I can't remember when I first learned about the Annunciation. I was repeatedly taught or told the story by my family and in Sunday School. I was exposed to famous paintings or religious depictions of Mary and Gabriel every year. The scene was always calm and serene. The angel Gabriel, more often than not, wore wings, Mary was often represented with a halo. An obviously Holy Encounter moment.
I took in the story literally and concretely. Marcus Borg once called this way of assessing how many children process Biblical stories as pre-critical naivete. At some point I moved, as others have, to what Borg called critical thinking. Did Gabriel have wings and did a halo around Mary "make sense"? I started to understand that artists may try to convey a complicated concept in a single image by using or creating common pictorial conventions. I accepted then accepted that more complicated truth.
Moving, with difficulty, into Borg's last stage in the process post-critical conviction I could not picture the Annunciation anymore. There was no image to replace the pre-critical one formed so many years ago. My critical thinking process rejected everything I tried and try to compose to replace that pre-critical naivete image. I don't think I am alone. Filmmakers, trying to show the Annunciation, now have turned to different conventions than wings and halos. They show Gabriel, dressed all in white, as appearing somewhat transparent and often radiating a bright light. They may also depict Gabriel as a regular man without special effects. All this requires believing convention as reality or being left to wonder how Mary recognized Gabriel as an angel.
I compare the Annunciation to my mental understanding of a picture of the atom. In primary school I learned to think of an atom like a solar system where the protons and neutrons were the sun and electrons corresponded to planets. I later learned this is an inaccurate representation Yet I have never seen a more powerful image of that new understanding so I basically default to the old image while knowing it is inaccurate.
This all came to my mind as I listened to the sermon today. Pastor Janell preached about Crystal, an unmarried mother who confided in her mentor Isabelle about the trouble she found herself in. Isabelle told her the Annunciation story and Crystal was comforted by the words. She took from it that God could be in the midst of Crystal's situation while loving and supporing her. "Nothing is impossible for God." meant for Crystal that God would find a way to resolve everything that had gone wrong.
What is "not impossible" for God is another difference in these two stories. Gabriel announces an event that defies how reality is normally perceived, a true miracle beyond normal experience, Isabelle, on the other hand, is giving Crystal hope for a better outcome from a situation than she currently finds herself in. This might be an unexpected outcome but not one that likely promises a supernatural miracle.
What is truly a Holy Encounter? I am left to ponder if we recognize holy encounters as often as they may happen in our lives.
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