Forever Impact
Sometimes we need to look back to look forward.
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. - Luke 1:26-38
To remind us of the forever nature of Christ's reign, we need to go back and look at what the angel Gabriel said to Mary.
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Forever is a long time, time without end.
Everything comes to an end, so if Mary gave it some thought, she would know this kingdom would be different.
It is nice to know that the work we have done in this life will have an impact beyond our years. That is a legacy, something we can strive for and hope for.
Who doesn't want to be remembered after they are gone?
But it is up to the living to carry on after the one who started the work passes on.
For Jesus' kingdom to be eternal and everlasting, it needs to live both outside of our world and within our world as well.
The outside part, Jesus has. The inside part is our work. For this world to know Jesus, we need to take up the task of sharing the amazing story of his life, death and resurrection.
We do that for ourselves, the ones who come to church. But what about everyone else? And that everyone else group is getting larger and larger.
The easiest way to bring people to Christ is to be Christ for them, to show them Christ in us. That, we can do, even if we can't speak like Paul, as the hymn goes.
So, maybe today's lesson is a call to action for us to be like Mary and accept what God needs us to do.
If we show Christ to the world, the kingdom will exist here as well.
More to come...