Luke 1:26-38
21 December, 2014
Two thousand years have passed since Mary heard the words in this week’s gospel reading, and we hear them with very different ears than she did. I try to imagine how an adolescent girl hearing these words in the 21st Century would respond. I imagine it would go something like this:
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
“Umm, we are taught the Almighty has been with us since we were slaves in Egypt. But thank you very much.” [Who is this guy? What does he want from me? How worried should I be?]
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
[Whew! It must be okay.]
“. . . you will conceive a son . . .”
“What??? Wait! I’m a virgin!” [Uh, oh — he could be trouble.]
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you . . . “
[Oh, no, I’m not going there! This is creepy.] “You have to leave or I’ll call my dad.” “Dad!!!”
How would you respond if you were confronted with an angel giving you this message?
What would it take for us today — sophisticated, wary, skeptical — to say “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word”?
And yet every day we are being sent the message that we have found favor in God’s sight — and he has a scary job for us: Feed the hungry. (But there are so many . . .) Clothe the naked. (I take our used clothes to thrift shops!) Care for the sick (Oh, boy, health care politics again.) Visit the prisoners. (Right. Prisons are dangerous places!)
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Trust — perhaps trusting that God will be with us as we do the job he has given us is the hardest, scariest part of following Jesus. But there really isn’t any other Way.
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