Knowing Like Mary and Joseph

Advent Week Three:

Our epistemology is completely incomplete. We think we know so much more than we do, and we exclude much of what can be known from what we consider knowable.

Advent’s inherent embodiment, its focus on the incarnation, ought to encourage us that most of knowledge is found in action. The best way of knowing is doing. Jesus was born in large part to show us what it means to be fully human. He modeled the relationship with the Father we were made for. He made it clear that love is obedience. He showed us more than he told us.

His mother models for us, too. She demonstrates courageous trust in the impossible. She shows us submission to something surreal even in the face of scrutiny that would certainly shred my trust if I were to receive such an unbelievable message. And yet she steps forward. She goes to the Judean hills, and Elizabeth praises her for her trust in God’s promises. The story is confirmed. Mary’s knowledge expands.

His earthly father, too, receives a message as dismissable. Joseph must have listened to his dreams before this. How else could he have been so ready to heed the blurry memory of subconscious vision? It would have been so easy to say in waking, “It was only a dream.”

Mary’s yes and Joseph’s trust of his dream were unverifiable and undeniable at the same time. Epistomologies collide. Which is most true? Here’s a rather considerably reworked Petrarchan sonnet to help us consider:

You Know You Know

Oh Mary, won’t they all disown you now?
Why can’t you get beyond your angel tryst?
Could anyone believe what you insist?
Your swollen waist is full of grace somehow?
And Joseph, can a dream deserve your vow?
Maybe and maybe not, and maybe this–
Each hope you’ve ever had can be dismissed,
And hearts behold much more than you allow.
Dark visions, bright-winged angels, yes, and dreams
Give birth to truth, not proof. The belly curved
With faith that opens out to what’s received,
Half hopes that wholly have more than they seem,
And wonder working inward to preserve
Conception of the promise you’ve perceived.

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You can listen to me read it here https://soundcloud.com/benwhitepoetry/you-know-you-know