A reflection on Luke 1:26 - 38

I think that one of the more fruitful ways for 'protestants' to re-engage with Mary without falling into the kind of things they /we find so hard about 'hardline' Roman Catholic Marianism is to see Mary as a prototypcal Christian, a scriptural exemplar of important facets of being a disciple of Christ. So, when we see Mary, on that donkey, we observe an icon of EveryChristian. And when we read the passage about the annunciation, we can also read, parallelwise, a text that reminds us of how to be Christian disciples.
Here's the passage.

Luke 1:26ff
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Let's pick out some facets of that to help us as disciples of the Christ she brought into being.
First off, we can hear the Angelic greeting for ourselves, I actually think that to reserve it exclusively to Mary is to miss some important lessons.

Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you

. Is that not a statement that fits all those whom the Lord calls. But we need to be reminded, I think, that God's first words to us are more like this than the 'On your knees, miserable sinner; you've got a lot of grovelling to do.' that popular spirituality seems to attribute to Christian religion.

And now, you will conceive...

okay, we're not going to literally conceive a child, some of us don't even have the biological equipment! But Mary's mission was given in these words: she was to bear and nurture Jesus. And in our different ways we are to do likewise. St.Christopher may never have existed, but the name gives away the significance of the story; Christ-bearer. That remains our calling. We too are to bear Christ in ways that are appropriate to us, our situations and our potential. We each have our mission[s] from God. God plants in us the seed of our calling and we need to consent to it and then to nurture it.

Faced with such favour, our response may be like Mary's;

How can this be...?

and we offer our excuses, according to our situations and potential. Sometimes we try to buy God off with alternatives; "I'll do that instead, that'll be okay won't it?"
And God will reply to us that, actually, we can do it because

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you

.

Faced with our God-given mission, Mary leads the way with the response;

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

Crosswalk.com - Luke 1:26 - 38:Filed in: Bible, Jesus, Mary, conception, Annunciation