A poem from Kaitlin Hardy Shetler
“Sometimes I wonder
if Mary breastfed Jesus.
if she cried out when he bit her
or if she sobbed when he would not latch.
and sometimes I wonder
if this is all too vulgar
to ask in a church
full of men
without milk stains on their shirts
or coconut oil on their breasts
preaching from pulpits off limits to the Mother of God.
but then i think of feeding Jesus,
birthing Jesus,
the expulsion of blood
and smell of sweat,
the salt of a mother’s tears
onto the soft head of the Salt of the Earth,
feeling lonely
and tired
hungry
annoyed
overwhelmed
loving
and i think,
if the vulgarity of birth is not
honestly preached
by men who carry power but not burden,
who carry privilege but not labor,
who carry authority but not submission,
then it should not be preached at all.
because the real scandal of the Birth of God
lies in the cracked nipples of a
14 year old
and not in the sermons of ministers
who say women
are too delicate
to lead.''
Earlier this week I was scrolling through Facebook and I discovered this poem. The words caught me off guard as I was not prepared to dwell in meaningful thought before bed, rather, I was mentally prepared for memes before nodding off to sleep. Nonetheless, I was stopped in my tracks.
The entrance of God into our world was not simply human, as God became man. God’s entrance was enveloped in the feminine, as the Mother of God screamed in labor and almost broke Joseph’s hand with her tight grip - and when Mary held Christ in her bosom and rocked him to sleep - and when she cried out because he bit her, or sobbed because he would not latch.
The mothering of Christ has been a fascination. An entire song, Mary Did You Know?, plays into the importance of Mary and in a few lines the song captures her motherhood, “This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you,” “When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God.” Yet, despite acknowledging Christ’s entrance being feminine as he was birthed into our world, and the reality of motherhood being present in the gospel, we often do not give credence to womanhood in Scripture, nor do we allow such mothering to impact our understanding of God.
The creator of Heaven and Earth creates through women in a way men cannot claim, and it certainly isn’t “dirty,” rather the sacredness of birth is front and center in the Nativity Story. Pregnancy, birthing, and mothering give us a glimpse of our God, as it is seen by Gabriel’s message to Mary in the first chapter of Luke, “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 holy; he will be called Son of God.” There is God in womanhood.
Your sibling in Christ,
Alec Brock (he/him/his)
Seminary Intern