Uncertain (Luke 1)

A girl is somewhere. No one knows exactly where. She could be at home. She is inside somewhere. She is, we know, in a town called Nazareth.

An angel shows up and tells her that God is happy with her.

Her response? She is very perplexed. She is agitated. In her mind she goes over and over these words to figure out what they mean, what kind of greeting this is.

Most of us have had moments when time stood still.

If we have ever been in a car that started spinning on the ice, we are aware of time moving into slow-motion. If we have had someone call us into their office, we know the sheer volume of words that can run through our heart in a very short time. If we have received an email saying, “I need to talk with you, it’s urgent!” we know how our hearts can start beating quickly.

Most of us can remember every detail of those seconds of uncertainty.

And so, apparently, could Mary. She was a pondering kind of girl. Three times in the book of Luke she is described as reflecting about what had just happened. Years later, as Luke was gathering the information to write the book, someone, probably Mary, had to say the first century equivalent of “Man, I had no idea what was happening.”

Many of us spend huge amounts of time in this pondering phase. We hear our name and get caught up in trying to figure out what God might be saying. And we get more and more anxious, more and more confused, more and more distressed.

Mary, however, didn’t leave the room. She waited for what the angel had to say. And the angel said that the son she was about to bear would change the universe. She asked how that could be true since she was a virgin. He said that God would take care of that. She said “May it be as you have said. I am the Lord’s servant.”

And then her life got really complicated.

When we think we have heard from God, and we get over the confusion, we think that life will be wonderful. We think there will be no problems. We think that everything will go smoothly.

For Mary, this little conversation meant that she would be accused of immorality, she would flee for her life, she would have her child disappear, she would watch her son seem to be on the verge of a breakdown, she would watch her son die as a criminal. Three decades on an emotional rollercoaster. And for a ponderer, this could have been devastating.

But sometimes, I am sure, she was reminded that she had said “I’m the Lord servant.” And after the three decades were done, I’m pretty sure that she was glad, eternally glad, that she had said “May it be as you have said.”

I know that I am.

Tags: advent, advent 2007, mary, perplexed