Virgin Birth? For Real?

Last night, for once, we ended our day at the office earlier than usual. This was due to a combination of our clients not being able to provide us with some essential deliverables to continue our work and that we completed our defect fixes of the system.

So, all in all, we were dressed with no where to go work wise. Thus at 6:30pm we packed up and headed back home to our apartment. As we were early, a bunch of us decided to attend the caroling by the Christmas tree organized by the estate management at our residence. I mean, free bear, warm mulled wine and finger foods all on the house. Now how do you say no to that?

So, six of us decided to crash a party that we previously told the organizer that we’d skip. Apparently the caroling and get together was an every year affair. Cheers to the organizers for this one *grin*.

Aside from the handful of Japanese housewives lounging by the pool, we were probably the only Asian faces in the crowd, excluding the resort staff. I have this sneaky feeling that they thought us part of the resort staff owing to our Asian looks. But heck, we joined the singing with gusto and had a good time. After that the team adjourned for some time of chatting and relatively light drinking, seeing that today will be a working day.

Singing those carols reminded me of a lot of Christmases past. Time with friends and family, a time to put aside the worries of your everyday life and be of good cheer and spread good will to one and all and to give or get presents!

Corny isn’t it? The last few years though have been revelationary to me. Since joining the Lutheran Church, I’ve been more exposed to the historicity of the bible and the accompanying context contained therein. I have never thought how the revelation of the impending birth of Christ would have such an impact on Mary, much less Joseph. I have always associated Christmas with good news, good cheer, and the holidays (you can thank advertisements and family tradition for that *grin*).

However when I read Luke closer and with the help of some good friends, I sensed fear and an impending doom closeting Mary. I began to frame a context and understand the consequences of such a birth. Pregnant yet out of wedlock. And Joseph finding out about it. Let me say that if such a thing happened in a marriage or even a relationship where we’re supposed to be pledged to one another, me in my failed human nature, will immediately break faith with my wife or partner because the assumption here is trust. With trust, such a thing should never happen right? In Mary’s case, wrong.

So I’ve wondered, why should God incarnate, be born into such controversy and such conditions as Luke depicts? Even up till today a raging debate exists on whether Jesus was an illegitimate child, is virgin birth possible, or is Jesus’ claim of the messiah incontrovertible? Why couldn’t God just resolve such problems in a way such positions can be easily debunked? Controversy is undermining the legitimacy of the Christ’s teaching and is detrimental to the intention of God redeeming mankind. So, why?

Forgive me. I like to ask rhetorical questions J Its an indulgence I indulge in too often when I’m looking at driving a point *grin*.

The resounding answer to that is of course…faith. Faith that God is asking you to look beyond the controversy and see what He intends by the virgin birth. You could say that God is a revolutionary and seditionist. That He seeks to undermine our rigid concepts and views of the world through a virgin conception and birth of a king in squalid conditions. Ridicule at the best, stoning at the worst and abject suffering of a supposedly kingly birth. When God stacks the deck, He really stacks the deck.

But to tell you the truth, I don’t so much trust myself to accept all that wholesale and if that is so, my reliance on my faith is tenuous at best. I don’t know if anyone knows what I’m talking about when I say that I do believe in the creeds yet I’m still somewhat fearful that what if what I believe is a fraud? I’m one of those Christians who walk a tightrope between faith and the world, hence the title of my blog.

When I teach affirmation class, I have to be certain and theologically sound about what I teach, in a fresh sort of way of course J. Yet here I am, at intermittent battles between my faith and my rational skeptical mind. Sigh….sometimes I, and I think most of us who new to or are in a period where we start to look at our faith closer, have to re-look at our own education, preconceived ideas and understanding and start testing and probing so we can bring the crux of the gospels and our fractured worldview into sync. I can tell you I have been wracked by insecurities over my faith in the process. And so it continues.

So this Christmas season, the impossibility and controversy ridden notion of the virgin birth stands firmly in my mind once more, still challenging my rational mind that still sees the incredulity of it all. To pick a phrase from Lilo and Stich, “Broken….but still good.” Yeah….broken but in God’s eye still good.

The story of the three wise men and their gifts, to me, encapsulates the entire purpose for Christ and Christmas. That Christ’s purpose was to die. Imagine if Christ was Chinese and you bring Him implements for His death! I bet the parents would have gone berserk for cursing their son to die! Choi! Choi!

Of course, all that pondering happened over a beer induced half-sleep last night *hic*. For which I’m glad. God works in mysterious ways no?