Well we’ve been asked today to reflect on how we say yes to God.  And this of course is prompted by the account we’ve just read of how Mary said yes to God.  “I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to Your Word.”

Now I’ve sometimes personally speculated that this Gospel account may have been in some way compressed.  That speculation is fueled by the words of Mary, rather the words of the Gospel, that she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered at what sort of greeting this might be.  So I sometimes speculate that Mary might perhaps have said to the angel, “Well this is a very difficult message to accept.  I’ll have to think about it.  I’ll get back to you in a couple of days”.  Now of course that’s pure speculation on my part but you know it would be the prudent thing to do but whatever whether it was an immediate response or a delayed response, there’s one thing for certain.  It was a response, the yes, that came from a deep, deep act of faith. 

What we could be pretty sure of is that Mary could not have known the full consequences of her yes; she surely understood that she was risking her reputation, risking being put out of the house by her father.  She was risking being rejected by Joseph and bringing shame on her family.  Like every young Jewish woman at that time, no doubt Mary would have had this dream of a possibility that one day she might be the mother of this great Messiah that everybody was waiting for.  The one who would deliver his people from the power of the Roman Empire.  But she did not know.  Whatever her motivation, her yes was a tremendous act of faith.  Luckily for her she did not see beyond the immediate consequences of her yes.  She did not see beyond the dreams that any mother would have for her child.  She did not see the rejection, the betrayal, the torture, the ultimate agonizing death of her Son.  I think that such foresight would have been crushing, too crushing, even for Mary.  She had to get to know her Son, to share his visions, his ideals, his love and concern for people.  She had to say yes to God over and over again in the everyday events of her life and her relationship with her Son before she could have the strength to stand beneath the cross and say that ultimate and final yes. 

What was true of Mary I think is true also of us.  Most of us anyway don’t know fully in what major instance we’re going to be asked to say yes to God.  Some of you may have already come up against that.  Perhaps personal illness, the illness of a loved one, the death of a loved one, whatever.  There may have been some huge moment in your life that you’re asked to say yes to God and found it very difficult indeed to do that.  I sometimes ask myself, “Will I be asked to bear the pain of cancer? The debility of heart disease? The thickening clouds of Alzheimer’s?”  Will I be asked to say yes?  I don’t know.  I don’t know.  And I’m just as glad I don’t know. 

What I do know for you and for me is that we have daily challenges in our lives.  Daily challenges to say yes.  Daily challenges to living out the full Christian life.  There is anger, jealously, slander, uncharitable speech and action.  There is greed.  There is injustice.  There are all of these daily struggles that we have.  Struggles to say no to these things.  Struggles to say yes to God.  What I also know is that up to this moment you and I have said yes to God.  A time perhaps, a hesitant yes, a reluctant yes, and in spite of some no’s we are here.  We are here together.  Worshipping together.  Faithful.  Praising God and thanking God for the grace of the strength that He gave us to say yes to His will in our lives.  We’re coming to ask for the grace to continue to be able to say yes to God.  Asking for the grace and the courage to say I am the servant of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to Your Word.  Not only the Word spoken, not only the Word written in Scripture but the word, Jesus Christ.  The Word of God to us.  He said yes to the Father in every aspect of His life, in the way He treated people, in His compassion for them, His forgiveness, in His concern for their daily physical needs as well as their spiritual needs.  He said yes in times of joy and in times in suffering.  And this is how we’re being asked to say yes to God.  In the ordinary, humdrum events of daily life.  Responding as Jesus did to the people and the events that touch our lives everyday.  This is how in saying yes to what we might call the minor things in life.  This is how we get the strength and the courage to say yes when the big tests come.  I assure you they will.  Today I honor your faithfulness, your generous yes to life and to God and I pray that you continue to mirror to some degree that great yes of Mary.  May it be done to me according to Your Word.  Amen.