December 18thHere I am, Lord
- by Danielle Raimbault
Then Mary said, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” - Luke 1:38
God has remained beside the people of God since the beginning. Luke 1 shows us examples of people who have heard God’s revelations, answered with a resounding (or meek) “yes!” and allowed God to do work in their life.
If we have faith and willing spirit, God will show us the way.
We as a church been called to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.
For Noah, God told him to build a floating zoo and told him he would spend the next 40 days feeling seasick and wondering about God’s sense of humour, which was apparently an award for being righteous. When God called, Noah answered “Here I am” and a covenant with God over all the earth was revealed.
For Abram, God told him to get his wife, pack his things and go sight unseen to a land God would show him. When God called, Abraham answered, “Here I am” and the work of God was revealed through Sarah (his wife), giving birth in her old age and many descendants coming from her.
For Samuel, he answered “Here I am” when God called him the night as a child. He began a long career of speaking truth to the powers that be. He was revealed as a prophet, a messenger and a man of God.
God’s abundance and plans do not come through things that are easy and full of pleasure.
And for Mary, when God sent an angel to tell her that she was going to give birth to a child she said, “Here I am.” Mary was full of many different emotions about this new revelation in her life. She was not in a safe, happy situation. She was an unwed teenage mother-to-be. In the biblical text, we are told that Mary was “much perplexed” by the words of the angel to her. I like to read this as a nice way of Mary saying, “Are you kidding me?”
But yet, Mary responds with these beautiful words, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord.”
If we have faith and willing spirit, God will show us the way.
Like Mary, we have been called to be a church where the Spirit brings much fruitfulness and life. Like the angel telling Mary that her womb would bring the fruitfulness of saving grace to all humankind, so have we as a church been called to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the world. God desires our joyful response to the invitation to be “Here I am.”
Also, like Mary, God’s abundance and plans do not come through things that are easy and full of pleasure. In reality (and similarly to Mary’s story) God’s favour may have been revealed in things that were desperately, desperately hard. We, like Mary, are strengthened by looking at these things in our life and saying, “Here I am, Lord.”
God does not force plans on us. God has given us the freedom of choice to turn from things that may be hard and go the easy path. But as we look around our world around us and see the hurting people, the hard conversations we need to have, and the resources we are given, we are also given a choice to turn back to the sometimes-hard path towards God and say, “Here I am.” God offers us a chance to be a part of the good work that God is doing in the world.
If we have faith and a willing spirit, God will show us the way.
As we are preparing ourselves for the journey along this road towards Christmas, we are given the invitation to answer God’s call of bringing love, hope, joy and peace to the earth. What is God revealing to you? Where in your life can you reach out and say, “Here I am, Lord?”
- Danielle Raimbault is pastor at Preston and Wanner Mennonite churches.