SeaPres Update: December 15, 2019

It seems like every year, there is a rehash of Christmas controversy on social media that gets us riled up either defending or scrutinizing a well known tradition, figure, or in this year’s case, a song.

The latest is the dispute over the popular Christian song “Mary Did You Know” written by Mark Lowry in the mid-80s. The lovely melody is accompanied by lyrics that include:

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God

Yes, there is some heavy-duty mansplaining going on in the song. But besides the annoying misogyny of a male singer querying the mother of God, there is also the theological and biblical illiteracy in the song.

Yes! Mary did know! It says so plainly in Luke 1:30-33, 35:

               “And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.    And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the  power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.’”

Frankly, I’m more concerned with what we know.
What we know and yet forget.
What we know and still behave as it couldn’t possibly be true.

We know that God so loved us that God came into the world as a vulnerable human being.
Dare we see ourselves and others are beloved creations of a loving God?

We know that God is Emanuel; not just once in a manger in a far away place, but today and everyday in every place.
Might we live courageously and hope filled in a world wrought with brokenness and despair?

We know that we are invited to walk by faith, in the assurance that God walks with us and this is Good News indeed!

So after the Christmas lights are tucked away, nativity sets are packed, and the last of the cookies have been polished off, perhaps the question for us is: People, do you know? And so how will you live “your one wild and precious life”* after Dec. 26?

On behalf of the Seattle Presbytery staff, I wish you a blessed Christmastide and look forward to our continued ministry partnerships in the new year!

Rev. Eliana Maxim
Co-Executive Presbyter

*The Summer Day by Mary Oliver