The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. (…that is, Wonderful Councellor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace)
What Christians believe is fantastic. They believe that something comes from nothing…and not nothing comes from nothing. They believe that this something from nothing points always to something that can never be identified as an object. They have this in common with other monotheists, but they go further.
They believe in an invasion. An invasion that makes any Star Trek or Star Wars episode perfectly tenable and ordinary.
They believe the invasion came by way of a virgin birth. They believe that this happening was not self-fertilization or parthogenesis as found in some plants and lower animals. Instead they believe that this was a conception from "elsewhere."
They believe that the immensity of the power from "elsewhere" was displayed in the weakest way as "virgin and child." Because of this invasion of powerlessness they believe that in the "IAM no-thing" there is no fear, only peace, no wrath, only mercy, and no violence, only love and freedom.
And so they believe that this "no-thing" from "elsewhere" completely relativizes and makes irrelevant our gods of "speed and steel, success and safety."
They believe that because of this our murderous ways of grouping are dethroned. And that there is no longer a sustainable "us" and "them."
Well, that is what they should believe.
As it is the signs still show that we are all, too often, functional atheists; because all of the above is still too much an idea and too little a discovery.
May Christmas find our theories slightly more undone. May we be open to discovering and undergoing the immensity of love behind this powerless invasion.
Technorati Tags: Virgin birth, Monotheism, Christianity, Peace
