LBC youth lesson for Sept 7, 2008 The Magnificat: an illustration of
costly faith
Mary, speaking to her cousin Elizabeth, said,
"All generations will call me blessed." What?!?
Our youth lesson for Sunday is on the Magnificat
(Lk 1:39-56). I usually gloss over this part of the gospel. I guess that's the
Protestant in me, avoiding the Mary-centeredness of some other belief systems.
However, since I have to teach on it, I took some time to consider the song and
the events leading up to it.Mary's
statement above amazes me. Consider: she's engaged but not married, pregnant by
nobody-will-believe-it-if-she-tells-them, living in a strict middle eastern
society. "Blessed" is not the adjective by which I would expect her to be
called. Remember: Joseph was going to divorce her, rather than have her stoned,
and only went through with the wedding because of a direct revelation from
God!Yet, Mary says, "All generations
will call me blessed." She completely accepted the gift and care of God in the
previous passage, as announced by Gabriel. "Let it be done ..." she
said!What do I take from
this?(1) Faith requires us to follow
God's commands. I usually don't like the word obedience (see my
YouTube video), but after reading Brother Yun's book The
Heavenly Man (see also here), and after reading this story, I begin to
understand the nature of obeying God a bit
more.(2) Faith can be costly. As I
said above: Mary was in a definite predicament! Joseph could have had her
killed. Similarly, when Moses was told to go to Pharaoh and say "Let my people
go," it was a risky venture. It even went badly at first (see Exodus 6). That didn't annul the command to
go.(3) Faith means trusting God
anyway. That's almost a redundant statement, but that's what Mary is doing
in the magnificat. She recognizes the cost. She recognizes her humble position
before God. She also recognizes that God will take care of her, and so "all
generations will call me blessed."And
for those of us who are weak, remember that God took care of the Israelites in
spite of their reaction in Ex 6. "If we are faithless, he remains faithful - he
cannot deny himself."
Posted: Sat - September 6, 2008 at 09:36 PM
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