Monday, December 9, 2013

The Promise

As I was reading our text for next Sunday's message I couldn't help but think about God and how He fulfills His promises.  From the first promises made in Scripture (some of them were covenants) to those made in The Revelation God has been in the business of fulfillment, often in spite of His people.  Noah drank too much.  Jacob was a schemer and a thief.  Gideon was fearful and reclusive.  Ruth was a gentile.  Rahab was a prostitute.  Jeremiah was a whiner.  David was an adulterer and a murderer.  Peter was a liar and betrayer.  I could go on for a long time but I think you get the point.

Mary says that God brings down the proud and powerful and lifts up the lowly (this should remind us of Handel's Messiah [and John Riley reminded us it is also written in Isaiah 40] in which we sing about every valley being filled and every hill being brought low to make a highway for our God).  She tells a story about God's nature of keeping His promises and fulfilling His plans "from generation to generation."  Read Luke 1:46-55 and think about how many times each week we doubt that God is really in charge.  "Our lives and our country are going down and we are living in terrible times."  Do you know that statement has been made in every generation from the first to the most recent?  David said it.  Paul said it.  And yet, Paul also said we are to rejoice in every circumstance.

Here's the punch line.  God has the ability to bless us in spite of anything.  Maybe if we listened to God more than we listened to our leaders in Washington, talk radio, TV news or local gossip we would come to the same conclusion Mary did ... "He has looked with favor on the lowliness of His servant."  And maybe we can't see or hear this passage because we haven't taken that lowly place where the flood of God's blessings seems to settle.  She says all of these things in the midst of 1) having to tell her betrothed that she is pregnant, 2) somehow wrestle with the societal shunning that will certainly come, 3) be a 13 year-old, 4) travel back to Nazareth and then down to Bethlehem, and 5) raise up a child she knows is the Son of God!  Maybe blessing is a little bit more than we think.  Come Sunday and let's talk about it!  Randy

No comments:

Post a Comment