HAIL MARY!

Those who know me well know that I adore the story of Mother Mary. To me she embodies every quality which ought to typify all of Christianity. While some in Catholicism verge on worshipping her as a deity but Protestants run the other way; both extremes are sadly in error. For the Catholic to make this beautiful lady a god is to miss the raw power of her humanity. But, for the Protestant to lightly pay her “honorable mention” pitifully misses the dare of God’s call to us to become as she was; a bondslave of the Lord and His impossible offer.  

If we Protestants believed about humanity what most of Catholicism believes about Mary, Christianity would flourish with radiance and power.

Luke 1:37-38 records the summary of Mary and the angel Gabriel’s conversation, “(Gabriel) For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, ‘Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.’” ... majestic simplicity.

Mary is, at most, 16. There is absolutely no precedent for what she is hearing. The closest thing that might have crossed her mind was that of much older, married women of the Old Testament who were given children of promise….along with their husbands! 

Mary is on an island in this category. There is no other way to describe this encounter other than astonishing in its reach and stunning in its ramifications. Yet, something in the transcendence of the moment pushes Mary to the conclusion that she must become a bondslave to this impossibility! Hear that again; she happily surrendered herself as a SLAVE of the Lord and His offer of doing the impossible. 

Bill Johnson says it this way, “Our debt to the world is an encounter with God”. To that end, we must become bondslaves of doing the impossible. A people of a covenant to live beyond our brown paper bag means. To do works transcending my limited skills to show the world a God of unlimited abilities. If all the church is offering is clean living born out of good doctrine then we have certainly become what Paul warned us about, “…holding a form of godliness although they have denied its power…avoid such men as these.” 

We owe our culture a living, visible demonstration of the Kingdom of another world. Jesus told His disciples to heal the sick and define that moment of healing as the Kingdom’s appearance on earth. I’m not batting a thousand on that command, but I'm swinging hard for the fences of impossibility.

Along with Mary I’m a happy slave of conquering the impossible. I’ve discovered the true nature of Christianity is the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. I’ve heard it said that when we get to heaven “some day” that we’re in for a lot of surprises. While I’m sure that’s true, I’ve decided to take a different path of life that minimizes my surprises tomorrow through discovery TODAY. 

Just prior to World War II amphibious landings were deemed impossible due to notable failures in World War I. MacArthur, Eisenhower and other heroes of that day never got their boots wet in basic training for an amphibious assault. A lesser known military officer nicknamed, “Mad (as in mad-man) Smith advised the strategists of his day that the war could not be won without large scale amphibious assaults. “Mad” was told that such an idea was impossible. His answer? “Well, then we are going to do the impossible and we are going to do the impossible WELL.” Needless to say, we all know about the history of D-Day and the massive amphibious landing ultimately insuring the end of Hitler's hideous ambitions. 

In the brutal shadow of Rome's raging arrogance, not to mention Religion Inc.'s stalled ignorance, a teenaged peasant girl said, "Yes sir. I'll do the impossible." Today, in the shadows of similar foolishness, the world is waiting for more of us to rise to the raw power of OUR humanity with the promises of God igniting our dreams for "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

We are going to do the impossible and we are going to do the impossible WELL.