TLDR: Saying yes to some things means saying no to other things, and that may come with a price, a price we are willing to pay.
In the addition to the Lent and Easter cycles of the liturgical calendar, the church observes a cycle of individual feast days throughout the year. These special feast days often will overlap with other liturgical seasons. It just so happens that this year, March 25 is the day we usually celebrate this feast but because it fell in Holy Week, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord has been “transferred” to giving it a proper celebration of April 8th. This week we observe the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord. It often falls within the Lenten calendar, but rarely does it arrive during Holy Week.
The feast of the Annunciation of the Lord celebrates the news, the amazing news of the Incarnation... Nestled within the Judean hillside is the small village of Nazareth in the region of Galilee arrives an angel specifically named Gabriel’s with a question to ask a certain young woman.
Imagine spending an entire year saying “yes,” agreeing to not just trivial things, but also to the things that frighten you. Creator, producer, and writer of a series called, Grey’s Anatomy, Shonda Rhimes, did precisely that. This was a decision she credits with changing her life. In her best-selling book, Year of Yes, Rhimes explained that it all started when her sister said just six words to her at Thanksgiving:
“You never say yes to anything.”
Those words gave Rhimes pause and led to a personal challenge. “For one year, I would say yes to all the things that scared me,” Rhimes shared, “Anything that made me nervous, took me out of my comfort zone, I forced myself to say yes to. And a crazy thing happened: the very act of doing the thing that scared me ...undid the fear. My fear of public speaking, my social anxiety, was gone. It’s amazing, the power of one word.”
Did you catch that last phrase? It’s amazing, the power of one word.
Our Gospel reading for April 8 comes from Luke 1:38. If you have never read from the Message Version of the Bible, I highly encourage you to read it for yourself and see what you think of this contemporary translation. I love to read this version of the Bible.
“And Mary said,
That one word changed the entire projection of all eternity. From our text, Luke 1:38, Mary said…... Yes.
Some people question if she had a choice. I think, of course, she had a choice. That is fitting for how our God works. God has always given humans a choice. Mary was asked to become the Mother of God, God incarnate, which means God became one of us. Emmanuel, God with us.
There has been a plethora of Annunciation paintings created in history. Most of these paintings focus on a grand and formidable angelic creature speaking to a young and overwhelmed woman.
In his “The Annunciation,” in a contemporary context. Artist, Raphael Soyer, painted this late in his career in 1980. Mary stands to the left wearing the light blue shift and holding a white towel, The room is rather sparse indicating meager means. Her hands, opening upward underneath the towel, recalls the posture of ORANS, a praying position. The angel has caught Mary off guard. Mary's eyes seem to be pensively contemplating. The artist depicts Gabriel as a woman, clad in shades of violet, a color associated with royalty as well as the seasons within the church: Advent and Passion week. The angel is barefoot and tentative. She looks apprehensively at Mary, awaiting Mary’s response. In a sense, the entire space leans in with great anticipation. Soyer depicts the moment of Mary’s decision, when the world held its breath.
And she said YES!
With Mary’s creative consent, she embodied the art of saying Yes.
I believe art cannot be created without using one’s imagination. Art is full of imagination. The actual art of saying yes, in this context, means you live your life being obedient to God as best as you may imagine. Could Mary actually imagine what the “Yes” she agreed to would entail? Can any of us imagine how to live out our calling as God beckons us to follow him?
Always remember saying yes to some things means saying no to other things, and that may come with a price, a price we are willing to pay. What was the cost to Mary for saying yes? The entire trajectory of her life was changed.
What is the cost for you to say yes to God?
Meister Eckhart was a Dominican theologian, a philosopher, and a mystic who lived in the 13th and 14th centuries. He once said:
So what about you? What do you think about Meister Eckhart’s statement: are we all meant to be mothers of God? Is it good for you to say Yes as Mary did and give birth to his Son in your time and your culture?
Raphael Soyer, Annunciation, 1980, oil on linen, 56 1⁄8 x 50 1⁄8 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum
