Microchimerism--again

In our Thursday Bible Study today at UALC, we are in chapter 7 of the Gospel of John. 

(NRSV)  7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish[a] to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. 2 Now the Jewish festival of Booths[b] was near. 3 So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; 4 for no one who wants[c] to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ 5 (For not even his brothers believed in him.) 6 Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. 8 Go to the festival yourselves. I am not[d] going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.’ 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were[e] in secret.

There were the usual comments (in a Protestant study) about Jesus' brothers being half brothers. Now the reason I say Protestant is that most of the Christian world believes Mary had no more children after Jesus and remained a virgin. Tradition holds that these are Joseph's sons from a previous marriage, or refers to a clan culture where close relatives (cousins) are called brothers or sisters,

I'd like to propose that God knew best. Our Creator God knows culture and he knows biology. If Jesus had half brothers and yet was the Messiah who was killed, there would be great demands placed on his brothers to take his place (particularly from those followers who didn't believe in the Resurrection). That would have been common in that culture. It still is today.

 But God also designed microchimerism--the passing of fetal cells between a pregnant woman and her babies.  Most of the studies in the last century have involved male offspring. Children leave behind their fetal cells in their mothers. There is strong biological evidence that these cells (particularly males) protect the mother for the rest of her life.  And those fetal cells can also appear in the bloodstreams of the woman's future children. Because of microchimerism there may also be the grandmother's cells passed to the children which the mother got from her mother.  Do you suppose God didn't have a plan to have only Jesus and not other men have Mary's cells in their blood stream?

Maternal Microchimerism: How A Mother's Cells Stay In Her Child Forever

Microchimerism: Lifelong Biological Connections Impacting Everyone

Abortion amendment to the Ohio Constitution should have been on every church's sermon list.

The Bible has several verses that mention the fruit of the womb. It's shocking the number of churches/pastors/Sunday schools that couldn't find a single Sunday or sermon to address "fruit of the womb" as a theme, topic, or even a footnote. Here are a few:

Sarah (Genesis 21:1): Sarah had a child when she was past the age; this means that she is post-menopause but our God can bypass menopause and do the impossible

Hannah (1 Samuel 1:20): Hannah also waited on the Lord before Samuel was born. She cried to the Lord year after year in Shiloh.

Racheal (Genesis 30:22): Racheal was loved by her husband Jacob, but she was barren. Her sister, Leah, who is also married to her husband, had children freely.

Elizabeth (Luke 1:36): Elizabeth and her husband were devout and blameless before God but they were barren. Elizabeth was now old but they continued in their devotion and duty to God.

Psalms 127:3-5: "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward".

Psalm 127:3: "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward".

Luke 1:42: "And she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”.

Exodus 1:7: "And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them".

Deuteronomy 7:13A, 144.
These verses highlight the importance and blessing of children, often referred to as the “fruit of the womb”. They also emphasize the power of God to bless individuals with children, even in circumstances that seem impossible.

This list was created by Bing Chat--and it didn't even go to seminary!

And then there's that cute little story in the Gospel of Luke about a young girl whose body gave us Jesus.  But never mind.

Was Mary the ghost writer of the Gospel of Luke?

 Our senior Bible Study has been looking at the 4 gospels and the birth story of Jesus Christ.  Yesterday it was Luke, then a worship service, followed by a nice lunch.  I asked our pastor if Luke had interviewed Mary to get all the details about the birth story.  There were a lot of intimate details not usually known to anyone but the mother.  He conceded that some Bible experts think Luke may have talked to her.  Here's my response (not in class, but privately).

"About Luke interviewing Mary. I think she is the source, or ghost writer, for Luke, as Paul was the source for Acts. Luke says he's a good researcher, he hadn't met Jesus, he's the only New Testament writer who wasn't a Jew, and the "experts" say his Greek was the best of the New Testament. The role of the Holy Spirit was to choose him, I think. But as a woman who has given birth and raised children, I see details in the story no one knew except Mary. Today I grilled my husband on a few details about our oldest son, Stanley (b. 1961 d. 1963). I asked him if he remembered the name of the clinic where he was born. No. Did he remember what surgery he needed before we could bring him home. No. Did he remember how and where our mothers slept while staying at our tiny apartment when they came (separately) to help us the first week or two. No. Did he remember how the diapers were washed. No. Did he remember what floor of the apartment building we lived on. No. Did he remember the bouquet of flowers he brought me in the hospital. No. He did remember the birth announcement because he designed it. So mothers remember a lot of details that the fathers never think about, and wouldn't mention to anyone unless asked. I think Luke includes the details about the women, not just to include them as the wider church, but because Mary noticed--Elizabeth her cousin and the baby John jumping in her womb, the wedding miracle, the woman at the well, the widow of Nain, Martha and Mary, the woman who anoints his feet, and the women at the tomb. We know women were among the followers, and Mary was with them. Who else is going to tell Luke these stories? Paul wasn't there. Mary was very young when Jesus was born; many other followers would have been deceased by the time the gospels were written 50-60 years later. And of course, your commentaries from seminary days didn't say much--all were written by men, and you don't know what you don't know and you don't investigate what has never occurred to you. Just yesterday, I learned that mice can't vomit. I was a veterinary medicine librarian for 14 years, knew a lot about lab animals but didn't know mice can't vomit (and I also know more than most people about pig poop). And it had never occurred to me that they couldn't, so I never asked, wondered, or speculated about it.

Mary, “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Our son died 60 years ago, and I still have little treasures I ponder. Mary remembered and blessed us all with this beautiful story recorded by Luke."

Mary’s Yes

I was listening to Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth; the infancy narratives" (2012, Random House) this morning and he noted St. Bernard's homily about Mary's Yes. So I just had to look it up, first in my books on spirituality of the middle ages, and then on the internet. Although his personality was a bit prickly, his writings are wonderful.

"The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life."

https://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/heart_mary/annunciation_mary_fiat_st_bernard.htm

He also cited another idea, which I haven’t tracked down (I’d have to replay that part) that Mary conceived Jesus not through the womb, but through her ear (hearing the Word). I did find this citation. 'Through her ear the Word entered and dwelt secretly in the womb' (attributed to Ephrem, H. Mary 11.6). Something else interesting to look up.

The perpetual virginity of Mary

Two years ago I was in a Beth Moore Bible study with some former Catholics (now Lutherans) who were very puzzled to hear that Jesus had brothers, which they had never heard in Catholic school or attending Mass for decades.  And I was equally puzzled by the idea of the perpetual virginity of Mary, which I didn't know about. But as it turns out Luther, Calvin, Wesley and Zwingli also believed in the traditional church teaching on Mary. Who knew?

 http://aleteia.org/2013/10/10/a-protestant-defense-of-marys-perpetual-virginity/?