This is Bishop Scott Mayer’s Christmas message to the Episcopal Church in North Texas.
Watch it below or on YouTube.
The video is close captioned. Or you can read the text of the message below.
We are all Mary
As we have moved through Advent, we have kindled one candle after another to lighten the gloom of the mid-winter world.
Those candles illuminate the approach of Christmas, preparations for which began very early as people hunger for cheer amid the pandemic. Bright lights, decorated trees, and yes, Advent candles ease the shadows of our external world.
But these candles also can shed light on what is happening internally, as we spiritually prepare for the birth of God incarnate. For this is the season of the world’s pregnancy. Meister Eckhart, a medieval mystic and theologian, compared all Christians to Mary, the Mother of God, the God bearer, when he wrote the following:
“We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place in myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten in US.”
The Christmas season is almost upon us, offering us at least 12 days within which to examine, inhabit, and settle into the idea of ourselves as bearers of God. It seems the very definition of hubris to think that at all, which is probably why God chooses to arrive as a baby.
How are we preparing the way of the Christ Child in our inner beings? Have we managed to carve out some quiet spaces and times to contemplate the miracle of God begotten and residing in us?
This Christmas season, let us work to become outward and visible signs of a God who chooses us as God bearers. And then let us show the world the power of love.
Have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.