“Ty trode oH™

Bpeedk wrris joke - C&O, Good swede, artet

\Ne = C20 Wer Vict ». Meow - low trusted y Aidur ihe Feb
AO f G£o4 S Urke- Aw retire

MA ICRA -

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WK wa pesce sp for Nye. peaetebnn

Sob Youre om Your own —

~ OK- Yor YAR 9 _ OFT OAT

John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
Luke 4:26-34

“And the angel came to her and said, ‘Hail, O favored
one, the Lord is with your™ —Luke 1:28 (RSV)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a

delightful b some children and their
Sunday Schcolt Christmas pageant and it is about the

Herdnans, who the author describes as Gene
absolutely worst kids in the history of the wortd.
fe
They ljed, and stole and smoed cigars, (even the
girls} and talked dirty and hit little kids and
_—y

cussed their teachers and took the name of the Lard
in vain.") [Barbara Robinson, p. 4]

The horrible Herdmans have decided to be in
the Christmas pageant, but they don’t even know the

el

Christmas story. \» at the first renearsal the

1

lexs director decides to begin by reading to the
children from the nativity story in the Bible. |r
narrator 1s a youngster - whose mother is the
Christmas pageant director,

Mother read, “Joseph and Mary, his espoused
wife, being great with child..."
Defy UA “Pregnant!” yelled Ratph Herdman.

Well, that stirred things up. A? the big
kids began to giggle and all the little kids wanted
to know what was so funny; and Mother had to hanmer
on the ficor with a blackboard pointer. "That's
enough, Ralph,” she said, and went on with the
story.

"T don't think it's very nice to say Mary was
: pregnant,” Alice whispered to me.
"But she was,” I pointed out. Ina way,
though. I agreed with her. it sounded too
rdinary. Anybody could be pregnant. “Great with
child,” sounded better for Mary.
"T'm not supposed to talk about people being

pregnant.” Alice folded her hands in her Jap and

pinched her lips together. "I'd better tell] my
mother.”

“Tell her what?"

“That your mother is talking about things
Tike that in church. My mather might not want me
to be here.”

I was pretty sure she would do it. Her
Inother, Mrs. Wendleken, didn't even want cats to
have kittens or birds to lay eggs, and she wouldn't
Tet Alice play with anybody who had two rabbits.
Mary was pregnant! Mary had a baby.

But there wasn't much I could do about it,
except pinch Alice, which I did. She yelped, ane
Mother separated us and made me sit beside Imogene
Herdman and sent Alice to sit in the middle of the
baby angels.” flbid., p. A 42]

Mary was pregnant! Mary had a Daby. \ Try: as

we might, we can't deny it, ide. jt - or even

laine

disguise it she may be a stranger to us, but she
ee

aoe

was undeniably pregnant.
re Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with

a)

thee. \ iessad act thou among wonen,| and blessed is
the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. \ Holy Mary, mother of
God, |pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our

G death. Amen.”
Th is sek 85 Every Roma catbe lic knows that prayer

clic - Gesgoust a intimately. \ rt is/has been prayed more frequently

ek Qu qa
pos 4 by 3 than any other prayer with the exception of the
4
Lord's praver.|F jis not prayed by Protestants.
eS eo oa

Arama: wow As a matter of fact, other than_playing a

~ Wants * supporting role in our nativity tableaux and Sunday p \ +e a
TT. \do4\ - School pageants,\Mary is yiptualiv ignored in relent
co ee" rane a SN
WN Prote iety,\ theology, w ip, and sermons. /
ws ; stant piety,\ ogy, worship, and s a me Wy
tel Protestant , ems with the e
— its have two prob ith the whol Wale aw
. ¢ \e
The first is that around this topic there are i Laat :
and have been significant differences between wk
LAsert m Dros: bef
ey Protestantism and catholicism. | t the time of the a "Sec — oie
pn Var ¥ Reformation, Luther and his followers swept away ee wee cunt?
SSNS —=u. Pie eple —
: as fate jes of accumulated tradition about the Sra me
A, We °
. war veneration of_the Saints-/Mary was_a casualty of ; ae.
we - that process. \Wluther himself said some nice things ” gS “a .
ye ya — — — 3. eet ew
. ange cure
core) Wr. 4 amar”

we 4 Sg -, fried iso wes Sue of
Pa Le Ce eae Sante he fe Lode

oa

hand Rye
peed No.

ae
ZS

Tae

cst -

d{

about her, but im liturgy and Protestant practice
and theology, she virtually disappeared. || and, as
happens frequently in history,\action stimulates

reaction: | tne more vigorously Protestants

dissented about the topic, the more vigorously the
Roman church advocatect it.C9

Now, if you are a visiting Roman Catholic,

mnie
excuse uS while we catch up on a topic which is
———am, Re i a ‘x clu L sda
familiar to you... | In the middle of the 19th ol.
aah oy i .

Century the church declared the doctrine of the

Immaculate Concept ion,| that Mary, like Jesus, had
\peow~

beeame conceived immaculately, without sin\ A

century jater, 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed, with

full Papal 4 infallibility, the Bodily Assumption of
Mary into heaven//In Protestantism, the criterion

a,

for the truth of a doctrine is the Bible. | tat's_ Jc eniz2hb, ss

what makes us Protestant, in a sense. omen
Catholicism uses as a criteria for truth, Scripture

but also the church -\its traditions, councils and
tee

now, the_Pape when i speaks "ex-cathedra." | we
= yet

play by different rules here. 7
en
a

be 7
weet cous:

iy a
sary z :
pra4—

The point is that Catholics Kave seamed mast

Catholic around the topic of Mary. | anc so ~ we

Sse TT Tay =e

have become most Protestant by ignoring her, which
ee | a

is too bad.

al
The second problem comes from within our own
ee

ramity.\ The Virgin Birth itself has become a

ee |

litmus test of orthodoxy for many Protestants.\ In

the early part of this century, in reaction to what
Ril

Pe

seemed Tike a wave of easy liberalism, a series of

a

books appeared which set out to define the
(‘Sundanentats of the Christian Eaith.") Among those

ES ee, Ce
“fundamentals” were the "Innerancy of scripture,

—

and the Virgin Birth." | The term "Fundamentalist"

was first used to describe the partisans of this

approach.\ One of the unfortunate products was that

Mary's virginity became far more important than
it is in the pibte.\ It became a test eeem, Vr you

believed it - you were a Christian. \ If you had

trouble with it - you were not.
The Bible is less than definitive on the
EE,

topic. \ The Old Testament passage in Isaiah 7 which

6

=) is cited as a prophetic proof text is unclear.
Ee Sena

"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”

Lalit The original Hebrew reao(s young womarrShall i. oF —

- piraxs
Kia vee wn conceive.") somehow, when Hebrew got translated = :
Qs wit into Greek, "young woman" became “virgin.” cos)

In the New Testament, not much is made of the

He? 1 yon we
Lb b- topic. Mark and John do not mention it.| It
“Ter —|_—_—
Wr by . appears that Raul never heard of it} At least, the
\. ’
be MWnre vAr2 New Testament does not hold it up as a test of
pee |
yt faith. fet
- . i \c?
Zep Wet What gets lost in all of that is the power MSS ett:
a \
_ . ceaco
atl 4 a Mary nad maintained across the centuries. | she has Viwalas
Gc > Tu inspired some of the most_sublime art in all of a
Gs ra history. \ It is impossible not to contemplate the Barter
* — we
Pieta, a replica which stands in St. Patrick's jin ‘a
— Sc Sh Back

New York, without being deeply and profoundly
moved. \ Shrines to the Blessed Virgin continue to
eee ee
be very poputar. \\ Furthermore, the piety is often
politically revolutionary. | Our Lady of Guadalupe
Se

is a partisan of the poor_and oppressed. | And

Polish officials know that the annual pilerimage to
=, (eee

the Shrine of the Black Macionna is overtly

ea |

nationalistic and patriotic and therefore
potential ly viglent: | Potish officials watch it
very carefully.

On the other hancL sven logists have pointed

out that all of the church doctrine about Mary came

from the hearts and minds of celibate men who, at

Jeast in the Middle Ages, were committed to the
ma ee ae

notion that sex was evil. (In a particularly good
wl == MSS
book, from a feminist perspective, Alone Of All Her

Sex, the author, Maria Warner, observes that] “men
=

eee

who denied themselves women needed a woman on whom

Ee —_— ros

to pour out_love, while women, suffering beneath a
social system which denigrated womanhood, needed a
woman's compassion to ease their pain.”

"He Ma eb OCay? Presbyterian Robert
MaAfee Brown suggests that Catholics anc

Protestants - particularly Protestants, ought to

a,

recover somethi of the Bi e\ We_may

not want to call her Queen of Heaven, or Mother of
ed

——

God, but she was, after all, the Mother of Jesus.
| ee

beck —
L
Ve Nek BM ye

36. - ©

wy

a & warcdy

WIE c szfe
fastoern “>

Gur ested Wr Biblia tes

ae friends se ermuter OW venti —any rvTeN

Regardless of whatever else you believe about her,

——s

or cannot believe about her, she carried him in her
body. |\she gave him Tife. \ She fed, bathed,

ee [——_—
nurtured, sang to, laughed with - Jesus. "0 thou “P59

who held the world in thy embrace, I dandled thee,"

——

Madeleine L'Engle has Mary say... | she deserves our

attention.\ She is our Tink with something very
‘Sieecacmanist ee |

important in the whole story\ Wi thaut, Mary, our

faith is inclined to become too ethereal, too
philosophic, toa unearth, | (Mary, Ralph Herdman

reminds us, wi r ti). She is a link between

this story_and our humanity.

same el

When we pursue the Mary of the Bible, what we
find is the fir isc re. | Think of it... A
beeen |
teen-ager", probably early teens, engaged to a

carpenter, \\suddenly and mysteriously pregnant,
a

bearing that shame, \somehow managing. to keep the

—— iS,

obligation to Joseph det ver ing her child in the

middle of an arduous journey, im a barn, dark,
eS, \ acne —— |

smelly, cold. \\nnink of her faith through all of
Peto ae See

that A the far feta ...\ Frederick Buechner

3

has a wonderful picture...

[ struck the angel Gabriel as hardly
old enough to have a child at all, Jet alone this
child, but he'd been entrusted with a message to
give her, and he gave it. )

"He told her what the child was to be named,

and who he was to be, and something about the

mystery that was to come upon her. ‘You mustn't be
afraid, Mary,' he said.

"As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn't
notice that beneath the great, golden win gs he
himself was trembling with fear to think that the
whole future of creation hung now on the answer of
a airt] (Luke 1:26-35) [Frederick Buechner,
Peculiar Treasures, A Biblical Who's Who, p. 39]

Think of her Tater: \ Joseph is dead, and her

meee

strong carpenter son who was her support, walks

away from that Nazapeth home to do what? -\ to
preach and teach and heal throughout Galilee. \ She

fm

never unders stood t that very wel. \ she keeps

appearing on the edges of the story, gently trying
eR re TT 5 eet

10

3 Coe

to remind him of something, perhaps simply to tel]
ee

him that she is there, that she will always be
eS ST

there for him, and that there will always be a home

for him in Nazareth if he ever comes to his senses”.

Think of her, following her son for three years.

Think of her, this mother - now perhaps in her

Be

middle or late 40's + at the cross, as her son
(De ae Ba

ee mT,

dies, humiliated, abandoned by all, alone, life d M, ¢

ebbing out of him...\ She is there with him, and ree p
—_ ae rem et Oe

for nity How much poorer our faith is without ? r 1

oy

those images. \ Protestant thinkging does not ‘include

pleading with Mary to “pray for us at the hour of

Stes: Ta

our death" as the Hail Mary prayer reauires.\ But

that is a very powerful image and it is a very
suggestive idea of a divine love which js real -

particularly in the hour of our death.

I will never forget the day in July of 1944
rch TY
when we learned that my uncle Jack had been killed

in Saipan. I was only six. \My grandmother was

=a

inconsolable. \ I had never witnessed grief like
eg ae

tae,

tet) upset me and I asked my mother about it.

a Oh

11

I still remember her telling nel "i the worst

Fea aeiiaiell

thing that can happen. \ It's worse than dying ~ to

have one of your children die.”

Hail Mary. Blessed art thou among women.
A eS es sr tte) 9

And the Mary of the Bible is a dreamer, a
=e,

visionary, a revolutionary. \ When she and
i,

Ey —-

Elizabeth get together they talk about the meaning

of their pregnancies and Mary connects the coming

eae ee aed

of the Messiah, her baby, with a new world, a new

mnie titan

order of things. \sne is the first_Christian

activist.\ Her Magnificat is a revolutionary song

——a al
about a new kind of society. It is more (gta

comfortable in Latin, obviously, because Mary sings Luther

about the powerful being scattered and the poor as perce es 7
—_———
; ? i aig ca aes . —
elevated, the hungry fed and the rich sent away le sul ait
empty. What Mary does," Robert McAfee Brown S. pee
points out, ("is put the mandate for radical change Pec -cobbede”
centrally within the Christian story,{) (Christian M sou’

Century, 6/3-10/87]
And so, if Christian social activism makes

yOu nervous, \and if you find yourself thinking that

—EV7~

1?

&

the Gospel is not related to issues of Justice and

peace and hunger... If you don't want to have

Serene.

connections made between your assertion that God's

ls iiaial

Kingdom is now in our midst and the fact that there

are homeless and hungry people walking the streets
Se, epee

ooo

of this city in greater numbers than ever - you are
SSS Sy

going to have to make your case with Jesus’ mother,
Cea

who believes her son has to do precisely with a new
ee | tte i

orcer, |

Fail

will peceive justice.
tee a
When we recover the Mary of the Bible we find
the first Christian disciple and the first social
RR ES Te gio

activist. We also gain a theo log ica Laps ight.
which I believe is at the critical heart of the

natter.| When we recover Mary we gain the awareness

that Jesus was born - just as you and I were born,

just as babies are being born this very minute at

a new word al which the poor and the rich

Cook County Hospital, \ in ghettoes, | villages,

clinics \ huts all over the worid.\ It was the same
ana Bese: oa

for him; \and that undramatic insight, I submit, is

es

one of the most_impopiant and one of the most

13

gloriously good pieces of news there jis.
ae eee
We are ‘inclined to cisembody Christ and
separate him from our own humanness. \ We are
gee me Catal
inclined to believe that the physical world is not
—— i

a good place to pal that this_tangible, sensual

world is a tempting and suspicious and dub‘ious

place, and that our calling is to keep it at arm's

Jength. PTeft to our own theological devices, we

are very much tempted to conjure up a Christ who

descended full-grown from heaven in an ethereal

——

Fa aseaiaeiaiilie!

white robe, |nho levitated over the dusty roads of

Palestine in order not to get his feet dirty, jam .+ -

Seo

Weems an Eastern holy man, blissfully innocent of

the flesh and the body. (cx owzese Wi Eee Teopt -

Mary is the corrective.\ Shenwas.pregnant.
a A

Jesus was born.
ed
That's what the Apostles' Creed intends to
celebrate in the phrase, “conceived by the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary."/ What the early
church was celebrating was the fact_that_he was
eee

conceived: \and that he was born - Jike everyone
Ces (Oi ie re.

14

WaUMWAd iv

else. | The theological and emotional accent is on
Soy ies oe
the word — "conceived," and the w “born.”
That's the miracle.
Our Jewish forbears knew that life is God's
moe im
gift; Jena God's breath - and God's spirit are what
animates us. \ That is the beauty of the Genesis
valiant iieanneninapencnanmemmmenaasiniil
creation story. | They knew what caused conception.
They didn't understand why some occasions of sexual
SS Se ey =
intimacy resulted in pregnancy and some did not.
But they knew that when tife occurred there was a
sense in which it is alwaysf "conceived by the Holy

Eas

Ghost."
A TOE Oe el ciated expressed it:
“There are three partners in the production
alia)
of any human being - the Holy One, blessed be He,
the father and the mother."
The friragle occurs every time life begins.
That is the miracle we celebrate.\| God_gbooses
human ife\, God chooses that most human, worldly
— ee |
and earthy function - human birth - as the way to
tat Se =m

send a son among us.

eer

15

The fundamental miracle is not 4 Virgin
Birth. \ Madeleine L'Engle suggests] “far more min os

boggling (is) the Power of Al] Creation stooping so
low as to become one us us."{ [CA Stone for a
Pillow, p. 107,108)

Mary is the ope person. in this drama of
Christian faith who eS alle NS WOE leis

~cucstonell When we start believing that religion
oot

ought to be delivering us from this world, Mary
me

reminds us that she bore God's son in her womb and
oes | eS ag

gave him birth.
Mary is a reminder that the cr
that God is still creating, that every human birth
ad

is a conception by God's spirit and therefore full

of enormous promise and potential.
| it
Mary is a reminder that the Sqyjonof the
world was a chi ldopceand lived in a family, and
i meatal

in that family learned about hig_own humanity.
Mary is a reminder thaietihbiteiatidhie 1S iN
Jesus, \wha once Jaughed ground a family dinner

table and played with friends and learned to love

We rt “

16

the world by living in it\and on occasion being
LD Mie a

overwhelmed by it - just as it is for you and me.

ee |

——
Mary is a reminder that Our Lord learned
about enormous potential and the wonderful healing

power of human Jove, and how it overcomes the fears
\——————— ee

and anxieties of childhood and adolescence ~- in
relationship with his_own mother.

Macy, ~ bgg,tim, toyed _hyim,|nugtured him,
corrected him, \laughed with him.

Mary stayed wi th him and somehow watched him
die and in a very real way gave him to you and me.

My deeply “ingrained Protestantism won't quite
alow me to ask her to pray for me at the hour of

death, \ but T know what it means \ and T am grateful

for the reminder @f the profound love of God to his
r2
which it bears eloquent witness. _ vene =—

sai

And I have no qualms about aft: rmingher and lu, ee
So

ey
(arking her for her son and I invite you to salute
ee |

her...

17

Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with .

blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Amen.

18

wis,
d~ LADIES THEOLOGY

a

&
OF PARK RIDGE

7417 W. Howard St.
Chicago, Il. 60648
April 23, 1988

Rev. John Buchanan

Fourth Presbyterian Church
126 E. Chestnut

Chicago, Il. 60611

Dear Rev, Buchanan:

Thank you for agreeing to participate in our Fall 1988 series.
We are confirming the date of Wednesday, November 30 for you
presentation as per your conversation with Linda Korn.

We meet at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Prospect and Cedar Streets
in Park Ridge, beginning at 9:15 a.m. and ending about 11:30 a.m.
Our usual format is a 45-50 minute presentation from the speaker
followed by a 15-20 minute discussion and concluding with a
question and answer session with the group-at-large. Any
suggestion for our table discusssion in the form of a question

or a statement from you will prove helpful that day. If you
prefer a change in this suggested format, please let me know.

Enclosed is a list of the names and dates of the speakers for

the entire series, directions to St. Luke's Church and a history

of our group. There will be a "reserved" parking place for you

in front of the Church. May we kindly request that you send us

the exact title of your talk, a brief description of the talk and

a curriculum vitae by May 15th. Our group does not meet during

the summer and we need these items now to complete our publicity
for the series. A return envelope is enclosed for your convenience,

Our usual honorarium of $125 is granted to our speakers for each
talk and we trust that it will be satisfactory. We thank you for
sharing in our program and look forward to hearing you in November.

Sincerely,

ae

Al tr Hip lde
Bc pen ad
Coordinator

Phone: 763-4611

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today

LADIES THEOLOGY

OF PARK RIDGE

1988 Fall Series
"Strengthening Our Gift of Faith"

September 14, 1988
Ms. Suzy Yehl
Subject: Rainbows for All God's Children--children of divorce

September 28, 1988
Bishop William MeManus
Subject: Stewardship

October 12, 1988
Ms, Edwina Gately
Subject: Rediscovering and Reclaiming the Feminine Soul

October 26, 1988
Rev. dames Halstead 0.5.A,
Subject: TBA

November 9, 1988
Rev. Robert Barron
Subject: Farables as subversive

November 30, 1988

Rev, John Buchanan
subject: A Frotestamt view of Mary

All the flowers of aff the tomorrows are in the seeds of today

OF PARK RIDGE

HISTORY

Ladies Thealogy of Park Ridge (LTPR) sponsors ecumenical, theology~based
tecture/discussion series, with twelve sessfons offered each year--six each
spring and fall. Since tts inception in 1966, LTPR has remained true to
the goals of its founder, Mary Jule Durkin, who wanted to share the content
of her graduate-level theology studies with other women in her Park Ridge
parish, Mary, Seat of Wisdom. speakers with expertise in the study of
religious faith, practice and experience were invited to address women from
the parish community who would meet ina convenient location on a regular

basis. To encourage young mothers to attend, baby-sitting service was
provided,

The format followed today is an outgrowth of the original plan and includes
a speaker presentation approximately one hour in Tength, 20-30 minutes of
small group table discussion, with a speaker-perticipants question and
answer wrap-up. Attendance has grown from an original group of 30 to
100-150 women and men representative of the various church groups in Park
Ridge and surrounding communities,

A Steering Committee of approximately 20 women with diverse religious back-
grounds organizes the series, engages speakers, Suggests topics, and conducts

_ the meetings. Attendees pay a modest registration fee to cover meeting costs
and speaker honorariums. Members of the Steering Committee serve as discussion
leaders for assigned table groups.

Nine women's theology groups now function in the Chicagoland area. All joined
with LTPR in celebrating the latter's 15th anniversary in September, 1981.
Five hundred participants gathered for the joint "Day of Christian Renewal,"

Rey. John Cusick, LTPR advisor since 1974, explains the spirit and purpose
of the durable movement: "It is a constant source of idea exchange--a forum
where theology and all types ‘of presentations on human experience and daily
living are given flesh. It works for its speakers who see people excited
about their faith and wanting to know more and be more. It works for Its
participants. They listen. They speak. They absorb. They give it away.
The women of Ladies Theology are alive with the faith, and giving it away

to others makes God win out again."

All the flowers of afl the tormorrows are in the seeds of toclay

DIRECTIONS TO Sv, (UKE’s LUTHERAN CHURCH, Prospect and Cedar Streets, Park Ridge, f1.

YiA Kennedy Expresaway ~ Yale Kennedy North to CunberJand Rorth Exit, fale Cuber land
Horth to Touhy Avenue 17200 North - approximately 1% ai les)
Turn right or East on Toulty - go under viaduct and up to

' gin~cormer interoectian of Touhy, Prospect, end Northwast Hy.
(Citizens Bank Is on center point of intersection.) Turn —
jeft or Horth onto Prospect and continue one block to St. Lukes.

MEMORANDUM

~ Fake Touhy Avenue af! the way Wast to downtown Park Ridge. *

Fourth Presbyterian Church

To

From

Re: .

Kl, Lue s Lotro Ler Bdge

Kennedy, _— off a*

Cy wine ond —

Nore tt you hy (7° *)
le Ft CN) m Prospect -

pee \plect s

Lin de Korn

pe ee A SP ORS TE PURE 0 WRT So cree ties

ue one block to Cedar.

cit ~ go off ramp ‘at
viaduct about:

miles south to. Horthie:
ve sbout 2 miles to cente
ing Bank intersection ma
one bieck North to Ce

AST exit. Turn down ren
; 2 miles to downtown Par
Prospect, end Hor!