DISRUPTION

      It seems somewhat ironic that the God who works through silence also works through disruption.  Disruption throws us out of our comfortable, predictable and safe lives into a place of uncertainty.  Disruption takes our sense of control and leaves us feeling helpless.  It can take us higher than we would imagine and lower than we would ever desire.  Disruption brings great opportunities, often disguised as impossibilities.  Disruption is God drawing us out of the shallows into deep water.       Last year, our lives were disrupted when my husband lost his job.  I remember sitting on the back porch on a beautiful spring afternoon, eating lunch with him, discussing what unemployment would mean for our family.  We were both so hopeful that we could jump over the pain of job loss and that he could quickly land in a better place.  We want answers and a quick resolution, little dreaming that this disruption would extend 13 months!
       But the disruption of unemployment pales in comparison to the disruption a young Jewish girl experienced 2000 years ago.  Scholars believe Mary was all of 14 or 15 years old.  She was a teenager, living with her parents, but bethrothed to be married to a man named Joseph.  In her village of Nazareth, Jews struggled to make a living and pay taxes to the Roman Empire.  If a talent scout was looking for candidates to be "Mother of God's Son", Mary would not have been in the running.  She was young and poor.  And yet it is to Mary that the angel, Gabriel, appears with the curious greeting:  "Greetings; you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you!"  (Luke 1:28)   Not surprisingly, Mary is "greatly troubled" by this greeting.  It doesn't make sense.  Women were not favored in the ancient world.  The poor were not favored.  Jews living in a Roman-occupied country were not favored.  Why would an angel appear to her -- startling enough -- and call her "highly favored"?!   God's disruptions rarely make sense to us on the front end.
     But Gabriel only adds to Mary's confusion by telling her that she will give birth to the Son of God.  While Mary's heart must have exploded with a thousand questions, she asks the most obvious one:  "How can this be since I am a virgin?" (Luke 1:34)  The angel's answer, "The Holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. . ." (Luke 1:35), didn't bring much clarity to the situation.  And yet, without fully understanding, Mary recognizes this is a "God moment" and stammers out the words, "I am the Lord's servant.  May it be to me as you have said."  
    I try to imagine what Mary must have felt after the angel disappeared and she was left with this life-changing revelation.  She is bethrothed to Joseph.  If a girl becomes pregnant before she is married there could only be two reasons.  One, the couple had morally failed by engaging in sexual relations before marriage; or two, the woman had been unfaithful to her bethrothed.  Either scenario was disgraceful, but under Jewish law, a woman could be stoned for having sexual relations outside of marriage.  Having a baby conceived by God was not a scenario anyone would consider. . . or believe.  God's intrusion into Mary's life most certainly brought questions from her family and loss of respect in her community.   What was it like for Mary to travel this road alone?  What was it like for her to be both chosen (by God) and rejected (by people)?  How did she carry the joy and the despair of life being forever different for her?
    The Christmas story is fundamentally about disruption . . . God's radical intrusion into humanity through the birth of His Son.  God taking on human form.  In all of history has there ever been a more glorious disruption?  "This is how much God loved the world:  He gave his Son, his one and only Son.  And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life."  (John 3:16, The Message)  The truth is that while God's disruption brings uncertainty and pain, it also brings an invitation: to trust God, to receive His love, to be forgiven and made new. 


This week, read the amazing account of Mary's encounter with the angel:  Luke 1:26-38.  Go further and read Luke 1:39-56.