Brief synopsis of the readings: In the second book of Samuel we see King David speaking with the prophet Nathan. Having recently assumed his throne and having the Ark of the Covenant (the vessel containing the 2 tablets of the 10 Commandments) David muses that while he lives in a palace, the Ark resides in a tent. Speaking through Nathan, God tells David that it was God who made him king and defeated his enemies and is responsible for all David has. God then promises David fame and will create a place for the Israelites that where they will never be disturbed. And even when David dies God will raise up his descendants and they will rule forever. Luke’s Gospel recounts how the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she had found favor with God. Gabriel then tells Mary that she will conceive a bear a son who will rule the house of Jacob forever. When Mary reminds Gabriel that she cannot conceive as she is a virgin Gabriel tells her that she will conceive by the Holy Spirit for nothing is impossible with God. Mary responds: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Our first reading may strike some as puzzling and readers can be understood choosing to skip this and move on to the Gospel. But let’s look here. We need to give some background on the Ark of the Covenant: as I said in the synopsis this was the tablets on which God had written the 10 Commandments. These tablets were carried while the newly freed slaves made their way in the wilderness to the promised land and the 400 or so years after that. David ended up not building the Temple to house the Ark; it was done by his son Solomon and the tablets were housed in what was called the “Holy of Holies.” Only the High Priest was allowed to enter and only on Yom Kippur.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Ark of the Covenant. Today we have collectors of rare books and first editions but it’s more important than that. Perhaps the closest parallel we have is the original signed Declaration of Independence now housed in the National Archives in Washington D.C. Its value comes not only from the opening words of our nation but also because it was handled and signed by our founders.

In the same way the tablets contain God’s commands. Most of us trace our image of this back to the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments where God, using what appears to be a laser, writes the words onto blank tablets. Regardless of how it happened we all believe the tablets were divinely inspired. Alas we no longer have them. Apologies to Indiana Jones the tablets were probably lost when the Temple was destroyed by Babylonian invaders around 586 BCE.

As Christians we have our own sacred container, a tabernacle. Virtually every church contains a container for the Eucharist. The Eucharist is normally reserved after mass to be brought to the homebound or saved for weeks without a priest. Church law demands that the tabernacle be immovable and securely locked so as to protect the Eucharist.

And that moves us to the Gospel. Many Catholics remind us that when Mary was pregnant with Jesus she was, in fact, the first tabernacle. She was a living Holy of Holies.

If the birth of Jesus speaks to us of the crashing of God into our darkness, seeing Mary as the first tabernacle gives us a foretaste of what is to come. To ordinary eyes Mary looked and acted no different than any other pregnant woman. Though we have no evidence it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Mary experienced the same morning sickness and odd cravings (and I love the image of Joseph scouring Nazareth in the middle of the night for ice cream).

As believers we know that Mary is no ordinary pregnant woman but only because we can see through the eyes of faith. And this allows us to not only see the unborn Jesus as divine but all of us as divine. It allows us to see all life as sacred. We’re all aware of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth. He was born to an unmarried couple who were homeless and (according to Matthew) soon to be political refugees.

Jesus wasn’t born in those circumstances simply so he could have the full human experience. He was born in those circumstances to show us that life, all life, is sacred. No matter who. No matter where. No matter how. Now, 2,000 years after Jesus birth, I’d love nothing more than the ability to say: “Mission Accomplished.” We’ve certainly made progress but we still have a ways to go.

If we believe Jesus’ birth makes our lives sacred it also means it makes the life born out of wedlock sacred. It means a life born out of poverty or desperation is sacred. It means that a person may be homeless but never soulless. Too often we see others (or ourselves) who wish to guard what they have or acquire more of it who see others as nonexistent, or at least less worthy.

Our skin color, our wealth, our orientation or our citizenship status do not make us better or more sacred. As an aside it also doesn’t make us less sacred. And if we are equal in the sight of God we are commanded to see each other as equal in our own eyes. In the landmark movie Lincoln the President quotes the Greek mathematician Euclid: “If two things are equal to a third thing they are equal to each other.” Obviously he was talking about the equality of slaves. Interestingly the idea of people of color being equal isn’t something Lincoln came to easily or quickly. But his faith in God and his faith in Euclid pushed him to that conclusion.

So it needs to be with us. The idea of equality of all people has come to us slowly but it’s only inevitable if we choose to make it so. And if we believe what we say we believe about Jesus we are all the Ark of the Covenant and we are all tabernacles.