Nativity of the Theotokos

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The Nativity of the Theotokos 2024

Oops!

When I was growing up, one of my father’s favorite movies was It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a classic movie that many of us enjoy every year around Christmas.

I grew up with the colorized version, but my wife insists that it’s better to watch it in the original black and white. Whichever version you watch, the story is always the same.

As a young man George Bailey had big dreams to travel the world before college. But, bad luck struck: His father died of a stroke leaving the family business, Bailey Brothers Building and Loan, in jeopardy. To help out, George decides to forgo his plans and stay home to help out.

Years go by, until a deposit of $8,000 gets misplaced, threatening the Building and Loan. Facing utter devastation, George contemplates suicide. But his guardian angel, Clarence, shows up and shows him how his life has impacted so many people—in a positive way. 

George thought his everyday, boring life was a failure. He thought he was worth more dead than alive. In the very least, he hoped his life insurance would save them from the misplaced money. But, as Clarence shows him, his life has actually made a huge difference. Not just for his family, but for the entire community. Through the Building and Loan, George gave half the town’s poor a chance to buy a home and a raise a family. 

Ugh!

The power of It’s a wonderful Life is the way it shows the value of human life. It’s easy, I think, to believe that our lives don’t matter, and that our lives don’t make a difference. It’s easy to fall into the trap George Bailey fell into thinking that perhaps the world would be a little bit better if we weren’t in it.

Maybe that’s an over-exaggeration. Perhaps we don’t go to the extreme as George did, but thinking that life just might be meaningless isn’t new—or rare. Philosophically, we call it nihilism, which posits that life is meaningless. 

To walk down this road is a very dark path. It’s to believe we’re here by chance. It’s to believe that what’s right is what feels good, because there’s no higher moral authority giving meaning to anything. 

It also allows us to abuse one another. If it’s all happenstance, then there’s no reason to help those less fortunate. It’s matter of trying to win the “game of life.” It’s a matter of trying to come out on top because soon it’ll all be over—at least at an individual level.

Aha!

But, today, through our celebrate of the Nativity of the Theotokos, we oppose this line of thinking. 

Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in a book about the Virgin Mary, once wrote,

“And if the Church began to commemorate [the Virgin’s birth] with a special feast it was not because the birth was somehow unique or miraculous or out of the ordinary; but because on the contrary, the very fact that it is routine discloses something fresh an radiant about everything we call ‘routine’ an ordinary, it gives new depth to the ‘unremarkable’ details of human life” (Celebration of Faith, Vol. 3 pg. 23). 

There’s no wisemen, no stars, no shepherds, no talk of kings, or any of that at her birth. But, it still to be celebrated.

In other words, today’s celebration is the original It’s a Wonderful Life story, which tells us that our lives do matter. Like the “unremarkable” George Bailey, we do have a purpose, a meaning, and an impact. We are called to something greater than ourselves. Our suffering does have a purpose and will be redeemed. 

How do we know? Because the church celebrates an ordinary birth, like the Theotokos’s, which is birth like ours.

Whee!

Today’s feast is different than feasts of Christ. Why? Because unlike Christ’s birth, the story of this feast is not found in scripture. Instead, it is based on early Christian tradition, particularly the Protoevangelium of James, a 2nd-century apocryphal text. 

There, we are told about Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anna. They were a pious but childless couple. In their old age, they were deeply distressed by their inability to conceive a child, which was seen as a sign of divine disfavor at the time.

Both Joachim and Anna prayed fervently for a child. Joachim went to the wilderness for a time to pray, and Anna also prayed at home, lamenting their situation. In response to their prayers, an angel appeared to each of them, announcing that they would soon bear a child who would be blessed by God. And, it came to pass. Anna conceived and gave birth to Mary, who was destined to become the Mother of Christ.

Though it may sound like Anna’s conception is miraculous, it’s actually not. She joins a long list of women in scripture—such as Sara, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Samson’s mother, Hannah, and Elizabeth—who were barren, yet were blessed by God with Children. 

Yeah!

Today, we celebrate the routine, the ordinary, the unremarkable, because by celebrating it, we are actually infusing the routine with remarkable meaning. Schmemann, in his book, goes on to explain:

“Could it be that the Church is telling us through this icon [of the Virgin’s birth] that every birth, every entrance of a new human being into the world and life is a miracle of miracles, a miracle that explodes all routine, for it marks the start of something unending, the start of a unique, unrepeatable human life, the beginning of a new person” (pg. 24)?

In other words, even though you and I had a “normal” birth and live “normal” lives, doesn’t mean we don’t matter. We do.

It also doesn’t mean we aren’t called to something higher. We are.

This uneventful birth ended up being a person who said yes to God, and because of her yes the world was changed. 

Like the Theotokos, we are called to say yes to God as well. He can use everyone of us. And, if we’re willing to say yes, who knows how God will use us, or what will happen.

Who knows, like George Bailey, we may be changing lives without even realizing it. 

Amen.