Can I Get Back to You on That?

Oh, how I wish you could see the movie playing in my head. I wish you could feel the powerful mix of emotions churning in my soul. I wish you could see the tears dripping from my cheeks. What a challenge before me this week. Oh, Mary. Blessed Mary. Mother of God. Descend upon me and guide my fingers as I type.

In the opening scene, Dr. Luke is sitting in a garden somewhere on a hill outside Jerusalem with Mary. It is a warm afternoon on a day long after Christ has died. It is long past the events of Pentecost. The apostle Paul is in prison in Caesarea. Luke, a Gentile, an outcast in Jewish society, is gathering the "Mary" stories and recording them on the various scraps of parchment that he carries with him. He is recording the stories that only Mary would know. He is asking the questions that the Jewish men of that time would not bother asking of a woman. A woman was not allowed to give testimony.

Luke asks her, "Tell me about the birth of Jesus."

Mary breathes a long pensive sigh and gazes out across the valley below. She remembers back to the time, a lifetime ago now, when she was a young woman, still a little girl, really. She was on her way to do some morning chores for her mother and was rather abruptly greeted by what she now knows was an angel of the Lord. He said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."

She had never heard a greeting like that. Instinctively she wanted to bolt and run back to the house. What is this? What is going on here? This is feeling really creepy. Then the angel consoled 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."

"He knows my name?!" Mary is looking skeptically askance at this self-proclaimed spokesman for God. She challenges him. "How can this be for I have not slept with a man?"

The angel replies, "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."

What kind of answer is that? This means she will be pregnant before being married. She knows the penalty for that. Her parents will not believe her. Joseph will not believe her. No one will believe her. But wait. Elizabeth might.

Mary compares the story of Abraham and Sarah with Zechariah and Elizabeth. Sarah was barren and yet bore the child who became a nation of Israel. A hundred thoughts are racing through her head. "He is talking about David and Jacob. Ancestors. My ancestors. Am I to be the bearer of the Anointed One, the long-awaited King? That is every Jewish girl's dream. But then why wouldn't it be Elizabeth's son? Why me Lord?" The final words of the angel echo back and forth through her soul. "For nothing is impossible with God."

Hovering over this story two millennia later, I think to myself: at this point, Mary could have just said, "No thanks, Gabriel. I am like totally too busy with the wedding and all. Besides I have chores to do. Gotta run. Catch ya later. Buh bye."

She did have a choice. She could have just laughed and returned home to her normal life.

But then amazingly, she responds "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."

Luke chooses the Greek word "doule" which we translate as "servant". Luke chooses a word meaning "female slave" or "handmaiden" to translate what Mary was telling him. Female slave to God! No need to wait until tomorrow or next week either. Do it now!

Mary agrees to lower herself to the level of a slave, to completely trust in a word from the Lord, and she needs no time to think about it.

That one selfless act of faith changed the course of history. That one sentence recorded on a little scrap of parchment by Luke on a warm afternoon in a garden near Jerusalem holds the key to the entire redemptive history that we are a part of.

Mary raises one eyebrow and looks back at Luke with a smile. It's almost funny now. As a little girl she had no idea what she was in for. She had no idea what that one act of faith would lead to. It seems so quiet now after the tumultuous events of the previous four decades of her life. Then she looks back out across the valley. She wonders if future generations are ever going to understand. She wonders if her decision to bear the Savior is ever going to make any difference. The words of the angel from so long ago whisper on the wind, "For nothing is impossible with God." There is hope, somehow. Somehow God will find a way through this kind Gentile man sitting next to her, to keep the story alive. And her son will find a way to live on in the hearts of those who submit to Him as their King.

During this Advent season, during this time of anticipation, of waiting, pierces the voice of a young girl who had the faith not to wait. Innocently, without knowing its full consequences, she makes the choice, then tells the angel of the Lord, "make it so." A little Jewish girl had the faith one morning to pray "Lord, here I am. Make me your servant." Can I mouth that same prayer and submit to His rule in me? Am I ready for this? Am I ready to accept whatever role God wants me to play in this story?

Hmmm. That's a hard one. Can I get back to you on that?