There is a hymn in the Moravian Book of Worship entitled, "We are the hands and feet of Christ," for Mary it was a bit more than hands and feet - she made her entire being available for the work and purposes of God. The lowly Mary, a teenage, a servant of the Lord, gave herself fully and completely to God for the special favor God asked of her life.

The Magnificat as Mary's Song is known, is a song of praise and celebration: Mary praises God for all that God has done for her and for the favor she has been shown; she sings of God's mercy to those who fear God, of God's justice, and again of God's mercy.

Mary sings her song for all God's people and especially for the lowly and the marginalized. Mary has moved from being perplexed by the Angel Gabriel's announcement, to being exuberant and filled with joy. She sings for all who have been waiting for that day when the "poor will not always be forgotten." She sings for all, and she will hold within her body the fulfilment of God's promises: the lowly have been lifted up, the hungry have been filled, God has remembered to be merciful.

Mary offered her entire being to God; she offered her body as a living sacrifice, a vessel to be used for God's purposes in karios time: in God's time, however it unfolds. She accepted the special role to which God called her, and consented to conceive, carry and deliver the Son of God; Mary became the mother of the Messiah, the Savior of the world. In her life, through the life of her son, Jesus, she experienced the depths of love and the heights of joy that come from being completely given over to God's work. She gave her ascent to what would be, to use a phrase from Corrie ten Boom, a "fantastic adventure in trusting God."

Corrie ten Boom was also a servant of the Lord, and her story is told in the 1971 book, The Hiding Place. She was born in 1892 in the Netherlands, and she was a devote Christian whose life was shaped and filled by caring for others. She became the first licensed watchmaker in the Netherlands - but in karios time in 1942 God's messengers visited Corrie and her family and asked them to shelter Jewish refugees and protect them from certain death at the hands of the Nazis. Corrie, and all her family responded, "Here we are, the servants of the Lord." Corrie gave her hands and feet, and her entire being to save the lives of others, risking her own life that others might live. In 1944, Corrie and her family were arrested and sent to concentration camps, where some members of the family died. Corrie was released through a clerical error, and throughout the remainder of her long life continued to offer herself for God's work of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. The watchmaker set her time to God's time, to karios time, and freely, freely, gave herself over to the work of God. Corrie let it be with her according to God's word - and God's word called her to follow Christ, to bear the cross, to give her life as a sacrifice for others.

In her book, Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom recounts what it was like to come face to face with "one of the cruelest former camp guards." Of her experience of forgiveness she writes, "for a moment, we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I have never known God's love so intensely as I did then." Corrie, with all that she experienced, was able to say that her life was "a fantastic adventure in trusting God."

Mary's work for God fulfilled God's purposes for her life for all time - Mary delivered the Messiah - God's plan for salvation was complete. Mary's live was a fantastic adventure in trusting God. Corrie will be remembered for her great faith and willing obedience to God. Corrie's life was a fantastic adventure in trusting God.

Many of us will not be asked to do what Corrie ten Boom did, to risk imprisonment and death to harbor and protect others from an evil and brutal regime. But we are asked by God to give our entire being: heart, mind, strength, soul, body, hands, feet, voices - for God's work. We are all asked and expected to shelter the homeless, to feed the hungry, to lift up the lowly, to stand with the oppressed.

The materials that the Joint Board will distribute to members of the congregation today includes Corrie's quote - a fantastic adventure in trusting him" - because it is karios time in the church. A fantastic adventure in trusting God is beginning. It is time for all of us to respond to God with a full and complete commitment, with a willingness to serve God in whatever way we have been gifted and in whatever way we are asked, to offer our entire being: our hands and feet, our hearts and minds, our strength - all that we have, to renew our church. This is a kairos moment, a time when every one of us is crucial to the inner works of the timepiece.

In this kairos time, everyone is being asked to do something special for God, to use the special gifts you have received for the building up of the church. You may be asked to provide an education for an orphan at the Moravian Institute in Rajpur, to go to New Orleans to rebuild homes lost in Katrina (so long ago), to take a meal to a shut-in or visit the sick, to serve on a board, to be regular and faithful in your worship attendance and giving, to forgive other members of the congregation and be reconciled to one another so that we can move forward in the adventure and mission to which God is calling our congregation.

We are all being asked to say with Mary, "Here I am, a servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to God's word." We are all being asked to share in that fantastic adventure in trusting God that will lead us to understand what Jesus meant when he said, "Those who keep their lives will lose it, but those who give their lives for my sake will save it." Those who trust in God and surrender themselves to God, those who give their entire being to God find the depths of love and the heights of joy that they alone can know.

In these next kairos moments of silence, sing Mary's song in your heart:

Sing of the times when God has been merciful to you:

Sing of the times God has lifted you up:

Sing of the great things God has done for you

Let this fantastic adventure in trusting God begin, as we say, "Here I am, a servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."