I was talking with someone recently who originally came to Rochester about 20 years ago from a refugee camp in Kenya. They fled their home country of Somalia (due to the extreme conflict and danger there) and had lived in a Kenyan camp for a few years. They described how in a dream they heard the word Rochester without knowing what it meant (they did not speak a lot of English at the time). But they knew that this message was from their God (Allah). When their refugee status was approved and they were considering where to come in the United States, they saw the word “Rochester” as one of the possible locations and said, “I want to go there.” Knowing no one here, they arrived and started a new life for themselves. Decades later, their entire family is here, they own a successful business and are thriving.
I was amazed at their story and the incredible trust they had in God’s message to them so many years ago.
Today marks the church’s celebration of the Annunciation – when Mary said, “Yes” to the angel Gabriel’s invitation to be part of God’s incredible plan.
I have written on this before in other blog posts, and you can read variations on these themes here and here. Like with so many other scripture passages, our lectionary cycle brings us back to these same readings year after year as we bring who we are in this moment to the readings all over again. Saying ‘yes’ to God is not a one time event!
Most of us know the basics of the story. Mary, an unwed, teenage, Jewish woman living in Palestine is visited by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel says that she is “favored” by God and invites her to be the God-bearer.
Mary, of course, sees some holes in God’s plan and has a few questions for Gabriel! Ultimately, she says, “Yes” knowing that her doing so could cost her her reputation and maybe even her life. At the very least, she is moving into unknown territory without reading any of the fine print!
When I Think of Mary’s decision, I often think of David Whyte’s incredible poem Revelation Must Be Terrible. In it he says (I have edited it down a bit):
Revelation must be terrible with no time left to say goodbye.
Imagine that moment staring at the still waters with only the brief tremor
of your body to say you are leaving everything and everyone you know behind…
and the world steps in to test the calm fluidity of your body…
As if you were meant to be exactly where you are…
As if your place in the world mattered…
Revelation must be terrible knowing you can never hide your voice again.
Just take those lines in.
Like so many other stories in our scriptures, I am not sure WHAT happened to Mary in that encounter. What I do know is that she trusted her God and trusted her own experience enough to move forward with it – knowing that her place in the world mattered and knowing that she could not “hide her voice” again.
I often think about our lives. I don’t know many people who get visions like Mary did. More often I think we get inklings, urgings and feelings. In my experience, God’s call often feels more like a broken compass that can only show us general directionality versus having a GPS that can tell us the exact map! And yet so many of us try to lean into it anyway – with all its uncertainty and risk.
What’s also always bothered me about this story about Mary is that the traditional church focus was on her sexuality and virginity – as if THAT was the most important part of the story. For me, however, the real story is her willingness to offer her life in the service of God who only offers a partial view (at best) of the journey ahead. No doubt, she was offered a unique and special role. And yet the roles offered to us are no less important.
In the second reading today from Hebrews 10, Paul says that “sacrifices and offerings [are] neither desired nor delighted in.” The real offering, says Paul, is when we say what Mary said, “Behold, I come to do your will.” This literal and metaphoric giving of our bodies to do the work of God in this world is such a meaningful gift – not only a gift that we give to God but to each other and the world.
I have quoted it before, but I have always loved the words of organizational consultant Peter Block (that hung on a sign in our staff conference room at work for almost 15 years) that said, “The answer to ‘how’ is ‘yes.’” There were so many occasions where these words helped us embrace a risk or do something that felt like a stretch – personally or collectively.
Of course, we all have to carefully discern what we say ‘yes’ to, but Lent is a time to listen deeply to the urgings that might be finding us in our lives and prayer. And it doesn’t always have to be a big, dramatic thing that we say ‘yes’ to.
Maybe we’ve said ‘yes’ to caring for someone without knowing how the journey will evolve.
Maybe we’ve said ‘yes’ to taking up a commitment or being part of a cause that cannot promise success.
Maybe we have made a decision in our lives to release something (or a relationship) we have been carrying or offering someone forgiveness even if it feels like a risk.
Maybe we are believing in and supporting someone and don’t have a guarantee that they will achieve what they hope to.
As I have said elsewhere, “Often it starts as a pull to volunteer, extend hospitality, reach out to someone, get involved in something, start something, take a risk, let something go, etc. We often can’t quite explain it, but it calls us somehow. It can seem foolish or irrational. But it tugs at us. And it often does not seem that grand, important or world-altering. Mary might have felt the same way. Yet she followed the lead of the Spirit.”
As we continue on our Lenten journey, may we be inspired by Mary to keep saying yes – even when we do not see immediate results and even when the road gets rocky. I believe that God will meet us in that space and “overshadow” us with the Spirit so that we may keep taking up the work that is ours to do in this world.