I admit it. I succumbed to clickbait.

I was reading a news article online this week and, as I neared the last paragraph, my eye was drawn to a box of  “trending” headlines further down the page. The headline that caught my eye was, of course, surrounded by content served up by an advertising company to drive click-through and generate ad impressions.  So, the headline was typically sensational: Nun says Mary was likely not a virgin.

The article turned out to be from the New York Post over a year ago and concerned a cheerful looking catholic nun in Spain who it was suggested opined that Mary may not have been a virgin. It seemed to her entirely likely that she and Joseph loved each other and therefore where not strangers to one another. This realization did not undermine the sister’s faith. It simply seemed natural to her for the time and place in question and of little consequence.

The outrage was immediate, widespread and menacing. The church apologized for the nun’s comments and offered clarifications, and the nun then apologized to anyone who might have been offended. No one apologized to me for representing that a headline that was over a year old was identified as “trending.”

AND, this is why as lay readers we don’t’ concern ourselves with interpretation. Clergy can do that. We can only and quickly get into trouble. If a nun can get into trouble, just think of what might happen to us!

When scripture readings are used as the launch-point for the sermon, it’s not atypical for the minister or priest to first recount in their sermon the events of the story just read by the lay reader and then embellish the narrative. This is usually done in one of two ways.

1. Historical context. This is an attempt to punctuate actions or behaviors by according them historical precedent. An offering of water to drink is often preceded by “As was the custom at the time…” Historical context is meant to explain why someone is doing what they are doing, and to attribute thoughts to them that are not mentioned in the text: “He would have thought that it was strange…” We don’t know if any of this is true.

2. Historical fiction. This is an attempt to “fill out” the story using modern literary technique. Presumably this script doctoring is meant to make the story more vivid or dramatic for modern audiences: “It was a hot day, the apostles were tired and were likely quarreling among themselves…”  (I’ve always been interested by how few descriptive passages and even adjectives are employed in the Bible. We don’t’ get passage like, “The towering trunks of the palms by the cool blue waters of the oasis, bent gracefully in the gentle evening breeze. The camel tails switched, sending flies buzzing in search of safer places to alight. Lamps appeared behind darkened tent walls like lone stars popping into focus in the night sky…” I think that is by design. It’s all irrelevant.)

The nun was, I think, guilty of a strange combination of both fictionalizing and contextualizing.

I’m always wary of these kinds of clarifications and “improvements” to scripture, even when offered by pastors, priests, ministers and anyone else given a voice of authority. It’s all conjecture and, I think, obscures the purpose of scripture reading. Rather than illuminating scripture, it dilutes and reduces the power of the language. It attempts to normalize something that is anything but normal.

Let it go.

We don’t need it.

The reading illuminates the experience of those encountering the divine and divine purpose. It’s not about historical detail. Mary’s declaration, “I am the handmaiden of the Lord” is the ultimate expression of an overwhelming experience and flush of emotion that transcends all time, space and historical context or detail. It is not a legal or medical condition. There is no prior human experience that can prepare a young woman of any age, of any circumstance, at any time in history for this encounter with the divine.

It’s not up to us as readers to explain any of this. It’s only up to us to invite listeners to hear and convey to them – through the words given to us – even the faintest glimmer of what Mary is experiencing. Right here. Right now. What does it feel like to surrender yourself willingly to something which is almost beyond comprehension?

Don’t succumb to temptation. It’s not fan fiction we want. Hear the Gospel.