Please read Luke
1:26-38
I’ve tried to imagine the young Mary as she meets
the Angel Gabriel. So often the Annunciation is depicted in paintings with the
long-flowing robes of Gabriel as he stands before a radiant young Mary. In my
mind, Mary is a typical young, skinny, awkward, wide-eyed teenager. She is
engaged to be married, but has no idea what married life means. She is just
doing as she has been told and taught. I think God may have had it right in
asking a teenager to share in this astonishing task. An older, more mature
person would probably have said, “No.”
It was eight years ago this week that a call came to me that changed the path of my life journey. Ice and snow blanketed Bluefield each Sunday of Advent. The children were scheduled to present their offering of the Christmas Story to the congregation on the 4thSunday of Advent, but the weather had disrupted our carefully laid plans and their rehearsal schedule. Now I needed to preach on that last Sunday before Christmas.
Only the bravest were on the roads that afternoon, so I used the time to begin work on a sermon I hadn’t planned to need to preach. The Gospel lesson was this passage from Luke. I can remember trying to decide if Mary could have answered with a “no.” In the midst of that work, the phone rang. It was Bishop Ives calling (which was most unusual). I sat up straighter wondering what I might have done that would cause the Bishop to call. After a few pleasantries about the weather, he said that he was calling about my appointment—particularly about a place on the cabinet, asking me to become the superintendent of the Western District. We scheduled conversation time for later in the week when I would give an answer and the phone call was over. I didn’t want to be a superintendent. I was flattered by the honor of being asked, but I valued the opportunity to serve with a congregation. I searched for ways to say no to this new appointment possibility.
As I tried to work on that sermon again, every resource that I read seemed to offer the same message: Sometimes the logical, thoughtful, practical, even desired response is to just say no. If Mary had thought about Gabriel’s question for even a little while, I think she probably would have wanted to say no. But sometimes – sometimes you have to say yes.
I do not know what you are being asked to do; what new opportunities you have been called to do; or what new places you have been challenged to go. The most thoughtful choice may be a no, but God isn’t about the practical, logical, sensible things. God’s desire for us often leads us beyond the safe and secure, tried and true, rational and logical answers into God’s wonderful and mysterious possibilities, with Mary’s assurance that God will be with us every step of the journey.
Mary answered, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.”
Prayer: Here am I, Lord, your servant. May your Word come alive even through me as I offer my heart and life to you. Amen.
Rev. Mark Connor
It was eight years ago this week that a call came to me that changed the path of my life journey. Ice and snow blanketed Bluefield each Sunday of Advent. The children were scheduled to present their offering of the Christmas Story to the congregation on the 4thSunday of Advent, but the weather had disrupted our carefully laid plans and their rehearsal schedule. Now I needed to preach on that last Sunday before Christmas.
Only the bravest were on the roads that afternoon, so I used the time to begin work on a sermon I hadn’t planned to need to preach. The Gospel lesson was this passage from Luke. I can remember trying to decide if Mary could have answered with a “no.” In the midst of that work, the phone rang. It was Bishop Ives calling (which was most unusual). I sat up straighter wondering what I might have done that would cause the Bishop to call. After a few pleasantries about the weather, he said that he was calling about my appointment—particularly about a place on the cabinet, asking me to become the superintendent of the Western District. We scheduled conversation time for later in the week when I would give an answer and the phone call was over. I didn’t want to be a superintendent. I was flattered by the honor of being asked, but I valued the opportunity to serve with a congregation. I searched for ways to say no to this new appointment possibility.
As I tried to work on that sermon again, every resource that I read seemed to offer the same message: Sometimes the logical, thoughtful, practical, even desired response is to just say no. If Mary had thought about Gabriel’s question for even a little while, I think she probably would have wanted to say no. But sometimes – sometimes you have to say yes.
I do not know what you are being asked to do; what new opportunities you have been called to do; or what new places you have been challenged to go. The most thoughtful choice may be a no, but God isn’t about the practical, logical, sensible things. God’s desire for us often leads us beyond the safe and secure, tried and true, rational and logical answers into God’s wonderful and mysterious possibilities, with Mary’s assurance that God will be with us every step of the journey.
Mary answered, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.”
Prayer: Here am I, Lord, your servant. May your Word come alive even through me as I offer my heart and life to you. Amen.
Rev. Mark Connor
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