and not be in too much of a hurry to rush forward to birth. It’s a pity that this Fourth Sunday of Advent this year falls on Christmas Eve. We need more time than that to reflect on pregnancy as one part of the relationship that God seeks with Mary and, through her, with all of us.

Pregnancy and birth are two aspects of the intimate relationship that God seeks with Mary and with each of us. Jesus could not have been born from Mary without Mary first being pregnant with Jesus. Only after the Spirit of God had entered into Mary, only after the Christ Child had been conceived and had grown in her womb, could he be born into the world. Only after Mary had allowed God to draw close to her, to be intimate with her, could she become the Mother of Christ. And what was true of Mary is true of all human beings; only as we allow God ever closer to us, to invade our personal space, can we become God-bearers to anyone else.

So our readings today are all about this intimacy between God and ourselves. We started with Micah, one of the prophets who foresaw with remarkable vision, the coming of the Messiah, not as a mighty man of conquest, but as a baby – a baby with an astonishing past. In his vision, we see a hint of Christ’s eternity. Speaking of Bethlehem he says, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel , whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. And when will this happen? When she who is in labour gives birth. Israel ’s redemption is to come through pregnancy and birth.

In less dramatic and direct words, the Letter to the Hebrews also speaks of the change in relationship between God and humanity. The key to this letter is the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. As a faithful Jew we might have expected the author to be devastated by this event. But he sees it as all part of God’s plan to draw near to his people. For centuries the Law had required sacrifices and burnt offerings made in the Temple to a God who was essentially absent. But now all that has been swept away, as is made clear in today’s passage: Therefore when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will, O God.’” The regulation and control of ritual has gone, and in its place has come the intimacy of human life in the physical body of Christ.

And our gospel reading is a joyous celebration of pregnancy at its most exciting. Mary has rushed off to spend time in the countryside with her older cousin, Elizabeth who had long since given up hope of motherhood. Yet here she was, in her sixth month, as the angel had told Mary, and loving every minute of it. We can picture her rubbing her belly with glee as she jumps up and down with excitement, and she and Mary dance a jig of delight. No wonder the baby in Elizabeth ’s womb does a quick somersault! The whole scene in that little house throbs with life and excitement and joy, with the true spirit of Christmas.

Of course, we know what lies ahead for both women, and their precious babies. Beheading and crucifixion, to put it bluntly. In the real world sweetness and light don’t last for ever. We know that next year will bring tough times as well as joyful ones. But that shouldn’t spoil our mood today or tomorrow. Today and tomorrow are for celebration – for celebrating intimacy – relationships – for giving thanks for those special people whom we enjoy invading our personal space. Whatever other gift we may have in mind for them, can we also tell them how glad we are to have them near to us?

Above al, can we find a moment to say thank you to God who for his desire to enter into a more and more personal intimate relationship with each one of us. May we with Mary say Yes to him this Christmas and always. Amen.