December 18, 2011

Luke 1:46b-55

46 And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

50 His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

The Magnificat -- the response of Mary to the affirmation by her cousin Elizabeth that Mary was to be the mother of the Messiah.

Notice what she says in this scripture -- “My soul magnifies the Lord” -- Mary knew that it was not about her... She was chosen, but it was not to be all about her... It was that she was chosen to be a channel of God’s blessings... God was going to work though her, but it was not to give Mary great glory -- it was not to make Mary important in the eyes of the world -- it was to show the glory of God. She was magnifying the work of God by cheerfully agreeing to what God wanted her to do. When you use a magnifying glass, you do not spend all your time admiring the magnifying glass... It is a tool which is transparent for the purpose of what you can see through it. And it enlarges whatever you are looking at through the glass. Mary was the magnifying glass for God to use so that we could look through her and see God himself. That is what the birth of Jesus -- Christmas -- is all about. Because by looking at Jesus, we can see what God is all about. We see more details about the nature of God. Mary is simply the tool God used to show himself more clearly to our eyes.

Now Mary realized that future generations would call her blessed because she was deemed worthy enough to give birth to the Messiah. And she was amazed at the manner in which God chose to bring the Messiah into the world. For God had not chosen from the important people as the world considers importance... There was no king’s family who was to give birth to the Messiah. It was not in the wealthiest families that the Messiah was be born, where he would have all the comforts which the physical world could give. No, God had chosen a girl who had renounced all worldly trappings and instead, trusted in the Lord to provide for her. By choosing her over the high and mighty families, God had, in one swift move, scattered those who would have felt pride in being chosen to give birth to the messiah -- God had brought down the egos of the rich and powerful by choosing a humble, materially disadvantaged young girl to be the Messiah’s mother. God was lifting up the importance of being humble over that of being rich. And he was doing this while, at the same time, fulfilling the prophecies and the promises he had given Abraham. What God was doing was like someone playing checkers who captured all the opponent’s pieces and crowned his piece in one swift move. It was a brilliant move by God! And Mary could only applaud What God had done, while feeling humbled by the completeness of God’s choice.

Many people, when experiencing hard times or circumstances, dwell upon their problems. They blame the difficult circumstances for their lack of success or their financial poverty, or... whatever. We use anything as an excuse for our perceived lack in our lives. Even diseases or accidents can prevent us from accomplishing what we think we should be able to do. We use our physical condition, which inevitably has some shortcoming, as the reason we have not done this or not done that. (Those who wallow in their own pity party -- poor me) But others, with the same problems or even more difficult ones, realize that they have limitations, but do not dwell upon those limitations, and instead take other paths, and do other things which they may not have chosen to do otherwise. -- (My family, all the girls in the Wilson family) They do not use their limitations to have a pity party, but instead, take responsibility for their own lives and go toward the “Look what I can do!” Instead of the “Poor me, I can’t do this and I can’t do that...”

Mary was not rich, she was not someone very important. And yet, God chose her to be the mother of the Messiah. God chose her over the rich and powerful of her time, and she was grateful for what He had done, and she, in essence, chose to do the very best with what God had given her... She chose to be the best mother the Messiah could have. She did not complain about her poverty nor about her lack of being important, nor did she put on airs about how great she now would be. She recognized that she would be someone who would be remembered, but she knew it was because of what God had done, not anything she had done.

We should strive to be like Mary -- to trust God and to listen to Him and to obey him so that we, too, can be chosen to do His will. To empty ourselves of our ego. To understand that the ego always runs out upon the stage of our lives and attempts to tell us what is important and what we should be doing. We can acknowledge the ego, and smile at it’s actions, because it is simply doing its job. Doing what it was designed to do. But we do not have to always listen to it. Instead, we should listen to the Spirit within, to the still, small voice, that is God. To hear the voice of our conscience, our own spirit, telling us what God desires of us. It will not force us to do anything, but rather, waits until we give it permission to speak. Socrates once described his voice as never telling him what to do, but, when asked, it would tell him what not to do. So, when he did not receive “no” for an answer, he went ahead and did it because he knew it was okay. -- That’s the way it begins, and as we continue to listen to that voice, we learn to ask it for guidance, and it will lead us to what is right and best, not just okay.