So we heard today in the second reading
when the angel says to 14 year old Mary, daughter of Anne,
"You are pregnant, and Joe's upset."
and it was echoed in the Gospel with Joseph himself
- The Lord is with you
- and is working through your trust
- to bring life to God's World.

The Angel works both sides
to bring this couple into community
when the world would reject them.

It is a very pertinent story for us, here,
in our own pain and confusion following the terror of Sept.11
- and in the midst of concern with our future.

The story is an example of faithfulness to us
as we struggle with the changes
of our perceptions of our world
and our place in it.

Mary, the child,
accepts and trusts
the words of the Angel.
"Do not be afraid
for you will bear a son
and name him Jesus,
and he will rule the faith community of God forever."

And, Mary said,
"Here am I, the servant of God
Let it be according to God's word."

I can think of a few other responses
I might have been tempted to give.

I might have fought that one awhile,
just as we struggle in our hearts
to come to grips with our fear and anger
and our loss of faith
in our security and our economy,
and even our own choices
of that which we value most.

Well, actually that might be good news.

There is a writer by the name of Killian Noe
who used to be part of the Servant Leadership School
in Washington, DC.

She relates an experience in the latest issue
of the Ministry of Money newsletter
in which she was nearly frightened to death
while white-water rafting in a river in North Carolina.

She and her husband were thrown from the raft
and she found herself separated from him in the rapids
and struggling against the force of the torrent.

People yelled from the river bank
that there was a still pool one mile further on,

but she didn't believe she could ever make it that far
and continued to try to force her feet
to stand on something solid,

Evidently, that is not the thing to do.
The rocks beneath took their toll
as she fought them,
and she soon found herself bitterly exhausted,
bruised, and nearly drowned,

and as a sort of final plea,
or perhaps a good-by,
she looked over at her husband
who was floating along on his back
looking up peacefully at the sky.

With that example,
Killian surrendered to the flow
and, sure enough,
10 minutes later
they entered a pool.
which swirled them gently
into the shore.

The parable of her experience in the river
contains an important lesson for us
- the lesson of Mary.

Once we let go
and let God sweep us along safely
we will become a interested participants
in His life
and not persons crushed by bitterness,
defensiveness, and fear.

The things that matter are the faithfulness
and the goodness placed by God in his people;
the warm ways we care for those we love,
the honesty and openness we have
with God's other people,
especially those hungry, isolated, or dispossessed.

We have to learn to trust
the goodness and wonder -
of a life lived God's way and not our own.
Other kinds of living
are actually addictions of one kind or another.

We can't gain real wealth
by building bigger barns, as in that other parable,
and we can't loose real wealth
when the market goes down.

We do want an improved economy ­ that would be nice;
but more so, we need to be a part of God's economy.
We need a higher order concept
that helps us do commerce with true wealth.
We all know how the money supply expands

as money is passed around;
it is also true that in God's commerce
acting out, spreading around God's love
expands it, spreads it, so there is more than enough for all.

That is hard to find if we don't know where to look.

For instance,
the Seattle Times reports
that on Sept. 12th a young mother,
feeling very vulnerable and alone
packed her kids in their car seats
and drove to the Mall.

She said later that it was the only place she could think of
where she could be in community.

Of course, the Mall was closed that day
because of the fears of our people.

There never is any room in that inn.

"He will reign over the faith community
of Jacob forever."

The Mall, indeed.

We are those called to let go
of our pre-conceptions
of what is important and how to get it
and immerse ourselves
in "in-depth faith community"

It is not yet perfect
but it is a long way from the Mall,
and God is still working on it.
It is that flawed, yet blessed community
Mary helped bring into the world.
We call it God's Church.

Once here,
we not only have one another
and need not be alone,
but we experience the gift
of perceiving other people differently.
We receive the gift
of learning to live outside ourselves.

We discover that
in spite of the wishful thinking of some
popular spiritualities,
the answers do not reside inside ourselves,
but rather reside in God's flow,
God's understanding,
God's paradigms,
God's Love.

The things that bring us the most pain, the most fear,
exist outside the heart of God.

Turn them loose.
They are the wrong things to grasp;
they are the wrong things to fear,
as life bears us along the river.
Anger? ­ Turn it loose.
Fear? - Of what?
Greed? - What for?
Resentment? ­ Why?
Retribution? - Let God handle it.

These are all rocks and shoals on which to bruise ourselves.
We don't need them.

"Greetings, most favored one.
The Lord is with you."

We remember Mary today
because she did not allow herself
to be destroyed by the rocks in her way.
Rather, she participated in the alternative flow of God
and became Christ-bearer to the world
and mother of Faith Community.

Reflecting on her experience in the river,
Killian Noe says that she learned three spiritual disciplines
that she can follow
to help her become more fully human
and more freely and joyfully alive.

Firstly, she needs to hang out with God's people
who tell God's stories.
When she was desperate in the river
Mrs. Noe found her that in reaching out for her husband
and finding him peacefully dealing with the issues
she was re-established in faith community
and learned how to survive the ordeal.
And that trust saved her life.

Secondly, she needs to live into God's economy
within that faith community,
dealing in the commerce of faithful living.
In other words, live God's way, not mine.

and, lastly, Noe says she needs to adopt what she calls,
"one concrete expression of love"
in which she can perceive herself
as taking Christ to others.
"One concrete expression of God's Love, for others."

Killian Noe has discovered
that she needs to be a Christ-Bearer to other people
She needs to be Mary.
That is her model for life
and her hope for heaven.
That is her call and her joy.

Its ours too.
In spite of being in the midst of a difficult time,
or, perhaps, because of being in that peril,
those rocks, in that river;
we have been given a special opportunity
at a pivotal time in which to grow -
and to show Christ's alternative commerce
God's alternative love to the world.
Get is stirred around
multiplying, enough for all.

Greetings to you,
most favored one!
Do not be afraid,
for you will bear Christ to the World.