December 2008
Mary said to the angel Gabriel: “I am the Lord’s servant. Be it unto me according to your word.” Luke 1:38
One of my favorite books is The Glorious Impossible by Madeline L’Engle. She wrote: “What a glorious impossible message that the angel Gabriel brought to a young girl. But Mary looked at the angel and said, ‘Be it unto me according to your word.” And so Jesus’ life would begin with the impossible. When he was a grown man he said to his disciples, “With human beings it is impossible, but with God nothing is impossible.”
I cannot help but wonder how this ancient story of radical obedience and servanthood must sound to most Americans today? History could well call us the Age of Entitlement and Convenience. We Episcopalians have less than subtle “my pew” attitudes and become upset when someone is sitting in our pew! This simple example only scratches the surface of deeper held beliefs in “entitlements” and “convenience” held by many today who quickly discount the needs of the community over personal comforts and suitability. (Who will forget the looks on the faces of the C.E.O.’s of the big three car makers who clearly didn’t “get it,” and maybe even left the congressional hearing wondering what in the world those congressman were talking about as they got on their separate executive jets and flew home?)
Madeline L’Engle’s book might have been titled The Glorious Inconvenience and Radical Obedience. There was nothing convenient about what happened to Mary and Joseph! Lives carefully planned and then an angel shows up and everything is turned upside down and inside out AND the center – the balance point – of faith came not from protests of inconvenience but of radical obedience. Mary or Joseph certainly weren’t given special privileges such as some secret glimpses into their future or a promise that their lives would be easier. A long hike to Bethlehem in Mary’s ninth month of pregnancy was not very convenient for either of them! And don’t forget the stable floor for a bed!
I am encouraged about “we the people” by what happened during the last general election; by the voters who put aside entitlement and convenience and made all kinds of personal sacrifices in order to join in something they believed was very important happening in our country. When important work is to be done, we the people can become servants and put aside our need to be served and we can serve.
The season of the glorious impossible calls us to once again believe in the power of God to do the impossible with us and to change our hearts from looking only inwards and desiring our entitlements and conveniences to looking outward with obedient hearts. May our prayer always be “I am the Lord’s servant. Be it unto me according to your word.”
Fr. Ken †
