Mary, Maria, or Maryam in Seattle?

Why pay attention to the claims of a woman who asserts her sexual innocence even as she introduces you to her son? In reconciling the major religious beliefs about Mary, good people may move beyond dogma to being good neighbors.

On Black Friday, Macy’s fireworks, Black Lives Matter demonstrators, and police blockades opened Westlake Center’s holiday season. Such tensions among us call out for wise guidance. This city prospers with diversity and efforts to meet the needs of people, whether labeled greedy or too needy. At St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Karen Armstrong warned us that a compassionate city is an uncomfortable city. Entering the unseen construct known as 2018 we need to heed the claims of humble messengers like the mother of Jesus.

One Buddha sacrificed his princely birth right to become a teacher of meditation and charity. Another famous teacher of love was born in social shame to an immigrant woman. Thousands of messengers like these invited their peoples to serve the Great Unseen Benefactor of all the worlds, claiming ‘you have no other god.' History records the name of some of them.

For all those named Mary or who know someone named Mary I offer this holiday gift- Qur’anic words about the birth of Jesus( peace be upon him). In the 19^th chapter named after the mother of Jesus, Mary or Maryam the Qur’an states: "And the pains of childbirth drove her unto the trunk of a palm-tree. She said, ‘O! Would that I had died before this and had become a thing quite forgotten!’ Then he (an angel of God) called her from beneath her, saying, 'Grieve not. Thy Lord has placed a rivulet below thee; And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree; it will cause fresh ripe dates to fall upon thee. So eat and drink, and cool thy eye. And if thou seest any man, say, ‘I have vowed a fast to the Gracious God; I will therefore not speak this day to any human being.’' Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, ‘O Mary, thou hast brought forth a strange thing. ‘O sister of Aaron, thy father was not a wicked man nor was thy mother an unchaste woman!’ Then she pointed to him."

In Islam Mary presents as a strong woman who chooses self care over despair. She let her actions speak louder than her words, allowing her son to speak to her accusers. Whether her boy fulfills the role of a Messiah in your view or not the book “Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge, and Truth” by Mirza Tahir Ahmad may help your search for peace as America begins tipping away from darkness back towards the sun late in December, 2017.