Advent 4

Preparation

Please begin by reading Luke 1:26-38 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--“Here am I, the Servant of the Lord”

The natural tendency is to think of someone receiving God’s blessing in terms of gaining wealth, finding the right life partner or the perfect new job, or similar improvements in the circumstances of life. What strange favors God has granted Mary from a purely objective standpoint.  Her life has suddenly, and unexpectedly, been shifted in a totally new direction in ways that were sure to bring her pain.  It has just been announced to her that she will become an unwed mother in a culture where that was more than a scandal.  It could have meant her death by stoning.  (See Deuteronomy 22:23-24.)  She would be obligated to live out what her contemporaries likely thought of as the “shame” of this pregnancy in the fish-bowl existence of a small rural village.  The son she was to bare would grow up to be publicly executed as a criminal while still a young man.  (It is interesting to note that one of the Hebrew root words for her name, marah,  means “bitter” or “grieved.”)  And yet Mary, despite her tender years, accepts this shift in her existence with a remarkable pronouncement: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."  What courage and faith!

 Each Christmas season seems to bring unlikely gifts from God that shine in the heart for years to come.  Often, for me, they take the form of new revelations about how different God’s ways are from our own and how, again and again, God’s light breaks through in the most unexpected places, at the most unexpected times, and in the most unexpected ways. 

Years ago, it came through spending Christmas Eve in Bethlehem on a night set with irreverent, jostling crowds; noise; chaos; and signs of the political conflict in the land.  And yet God broke through it all in an unlikely impromptu communion celebration our little group held on a busy street corner while a shopkeeper chased a robber down the street.  Another year the gift came as a beloved friend recounted how much this gospel story meant to him as he began to wrestle with the news of being HIV positive.  Like Mary, he had come to find a new and far deeper relationship with God in a wrenching life experience that changed everything in a moment, stripping away the nonessential facades of life behind which most of us hid from God.  

What courage it takes, but what peace it brings, to be able to say in the middle of whatever life throws at us:  "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."  God can do great things with faith like that.

        revclay

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Luke 1:26-38

    In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.  The virgin's name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one!  The Lord is with you.”  But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.  He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 

The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.  And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.” 

Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.

[NRSV]