“Behold!” said Mary.
“Here I am.” “I am God’s servant.” How
many of us have ever wondered what to do in a difficult situation? How often have we wished that God would help
us through the tough situations of life by making the Divine Will just a bit
clearer? Haven’t we all from time to time, wished for a sign? Not necessarily a giant hand coming down out
of the sky pointing out a road we should take. Just a hint—something a bit
definite, something sure and clear.
We all know what it is to struggle
with moral dilemmas, conflicting claims on us, difficult decisions, life crises.
We’ve all wished at times for a bit of precognition—If I choose this path, this
is what will happen. If I choose this other path, then that will happen.
Our late Bishop Duecker used to tell
of having just graduated from college, driving his car to grad school. He had
been accepted at both Law School Law School Columbus Methodist Theological School Ohio
Wouldn’t it be nice if God would
just come right out and tell us which road we should take at such moments?
Wouldn’t it be terrific if God would just come right out and tell us what we’re
supposed to do? And not just in our lives. Sometimes this world we live in
seems to literally chafe and whine for a solid, indisputable word from God.
That’s in part the appeal of simply
taking the Bible and everything in it absolutely literally—the whole kit and
caboodle, every jot and tittle. What a great appeal in having a book that will
guide your every decision, explain every question, solve every problem. All you
have to do is deal with the internal contradictions and conflicting
information, ignore what you don’t like, or understand, or can’t accept.
The problem is that sort of
simplistic use of scripture reduces God’s word to the level of the I Ching, or Tarot cards, or a crystal
ball. The problem is that even when we say we’re taking the Bible literally, we
still inevitably, end up interpreting it.
You’ve heard of the guy who was
faced with a problem and decided to find out what God wanted him to do by
opening the Bible to any page at random and pointing at random to a particular
verse. The first time he tried, he go “And
Judas went out and hanged himself.” The second try he got “Go thou and do likewise.”
No, better not take any chances of misinterpretation.
What we need is something tangible—a physical presence, an audible,
indisputable, instantaneous word from God. A pope, a council of bishops, a
guru, maybe just a philosophy. Then we could be sure. Then we’d be secure in
our choices.
But is absolute clarity what we
really want? The truth is, most of us rebel at God’s word when it comes into
our lives—subtly, indirectly, gently. How would you or I truly react to
a direct announcement from God? We’d most likely be terrified. We’d most likely
not care for the instructions from on high. Then we’d have to choose directly—yea
or nay--for or against God.
If God, after all, is truly God,
then what God announces, God will do. What God says, God accomplishes. And what
God calls us to do , we must do. No buts; no excuses, no hesitations, no deals,
no second chances, no pretending to misunderstand. Put your faith on the line.
Put your life on the line. And do it now.
That’s the dilemma Mary found
herself in when Gabriel came to call. That moment of encounter is the very
embodiment of what you and I both dread and desire with all our hearts.
“Hail
favored one. God is with you.” Gulp.
Luke’s description of Mary’s reaction is one of the great understatements in
the entire Bible. “But she was greatly troubled by this and
wondered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.”
Mary had good reason to be troubled. She was a faithful Jew. Mary would have known
that being favored by the God of Israel wasn’t necessarily a bed of roses.
Those favored by God were a pretty tried and tested and ragged crew—beguiled
Eve, barren Sarah, betrayed and enslaved
Joseph, exiled and swindled and crippled Jacob, leprous Miriam, runaway Jonah,
beleaguered Moses, abandoned Hagar, devastated Job, imprisoned Jeremiah,
deserted Hosea, and clinically depressed Elijah. To be favored by God was in and
is in many ways, to walk a knife edge of obedience, tottering between blessing
and curse, wisdom and folly, even life and death.
As a faithful Jew, Mary knew that to
give yourself in servant-hood to God is to give all. God’s logic is rarely
humanity’s logic. And while God’s Will for each of us is always in our long
term best interest, it rarely is the smoothest or easiest path to walk in the
meantime. No wonder that the second thing Gabriel said to Mary was “Don’t be afraid.”
Mary was right to be afraid. Much
less greatly troubled. Confronted by an archangel of the Most High, on an
errand of unknown purpose and clothed in Divine glory, Mary’s heart must have
stopped for a minute or two. Who knows in advance what the short term cost of
such an irrevocable announcement from God Almighty might be?
Maybe on second thought, we ought
not to envy Mary such a clear-cut, direct address from God. Maybe, like ancient
Ahaz, we might prefer to pray not to see a sign.
But just as it was too late for
Mary, it’s too late for us as well. We have made a commitment to follow. We have heard the Heavenly greeting.
“Hail
faithful ones. Hail favored ones. Our God is with you.”
You and I are here in this sanctuary, in this world,
on a pilgrimage between birth and death, sin and salvation, struggling to find
our own way between human wisdom and divine folly, curse and blessing, joy and
despair. God has already spoken the Divine will to us in the person of Mary’s
son, the only Begotten One, Jesus our Emmanuel, God-with-us.
“Hail
favored ones.” He says to us. “If you love me, feed my sheep.” “tell the
Good News.” “Love one another.” The Heavenly messenger calling us is not
necessarily an angel with golden wings. No you and I hear our call everyday in
the faces and voices of Christ’s sheep—calling out to us to be fed. Fed in
body, fed in spirit, fed in mind and heart.
“The
Spirit of God is upon me, and has anointed me.” Jesus would say in Nazareth
“Hail
favored ones,” You and I have heard
that proclamation of God’s favor to us. If we’re honest, we admit that we
didn’t really need an angel. God’s Will for us is clear enough—all too clear in
the face of the spouse, or a parent, or an adult child we are alienated from;
in the needs of the homeless stranger, the hungry child, the battered wife, the
lost newcomer, the friend in need, the unemployed neighbor, the brother or
sister enslaved to addiction, the oppressed believer in another land, the
fellow church member in thrall to out-of-control emotions, or illness, or
infirmity. We know the need. It’s those darned details we
have
to figure out.
“Behold!”
said Mary after she’d heard what the
Holy One wanted of her. “Here I am. I am
God’s servant. Let it be as you have said for me.” With those words, Mary
becomes the ultimate paradigm of faithful obedience to God’s Will.
It can be a tad risky for Protestant
preachers to say anything too awfully nice about Mary from the pulpit. So
listen instead to what Martin Luther, the first successful Protestant, said
about the Mother of our Lord.
“The virgin birth is a mere
trifle for God. That God should become human is a greater miracle. But most
amazing of all is that this maiden should credit the announcement that she,
rather than some other virgin, had been chosen to be the mother of God….had she
not believed, she could not have conceived. She held fast to the word of the
angel because she had become a new creature. Even so must we be transformed and
renewed in heart from day to day. Otherwise Christ is born in vain. This is the
word of the prophet,
‘ Unto us a child is born. Unto us a
son is given.’ This is for
us the hardest point, not so much to believe that he is the son of the virgin
and of God, as to believe this Son of God is ours. Truly it is marvelous in our
eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all
our blessings should lie in him.”
“Behold!” said Mary. “Here
I am. I am God’s servant. Let it be as you have said for me.
We are washed clean from sin by the
waters of baptism and fed with the bread and wine of his Body and Spirit. We
fill out and change, according to the demands life and our call places upon us. We are nurtured and grow to
meet those demands according to the love and power the Spirit generates within
us. Like Mary, we wonder what the face of this new life is, and what it will be
like at full term. Like Mary, we wonder if we’re strong enough to labor for
God’s Realm in this world. We’re not exactly sure.
But the gestating new life within us
demands our commitment to growth. It will change our habits, perhaps even
disturb or frighten us. It will stretch us, challenge us, transform our very
beings. Yet it is the life God has announced to us. Like Mary, we are favored.
Aware of the mystery and the possible scandal, may we too, offer our whole
selves in worship and praise, saying with full hearts and total commitment.
“Behold.
We are your servants Lord. Let it be for us as you have said.”
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