Advent Day 7

"' . . . And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.'

And Mary said to the angel, 'How will this be, since I am a virgin?' 

And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.'"

    ~Luke 1:31-35

In this passage we see the effects of the favor Mary has found with God; she will give birth to the Son of God Himself. From the beginning, however, it's clear that Mary is only a steward for Jesus's life. No one else in all of history has or will give birth to the Son of God, but what can we learn from Mary? How can we steward the gifts we receive? And how does this challenge the pride which can see being a vessel or steward as less than or as being used?

The fact is that all Christians are stewards of Jesus Christ, though in a different way than Mary. We are stewards of His message and His Kingdom. We are stewards of every gift that He gives us. It's hard to keep that in the forefront. To live our whole lives with that responsibility. To remember that we are stewarding the Kingdom or to remember that the desires He gives us--physical stability, children, career, etc--still belong to Him after we've been entrusted with them. We are given the authority to cultivate, to care for, to make decisions with wisdom, but we are not given ultimate control. 

Where are we using what God has given us for our own purposes and gain instead of stewarding them for the Kingdom of God? Where can we learn from the hard gift of Mary to steward the life of her Savior? A life that left a legacy for the believer and the nonbeliever, transforming the world He ascended from. 

Aside from Jesus's death and resurrection, a lot of us would've called that life unremarkable. He worked as a carpenter, lived as a nomad, dined with sinners and tax collectors, taught Scripture, withdrew to quiet and solitude, made friends and grew close to them. Yes, he flipped everything on its head, but disgruntling Pharisees wasn't our version of "greatness." And yet His life is greater than we could've imagined. Even more so in eternity than in life. He brought His Spirit down, intercedes, rules forever, and will one day return, winning the war and restoring the world. 

His reign has started, His Kingdom is here, and we are a part of it. In the world, not of the world. Sometimes we mess this up. Peter tells us that we are exiles in this world, but our Kingdom is not gone; it's here. We wait for a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality. We live like God commanded the Isrealites in Babylon, to bring flourishing by tending to our communities. To not withdraw from the world, living without a home and failing to invest, but to lean on the greater Kingdom within it. We can build houses and live in them, trusting that God's seeds will grow, turning our exile into community and Kingdom momentum. 

That is what Mary was entrusted with, and that is what we are entrusted with today. 

We may not be raising our Savior, but we are tasked with making Him known and living for His glory. 

How does Mary respond to her gift of stewardship? With a question and with confusion. But the angel does not rebuke her like he did with Zechariah. 

Zechariah's question was never the problem; it was his doubt. God invites us into asking faithful questions. Zechariah's focus was on what he knew and understood, and he wasn't prepared to accept something that superseded that. Conversely, Mary believes. Her heart was open. She did not understand, she was confused, as we often are, but she questioned the how and not the promise itself. And Gabriel answered her. 

Confusion can lead us into clarity or it can lead us into shame, inattentiveness, or feelings of being overwhelmed. We can give God our confusion and embrace His mystery and understanding, strengthening our souls as we search for greater comprehension by knowing that He answers us. 

God doesn't expect us to comprehend all His ways, but He also doesn't hide all of them from us. He invites us into the story even when we don't fully get it. He uses flawed humans to write His perfect story. With God something holy came out of an imperfect human. And holiness continues to come out of broken humans through the cross.

If in God One who is sinless can be born of a sinner, how much potential do we have in Christ to do good and to breed holiness? We know our brokenness, but God can work from it and through it to create something holy. We are His vessels and His people, set aside for His work.