Rev. Michelle Manuel

Luke 1:26-38 NRSV

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 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. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 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[d] will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 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. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 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.

Reflection:

This may surprise you dear reader, but I have been known to be starstruck by even the most insignificant and obscure celebrity. This is probably true because I’ve never actually met a celebrity. However, I once met an author of a book that highly impacted me in my master’s coursework. This author was key-noting a conference I attended and deep in the bowels of my heart I hoped upon hope I would bump into them.

 

My excitement waned as I swallowed the hard pill of reality. I would not be meeting this obscure, not-famous-at-all, Christian author. However, as the conference ended and all of the volunteers were cleaning up, a moment of divine providence occurred. An Australian accent entered a conversation I was having with a friend. *Doubletake* My wildest, and sad, dreams of that moment were coming true! The conversation was naturally full of nerdy theological ramblings and I don’t remember all of the details, but one thing has stuck with me. The small-time author said that one way the Christian life can be summed up is to “make room” for others. Inherent in the incarnation is Mary, the mother of Jesus’ literal body making room for the Son of God to then make room on earth and subsequently heaven for others. 

Making room for others might be one of the simplest and difficult ways to love your neighbor as yourself. Think about it, to make room for others in my life I have to live at a pace of life that allows for interruption. I have to live in a way that holds my own resources loosely. I have to keep the doors to my life figuratively open- office door, front door to the home, the door to my heart open. 

 

We know that loving others as ourselves is core to our Christian faith. So let’s make room for it. Let’s keep an extra seat available at the dinner table. Let’s keep the guest bed made up. Let’s keep the pantry stocked. And let’s keep the calendar a little less cluttered. So that when the neighbor comes along and needs to be loved (which they will) we have already made room for them.

Prayer:

Dear God,

You have, in countless ways, made room for us. You made room for us in Creation. You made room for us at your table. And you continue to make room for all of us in your Kingdom. You are a God who makes room and a God who asks us to make room. Show us the spaces at our table that we have filled with clutter, and help us to utilize them in order to make intentional room for others. Amen.