accepting

Luke 1:38 Mary said, "I am the Lord's servant, & I am willing to accept whatever He wants. May everything you have said come true."

This is what Mary said when the angel, Gabriel, told her that she was to become pregnant with the Son of God, the Messiah, conceive not my having intercourse with a man, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.


Now let's pretend here for a minute...


You're a young teenage girl in the backwater town in a backwater province in the far eastern side of the far-flung empire of Rome.

You're engaged to a local guy.

One day, this person appears to you, someone so imposing & scary that he says, "don't be afraid".

Then he tells you something you (or anyone else for that matter) has EVER heard before - that you're gonna become pregnant, w/o being married & w/o having intercourse with a man.

And the baby that you're gonna have is the long-promised Messiah.


Yeah.


As Pastor John would say, what is written really happened, but not everything that happened is written.


What would you think if this happened to you?

You & I would probably be thinkin' a whole lot of things, none of them positive.


I think Mary thought them too. But in the end, even in the face of some pretty stupendous, unbelievable claims & statements, Mary said ok. She affirmed the fact that she was the Lord's servant, doing whatever it was He directed her to be &/or do.

I think Mary was no fool. I think the Holy Spirit gave her a clue to what she was getting into. But at the same time, I doubt if she knew then what she knows now about what kind of obedience she was stepping into.


But I don't think what God wanted Mary to be & do is much of anything different from what God wants us to be & do.


Even though because Jesus is our Savior, the One who makes our connection with God possible, even though we are therefore made God's children, we, like Jesus, are in a servant role to the Father.

Iow, we say yes to the " 'ever's " - whatever, whoever, wherever, whenever, however.

And we serve.

Sometimes that involves something we want to do. Sometimes that means being or doing something that makes sense. Sometimes that involves being in a safe place to be or do it. Sometimes it looks like something do-able.

But a lot of the time, it's not any of those things.

And we're like Mary, trying to figure out if we're gonna trust the God of the universes, & be & do what He wants us to be & do.

Or if we're gonna remain in what we think is "in control" of our lives.


This is the part of the life of a Christ follower we don't hear about much. Sometimes it seems these days there's an awful lot of ooshy-gooshy, touchy-feely, "ooo, Jesus is my best friend," "I just love my Daddy-God," kind of thing that's held up as the norm.

I think that has more to do with our middle-class smorgasbord kind of concept of Christianity and very, very little to do with the reality of being a Christ follower.

We serve.

Not very glamorous, is it?

It's not living in a McMansion, driving gas guzzling cars, sipping lattes, shopping the sales at Kohl's, eating like cultured hogs & spending a huge chunk of our time & money losing weight, living precious & safe little socially acceptable lives, and accruing enough wealth so our "retirement years" can be "easy street".

We are offered is the chance to serve the God of the universe, higher & holier than we imagine, stronger & wiser than we can conceive, who plans for humankind are so subtle, vast, overarching, & perfect, and Who is the very essence of love.

We, like Mary, are offered the chance to be a part of His plans, and in some finite way, to be like Him.


It will cost us everything.

And we, like Mary, can obey, or not.