Advent's Troubling Question

Mary said to the angel, "How can this be...?"  (Luke 1:34)

 

“How can this be?” Mary’s question is rooted in the absurdity of what the angel has told her. She knows the way these things work. If not at a purely biological level, at least at a functional one. And so she asks: “How can this be?”

As I reflect on Mary’s question, I’m mindful of the many other situations that cause this question to arise from the depths of one's being.

·         The news and the images coming out of Aleppo move us to ask, “How can this be?”

·         Childhood cancer. “How can this be?”

·         Broken relationships. “How can this be?”

·         A young man walks into Emmanuel AME and kills nine beautiful people because they were black. “How can this be?”

·         4 years ago this week was the tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary. We asked then and we ask today: “How can this be?”

Behind this question in these and so many other situations is the gut-wrenching recognition that what is taking place is not right and that things are not as they should be. As people of faith, our belief in a God of love and justice only complicates matters. What we know of God revealed to us in Jesus adds to our confusion. How can this be?

As we light another candle on the Advent wreath, I’m coming to see more than ever that this question gives expression to the space we occupy in the season of Advent. Our prayer in this season is that God would come. Not in a mannerly way, but in a fashion expressed by the prophet Isaiah: O that you would tear open the heavens and come down… (Isaiah 64:1) We need God’s intervention. And so we raise Mary's question, we wrestle with things we can't understand, we pray, and we sing, “O come, O come Emmanuel…”