Mary Christmas!

About five years ago at Christmas, our pastor preached a sermon he titled, "Mary Christmas." Now every year at this time it's almost automatic that that sermon comes back to me and re-transforms my busy schedule into a more holy, season-long meditation of what the birth of Jesus really means to me. I've heard lots of sermons in my day and there may have been others like it, but if there have, I haven't heard them.

It began typically, for a Christmas message. In the first chapter of Luke, the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her she will bear a child, who will be called Jesus, the Son of God. She's astonished and baffled , wondering how this can possibly be, since she's a virgin and hasn't done "what it takes" to become pregnant. He explains to her that it will be a work of God, who will place the life in her and cause it to grow. Even Elizabeth, who is old, will have a baby (John the baptist) and although she was said to be barren, is even now in her sixth month of pregnancy. Mary's response? "Be it done to me, according to thy word."

Then the preacher started making the connections. Not word for word, but it went something like this:
"We have more in common with Mary than you know. Because God has come to you and the same offer stands. If you're willing to receive Him, the Son of God will take up residence in your life. But you need to know that He's not just here to visit. He's gunna change your life! If you receive Him, that new life in you is going to change the way you walk. Sometimes just the thought of it will thrill you. 'God lives in me!' Sometimes it will terrify you. Sometimes it's gunna hurt. Sometimes you'll wonder if it's worth it. You will grow in ways you never dreamed of. It will stretch you farther than you thought possible. Sometimes, it'll even leave marks. You won't always understand. And you will never be the same. But it doesn't stop there. That life God will place in you is not content just to grow in you. It's not enough just to change you. Because that life is more than you can contain, it will come forth from you too, and it will be evident to those around you. It's not just going to change you, it's going to change the world, through you!"

And so it went, me putting myself in Mary's shoes, and remembering my own shoes at the same time, when I was chomping at the bit to say, "Be it done to me, according to thy word." So Christmas has become a season when I not only remember the story of Jesus coming to the world, but remembering how that same life has changed me and contemplating the ways it's changing me now.

Another thing that can be gleaned from Luke's account is that sometimes we wonder, like Mary, how it can be that God could bring forth life from us, who haven't "done what it takes" to produce life (in OUR minds). We don't live right... We've done this and we haven't done that... But God almost interrupts us and says, "Here's how: It's a work of God- A miracle!"

And do you know any Elizabeths? Someone you thought was incapable of producing life? Out of God's reach maybe? No way they could ever be saved! Think again. "For nothing is impossible with God." (Luke 1:37)

May you have a "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, alive in you" Christmas:

Mary Christmas!