Luke 1:26-38
“…let it be with me according to your word.”
When I was a young child, I was drawn to Mary: her story, her faith, her being chosen to be the mother of Jesus, our Lord. Her trust in Gabriel’s message and her obedience were an inspiration, and I too longed to do something great for God, to be obedient to some seemingly impossible mission from God. (One should be careful what one wishes for!). In my little girl romanticized world, it all seemed so simple—after all, Luke skips over the risks and challenges that came with her acquiescence. My grown-up self, however, appreciates her story more for those risks and challenges, and I understand the story in quite a different way.
Primarily: Mary’s choice—or to be precise, the belief that she had one. Gabriel’s words are not framed as a question or request, and yet, we generally infer that choice is part of this exchange. Why? Because from the beginning, we were made in God’s image, and in that, given free will: to choose God and God’s ways, or to choose ourselves. Our choices throughout history have often leaned too much toward the latter. But free will remains: for love to be love, it must be freely chosen. That means our relationship with God, with Love, must be freely chosen—and that goes for answering God’s call as well.
When we look back over the entirety of scripture, we see that God has called many persons over time to some pretty hard things: Noah to build an ark on dry land; Abraham to leave his home, even to offer up his beloved son; Moses to lead God’s people out of Egypt and to the promised land; prophets to speak unpopular, even dangerous words. And each time, we recognize that they could have said ‘no’ and we commend them for saying ‘yes’ instead —and we would like to think that we as faithful Christians would do the same, answering God’s call to do that next hard, or great, thing. But would we? Do we?
Well, yes—and no.
The truth is that we have been given a great mission—to carry on Christ’s mission of love and reconciliation in the world today as members of the body of Christ. By virtue of our baptism, we have said ‘yes’ to God’s call, even as it takes a lifetime to live into it. However, we are human, and prone to messing up. (A quick read through Scripture puts us in good company there too.) So that means we often wind up saying ‘no’ to God even as we try to live out our lifelong ‘yes’: we fail to love, we let fear diminish or derail us, we too often choose not to forgive, we are careless with our earth and one another. We drop the ball again and again, and God in God’s mercy keeps handing it back to us to try again. God understands that this mission to share the good news, to love one another as we have been loved, to strive for justice and peace and dignity for all is not an easy one—it is that hard, great thing. A mission that is not limited to just to a particular place or time, but one that is for all creation, eternally; a mission grounded in the person of Jesus Christ, to whom we all belong. A mission that first changes us, and then works through us to change the world around us, one person at a time
Mary was just one person—a faithful and courageous one. Through her, through her ‘yes’ to God, she made it possible for so many other persons to say their own ‘yes’ to God, including us. Each and every day this Lent, may we strive to offer a ‘yes’ to God in word and deed—carrying out that hard and great mission in our own bodies and lives, saying ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord’ each and every time Love calls.
Meditation by the Very Reverend Debbie Cook
Rector, All Saints’ Memorial Church, Navesink
Diocese of New Jersey