“Let it be unto me according to your will,” was not an act of blind obedience or resignation to a fate. It was an opening of a space in Mary to receive the gift of God. And in doing so, Mary wasn’t setting herself apart from us. She was showing us the way.
What do you need emptying of, dear virgin friends, so that God can prime you with glorious gifts, that your life might be given away with no expectation of return?
But if we wake up resolved to choose a relationship with God, we can be fairly certain that we’ll be asked to do things that might make the neighbors talk, that might push us toward people we’d otherwise avoid, that we’ll be asked to stand up for truths that aren’t popular or even sensible.
Jesus’s healings weren’t part of a public health initiative. They were signs. Signs that God was present in the last place anyone would ever think to look—among sad, sick, messed-up lives like ours are at their worst, not their best.
And here’s a link to Down There By The Train by Tom Waits
“ Mutual grace seems to be part of Paul’s plan to unite the early Christian Church, and every generation of believers has had to grapple with this question of what is foundational to our faith. This ongoing work requires both the intervention of the Holy Spirit and I think a measure of sacred imagination to envision what has not yet come to be. And in this season of Advent, we are invited to slow down to exhale in the midst of the busyness of the season as we prepare our hearts and our minds for the coming of God incarnate.”