Monday, December 23
- Luke 1:26-38
- No Wind at the window (STS 11)
- https://youtu.be/_AY2lKWCUD8?si=0U9TNpfjKOXarAxr
Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” ~Luke 1:38
In the culture surrounding the writing of this text, it was not at all uncommon for gods of other religions to father children with human women. In Roman and Greek mythology, these were demi-gods, god/human hybrids understood to have some powers of gods and some limits of humans. Thus, as strange as this story looks to a modern western understanding, the idea that a god and a human would create a demi-god was not the astounding part of this story at that time.
What would have been astoundingly different in the story of Mary than stories of, say, Cassiopeia or Persephone, was that this story involved truth telling and consent. Most of the demi-gods were products of rape or trickery, with mothers finding out the truth only after the child had been conceived. In this story, the angel comes to tell Mary before Jesus is conceived. Mary has questions and fears and the angel responds carefully, explaining to her the significance of the child to be born and the journey it will lead Mary on. And importantly, resounding through the millennia, Mary says yes.
God seeks consent, and Mary says yes.
Our God is not a God of coercion or manipulation. God does not force us or trick us into loving, serving, and following. When God asks something of us, God waits until we say yes. And God understands that saying yes to the tremendous and world-upending plans of the Divine can be a scary choice for us humans, so God helps us through our fears, is patient with our need for explanation, encourages us to count the cost, and guides us gently toward the openness that saying yes requires of us.
God seeks consent. What will it take for you to say yes?
Visit us, O God. Seek our consent, O Jesus. Receive our “yes,” O Spirit.
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